Stone box from Lohra

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The Lohra Stone Box is a prehistoric archaeological ground monument in Lohra in northern Central Hesse . It is one of the lesser known monuments of its kind in Central Europe and dates from around 3000 BC. Because of the abundant ceramic additions , it occupies a special position among the gallery graves of the Wartberg culture .

Discovery and excavation

The Lohra stone box , which can be assigned to the late Neolithic , was discovered in 1931 by the farmer Jakob Elmshäuser while plowing in the “Gernstein” corridor. When his plow encountered strong resistance in the field, he investigated the cause. As it turned out, it hit a rectangular sandstone block just below the surface . The specialist for cultural and historical soil antiquities in Hesse, Prof. Dr. Gero von Merhart , who discovered the finds from students at the prehistoric seminar at the Philipps University of Marburg under the direction of Dr. Otto Uenze had it uncovered during an excavation campaign from April 27 to May 11, 1931.

construction

The rectangular chamber set into the floor was about five meters long and about 2.2 meters wide. Although some wall stones were missing when the grave was uncovered, the remaining blocks made it possible to identify a rectangular floor plan. The individual sandstone blocks of the megalithic complex had a length of 60 cm to about one meter, were 40 cm wide and measured about 80 cm in height. The weight of the blocks varied between 800 and 1000 kilograms.

The system was divided into a main chamber, which was separated from the open anteroom by a stone with a round hole . The so-called soul hole had a diameter of approx. 30–35 cm and possibly served as a gateway between the world of the living and the dead for the ritual sacrifices taking place in the anteroom . The floor of the buried grave was covered with a 3–5 cm thick layer of clay . It is believed that the stone chamber cover was made of wood. The discovery of stone paving over the grave and in its immediate vicinity suggests that the entire stone chamber was once covered by a stone mound that later sank.

The buried and their grave goods

In contrast to comparable finds from the grave of Züschen ( Schwalm-Eder district ), those buried here were surprisingly cremated. The 20 or so dead, men, women and children, were given an amazing amount of ceramics for their journey to the otherworldly world, which is an exception among the gallery graves in northern Hesse. In addition, more than 20 vessels, some of which have been preserved in full, were discovered that had been covered in corpse fire on the floor of the grave and had survived five millennia with almost no damage. There are heaps of plastic decorated mugs and cups, resembling the finds from the Züschen grave, as well as bowls, some of which were provided with feet and handles. Among the recovered finds, a large double-conical bowl with a ribbon handle and decorated with a pattern of standing and hanging semi-arches should also be mentioned. In addition to a few pots, the finds contained other double-conical, but only fragmentarily preserved vessels. Metope-like ornaments and conspicuous vertical perforations in a vessel indicate influences from the French Chassé culture. In addition to the ceramic, there is also a carefully made serpentine ax with an oval shaft hole, as well as a smaller pointed stone ax, a retouched pebble slate blade and a piece of bronze sheet metal of unknown use.

Disappearance of the soul hole stone

A large number of the finds have been kept in the archive of the Hessian State Museum in Kassel since 1931 . The pierced soul stone, however, was brought to the farm of the farmer who owned the field and has lain there for about 36 years. In 1967, community representatives and local history researchers decided to set up the stone in front of the Lohra town hall as a witness of the early settlement . But it was too late, the pierced soul stone had already been walled up in the foundations during construction work on the farmer's estate.

See also

literature

  • Dirk Raetzel-Fabian: Revolution, Reformation, Change of Epochs? The end of the collective grave practice and the transition from the Wartberg to the individual grave culture in North Hesse and Westphalia. In: Janusz Czebreszuk, Johannes Müller (ed.): The absolute chronology in Central Europe 3000–2000 BC Chr. = The absolute chronology of Central Europe 3000–2000 BC (= studies on archeology in East Central Europe. 1). Leidorf, Poznań et al. 2001, ISBN 3-89646-881-2 , pp. 319–336, ( full text as digitized version at www.jungsteinSITE.de (PDF; 1.46 MB)).
  • Dirk Raetzel-Fabian: The first farming cultures. Neolithic in Northern Hesse (= prehistory and early history in the Hessian State Museum in Kassel. Issue 2). 2nd, expanded and revised edition. State Museums, Kassel 2000, ISBN 3-931787-11-7 .
  • Karl Huth: The community of Lohra and its 10 districts through the centuries. Lohra community council, Lohra 1989.
  • Albrecht Jockenhövel : Lohra - megalithic grave. In: Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann , Albrecht Jockenhövel (ed.): The prehistory of Hesse. Theiss, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-8062-0458-6 , pp. 435-436.
  • Waltraut Schrickel: Western European elements in the Neolithic grave construction of Central Germany and the gallery graves of Western Germany and their inventories (= contributions to the prehistoric and early historical archeology of the Mediterranean cultural area. 4, ISSN  0067-5245 ). Habelt, Bonn 1966.
  • Winrich Schwellnus: Wartberg group and Hessian megalithic. A contribution to the late Neolithic of the Hessian mountainous region (= materials on the prehistory and early history of Hesse. 4, ISSN  0936-1715 ). State Office for Monument Preservation Hessen, Wiesbaden 1979, (at the same time: Marburg, University, dissertation, 1974).
  • Otto Uenze: The stone chamber grave of Lohra, district of Marburg. In: Kurhessische Boden antiques. 3, 1954, ZDB ID 983976-8 , pp. 27-48.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Dirk Raetzel-Fabian: Revolution, Reformation, Change of Epochs? In: Janusz Czebreszuk, Johannes Müller (ed.): The absolute chronology in Central Europe 3000–2000 BC Chr. 2001, pp. 319-336.
  2. ^ Karl Huth: The community of Lohra and its 10 districts over the centuries. 1989; Albrecht Jockenhövel: Lohra - megalithic grave. In: Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann, Albrecht Jockenhövel (ed.): The prehistory of Hesse. 1990, pp. 435-436, here p. 435.
  3. ↑ Otto Uenze: The stone chamber grave of Lohra, district of Marburg. In: Kurhessische Boden antiques. 3, 1954, pp. 27-48, here pp. 28-29.
  4. ↑ Otto Uenze: The stone chamber grave of Lohra, district of Marburg. In: Kurhessische Boden antiques. 3, 1954, pp. 27-48, here p. 28.
  5. ↑ Otto Uenze: The stone chamber grave of Lohra, district of Marburg. In: Kurhessische Boden antiques. 3, 1954, pp. 27-48, here p. 29.
  6. ^ Winrich Schwellnus: Wartberg group and Hessian megalithic. A contribution to the late Neolithic of the Hessian mountainous region. 1979, pp. 67-70.
  7. ↑ Otto Uenze: The stone chamber grave of Lohra, district of Marburg. In: Kurhessische Boden antiques. 3, 1954, pp. 27-48, here pp. 30-37.
  8. ↑ Otto Uenze: The stone chamber grave of Lohra, district of Marburg. In: Kurhessische Boden antiques. 3, 1954, pp. 27-48, here p. 30.
  9. ^ Karl Huth: The community of Lohra and its 10 districts over the centuries. 1989.

Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ 37 ″  N , 8 ° 37 ′ 25 ″  E