Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
tumuli Savelsbos
Also known astumulus Savelsbos
DatedEst. 4000–2000 BCE
Photo Romaine · CC0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Savelsbos tumuli are a group of seven burial mounds south-east of Gronsveld, in the municipality of Eijsden-Margraten in the Netherlands. They were raised in the Bronze Age, and one of the seven has been reconstructed.
The reconstructed mound lies south of the Savelsweg, in the Savelsbos, on the western edge of the Plateau of Margraten where it descends towards the Meuse valley.
Read on Wikipedia1 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 Savelsbos
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvels SavelsbosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvels SavelsbosCC BY-SA 4.0
At this point the plateau drops steeply by a number of metres. About 100 m to the north lie the Savelsberggroeve and the Grindgroeve Savelsbos.
In the mounds an urn was found, together with a ring of stones with a stone platform at its centre.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvels SavelsbosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvels SavelsbosCC BY-SA 4.0
The mounds were excavated and studied in 1926. In the mounds an urn was found, together with a ring of stones with a stone platform at its centre. One of the seven mounds was later reconstructed.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvels SavelsbosCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvels SavelsbosCC BY-SA 4.0
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. Barrows were often reused, with later graves cut into the mound, sometimes 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
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1926
In 1926 werden de grafheuvels opgegraven en vond er onderzoek plaats.
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
4 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
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
- 50°48′19″ N, 5°44′35″ EFor a GPS or map app: 50.80518, 5.74295
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.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q66361436wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
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
- Tumulus of Émael5.0 km W
- Pyramid of Gulpen10 km E
- Tumulus of Herderen12 km W
- Tumulus of Herderen13 km W
- Tumulus of Genoelselderen15 km W
- Tumuli Vijlenerbos17 km E
- Site containing at least seven burial mounds in Vijlenerbos17 km E
- Tumulus deep in Vijlenerbos17 km E
- cist of Stein18 km N
- menhir on the Mechelse Heide19 km N
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Grafheuvels Savelsbos" (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): Grafheuvels SavelsbosCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q66361436CC0