Sunstone (menhir)
As sunstones three stones are called, which in Beckstedt at Colnrade , Harpstedt and nests in Lower Saxony found. They are believed to have originated in the Bronze Age . The stones show the petroglyphs of concentric circles on the front that run around a recessed center point.
There are similar stones in Ireland , England and Scotland . In 2000, near the Knowlton circles in Dorset, a four -foot- high stone with four concentric rings was found. This depiction occurs occasionally on vessels of the Grooved Ware type that were found in the Henges of Wyke Down . Similar carvings can be found on Scandinavian rocks.
history
It is believed that the sunstones are Bronze Age work. In 1956, the archaeologist Walter Nowothnig drew a comparison with the triangular sunstone from Cairnholy in Scotland , as this is very similar to the sunstone from Beckstedt, and concluded that the stones date from the Bronze Age. His view was strengthened by the fact that the Scottish stone was found leaning against the chamber wall of the megalithic complex and that a Bronze Age reburial had taken place in the chamber . A nine-ring specimen can be found about three miles east of Drumcarbit in County Donegal , Ireland.
A stone made of Leithakalk, 63 cm high, with five concentric rings and a small, almost square hole , was found in 1932 from a stone box in Illmitz in Burgenland , Austria ; it is exhibited in the Natural History Museum (Prehistoric Department) in Vienna.
It has not yet been possible to unravel the meaning of the circles. The three sunstones consist of boulders that were transported to Lower Saxony by glaciers during the Saale Ice Age 230,000 to 130,000 years ago . Since no other sunstones are known in Germany, it is assumed that all sunstones were created by a stonemason in the Bronze Age. Concentric rings as petroglyphs are otherwise the main component of British cup-and-ring markings .
literature
- Ernst Andreas Friedrich : If stones could talk. From the history of Lower Saxony. Volume 3. Landbuch-Verlag, Hannover 1995, ISBN 3-7842-0515-1 , pp. 19ff.
- Torsten Capelle: North German rock paintings. (Archaeological guide) (= guide to the prehistory and early history of Lower Saxony. Issue 14, ZDB -ID 186273-x ). Lax, Hildesheim 1984.
- Guide to prehistoric and prehistoric monuments. Volume 2: Bremen, Verden, Hoya. von Zabern, Mainz 1965, (here especially p. 82 ff. the section Harpstedt, p. 89 Beckstedt, as well as p. 36 f. the section Väterkundemuseum).
- B. Dieking: The two sun stones from Beckstedt and Harpstedt in the county of Grafschaft Hoya, Reg.Bez. Hanover. In: The customer. NF Vol. 7, Issue 3/4, 1956, ISSN 0342-0736 , pp. 89-91.
- Walter Nowothnig: On the interpretation of the stones decorated with a circle by Beckstedt and Harpstedt, County of Hoya. In: The customer. NF Vol. 7, Issue 3/4, 1956, pp. 91-95.
- Detlev Schünemann: A late Bronze Age picture stone in Schafwinkel Kr. Verden? In: Nachrichten aus Niedersachsens Urgeschichte 35, 1966, ISSN 0342-1406 , pp. 81–84.
- Testimonies for religion and cult. In: Günter Wegner (ed.): Life - Belief - Dying 3000 years ago. Bronze Age in Lower Saxony (= booklets accompanying exhibitions in the Prehistory Department of the Lower Saxony State Museum Hanover. Booklet 7). Isensee, Oldenburg 1996, ISBN 3-89598-404-3 , pp. 203-204.