Menhir (standing stone)The Bronze Age
Langer Stein
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Langer Stein (Long Stone) near Rittersheim, in the Donnersbergkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, is a possible menhir. It stands north-west of Rittersheim in a field, below the highest point of a rise, and marks the boundary between Rittersheim and Bischheim. The catalogue record gives a typological estimate of 2800 to 1800 BCE.
Its status is disputed: it has been regarded both as a heavily reworked prehistoric stone and as a boundary stone of medieval origin.
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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
Langer Stein
The stone is made of porphyry conglomerate, whose source was identified as a deposit at the Donnersberg, 10 km away.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Langer Stein (Rittersheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Langer Stein (Rittersheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
The stone is made of porphyry conglomerate, whose source was identified as a deposit at the Donnersberg, 10 km away. It is 145 cm high, 30 cm wide and 25 cm deep. It is pillar-shaped, with a rectangular, almost square cross-section, and ends in a rounded point. An R and a B, for Rittersheim and Bischheim, are carved on two sides.
InterpretationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Langer Stein (Rittersheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Langer Stein (Rittersheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
According to Otto Gödel, the present form results only from heavy working of the prehistoric stone in the Middle Ages. Ernst Christmann, by contrast, saw in it not a menhir but a boundary stone that arose only in the Middle Ages.
About 700 m to the north, in the field called Am Galgen, there was originally another stone, which was named Hunkelstein in 1533 and probably served as a place of judgement.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Langer Stein (Rittersheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Langer Stein (Rittersheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
In 1979 the stone lay broken on the ground. By 1987 at the latest it had been put back together with cement and set upright.
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
- 1533
Etwa 700 m nördlich befand sich auf der Flur „Am Galgen“ ursprünglich ein weiterer Stein, der 1533 als „Hunkelstein“ bezeichnet wurde und wohl als Gerichtsstätte diente.
Source - 1979
1979 lag er zerbrochen am Boden, wurde aber spätestens 1987 mit Zement wieder zusammengesetzt und aufgerichtet.
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.
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°40′26″ N, 8°03′02″ EFor a GPS or map app: 49.67399, 8.05061
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)Grabstelen von Bolanden2800–1800 BCE
Der Lange Stein2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir von Nack2800–1800 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir von Dannenfels2800–1800 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Hinkelstein2800–1800 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir von Flörsheim-Dalsheim2800–1800 BCE
Hinkelstein2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Hinkelstein2800–1800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q17322984wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Langer Stein (Rittersheim)" (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