Großsteingrab Grabow
DatedEst. 3500–2800 BCE
Photo Georgfotoart · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Großsteingrab Grabow, also called Großsteingrab Friedensau, is a Neolithic megalithic tomb near Friedensau, a district of Möckern in the Jerichower Land district of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The catalogue gives a typological estimate of 3500 to 2800 BCE for its date.
The monument is heavily destroyed. Its exact tomb type is unknown.
Read on Wikipedia1 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 Grabow
The tomb lies about 500 metres north of Friedensau, in forest directly beside the road to Grabow.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab GrabowCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab GrabowCC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb lies about 500 metres north of Friedensau, in forest directly beside the road to Grabow.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab GrabowCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab GrabowCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument is badly damaged. It has an enclosure 40 m long and a burial chamber with four surviving capstones. No information is available on the orientation of the monument or on the dimensions of the chamber, and the exact type of grave is unknown.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab GrabowCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab GrabowCC BY-SA 4.0
Across the plain from the Netherlands to Poland, the Funnel Beaker culture left thousands of megalithic tombs. Nordic megalith architecture emerged in northern Europe mainly between 3500 and 2800 BCE. Monuments are classed by type: simple dolmens, extended dolmens, passage graves, great dolmens, unchambered long barrows and stone cists. The oldest are the simple dolmens. A heavily damaged tomb such as this one often cannot be assigned to any of these types with certainty.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Megalithic tombs of the North European Plain
Across the plain from the Netherlands to Poland, the Funnel Beaker culture left thousands of megalithic tombs. Nordic megalith architecture emerged in northern Europe mainly between 3500 and 2800 BCE. Counts have risen as surveys improved: Schleswig-Holstein now reports 3,212 megalithic monuments and 958 long mounds, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 5,991 megaliths (against 648 in 2010), and Lower Saxony 1,155. Altogether 11,162 megaliths are known in these three regions, and with Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt the figure for northern Germany rises to 11,648. Denmark has 5,001 registered monuments, the Netherlands 101, Sweden 639 and Poland 18. Johannes Müller has suggested that originally more than 75,000 megaliths were built.
Monuments are classed by type: simple dolmens, extended dolmens, passage graves, great dolmens, unchambered long barrows and stone cists. The oldest are the simple dolmens, which appeared around 3500 BCE and are found across almost the whole area of Nordic megalith architecture. Their entrances were built to be reopened. A megalithic entrance had to seal the tomb, yet allow the community to gain access to the interior again, even after a long time, to perform rituals.
In the Netherlands the hunebedden were built between 3470 and 3250 BCE and used until about 2760 BCE; 54 of the original 100 survive, 52 of them in Drenthe. Poland has only 18 registered monuments, and the long barrows in parts of Poland were typically earthen rather than megalithic.
Dating combines radiocarbon dates from bone and pottery. The tombs were used by later cultures too, so a single tomb can hold remains from different periods.
When visiting, look at how the capstones sit on the supporting stones, how the entrance is built, and the frame of kerbstones around the mound.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Nordic megalith architecture, Wikipedia: Megaliths in the Netherlands, Wikipedia: Funnel beaker culture, Wikipedia: Megaliths in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photographs
4 photographs, each with its author and licence
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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 megalithic tombs in Germany; this site has not been dated itself. German stone tombs (Grosssteingraber) 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°12′53″ N, 11°58′34″ EFor a GPS or map app: 52.21470, 11.97620
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.
- Megalithic tombGroßsteingrab Lütnitz3500–2800 BCE
Großsteingrab Körbelitz 13500–2800 BCE- Megalithic Tombs of Körbelitz3500–2800 BCE
- Chambered cairnFürstengrab von Gommern
Dolmen Gehrden3500–2800 BCE
Hauszeichenstele- Megalithic tombGroßsteingrab Ebendorf3500–2800 BCE
- Megalithic tombGroßsteingrab Schönebeck-Salzelmen3500–2800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q1549610wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Großsteingrab Grabow 01.jpgGeorgfotoartCC BY-SA 4.0
- Großsteingrab Grabow - 1.jpgQuotengroteCC BY-SA 4.0
- Großsteingrab Grabow - 2.jpgQuotengroteCC BY-SA 4.0
- Großsteingrab Grabow 04.jpgGeorgfotoartCC 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 Grabow" (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 GrabowCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1549610CC0