Menhir (standing stone)The Bronze Age
Hinkelstein
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Altera levatur · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Hinkelstein in Monsheim, in the district of Alzey-Worms in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, is a menhir. The field named after it is the type site of the Hinkelstein culture. The stone is protected as a Kulturdenkmal (cultural monument), and the catalogue record gives a typological estimate of 2800 to 1800 BCE.
It now stands in the inner courtyard of Monsheim castle.
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
Hinkelstein
The menhir is made of limestone and has a heavily weathered, furrowed surface full of holes.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Hinkelstein (Monsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Hinkelstein (Monsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
The menhir is made of limestone and has a heavily weathered, furrowed surface full of holes. It is 200 cm high, 170 cm wide and 80 cm deep. The stone is pyramidal in shape and its upper part is somewhat drawn in, which gives it a slightly anthropomorphic appearance from a certain angle.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Hinkelstein (Monsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Hinkelstein (Monsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
In 1865 an excavation was carried out near the stone. It uncovered a cemetery containing Frankish, Roman, Early Bronze Age and Neolithic graves. The Neolithic graves included graves of the Rössen culture and of a group then still unknown, which was named the Hinkelstein culture after the field name. There is, however, no direct connection between the Hinkelstein culture and the menhirs that are often called Hinkelsteine.
HistorySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Hinkelstein (Monsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Hinkelstein (Monsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
The stone originally stood 50 m east of the road leading from Monsheim to Niederflörsheim. In the Middle Ages and in modern times it served as a boundary stone. In the 15th century it marked the boundary between the Kurpfalz (Electoral Palatinate) and the county of Leiningen, and later the boundary between Monsheim, Niederflörsheim and Kriegsheim.
Later historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Hinkelstein (Monsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Hinkelstein (Monsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
After the excavation the stone was moved. It now stands in the courtyard of Monsheim castle, walled into the edging of a dung heap.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Central and southern European menhirs
Outside the Atlantic fringe, menhirs also occur across central and southern Europe. In the Czech Republic there are about 40 real menhirs and dozens of stones that could also be menhirs, and others have been erected recently. The largest real menhir is Kamenný pastýř, the "stony shepherd", near Klobuky, 3.3 metres high; the Czech menhirs are probably the last outcrop of a tradition that ran across northern Germany. Some of the Czech stones in the Atlas may be natural boulders.
Italy has its most famous menhirs in Sardinia, where at least 332 standing stones can be seen. They include elaborate "statue-menhirs" that show a human face at the top and gendered symbols on the flat front; over a hundred of this standardised type have been found, mostly around the village of Laconi. In the Sardinian language they are called perdas fittas or perdas lungas. In Switzerland, in the canton of Vaud, several menhirs form linear patterns at Clendy in Yverdon-les-Bains, and date back to the third millennium BCE.
A statue menhir is a carved standing stone of the later European Neolithic, in which a slab or pillar has a stylised human figure cut into it, sometimes with hints of clothing or weapons. They are most commonly found in southern and western France, Catalonia, Corsica, Sardinia, Italy and the Alps.
Menhirs are usually difficult to date, and those without excavation can only be given a broad range. A stone's present position is not always its original one.
When visiting, check whether a stone stands in its original position and look for signs of shaping.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Menhir, Wikipedia: List of menhirs, Wikipedia: Statue menhir · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1865
1865 wurde in der Nähe des Steins eine Grabung vorgenommen.
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
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 2800–1800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for menhirs in Germany; this site has not been dated itself. Standing stones are associated with the Beaker people of the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age c. 2800-1800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Germany
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 49°38′10″ N, 8°12′10″ EFor a GPS or map app: 49.63625, 8.20280
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.
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir von Flörsheim-Dalsheim2800–1800 BCE
Der Lange Stein2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Hinkelstein2800–1800 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Langer Stein2800–1800 BCE
Weißer Stein2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Grabstelen von Bolanden2800–1800 BCE
Bürstadt menhir2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir von Wattenheim2800–1800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q17322289wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Menhir Schloss Monsheim.JPGAltera levaturCC BY-SA 4.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Hinkelstein (Monsheim)" (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): Hinkelstein (Monsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q17322289CC0