Overview
About this site
Overview
The Karlsteine (also called the Schluppstein) are a Neolithic passage grave (Ganggrab) near Osnabrück in Lower Saxony, Germany, registered as Sprockhoff no. 909. They were built between 3500 and 2800 BCE and belong to the Funnel Beaker culture (Trichterbecherkultur, TBK).
The chamber measures 8.5 m in length, and all of its 13 supporting stones and four capstones survive, although the capstones are no longer in their original position.
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
Karlsteine
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): KarlsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): KarlsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
The Karlsteine stand on a small rise called the Hone (grove) in the Haste district of Osnabrück. The site dates from the Middle Neolithic (3500–2800 BCE).
The monument is built of slabs of Piesberg sandstone, a conglomerate that also occurs in a nearby quarry.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): KarlsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): KarlsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument is built of slabs of Piesberg sandstone, a conglomerate that also occurs in a nearby quarry. It has a single chamber, of which all 13 supporting stones and four capstones are present; the capstones do not lie in situ. Smaller stones lying around the monument probably fell from the infill masonry between the uprights. The chamber has a slightly trapezoidal plan, 8.5 m long and 3 m wide in the east and 2.3 m wide in the west.
NameSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): KarlsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): KarlsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
The Karlsteine owe their name to a legend. Local tradition holds that after the Saxon leader Widukind demanded a divine sign, Charlemagne (Karl der Große) smashed the capstone, a massive stone slab, with a whip.
Later historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): KarlsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): KarlsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Slightly below the Karlsteine stands the 'Kreuz im Hone', a cross said to commemorate the first Mass read in this area. It is also called the Teggenbökenkreuz because it is surrounded by ten beeches. In former times there are said to have been seven beeches, intended to keep alive the memory of seven brothers serving in the emperor's army; only three of them remain today.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): KarlsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): KarlsteineCC 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. Sites of this kind were reused after the end of the Funnel Beaker culture by the Single Grave and Bell Beaker cultures in the Early Bronze Age and, to a lesser extent, into the Middle Ages.
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
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. 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
- 52°19′01″ N, 8°02′17″ EFor a GPS or map app: 52.31700, 8.03812
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 Q1417355wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Os karlsteine 04.jpgSail overCC 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 "Karlsteine" (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): KarlsteineCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1417355CC0