The street of Megalithic Culture - Monument Hohe Steine

Friday, 28 December 2018 08:59
Written by Portal Editor

The “Road of Megalithic Culture” connects Osnabrück and Oldenburg in 33 stations, the most impressive and best preserved Neolithic megalithic tombs of northwest Germany.

Along the route, which can be hiked or covered by bike, the visitor will learn a lot about the oldest monuments of the region as well as numerous other sights in the north. Join us on a fascinating journey to more than 5,000 years of cultural history and read the articles about Visbek Bride and Groom.

Become sedentary after the epoch as a collector and hunter

Megalithic tombs are considered the oldest surviving major structures in northern Central Europe. Until the fourth millennium BC, human beings were just living as collectors and hunters in the Wildeshausen Geest. The members of the so-called funnel beaker culture were the first groups to settle permanently. They raised livestock, planted crops and lived in post structures. Presumably, they believed in a second life after dying and because of that, they built their deceased, sometimes monumental graves of boulders. Those megalithic tombs were built not for individuals but for groups and used for many generations.

Collective graves for several generations

Megalithic tombs are so-called collective graves. They are the striking relics of the Neolithic Age, that epoch of about 5,500 years ago, when in the northwest of Germany for the first time stationary settlements emerged with the introduction of arable and livestock. This new way of life and the associated numerous new requirements the settlers met with extraordinarily high community benefits. They built their mortuary houses from mighty boulders, in where up to one hundred or more individuals could be buried, depending on the size of the settlement community. Why then foundlings as the main building material was chosen, there could have been two reasons:

Either the great strength and efficiency of the community should be put on display, or the dead should remain forever behind the stone walls, and not spread misfortune and terror among the living as rebellious or ghosts.

The megalith grave Hohe Steine near Visbek

With a chamber of 17 x 1.4 - 2.00 meters, a gap-like oval enclosure with eleven powerful capstones, of which only one is destroyed, the tomb remains in good condition until today. Of the formerly 25 stone only one is missing.

The entrance is in the middle of the southern long side. To determine the entrance, a small excavation was carried out in 1933. Clay pots were located and salvaged, which are attributable to the funnel beaker culture (3,500 - 2,800 BC). According to the findings, it is a tomb that has been used for several generations.

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