Großsteingrab Loose
DatedEst. 3500–2800 BCE
Photo Holger rix · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Dolmen von Loose (Großsteingrab Loose) is an extended dolmen about 1.6 km north-east of Loose in the district of Rendsburg-Eckernförde, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, 50 m west of the B203. It is catalogued as Sprockhoff 58.
It is a megalithic monument of the Funnel Beaker culture (TBK), built between 3500 and 2800 BCE, and its chamber is well preserved.
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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
Großsteingrab Loose
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von LooseCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von LooseCC BY-SA 4.0
The chamber is oriented north-west to south-east. All of its stones are present and in situ. The long sides consist of two pairs of supporting stones. At the north-western end stands an end stone, and opposite it a low entrance stone. The chamber is covered by a capstone measuring 2.4 × 1.9 × 1.3 m. The stones are of red granite.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von LooseCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von LooseCC 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.
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
58. Es entstand zwischen 3500 und 2800 v. Chr. als Megalithanlage der Trichterbecherkultur (TBK).
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
6 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
- 54°32′03″ N, 9°53′50″ EFor a GPS or map app: 54.53410, 9.89713
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.
Karlsminde Longbarrow- Megalithic tombHemmelmark 2 and 33500–2800 BCE
Großsteingrab Sophienhof3500–2800 BCE- MegalithGroßsteingrab Hörst3500–2500 BCE
- Megalithic tombGroßsteingräber bei Kleinwaabs3500–2800 BCE
- Megalithic tombGroßsteingrab Lehmberg3500–2800 BCE
Dolmen von Langholz3500–2800 BCE- Megalithic tombGroßsteingrab Norby3500–2800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q1235951wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Loose-Dolmen-2010c.jpgHolger rixCC BY-SA 3.0
- Loose-Dolmen-2010a.jpgHolger rixCC BY-SA 3.0
- Loose-Dolmen-2010b.jpgHolger rixCC BY-SA 3.0
- Loose-Dolmen-2010d.jpgHolger rixCC BY-SA 3.0
- Kleinmoorbruecke Steingrab 3.jpgHolger rixCC BY-SA 3.0
- Kleinmoorbruecke Steingrab 4.jpgHolger rixCC BY-SA 3.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen von Loose" (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): Dolmen von LooseCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1235951CC0