Menhir III von Nusbaum
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Helge Klaus Rieder · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Menhir III of Nusbaum, also called the Lying Menhir (Liegender Menhir), is a broken standing stone near Nusbaum in the Eifelkreis Bitburg-Prüm, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is an oval block of Liassandstein, now in two pieces, which measures 295 cm in depth and was about 405 cm high before it broke.
It lies close to the highest point of the Ferschweiler Plateau, beside Menhir II, and is not at its 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
Menhir III von Nusbaum
The menhir lies in the middle of an extensive area of woodland north-west of Ferschweiler and south-east of Rohrbach, a hamlet of Nusbaum.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir III von NusbaumCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir III von NusbaumCC BY-SA 4.0
The menhir lies in the middle of an extensive area of woodland north-west of Ferschweiler and south-east of Rohrbach, a hamlet of Nusbaum. It is on the land of Nusbaum in the north of the Ferschweiler Plateau, near the highest point, on flat and level ground. Directly beside it stands the Standing Menhir (II) of Nusbaum.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir III von NusbaumCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir III von NusbaumCC BY-SA 4.0
The stone is oval and tapers slightly towards both ends; the thicker end widens, and both ends finish irregularly. The stone is broken in two. The material is Liassandstein, and it now measures 54 cm in height, 177 cm in width and 295 cm in depth. Before it broke, its height was about 405 cm, so that the menhir ranks as comparatively large.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir III von NusbaumCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir III von NusbaumCC BY-SA 4.0
The menhir was discovered in 1930, when it lay about 20 m further east than the Standing Menhir. It probably broke when it was moved to its present position. It was not investigated further until 1999, when it was rediscovered. An excavation in 2000 found no evidence of a foundation, so that it is regarded as certain that the present position is not the original one.
InterpretationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir III von NusbaumCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Menhir III von NusbaumCC BY-SA 4.0
A line of sight runs from the two menhirs at Nusbaum to the third Nusbaum menhir, the Fraubillenkreuz. The menhirs may have formed a deliberately constructed system.
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
- 1930
Entdeckt wurde der Menhir 1930, damals befand er sich allerdings noch rund 20 m weiter östlich als der Stehende Menhir.
Source - 1999
Bis 1999 wurde er nicht weiter untersucht und erst in diesem Jahr wiederentdeckt.
Source - 2000
Bei einer Grabung im Jahr 2000 konnten keine Hinweise auf ein Fundament gefunden werden, sodass es als gesichert gilt, dass der heutige Standort nicht der ursprüngliche ist.
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°52′45″ N, 6°22′04″ EFor a GPS or map app: 49.87905, 6.36768
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 II von Nusbaum2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Menhirfragmente von Nusbaum2800–1800 BCE
Fraubillen cross4000–800 BCE
Holsthum Menhir Langenstein2800–1800 BCE- CistSteinkiste von Holsthum3500–2800 BCE
- CistHartberg megalithic tomb3000 BCE–600 CE
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir II von Holsthum2800–1800 BCE
- SteleMonument Raymond Petit Bäerdref
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q112863677wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Nusbaumer Menhire H1.jpgHelge Klaus RiederCC0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Menhir II von Nusbaum<0.1 km N
- Menhirfragmente von Nusbaum0.4 km S
- Fraubillen cross0.6 km SE
- Holsthum Menhir Langenstein2.1 km E
- Steinkiste von Holsthum2.2 km E
- Hartberg megalithic tomb3.3 km NE
- Menhir II von Holsthum3.4 km E
- Monument Raymond Petit Bäerdref6.7 km S
- US-Monument Iechternach7.8 km SE
- Schnellert9.8 km S
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Menhir III von Nusbaum" (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