Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Tumulus Gendersteyn
DatedEst. 4000–2000 BCE
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Gendersteyn barrow (Grafheuvel Gendersteyn) is a burial mound on the Bussereind at Steensel, in the municipality of Eersel, in the Netherlands. It belongs to the Hilversum culture, which is dated 1850 to 1550 BCE, and is one of the ring-bank barrows, a rare type of which seventeen are known in the Netherlands.
It was discovered in 1993, when the mound became visible after trees on the plot were felled.
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
Tumulus Gendersteyn
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel GendersteynCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel GendersteynCC BY-SA 4.0
A ditch can be seen around the mound, and a low bank runs along its northern side. Barrows of this type are known as ringwalheuvels (ring-bank barrows).
ArchaeologySources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel GendersteynCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel GendersteynCC BY-SA 4.0
Excavations of ring-bank barrows have shown that this type of mound usually lies on its own, that each was raised in a single operation, and that they date from the period of the Hilversum culture, 1850 to 1550 BCE.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel GendersteynCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel GendersteynCC BY-SA 4.0
In April 2004 the mound was restored. The body of the barrow was consolidated, the parts that had been dug away were filled in, and the whole was covered with netting and a layer of earth that is expected to protect it for the coming decades.
They are hemispherical mounds raised over a central burial, which may be an inhumation or a cremation placed in a vessel.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel GendersteynCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Dutch): Grafheuvel GendersteynCC BY-SA 4.0
Round barrows are found across the Low Countries and France. 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: later graves were cut into the mound, sometimes long after the first burial, and many attracted satellite burials.
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
- 1850
Uit opgravingen weten we dat dit type heuvels meestal alleen liggen, dat ze in één keer zijn opgericht en dat ze uit de periode van de Hilversumcultuur dateren, de periode 1850 tot 1550 voor Chr.
Source - 1993
Ze werd in 1993 ontdekt, toen de heuvel zichtbaar werd nadat bomen op het perceel waren gekapt.
Source - 2004
In april 2004 is de heuvel als het ware in ere hersteld: het heuvellichaam is geconsolideerd, waarbij afgegraven delen zijn aangevuld en het geheel is afgedekt met gaas en een aardenlaag, die de heuvel de komende decennia zal beschermen.
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.
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°23′10″ N, 5°21′40″ EFor a GPS or map app: 51.38599, 5.36104
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.
Terrein waarin grafheuvel #5250304000–2000 BCE
Terrein waarin 2 grafheuvels4000–2000 BCE
Terrein waarin grafheuvels en urnenveld4000–2000 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Terrein waarin tien grafheuvels, een brede aarden wal en mogelijk een urnenveld4000–2000 BCE
Tumuli Huismeer4000–2000 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Terrein waarin twee grafheuvels en een urnenveld4000–2000 BCE
Tumuli 1-3 south of road Toterfout4000–2000 BCEPhoto: A ansems at Dutch Wikipedia ( Original text: A. Ansems ) · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Tumuli of Toterfout-Halve Mijl4000–2000 BCE
Photo: A ansems at Dutch Wikipedia ( Original text: A. Ansems ) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q2398610wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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
- Terrein waarin grafheuvel #525030<0.1 km N
- Terrein waarin 2 grafheuvels0.5 km N
- Terrein waarin grafheuvels en urnenveld1.1 km E
- Terrein waarin tien grafheuvels, een brede aarden wal en mogelijk een urnenveld1.9 km E
- Tumuli Huismeer2.3 km N
- Terrein waarin twee grafheuvels en een urnenveld3.2 km S
- Tumuli 1-3 south of road Toterfout3.8 km N
- Tumuli of Toterfout-Halve Mijl3.9 km N
- Grafheuvel Vessemsedijk, Halfmijl4.0 km NW
- Tumuli (13-16) west of Weijerseweg4.0 km NW
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Grafheuvel Gendersteyn" (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 GendersteynCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q2398610CC0