Darpvenner Steine
DatedEst. 3500–2800 BCE
Photo Sail over · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Darpvenner Steine I to III are three neighbouring Neolithic passage graves with Sprockhoff numbers 900 to 902, built between 3500 and 2800 BCE by the Funnel Beaker culture. They lie in the district of Venne, on both sides of the Driehauser Straße (K416) between Gut Borgwedde and Schwagstorf, in the district of Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, Germany.
The Graf von Münster made the first excavations at all three in 1807.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Darpvenner Steine
All of the 17 supporting stones but one are present, and four of the original eight capstones are missing.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Darpvenner Steine I–IIICC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Darpvenner Steine I–IIICC BY-SA 4.0
Darpvenner Steine I (Sprockhoff no. 900) lies beside the Driehauser Straße. The stones of its oval enclosure are incomplete. The chamber, oriented east-west, is 15.3 metres long and 1.5 metres wide and relatively well preserved. All 25 of its supporting stones are present, but four of the ten capstones are missing. The entrance cannot be located. The whole monument is 17.3 metres long and 4.4 metres wide.
Darpvenner Steine II (Sprockhoff no. 901) is a relatively small east-west monument with a chamber of 8.0 by 2.3 metres, of which 12 supporting stones and three capstones survive. Fragments of capstones also lie about.
Darpvenner Steine III (Sprockhoff no. 902) is also oriented east-west and consists only of a chamber 10.5 metres long and 1.5 metres wide. All of the 17 supporting stones but one are present, and four of the original eight capstones are missing. The entrance was probably in the middle of the south side. The monument is 10.5 metres long and 1.5 metres wide.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Darpvenner Steine I–IIICC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Darpvenner Steine I–IIICC BY-SA 4.0
In 1807 the Graf von Münster carried out the first excavations at the three monuments, finding an amber disc, amber beads, pottery sherds, stone axes and transverse arrowheads.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Darpvenner Steine I–IIICC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Darpvenner Steine I–IIICC BY-SA 4.0
A passage grave consists of a chamber and a structurally separate lateral passage. The form is found chiefly in Denmark, Germany and Scandinavia, and occasionally in France and the Netherlands. The megalithic tombs of northern Germany and the Netherlands were built by the Funnel Beaker culture, about 4100 to 2800 BCE, and the style known as Nordic megalith architecture emerged between 3500 and 2800 BCE. The Driehauser Steine lie about 2 km away, and the Darpvenner Steine are on the Straße der Megalithkultur.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
German and Dutch Hünengräber (hunebedden)
The megalithic tombs of northern Germany and the Netherlands were built by the Funnel Beaker culture (about 4100 to 2800 BCE), and the style, called Nordic megalith architecture, emerged between 3500 and 2800 BCE. In the Netherlands the tombs are the hunebedden, built between 3470 and 3250 BCE by the western group of the Funnel Beaker culture and used until about 2760 BCE. Of an estimated 100 original tombs, 54 are preserved, 52 of them in the province of Drenthe and two in Groningen. After the Funnel Beaker culture ended the sites were reused by the Single Grave and Bell Beaker cultures in the Early Bronze Age and, to a lesser extent, into the Middle Ages.
In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern up to 5,000 megalith tombs were erected, and more than 1,000 are preserved and protected by law; they belong to the youngest and easternmost part of the western European tradition. Most are dolmens, often lying inside a circular or trapezoid frame of standing stones. Locally they are known as Hünengräber, "giants' tombs", or Großsteingräber, "large stone tombs"; the trapezoid frame is a Hünenbett, "giants' bed", and the circular one a Bannkreis. Between 1964 and 1974 Ewald Schuldt excavated over a hundred sites there and sorted them into simple dolmens, extended dolmens, passage graves, great dolmens, unchambered long barrows and stone cists.
Folklore: the German and Dutch names, with Hüne meaning "giant", carry the old idea that giants were buried here. This is a tradition; the stones were placed by Neolithic farmers.
When visiting, look for the capstones on their supports and the frame of kerbstones around them.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Megaliths in the Netherlands, Wikipedia: Megaliths in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Wikipedia: Nordic megalith architecture, Wikipedia: Funnel beaker culture, Wikipedia: Dolmen · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 2800 BCE
900 bis 902. Sie entstanden zwischen 3500 und 2800 v. Chr. und sind Megalithanlagen der Trichterbecherkultur (TBK).
Source - 900 CE
900) liegt an der Driehauser Straße.
Source - 901 CE
901) hat eine Kammer von 8,0 × 2,3 Meter mit 12 erhaltenen Trag- und drei Decksteinen.
Source - 902 CE
902) ist Ost-West-orientiert und besteht nur aus der 10,5 Meter langen und 1,5 Meter breiten Kammer.
Source - 1807
An den drei Darpvenner Anlagen hat der Graf von Münster 1807 erste Grabungen durchgeführt, bei denen eine Bernsteinscheibe, Bernsteinperlen, Keramikscherben, Steinbeile und querschneidige Pfeilspitzen gefunden wurden.
Source
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
3 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 3500–2800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for dolmens in Germany; this site has not been dated itself. German dolmens (Huengrab) belong to the Nordic megalith tradition which emerged predominantly between 3500 and 2800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Germany
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 52°22′05″ N, 8°10′55″ EFor a GPS or map app: 52.36806, 8.18181
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Driehauser Steine3500–2800 BCE
Süntelstein2800–1800 BCE
Großsteingräber bei Vehrte3500–2800 BCE
Großsteingräber bei Haaren3500–2800 BCE- Megalithic tombGroßsteingräber bei Caldenhof3500–2800 BCE
Sloopsteine von Haltern3500–2800 BCE
Großsteingrab Kalkriese3500–2800 BCE- Megalithic tombGroßsteingräber bei Wulften3500–2800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q1166548wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Driehauser Steine1.4 km SE
- Süntelstein2.5 km SW
- Großsteingräber bei Vehrte2.6 km SW
- Großsteingräber bei Haaren5.6 km S
- Großsteingräber bei Caldenhof6.1 km SE
- Sloopsteine von Haltern6.3 km S
- Großsteingrab Kalkriese7.6 km NW
- Großsteingräber bei Wulften8.3 km SE
- Helmichsteine8.6 km SW
- Oestringer Steine9.0 km SW
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Darpvenner Steine I–III" (German), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (German): Darpvenner Steine I–IIICC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1166548CC0