Tomb Architecture
The sunken rectangular chamber measured c. 5 x 2.2m (internal measurements), narrowing somewhat towards the back. Although most of its orthostaths were missing, it was still possible to reconstruct its rectangular plan from the foundation trenches. The individual slabs reached a length of 60 cm to 1m, were 40 cm wide and about 80 cm high. Their weight varied between 800 and 1,000 kg.
The tomb consisted of a large main chamber and a small open antechamber. They were separated by a large sandstone slab with a circular hole, similar to the one at Züschen. This so called Seelenloch (German for "soul hole") had a diameter of 30–35 cm. It is suggested that such a small opening should not have served the passage of dead bodies but may represent a symbolic gateway between the worlds of the living and the dead during cultic rituals or offering ceremonies that took place in the anteroom. Only a quarter of the Lohra Seelenloch stone survived. The bottom of the sunken main chamber was covered with a clay floor of 3–5 cm thickness. The tomb probably had a wooden roof. The presence of many stones in and around the chamber probably indicates that is was originally covered by an articificial mound or tumulus.
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“Some sepulcher, remote, alone,
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In childhood, many an idle stone—
Some tomb from out whose sounding door
She ne’er shall force an echo more,
Thrilling to think, poor child of sin!
It was the dead who groaned within.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)