Züschen (megalithic tomb)

Classified as a gallery grave or a Hessian-Westphalian stone cist (hessisch-westfälische Steinkiste), it is one of the most important megalithic monuments in Central Europe.

When he decided to remove them, Rudolf Gelpke, an inspector from nearby Garvensburg castle, noted the unusual presence of sandstone in the area of a basalt outcrop.

On a visit to the site, he recognised it as a prehistoric monument consisting of two parallel rows of regularly shaped vertical slabs.

This is sometimes assumed to be too narrow as an entrance for the passage of human bodies, in which case it may have served as a symbolic connection between the dead within the tomb chamber and the living, assembled in the ante-room for some ritual, perhaps an offering ceremony.

The discovery of an Urnfield period burial above the original depositions indicates that the destruction of the grave, disturbance of its contents and removal of the roof must have taken place before the 10th/9th century BC.

Pottery fragments were scant; they included a clay cup similar to examples from the related Lohra tomb and collared bottles connected with the northern Funnel Beaker (TRB) Culture.

Such bottles appear to have served some special function, maybe the storage of vegetable oils or sulphur for healing purposes.

[8] Lines are formed of rows of individual punched dots, possibly applied with a very early metal tool.

Similar depiction of teams of cattle are known from much more recent (Bronze or Iron Age) carvings at Valcamonica near Capo di Ponte, Northern Italy and at Mont Bégo in the French part of the Ligurian Alps.

Less than 1 km from the Züschen tomb lies the Hasenberg, a prominent basalt dome, the top of which contains an important Wartberg settlement.

Intriguingly, the Züschen tomb also appears to be designed in such a way that its main axis point directly at the Wartberg itself, 4 km to the east.