  Based on recent ideas, we propose a framework for the description of black
holes in terms of constituent graviton degrees of freedom. Within this
formalism a large black hole can be understood as a bound state of N
longitudinal gravitons. In this context black holes are similar to baryonic
bound states in quantum chromodynamics which are described by fundamental quark
degrees of freedom. As a quantitative tool we employ a quantum bound state
description originally developed in QCD that allows to consider black holes in
a relativistic Hartree like framework. As an application of our framework we
calculate the cross section for scattering processes between graviton emitters
outside of a Schwarzschild black hole and absorbers in its interior, that is
gravitons. We show that these scatterings allow to directly extract structural
observables such as the momentum distribution of black hole constituents.
