Overview
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Overview
The Helmichsteine (also Hellmichsteine or Gevasteine) are a megalithic tomb of the Funnel Beaker culture at Rulle, a district of Wallenhorst in the Osnabrück district of Lower Saxony, Germany. The monument is protected as a cultural monument.
It was built between 3500 and 2800 BCE. Excavations since 2000 showed that the passage grave originally consisted of seven yokes, each formed by two supporting stones and a capstone.
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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
Helmichsteine
The Helmichsteine lie east of the centre of Rulle, at the edge of the residential area Ruller Esch, south of the street Im Esch and south-east of Icker, a district of Belm.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
The Helmichsteine lie east of the centre of Rulle, at the edge of the residential area Ruller Esch, south of the street Im Esch and south-east of Icker, a district of Belm. The site lies on the Straße der Megalithkultur.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
The grave was a passage grave originally covered with earth. It consisted of a burial chamber and a short access. The erratic boulders forming the walls and roof were broken from the mountains of Scandinavia during the glaciation of the Ice Age and carried to northern Germany.
The monument is aligned east to west. The grave, built at ground level, was about 14 to 15 metres long and about 1.8 metres wide, and the oval mound was edged with smaller boulders. It was used for collective burials. To show the original size of the monument, hedges have been planted and steel arches set up.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Since 2000 the Helmichsteine have been investigated by the Osnabrück city and county archaeology service. The work showed that the monument originally consisted of seven yokes, each formed by two supporting stones and one capstone, with the entrance in the south. The excavation produced sherds of funnel beakers and a flat axe of flint, deposited as a grave good.
Later historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument was damaged over the centuries, especially in the 19th century, when a capstone was drilled and broke into three pieces.
NameSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
The grave is named after the former owner of the land, the Colon Helmich zu Rulle.
FolkloreSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
A legend of the Osnabrück region connects the grave with Geva, wife of the Saxon duke Widukind (also Wittekind), who is said to have been buried here. The tomb was built long before the time of the duke and his wife. About one kilometre south-east of the Helmichsteine lies the Wittekindsburg, an early medieval fortification dating roughly from the period of the Saxon Wars, although a direct connection with Widukind has not been proved there either.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): HelmichsteineCC 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. Lower Saxony has 1,155 recorded megaliths. Monuments are classed as simple dolmens, extended dolmens, passage graves, great dolmens, unchambered long barrows and stone cists.
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
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 2800 BCE
Die Megalithanlage aus der Jungsteinzeit wurde von der Trichterbecherkultur (TBK) zwischen 3500 und 2800 v. Chr. errichtet.
Source - 800 BCE
Die Helmichsteine stammen aus der Zeit zwischen 3.500 und 2.800 v. Chr.
Source - 2000
Seit dem Jahre 2000 wurden die Helmichsteine von der Osnabrücker Stadt- und Kreisarchäologie erforscht.
Source
Photographs
5 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 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°19′54″ N, 8°04′15″ EFor a GPS or map app: 52.33180, 8.07072
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 Q1603261wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Rulle helmichsteine 06.jpgSail overCC BY-SA 3.0
- 5 Helmichsteine 2025-06-01 Megalith-3799.jpgCreosophCC0
- Helmichsteine4.JPGDr. Roland mattern, Roland1952 at German WikipediaCC BY-SA 3.0
- Helmichsteine5.JPGDr. Roland Mattern, Roland1952 in der Wikipedia auf DeutschCC BY-SA 3.0
- Helmichsteine6.JPGDr. Roland Mattern, Roland1952 in der Wikipedia auf DeutschCC BY-SA 3.0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Lore, kept apart
Legends and claims
These are stories and claims reported by the sources. They are not evidence, and they never stand in for the dating above.
- Tradition
Eine Sage des Osnabrücker Landes bringt das Grab mit Geva, der Frau des Sachsenherzogs Widukind (auch Wittekind), in Verbindung.
Eine Sage des Osnabrücker Landes bringt das Grab mit Geva, der Frau des Sachsenherzogs Widukind (auch Wittekind), in Verbindung. Sie soll hier begraben worden sein. Allerdings entstand die Grabanlage etwa 3.500 Jahre vor der Zeit des Sachsenherzogs und seiner Frau. In Rulle befindet sich etwa einen Kilometer südöstlich der Helmichsteine die Wittekindsburg, eine frühmittelalterliche Befestigungsanlage. Diese stammt zwar etwa aus der Zeit der Sachsenkriege, doch ist auch hier eine direkte Verbindung zu Widukind nicht nachgewiesen.
Source
Around this place
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Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Helmichsteine" (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): HelmichsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1603261CC0