Menhir (standing stone)The Bronze Age
Spitzer Stein
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Anjaslowi · CC0Photo taken at this location (Wikimedia Commons)Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Spitzer Stein is a menhir at Armsheim in the district of Alzey-Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a slab of limestone 200 cm high, and has been moved several times in recent decades. Its date is estimated from its type to lie between 2800 and 1800 BCE.
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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
Spitzer Stein
The menhir is made of limestone, whose place of origin has been identified as the Geiersberg, 2 km away.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Spitzer Stein (Armsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Spitzer Stein (Armsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
The menhir is made of limestone, whose place of origin has been identified as the Geiersberg, 2 km away. It measures 200 cm in height, 80 cm in width and 30 cm in depth. It is slab-shaped, tapers upwards and ends in a rounded point. Some 50 to 60 cm below the tip is a deep cup-shaped hollow, probably natural. At its old site, before 1979, the stone stood 110 cm above the ground; after its relocation it projected only 100 cm.
HistorySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Spitzer Stein (Armsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Spitzer Stein (Armsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
The original location of the stone is not known. It may once have crowned a burial mound that has since been destroyed. Probably from the Middle Ages onwards it served, together with the Hinkelstein, the Dicke Stein, the now destroyed Haugstein and another menhir, as a boundary stone between Armsheim and Flonheim.
During a land consolidation in 1979 the Dicke Stein and the Spitze Stein were removed, and in the following year they were re-erected 1200 m west of Armsheim. There the Spitze Stein was knocked over by an agricultural vehicle and broke in two. In 2001 both stones were moved again, and the two fragments of the Spitze Stein were laid on a small green space in the village, in the Bahnhofstraße, directly beside the Dicke Stein. The Hinkelstein, already shifted slightly in 1975, was set up 500 m south-west of this spot. The Lange Stein of Flonheim lies 1.8 km to the south.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Spitzer Stein (Armsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Spitzer Stein (Armsheim)CC BY-SA 4.0
Outside the Atlantic fringe, menhirs also occur across central and southern Europe.
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
- 1975
Der bereits 1975 leicht versetzte Hinkelstein wurde 500 m südwestlich hiervon aufgestellt.
Source - 1979
Während einer Flurbereinigung wurden der Dicke Stein und der Spitze Stein 1979 entfernt und im folgenden Jahr 1200 m westlich von Armsheim wieder aufgestellt.
Source - 1979
An seinem alten Standort vor 1979 ragte er 110 cm aus dem Boden, nach der Umsetzung nur noch 100 cm.
Source - 2001
2001 wurden die beiden Steine erneut umgesetzt.
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
2 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Anjaslowi · CC0Photo taken at this location (Wikimedia Commons)
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°48′24″ N, 8°03′42″ EFor a GPS or map app: 49.80663, 8.06163
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.
Der Dicke Stein2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Hinkelstein2800–1800 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Langer Stein2800–1800 BCE
Menhir von Gumbsheim2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir von Nack2800–1800 BCE
Langer Stein2800–1800 BCE- Menhir (standing stone)Hinkelstein2800–1800 BCE
- Menhir (standing stone)Langer Stein2800–1800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q17326248wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Armsheim-dicker-stein-front.jpgAnjaslowiCC0
- Armsheim-dicker-stein-seite.jpgAnjaslowiCC0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Spitzer Stein (Armsheim)" (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