The Goloring is an ancient earthworks monument located near Koblenz,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It was created in the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

era, which dates back to the

Urnfield The Urnfield culture ( 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Age culture of Central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and p ...

culture (1200–800

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

.). During this time a widespread solar cult is believed to have existed in Central

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. The Goloring consists of a circular ditch of 175 metres in diameter with an outside embankment extending to 190 metres. Technically this makes the structure a

henge There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ...

monument, although the use of the term henge outside of Britain is sometimes disputed. The outside embankment is approx. 7 metres wide and 80 cm high. The ditch has an upper width of 5–6 metres and is approx. 80 cm deep. In the interior one can find a roughly circular leveled platform, which is about elevated by about 1 metre. The platform has been created based on piled gravelled rock and has a diameter of 95 metres. Remnants of a 50 cm thick wooden post with an estimated height of 8–12 metres were excavated in the middle of this platform. The design of the ditch is unique in Germany, and makes the earthworks similar to many British monuments of the same era. It is often compared to Stonehenge in England, which has similar diametric proportions.

Investigations

Dr. Josef Röder investigated the Goloring between 1940–48 and detailed his findings in his book ''The Goloring: An iron-temporal sanctum of the Henge character in the Koberner Forrest''. He believed that the central post could be aligned with a nearby volcano to determine certain dates in February, May, August and November each year. These times will have been important for crop farming, and also coincide with Celtic festivals. This may indicate Goloring's use as a calendar, in a similar vein to Stonehenge and

Goseck Goseck is a municipality lying on the river Saale, in the Burgenlandkreis district of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Geography Goseck is located on the north bank of the Saale, about halfway between Naumburg and Weißenfels. The municipali ...

Location

It is located within the boundaries of a former military dog training camp, but was acquired by the town of Kobern-Gondorf in June 2004. The Goloring is currently not accessible to the general public but there are plans under way to build a historic park with the earthworks at its centre.

External links

Wisoveg.de - Goloring: A German version of Dr. Roders book

{{coord, 50, 20, 21, N, 7, 26, 23, E, region:DE-RP_type:landmark, display=title Bronze Age Europe Bronze Age sites Archaeological sites in Germany Koblenz Henges History of the Eifel

Investigations

Location

See also

External links