Urdolmen
The Urdolmen type was defined by Ernst Sprockhoff . Ewald Schuldt adopted this term when he published his excavation of 106 megalithic systems in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . It stands at the beginning of the construction of dolmens or the development of the remaining / larger megalithic systems of the funnel cup culture (TBK) and comes around 3500 BC. BC almost in the entire distribution area of Nordic megalithic architecture, but not in Lower Saxony, not west of the Weser and in the Netherlands and not east of the Oder, and only once in Sweden (Lejeby near Laholm ). This Swedish ancient dolmen still has a 2.75 m long stone that forms a long side and a square hill, of which about ten curb stones have been preserved.
Demarcation between ancient dolmen and stone box
In many cases a clear separation is impossible. In the necropolis of Brüssow -Wollschow, in the Uckermark , Urdolmen, block chambers and stone boxes appear together. The differences are in the degree of depression and in the material of the wall stones. In the case of Urdolmen and block chambers, they usually consist of attachments, in the case of stone boxes they usually consist of plates. Whether this was relevant for the Neolithic people remains to be seen, because there are also combinations of both materials. The deepening typical of Urdolmen also occurs in larger megalithic structures; in Schleswig-Holstein z. B. 22 times, which is little in view of the total number and should represent an archaic form.
developments
The smallest Urdolmen are on the Danish island of Zealand , z. B. ( Dolmen of Jyderup ) (1.7 x 0.6 m). These small dimensions prompt researchers like Hans-Jürgen Beier to deny the Urdolmen the status of a megalithic complex. It is still open whether the monolith tombs, which are also very small, meet the requirements. On the Urdolmen, one can follow the development step by step , which was a learning process for the early master builders ( construction crew theory ), and see how they met the requirements with increasingly sophisticated (and larger) solutions. This also applies to the expansion of the Urdolmen to the Extended Dolmen (or rectangular dolmen ), to its variants, the Polygonal Dolmen and the Large Dolmen .
Block box
The prototype of the Urdolmen is the so-called block box , which is closed on all sides and is often (but not always the Urdolmen by Mankmoos ) sunk into the ground. It has no access and, once locked, is difficult for technically less trained users to open and reuse again. It was therefore intended for one-time use. On the island of Sylt in Schleswig-Holstein , two ancient dolmens were found in the common barren bed. They are mostly located individually in the giant beds , on or parallel to the longitudinal axis, as so-called "parallel beds ". In Ulstrup near Gundeslevholm , two of the three Urdolmen there lie as a pair next to each other in a bed of mounds. The block boxes in Tykskov by Varnæs near Aabenraa and those in Nørreskov on Alsen lie diagonally in the mound bed. North of the Eider , Urdolmen are covered by a round hill in around 20% of the monuments. The younger variant are transverse specimens, which, however, only really appear with the next generation of rectangular columns.
Accessible Urdolmen
The first progress - in terms of multiple use - was made through the creation of access . In the case of specimens that were still sunk in the ground, the upper side was initially an option (in Denmark and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, occupied by the Urdolmen of Barkvieren ). By dividing the ceiling into a large and a manageable stone, an entry point was created. This variant is not very common. This development path was abandoned in favor of different axial solutions. The Urdolmen was initially sunk less deeply and the upper half of one of the narrow sides was used as an entrance. This form can be found e.g. B. at the giant beds of Grundoldendorf . The load of the still only capstone was distributed over three bearing stones (three-point support). This process represents the discovery or use of the inherent statics of heavy stones in a three-point support.
The ancient dolmen, which are always accessible on parallel sides, are 2.2 m to 2.6 m long and 1.0 m to 1.8 m wide, somewhat larger than the closed ones. For Schleswig-Holstein, the small chamber of Dobersdorf , district of Plön (1.8 m length × 0.5 m width) is an exception in this regard. Of Schleswig-Holstein's 20 ancient dolmen, 12 can be closed on all sides, five can be on the Narrow side open variant and three (destroyed) Urdolmen are not specified. Of the 88 or so Urdolmen in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, there are still 51.
As a result (still sunk in pits) the first rectangular dolmen ( stone chamber from Grammdorf in the municipality of Wangels ) Ostholstein and passage graves ( stone chamber from Deinste ) were built. In the next step, the foundations of the bearing stones at Urdolmen, which were always on their longest narrow side, were to be carried out in such a way that their base could be laid close to the surface. The higher position made it possible to build a corridor in front of it, which led into the chamber at ground level (picture below right). Now, however, a threshold stone was required to (symbolically) separate the sacred chamber and the profane corridor.
This effort was made in order to reduce the sealing plate of the now reusable Urdolmen to a manageable size for the settlement community. The Urdolmen with a corridor led to the extended dolmen , which are slightly longer, usually have more than one ceiling plate and - with the exception of the transition type from Neu Gaarz , Bad Doberan district - and bearing stones that stand on one of their two smallest surfaces , so allow a height extension of the chamber.
Urdolmen were once located in barren beds or under round hills, most of which, however, have been removed. The Urdolmen of Lindeskov on Fyn lies in Denmark's second longest megalithic bed with 168 m (after the Kardybdysse with 185 m). For comparison: The longest German megalithic bed measures 160 m. In Poland, the border of a chamberless giant bed is 130 m long. In the Haltesten long bed, east of Alstedt , three Urdolmen lie next to each other at the eastern end as a parallel group. Only one system in the giant bed has survived from the Netherlands.
literature
- Mamoun Fansa : large stone graves between Weser and Ems . 3rd, modified edition. Isensee, Oldenburg 2000, ISBN 3-89598-741-7 ( Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Nordwestdeutschland . Supplement 33).
- Michael Schmidt: The old stones. Travel to the megalithic culture in Central Europe . Hinstorff, Rostock 1998, ISBN 3-356-00796-3 .
- Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Volume 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Reena Perschke: The German megalithic grave nomenclature - A contribution to dealing with ideologically loaded technical terminology. In: Archäologische Informations, Vol. 39. 2016, pp. 167–176 , accessed on March 1, 2017 .
- ↑ Ewald Schuldt: The necropolis of Wollschow district of Uckermark and the problem of the Neolithic stone boxes in Mecklenburg . In: Yearbook of soil monument maintenance in Mecklenburg 1974, 1975, pp. 77–144.
- ↑ The division of dolmens into four sub-types is only common in Germany. These types do not occur in the Netherlands or Poland. In Denmark and Sweden a distinction is only made between dolmen (Dysse, Döse) and passage grave. For this reason, in Denmark, the hill is included in the nomenclature of dolmen (round and long dyssey).
- ^ JA Artymowski: To the prehistory and early history of Poland In: antiquities from Poland . State Museum for Natural History and Prehistory Oldenburg, p. 11.