Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and UsesFergusson, James
History
Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries: Their Age and Uses
Fergusson, James
Megalithic monuments
So far as is at present known, there are not any tumuli of importance
or any battle-fields marked with great stones in the north of Germany;
but the dolmens there are both numerous and interesting, and belong
to all the classes found in Scandinavia, and, so far as can be
ascertained, are nearly identical in form. Nothing, however, would
surprise me less than if it should turn out that both barrows and Bauta
stones were common there, especially in the island of Rügen and along
the shores of the Baltic as far east as Livonia. The Germans have
not yet turned their attention to this class of their antiquities.
They have been too busy sublimating their national heroes into gods
to think of stones that tell no tales. Whenever they do set to work
upon them, they will, no doubt, do it with that thoroughness which
is characteristic of all they attempt. But as the investigation will
probably have to pass through the solar myth stage of philosophy, it
may yet be a long time before their history reaches the regions of
practical common sense.
No detailed maps having been published, it is extremely difficult
to feel sure of the distribution of these monuments in any part of
the northern dolmen region; but the following, which is abstracted
from Bonstetten's 'Essai sur les Dolmens,' may convey some general
information on the subject, especially when combined with the map (p.
275), which is taken, with very slight modifications, from that which
accompanied his work.
According to Bonstetten there are no dolmens in Poland, nor in Posen.
They first appear on the Pregel, near Königsberg; but are very rare in
Prussia, only two others being known, one at Marienwerder, the other at
Konitz. In Silesia there is one at Klein-Raden, near Oppeln; another
is found in the district of Liegnitz, and they are very numerous in
the Uckermark, Altmark, in Anhalt, and Prussian Saxony, as well as in
Pomerania and the island of Rügen. They are still more numerous in
Mecklenburg, which is described as peculiarly rich in monuments of this
class. Hanover possesses numerous dolmens, except in the south-eastern
districts, such as Göttingen, Oberharz, and Hildesheim. To make up for
this, however, in the northern districts, Lüneburg, Osnabrück, and
Stade, at least two hundred are found. The grand-duchy of Oldenburg
contains some of the largest dolmens in Germany; one of these, near
Wildesheim, is 23 feet long; another, near Engelmanns-Becke, is
surrounded by an enclosure of stones measuring 37 feet by 23, each
stone being 10 feet in height, while the cap stone of a third is 20
feet by 10. In Brunswick there were several near Helmstädt, but they
are now destroyed. In Saxony some rare examples are found as far south
as the Erzgebirge, and two were recently destroyed in the environs of
Dresden. Keeping along the northern line, we find them in the three
northern provinces of Holland, Gröningen, Ober-Yssel, and especially in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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