Dolmen Emsen
DatedEst. 3500–2800 BCE
Photo Einsamer Schütze · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Großsteingrab Emsen, also known as Großsteingrab Langenrehm or Der Hohe Stein, is a megalithic tomb of the Neolithic Funnel Beaker culture near Emsen, a district of the municipality of Rosengarten in the Harburg district of Lower Saxony, Germany. It dates from between 3500 and 2800 BCE and bears the Sprockhoff number 672.
The monument has a flat, round mound containing the remains of a burial chamber oriented north-west to south-east. It was excavated in 1934 by Willi Wegewitz.
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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
Dolmen Emsen
The grave lies near the eastern edge of the village at Langenrehm, a part of Emsen, in the middle of a row of trees at the edge of a field.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab EmsenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab EmsenCC BY-SA 4.0
The grave lies near the eastern edge of the village at Langenrehm, a part of Emsen, in the middle of a row of trees at the edge of a field.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab EmsenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab EmsenCC BY-SA 4.0
Within the mound stand the remains of the chamber. In situ are the north-western end stone and five wall stones of the north-eastern long side. The middle one of these is slightly displaced inwards because an overturned capstone rests on it. On the south-western long side the same capstone rests on another wall stone that has fallen over completely. Further stones lie outside the chamber. Sprockhoff supposed that they belonged to a passage and took the monument to be a Holstein chamber.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab EmsenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab EmsenCC BY-SA 4.0
The excavation of 1934 by Willi Wegewitz demonstrated use of the tomb by the Funnel Beaker culture, reuse by the Corded Ware culture, and further use in the Early Bronze Age.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab EmsenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab EmsenCC BY-SA 4.0
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. After the Funnel Beaker culture ended, sites of this kind were reused by the Single Grave and Bell Beaker cultures in the Early Bronze Age and, to a lesser extent, into the Middle Ages.
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
Das Großsteingrab Emsen (auch Großsteingrab Langenrehm oder Der Hohe Stein genannt) ist eine zwischen 3500 und 2800 v. Chr. entstandene megalithische Grabanlage der Jungsteinzeitlichen Trichterbecherkultur (TBK) bei Emsen, einem Ortsteil der Gemeinde Rosengarten im Landkreis Harburg, Niedersachsen.
Source - 672 CE
Es trägt die Sprockhoff-Nummer 672.
Source - 1934
1934 wurde hier von Willi Wegewitz eine Ausgrabung vorgenommen.
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
4 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
- 53°22′59″ N, 9°51′44″ EFor a GPS or map app: 53.38310, 9.86222
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.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q1339702wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Großsteingrab Emsen 03.jpgEinsamer SchützeCC BY-SA 4.0
- Großsteingrab Emsen 01.jpgEinsamer SchützeCC BY-SA 4.0
- Großsteingrab Emsen 02.jpgEinsamer SchützeCC BY-SA 4.0
- Großsteingrab Emsen 04.jpgEinsamer SchützeCC BY-SA 4.0
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Around this place
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Großsteingrab Emsen" (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): Großsteingrab EmsenCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1339702CC0