Quoltitz Sacrificial Stone

The Quoltitzer Opferstein is a granite boulder of Scandinavian origin, weighing about 73 tons. Looking at him from a distance, he looks like a crouched animal. On the stone numerous depressions can be recognized, which are referred to as small bowls or "cups" (on Rügen "blood grape" called). Furthermore, larger depressions indicate that attempts have been made to extract trough mills (early hand-driven mills for grinding and grinding cereals) from this stone. Probably in the late Bronze Age (1000-600 BC) or in the Slavic epoch of Rügen. The 5-6 cm diameter bowls date back to the Bronze Age and are believed to have been used to eat food offerings at special times. To the deep transverse groove, which is so wide that one can comfortably put the flat hand in it, Rügener legends to report that there the blood of the sacrificial animals was derived earlier. The name of Quoltitz can be derived from kwaljan (Germanic) = torment, violent death, torment and -titz (Slavic ending for a place). A lowland north of the sacrificial stone once bore the name Bloodwisch (blood meadow), the brook, which flows past the stone, the name Blootbach. Older field names therefore indicate that once a cult place was here, at which in former times sacrifices were made to the gods. The stone was first described in 1797 and in 1806 it was drawn by Caspar David Friedrich. (Source: Wikipedia and the book by Ingrid Schmidt "Hühnengrab and Opferstein")