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The legend of the Steinhardter peas:
Long time ago a rich but hard-hearted farmer lived in Steinhardt. In the spring he drove out into his field to sow peas. When the work was almost finished, a poor, old man came to him, greeted politely, and asked politely for so many peas that he and his family could cook a soup of it. Mockingly, the rich farmer rejected the beggar. Rather, his peas should turn to stone before he would give even a handful. Sadly the old man turned away and left. Cursing, the farmer continued to sow. His bag on his shoulder, however, did not become lighter, but heavier. Then he noticed with horror that the peas had turned into round stones. But also the peas, which he had already sown, had meanwhile become rounded stones. Even today you can find in the fields and vineyards around Steinhardt those strange stone structures, which the popular term Steinhardter peas called.
Mainzer Becken is the term for a tertiary sea basin which took the place of today’s Rheinhessen about 38 to 12 million years ago. The fall in of the Rheintalgraben which started in the eozaen (50-38 million years ago) and spreaded north was accompanied by lateral expansions. The most considerable of them was the Mainzer Becken, a shallow up to 50 metres deep bay of the arm of the sea which connected the northern sea with the Tethyssea (southern sea) in the tertiary.
The pre-tertiary subsoil of the Mainzer Becken predominately consists of rock from earth’s antiquity. In the former coastal zones rhyolith of volcanoetectonic origin from the perm (Kreuznach, Neu-Bamberg, Rheinhessische Schweiz) respectively Taunusquarzite and slate from the devon (Hunsrück, Taunus, Rochusberg) are located. There are modern (tertiary) layers placed directly on those from the earth’s antiquity here.