Großsteingrab Langen
DatedEst. 3500–2800 BCE
Photo Hannes Grobe ( talk ) · CC BY 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Großsteingrab Langen, also called the Ritzerberg, is a possible megalithic tomb of the Neolithic Funnel Beaker culture in Langen, part of the town of Geestland in the Landkreis Cuxhaven, Lower Saxony, Germany. Whether the monument is a megalithic tomb at all is not certain.
The Heimatbund der Männer vom Morgenstern, based in Bremerhaven, carries the monument in its coat of arms.
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
Großsteingrab Langen
The monument stands in the south of Langen, on the south side of the street Am Dolmen, in the middle of a residential area.
SettingSources for this section
Sources for this section
The monument stands in the south of Langen, on the south side of the street Am Dolmen, in the middle of a residential area.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
The remains were discovered in 1849, when the Ritzerberg mound was removed. Most of the material was taken away without documentation. The monument has had its present form only since the 1880s, when the capstone, which had previously been rolled aside, was set back onto the wall stones. One or two of the four surviving wall stones were also first set up in their present positions at that time. The capstone bears a number of cup marks.
InterpretationSources for this section
Sources for this section
Opinions differ on whether the monument is a megalithic tomb. Hugo Mötefindt argued that it is, whereas Sophus Müller and Ernst Sprockhoff were rather sceptical because of the position of the wall stones. The catalogue dating of 3500 to 2800 BCE is a typological estimate.
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
- 1849
Diese wurden 1849 entdeckt, als der Ritzerberg abgetragen wurde.
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
- 53°35′53″ N, 8°35′49″ EFor a GPS or map app: 53.59805, 8.59696
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.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q15812990wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Dolmen-langen hg.jpgHannes Grobe ( talk )CC BY 3.0
- Paul Feldheim Dess. 094 Serie Hünengräber Nr. 01 Hünengrab bei Langen, Kreis Lehe, Bildseite.jpgPaul FeldheimPublic domain
- Paul Feldheim Dess. 094 Serie Hünengräber Nr. 01 Hünengrab bei Langen, Kreis Lehe, Adressseite.jpgPaul FeldheimPublic domain
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Großsteingrab Langen (Geestland)" (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