The Harhoog is a

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

, a rectangular megalithic tomb from the

Funnelbeaker culture The Funnel(-neck-)beaker culture, in short TRB or TBK (, ; ; ), was an archaeological culture in north-central Europe. It developed as a technological merger of local neolithic and mesolithic techno-complexes between the lower Elbe and middle V ...

, located near Keitum on the island of

Sylt Sylt (; ; Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, with a distinctively shaped shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian Islands and is the largest island in North Fris ...

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

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 ...

.Ernst Sprockhoff. ''Atlas der Megalithgräber Deutschlands - Schleswig-Holstein''. Rudolf Habelt Verlag, Bonn, 1966. Discovered in 1925, it was moved to the present site in 1954 when a new airport was developed.

Geography

The megalithic Harhoog burial chambers were originally located near the mud-flats between Keitum and Tinnum. The stones were moved to the area near the Tipkenhoog on the coast near Keitum in 1954, when Sylt Airport was under development. The chambers contain parallel and transverse sections.

History

The graves at Harhoog are dated to the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

and belonged to ancient settlements of the island's

, probably around 3000 BC. There were once around 600 of them but today only about half of them still exist. The megalithic tombs are built with large, rough stone slabs (one or more) which are arranged in different patterns. Harhoog dolmen is an extended dolmen, under Ernst Sprockhoff's six-category classification; the other five types are

simple dolmen The simple dolmen (, literally "ancient dolmen") or primeval dolmen is an early form of dolmen or megalithic tomb that occurs especially in Northern Europe. The term was defined by archaeologist, Ernst Sprockhoff, and utilised by Ewald Schuldt ...

, great dolmen,

passage grave A passage grave or passage tomb consists of one or more burial chambers covered in earth or stone and having a narrow access passage made of large stones. These structures usually date from the Neolithic Age and are found largely in Western Europ ...

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...

s (without a burial chamber) and cist. Harhhog was discovered in 1925 during excavations of earth for the construction of the Hindenburgdamm, but was only inspected archaeologically in 1936.

References

External links

{{coord, 54.8907, 8.3826, type:landmark_region:DE, display=title Buildings and structures completed in the 3rd millennium BC Funnelbeaker culture Dolmens in Germany Sylt Buildings and structures in Nordfriesland 1925 archaeological discoveries Archaeological discoveries in Germany