Lancken-Granitz dolmens

Location of the Lancken-Granitz municipality on Rügen (large map) and within Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (small map)

The dolmens are located in the southeastern part of Rügen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, south of the federal route B196, just southwest of the village Lancken-Granitz and northwest of the village Burtevitz, both part of the Lancken-Granitz municipality.[1] A group of seven dolmens is lined up northwest of the road between Lancken and Klein Stresow, numbered 1 to 7 from the northeast to the southwest.[1] This numbering follows Schmidt (2001), other publications use different numeration codes. Dolmen Nr. 6 and Nr. 7 belong to the Burtevitz subdistrict, which also contains several megaliths,[2] but are nevertheless included with the Lancken-Granitz Dolmen per Schmidt (2001), as they lie just across the border to the Lancken-Granitz district that runs between dolmen Nr. 5 and Nr. 6.[1]

The dolmens are part of a series built between 3,500 and 3,200 BC, during the Neolithic.[3] As of 2001, about 400 of those are preserved in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 55 of which are located on the isle of Rügen.[4] Initially their number had been much larger, but many were destroyed when their boulders were used for church, housing and street construction since the Middle Ages.[4] In the 20th century, local teacher Friedrich-Wilhelm Furthmann and his wife preserved the dolmens in the Lancken-Granitz and Burtevitz area, before they were excavated by archaeologist Ewald Schuldt in 1969 and immediately thereafter restored for touristic use.[2] This was part of a series of 106 excavations conducted by Schuldt's team on megalith sites in present-day Mecklenburg-Vorpommern between 1964 and 1972.[5]

"Guardian stone"

Dolmen Nr. 1, interior: the gaps between the large boulders are filled with red sandstone

Ceiling of dolmen Nr. 3

Dolmen Nr. 6, entrance

Three dolmens are encircled by standing, solitary rocks which either form a rectangular shape (Hünenbett, dolmen Nr. 1 and 3),[6] the most common form of Neolithic tomb encirclement structures, or a stone circle (Bannkreis, dolmen Nr. 6)[7] with unknown, proposedly magic, function.[8]

Both Hünenbett shapes are oriented from east to west,[6] and their long sides measure 20.5 metres (67 ft)[1] and 20 metres (66 ft),[9] respectively. At the Hünenbett around dolmen Nr. 3, only 16 boulders are still in place, while initially each long side had comprised 13 boulders.[10] A "guardian stone" is placed adjacent to its eastern narrow side.[9]

The stone circle around dolmen Nr. 6 has a diameter of 12 metres (39 ft).[7] The dolmens are located in the center of their respective encirclements (dolmen Nr. 3[11] and 6[12]) or at its western end (dolmen Nr. 1).[1]

All dolmens were constructed from glacial erratic boulders, with the gaps filled with plates of red sandstone and clay.[1] The entrance was typically made from two upright sandstone plates covered by another rock.[11] Similar sandstone plates were used to subdivide the interior of some of the dolmens into a hallway with adjacent compartments.[1] E.g. dolmen Nr. 1, the largest one,[1] had three such chambers on each side of the hallway, while a subdivision could not be demonstrated for dolmen Nr. 2.[9] Division into one to four compartments is common for dolmens, yet dolmen Nr. 1 with its six compartments is noted as a rare exception.[13]

Common Neolithic funerary goods found in the dolmens of the region are tools, pottery, and amber pearls.[14] It is assumed that the pots were filled with groceries, and that there were also other, long decomposed organic funerary goods.[14] Most probably, a magic function was ascribed to the amber pearls, especially the ones of a double axe shape.[14] Funerary goods found in each dolmen near Lancken include flint hatches, chisels, amber pearls, and pottery,[15] the latter being in part of the Funnelbeaker (TRB) type.[16] An abundance of arrowheads were found in dolmens Nr. 1 through 5.[17] Stone blades were found in dolmens Nr. 1, 3, 4 and 5.[17] Two stone axes were excavated in dolmen Nr. 1, one double-edged,[9] and another two stone axes were found in dolmen Nr. 3, one of the rare Nackenkammaxt type.[11] Other finds include a granite rubbing stone (dolmen Nr. 3)[11] and a Gnidel- or Krähenstein (dolmen Nr. 4,[7] a small, black flintstone rounded by the sea). Remains of human skulls and bones were found in dolmen Nr. 3[11] and Nr. 4.[7]

