Nagelfluh - Menhir as thing(s)

 

 

Yes, the weather that day (a few weeks ago) wasn't great, but it didn't stop us from visiting this unique place. It is located near Waldshut, at the lower end of Germany and close to the Swiss border.
The so-called "Long Stone" is classified as a menhir and is said to be the southernmost in Baden-Württemberg. There are only a few "official" ones anyway. In fact, you can also find numerous menhirs in the Black Forest that are not specified as such.

 

 

It really is located near the Wutach, which was almost a raging torrent at this time of year. The menhir stands in the floodplain of the river, but you could still enter the area. Until recently, it marked the edge of a soccer pitch, but at some point it was relocated.

It is claimed that it was only "lifted" from the riverbed from a distance of 50 meters and placed there at some point.

It is almost 6 meters high and its irregular circumference is correspondingly impressive (7.5 meters at its most voluminous point). Science speaks of a rectangular "pedestal", which I could not understand at first.

 

 

The original shape of the menhir was certainly more striking. Numerous scars bear witness to its function as a signpost forest and climbing rock.

 

 

The structure of the stone reminds me of numerous menhir "encounters" from northern France. This conglomerate can also be found there near the sea. Menhirs there sometimes also have a figurative shape.

 

 

I am surprised that the striking menhir was not completely removed in the course of Christianization. Apparently it was a little too bulky for the Christian modern barbarians.
The geologist describes the material as so-called conglomerate, often also called "pudding stone". The gravel is woven into a coarse concrete-like mass. A mixture of gravel and boulders, held together by an ominous binding agent. In the jargon of geologists, this is also known as Nagelfluh. The material also reminds me of the coarsest concrete, so I originally assume that this is a rather artificial production. But that's just my personal opinion.

 

Depending on which side you look at it from, it reveals a different shape. Perhaps it is a play of the imagination, but from a reasonable distance it appears to me to be a sitting bird - an owl perhaps, which does not resemble the classical menhir in its form at all. Or was it intentional to vary/break through the usually rather balanced straight-line structure of a menhir (always assuming that the menhir setting in the form "known" to us was really intentional). But we also find such cases more frequently than assumed.

 

 

From a distance (see below, unfortunately somewhat blurred), the figure can perhaps be assumed to be a flying creature.

 

 

The "figure" or menhir has suffered greatly from erosion over the millennia. The Alemanni later used the menhir as a meeting and court site and referred to it as a "thing" or "thing site".