Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Grafheuvel Bergerbos
DatedEst. 4000–2000 BCE
Photo Romaine · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Grafheuvel Bergerbos is a presumed burial mound south of Sint Odiliënberg, in the municipality of Roerdalen, province of Limburg, the Netherlands. Excavation in May 2003 showed it to be a natural rise topped by a raised area made by humans, the date of which is unclear.
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Where it sits in time
The site's dated range, placed against world reference points.
The scale is logarithmic: each step to the left is about ten times older than the last.
Article
Grafheuvel Bergerbos
The mound is included in the area of the burial ground and is now surrounded by twelve large boulders.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel BergerbosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel BergerbosCC BY-SA 4.0
The mound lies near the Roskam, on the Natuurbegraafplaats Bergerbos (a natural burial ground). The mound is included in the area of the burial ground and is now surrounded by twelve large boulders.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel BergerbosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel BergerbosCC BY-SA 4.0
The mound was excavated in May 2003. It proved to be 120 centimetres high, with a diameter of 11.5-12.5 metres. It is a natural elevation on which a raised area was constructed by humans. Because the soil has been disturbed, it is unclear from which period this raised area dates.
DatingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel BergerbosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel BergerbosCC BY-SA 4.0
The catalogue record gives a typological estimate of 4000 to 2000 BCE. Excavation did not settle the date.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel BergerbosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel BergerbosCC BY-SA 4.0
Round barrows are found across the Low Countries and France. Many were raised in the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age. They are hemispherical mounds raised over a central burial, which may be an inhumation or a cremation placed in a vessel.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Low Countries and French barrows
Round barrows are found across the Low Countries and France. Many were raised in the Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The Bell Beaker phenomenon of the late third millennium BCE brought a new burial rite to western Europe: individual burials, often under a tumulus and with weapons, in contrast to the collective, weaponless burials of the earlier Neolithic. The Dutch hunebedden, the megalithic tombs of the north, belong to the earlier tradition and are described in their own article.
Round barrows are hemispherical mounds raised over a central burial, which may be an inhumation or a cremation placed in a vessel. Barrows were often reused: later graves were cut into the mound, sometimes long after the first burial, and many attract satellite burials. In France and Belgium, tumuli of the Hallstatt period belong to the early Iron Age, from about 800 BCE; from phase B of the Hallstatt sequence, tumulus burial becomes common and cremation predominates.
Dating relies on pottery and metalwork, and on radiocarbon dating where a mound has been dug. Many have been ploughed down, so the Atlas map reflects where mounds survived and were recorded as much as where they were built.
When visiting, look for the surrounding ditch or kerb, and for a later disturbance at the centre where a later grave or an old digging has cut the mound.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Tumulus, Wikipedia: Round barrow, Wikipedia: Bell Beaker culture, Wikipedia: Hallstatt culture, Wikipedia: Hunebed · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 2003
In mei 2003 werd de grafheuvel opgegraven.
Source
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Photographs
1 photograph, each with its author and licence
Lore
Evidence & Lore
What the sources actually support — and, kept apart, what has been claimed.
What the evidence supports
Dates
Est. 4000–2000 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for megalithic mounds in Belgium; this site has not been dated itself. Belgian barrows: the tumuli of Weris in the Belgian Luxembourg date from the 4th and 3rd millennia BC and the tumulus of Court-Saint-Etienne to around 3,000 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Belgium
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 51°07′57″ N, 6°00′05″ EFor a GPS or map app: 51.13253, 6.00140
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q14629989wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
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- Jodenberg19 km SW
- cist of Stein25 km SW
- six tumuli on Jammerdaalse Heide27 km NE
- Generaalsheuvel27 km NE
- tumuli Jammerdaalse Heide27 km NE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Grafheuvel Bergerbos" (Dutch), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel BergerbosCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q14629989CC0