Several of the Lancken-Granitz dolmens remained in use until the early (Nordic) Bronze Age.[18] In dolmen Nr. 1, fragments of a bronze needle and a bronze necklace were found,[9] and in dolmen Nr. 3, a bronze needle with one end rolled-up, a bronze finger ring, and part of a bronze necklace.[11] In the early Bronze Age, dolmen Nr. 1 was abandoned and filled with rocks and dirt, had its entrance closed and was covered by an artificial hill.[9] Likewise, dolmen Nr. 6 including its stone circle was covered by a hill, 2 metres (6.6 ft) in height, and it was discovered only in 1969 that it was not a tumulus, but a dolmen[7] - it had even been protected as a Bronze Age tumulus before.[2]

The dolmens were nevertheless frequented by the local population throughout the Iron Age as well as the Slavic and the early German period, as multiple archaeological finds show,[19] yet they were also used as a dump by the local East German LPG for "stones which had been cleared from the fields".[2] Dolmen Nr. 6 was re-used as a burial site during the late Slavic period, while else the Rani erected burial mounds of their own, keeping them in some distance to the dolmens.[2] In recent history, its excavated dolmen was used as a shelter by the East German army.[20]

• Early history of Pomerania
• Flint tool

Footnotes

Bibliography

• Holtorf, Cornelius (2000-2008): 1.3.1. Ewald Schuldt (1914–1987). Monumental Past. The Life-histories of Megalithic Monuments in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany). Electronic monograph. University of Toronto. Centre for Instructional Technology Development. http://hdl.handle.net/1807/245. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
• Holtorf, Cornelius (2000-2008): 5.2.2. Ancient mounds as military shelters and gun emplacements. Monumental Past. The Life-histories of Megalithic Monuments in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany). Electronic monograph. University of Toronto. Centre for Instructional Technology Development. http://hdl.handle.net/1807/245. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
• Holtorf, Cornelius (2000-2008): 8.4. The megaliths around Lancken-Granitz and Burtevitz. Monumental Past. The Life-histories of Megalithic Monuments in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany). Electronic monograph. University of Toronto. Centre for Instructional Technology Development. http://hdl.handle.net/1807/245. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
• Holtorf, Cornelius (2000-2008): 8.4.1. The megaliths around Lancken-Granitz and Burtevitz. Monumental Past. The Life-histories of Megalithic Monuments in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Germany). Electronic monograph. University of Toronto. Centre for Instructional Technology Development. http://hdl.handle.net/1807/245. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
• Midgley, Magdalena S (1992). TRB culture. The first farmers of the North European plain. Edinburgh University Press.
• Schmidt, Ingrid (2001). Hünengrab und Opferstein. Bodendenkmale auf der Insel Rügen (in German). Rostock: Hinstorff. ISBN 3-356-00917-6.
• Schirren, C. Michael (2009). "Für die Ewigkeit gebaut – Die Großsteingräber". Archäologische Entdeckungen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Kulturlandschaft zwischen Recknitz und Oderhaff. Archäologie in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Vol. 5. Schwerin. pp. 57–61. ISBN 978-3-935770-24-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Further reading

• Schuldt, Ewald: Die Großsteingräber von Lancken-Granitz auf der Insel Rügen, in: Bodendenkmalpflege Mecklenburg, Jahrbuch 1971 (1972), pp. 9-84.

Media related to Großsteingräber bei Lancken-Granitz at Wikimedia Commons

54.36286°N 13.61901°E / 54.36286; 13.61901