.JPG/1920px-Venlo-Grafheuvels_Jammerdaalse_Heide_(1).JPG 1920w)
Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
tumuli Jammerdaalse Heide
DatedEst. 4000–2000 BCE
Photo Romaine · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
.JPG){kind=link}
Overview
About this site
Overview
The tumuli on the Jammerdaalse Heide are a group of seven burial mounds in the nature reserve of the same name, in the municipality of Venlo, in the Netherlands. The description of the group places the barrows in the early Iron Age, whereas a typological estimate in the catalogue gives a wider range of 4000 to 2000 BCE.
All seven mounds are national monuments (rijksmonumenten).
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
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
tumuli Jammerdaalse Heide
Seen from the surrounding clay pits, the mounds now lie on a kind of plateau high above them.
DescriptionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Seen from the surrounding clay pits, the mounds now lie on a kind of plateau high above them. The original cemetery must have been larger than the seven surviving barrows.
The largest mound of the group is called the Generaalsheuvel. Its diameter is roughly twice that of the other mounds, it lies on the other side of the road, and it was surrounded by a wide ditch. Excavation showed that it had already been plundered in the past. It is presumed that an important person was buried there.
ArchaeologySources for this section
Sources for this section
Archaeological investigation of the group yielded urns containing cremation remains, together with bronze bracelets and rings that had been affected by fire.
ContextSources for this section
Sources for this section
Round barrows are found across the Low Countries and France, and 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. In France and Belgium, tumuli of the Hallstatt period belong to the early Iron Age, from about 800 BCE. Barrows were often reused, and later graves were sometimes cut into the mound long after the first burial.
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
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
6 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
.JPG){kind=link}
.JPG){kind=link}
.JPG){kind=link}
.JPG){kind=link}
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°20′43″ N, 6°10′34″ EFor a GPS or map app: 51.34537, 6.17614
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.
six tumuli on Jammerdaalse Heide4000–2000 BCE
Generaalsheuvel4000–2000 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)tumuli Houthuizen4000–2000 BCE
tumuli Bosberg Swalmen4000–2000 BCE
tumulus #460224000–2000 BCE
tumuli Kroppestraat Swalmen4000–2000 BCE
tumulus #460214000–2000 BCE
Vorstengraf De Hamert3500–500 BCE
.JPG){kind=link}
.JPG){kind=link}
.JPG){kind=link}
.JPG){kind=link}
.JPG){kind=link}
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q2795191wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Venlo-Grafheuvels Jammerdaalse Heide (1).JPGRomaineCC0
- Venlo-Grafheuvels Jammerdaalse Heide-heuvel b+c+d (1).JPGRomaineCC0
- Venlo-Grafheuvels Jammerdaalse Heide-heuvel b+c+d (2).JPGRomaineCC0
- Venlo-Grafheuvels Jammerdaalse Heide-heuvel e.JPGRomaineCC0
- Venlo-Grafheuvels Jammerdaalse Heide-heuvel f (1).JPGRomaineCC0
- Venlo-Grafheuvels Jammerdaalse Heide-heuvel g (1).JPGRomaineCC0
Report a correctionWrong date, name, photograph or source? Tell us and it will be put right.
Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- six tumuli on Jammerdaalse Heide<0.1 km W
- Generaalsheuvel0.1 km SE
- tumuli Houthuizen11 km N
- tumuli Bosberg Swalmen14 km SW
- tumulus #4602215 km SW
- tumuli Kroppestraat Swalmen15 km SW
- tumulus #4602115 km SW
- Vorstengraf De Hamert19 km N
- terrain with four tumuli and an urn field Aan de Watermolen22 km SW
- Grafheuvel Bergerbos27 km SW
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Grafheuvels op de Jammerdaalse Heide" (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