Name: Ganggrab von Neu Gaarz
Address: DE

Overview

The megalithic tomb of Neu Gaarz, catalogued as Sprockhoff no. 325, lies in the municipality of Rerik in the north of the district of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is oriented north-east to south-west and was built between 3500 and 2800 BCE as a monument of the Funnel Beaker culture.

It is conventionally called a passage grave but has no stone passage. Its chamber, 9.5 m long, is exceptionally large; only the megalithic tomb of Qualitz is larger.

The structure was sunk into the ground, which points to a higher age, and lies in a hollow. Eleven supporting stones are still present and four are missing. The capstones have fallen into the chamber or are missing. In the middle of the south-south-eastern long side is the area that was to form the access to the chamber.

The chamber is 1.3 m high, 9.5 m long and 2.0 m wide. It differs from passage graves in lacking a stone passage; instead, traces of four wooden posts on each side were found in the area of the passage. Ewald Schuldt found very few such monuments in Mecklenburg and provisionally called them Portalgräber (portal tombs), a term that conflicts with the portal tombs of the British Isles, which are of an entirely different construction. Roughly identical structures are found in the province of Drenthe in the Netherlands, where they are also called portaalgraf.

The chamber has nine quarters, the most among the roughly 100 monuments excavated by Ewald Schuldt. The floor consists of rolled stones, red sandstone slabs, burnt flint and a clay screed. Three cup marks are worked into one of the capstones of the chamber.

Ganggrab von Neu Gaarz

Overview

The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.