Menhir (standing stone)The Bronze Age
Weißer Stein
DatedEst. 2800–1800 BCE
Photo Dieter Klein · CC BY-SA 3.0 deSource file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Weißer Stein is a menhir at Dittelsheim-Heßloch in the district of Alzey-Worms, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Its date is estimated from its type to lie between 2800 and 1800 BCE.
It is a weathered limestone slab 210 cm high, found buried in 1927 and set up again 100 m from the find spot.
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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
Weißer Stein
The stone is made of limestone, which does not occur in the surroundings of Dittelsheim-Heßloch.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
The stone is made of limestone, which does not occur in the surroundings of Dittelsheim-Heßloch. Its surface is heavily weathered and furrowed. It measures 210 cm in height, 145 cm in width and 80 cm in depth. It is slab-shaped and tapers upwards, ending in a curved tip that gives its upper end the shape of a bird's head.
HistorySources for this section
Sources for this section
The menhir was discovered in 1927 during clearing work on the south-eastern slope of a rise, in the field named 'Am weißen Stein', at a depth of 80 cm. It was re-erected 100 m from the find spot. It had probably been buried in the late Middle Ages, but its designation survived as a field name.
Whether it was originally used as a boundary stone, as were many other menhirs, is unclear. Its find spot lies, however, near the boundary with Bechtheim and near an old diocesan and Gau boundary.
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
- 1927
Der Menhir wurde 1927 bei Rodungsarbeiten am Südosthang einer Erhebung bei Dittelsheim-Heßloch auf der Gewanne „Am weißen Stein“ in einer Tiefe von 80 cm entdeckt und 100 m davon entfernt wieder 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.
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°44′22″ N, 8°15′39″ EFor a GPS or map app: 49.73953, 8.26072
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 Q17326934wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- WeisserStein.JPGDieter KleinCC BY-SA 3.0 de
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Weißer Stein (Dittelsheim-Heßloch)" (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