Teufelsstein (Pliesskowitz)
The Devil's Stone , in Upper Sorbian Čertowy kamjeń , is a granite rock in the East Saxon district of Bautzen . It is located on a small hill at about 175 m above sea level. NN in the vicinity of a quarry on the connecting road between the places Pließkowitz and Kleinbautzen . The Kreckwitzer Heights are about 1.5 km to the southwest .
Due to numerous archaeological finds, the area is considered a settlement area for both the Lausitz culture and the Milzener , ancestors of today's Sorbs .
Various legends are also associated with the rock . A legend describes the rock as the "seat of the devil ".
history
Pastor Pannach from Malschwitz described the Teufelsstein von Pließkowitz in 1797 as an “altar of idolatry ” and found that the rock had features of deliberate changes.
Karl Benjamin Preusker (1786–1871) took the view that the legendary rocks of Upper Lusatia served as pagan sacrificial altars and temples of gods for a sun cult in prehistoric times and were just as important as Stonehenge in England. He also counted the Devil's Stone from Pliesskowitz among these pagan sacrificial altars and drew it.
Excavations carried out by the Society for Anthropology and Prehistory of Upper Lusatia brought a series of ceramic shards and stone-age artefacts directly on the rock, as well as the knowledge that the rock was changed by human influence: It can certainly be assumed that it used to be in a different position, that is, it lay across the two boulders so that there was a gate underneath ”. The Teufelsstein was classified as a “ megalithic (dolmen-like) monument of a very ancient time (Stone Age)”.
In 2007 local researchers from Sohland examined the rock for its suitability for calendar solar observations. It was found that the central cliff allows observation of the equinox (beginning of spring and autumn) at sunrise and sunset, and that the dolmen-like stone formation in the south is set for the sunrise and sunset solstices . The functional scheme is similar to that of the other rocks investigated in Upper Lusatia and is identical to that of the Nebra Sky Disc , Stonehenge and the Goseck circular moat . In 2008, the public and school observatory "Bruno-H.-Bürgel" in Sohland / Spree founded the archaeoastronomy group to research the solar phenomenon . The archaeoastronomical research project was given the name “Project Gods Hand ” and the rock objects that show the calendar solar observation phenomenon are referred to as the “ Sun Sanctuaries of Upper Lusatia ”.
In 2014 a granite monument was erected in the center of Bautzen , which reproduces the solar observation scheme of the Teufelsstein from Pließkowitz.
On February 1, 2016, the title of a lecture at the state study academy in Bautzen was: "The Devil's Stone from Pließkowitz - the Stonehenge at the gates of the city of Bautzen ?!" . Fits to individual boulders were interpreted as carpenter's technique, as they were also used in the construction of Stonehenge. From this it was concluded that the natural rock was partially changed for calendar astronomical observations and that the devil's stone could actually be a forerunner of Stonehenge.
In 2017, a citizens' initiative against the expansion of the quarry was founded in the immediate vicinity of the Teufelsstein. Among other things, the residents saw the calendar-based observation possibilities on the Teufelsstein threatened by the heap of a dump and the danger that an approximately 70 t heavily overhanging boulder could tip over due to blasting vibrations. In 2018, the quarry operator secured the rock against collapse in coordination with the environmental authority. In the same year, the Saxon Mining Authority decided on a plan change, which should ensure the calendar view of the sun in the central rock gate by lowering the dump in the future.
Various events organized by the citizens' initiative at Teufelsstein in the spring of 2018 resulted in the quarry operator putting up signs saying “No entry”. However, the Malschwitz municipal administration had this removed with reference to the forest law, according to which this may be entered for the purpose of recreation.
Teufelsstein Pliesskowitz with a devil's seat (buttocks) in a stone slab that is now vertically clamped
Teufelsstein Pliesskowitz with a southern dolmen-like stone structure
.JPG)
literature
- Karl Preusker : Glimpses into the patriotic prehistory , Leipzig 1841
- Ralf Herold: The track of light - project of the gods - sun sanctuaries of Upper Lusatia. Sohland / Spree observatory, Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2020, ISBN 978-3-7519-5892-9
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Lusatian monthly journals, 1797, part II., Pastor Pannach, "Oerter where idolatry was probably once done", pp. 413-414
- ^ Karl Benjamin Preusker: Upper Lusatian antiquities. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaft zu Görlitz, from 1828, pp. 35–51; Karl Benjamin Preusker: Look into the patriotic prehistory. Volume 3 of 1844, pp. 173-176
- ^ Annual notebooks of the Society for Anthropology and Prehistory of Upper Lusatia, Volume II., 1903–1913, Karl Richard Needon, “Der Teufelsstein von Pließkowitz”, pp. 21–24
- ↑ Infopack 2011: Sun Sanctuaries of Upper Lusatia. “Bruno-H.-Bürgel” observatory Sohland / Spree; Ralf Herold: Sun Shrines of Upper Lusatia - The money cellar on the Löbauer Berg and its real treasure. Oberlausitzer Verlag, 2012
- ↑ Lausitzer Rundschau, January 21, 2016, “Lausitzer Stonehenge is a topic in Bautzen”; RELICS of the story, 06/2018 "Ancient sanctuaries of Upper Lusatia"
- ↑ MDR Sachsenspiegel, September 22, 2018, 7 p.m.; Bildzeitung Dresden, September 18, 2018
- ↑ Oberlausitzer Kurier, February 22, 2019, "Open pit operator locks Teufelsstein"
Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 9.1 ″ N , 14 ° 31 ′ 18.4 ″ E