The Goloring is an ancient earthworks monument located near

Koblenz Koblenz ( , , ; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz'') is a German city on the banks of the Rhine (Middle Rhine) and the Moselle, a multinational tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman military p ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It was created in the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

era, which dates back to the

Urnfield The Urnfield culture () 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 placing their ashes in urns, which ...

culture (1200–800 BCE.). During this time a widespread solar cult is believed to have existed in Central

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. 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 A henge can be one of three related types of Neolithic Earthworks (archaeology), earthwork. 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 ditches ...

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. Goloring 001

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 Stonehenge is a prehistoric Megalith, megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, to ...

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

, Pömmelte and Goseck.

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