Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
iron age burial mound
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
Iron age burial mound is a megalithic mound in Bonfol, Switzerland. It lies at 47.4741° N, 7.1315° E.
Catalogue recordSources and licences
Article
iron age burial mound
ContextSources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
Central Europe has a long sequence of burial mounds. The Unetice culture of the Early Bronze Age came first, and the Tumulus culture of the Middle Bronze Age, about 1600 to 1300 BCE, raised mounds across Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland and neighbouring regions. The Hallstatt culture of the Early Iron Age made the mound grand again. From the Hallstatt B phase, tumulus burial becomes common, and the Hallstatt period proper, 800 to 450 BCE, produced the "princely" graves of elites who lived in fortified hilltop centres. The regional background, “Central European tumuli”, is given below.
Dating
No date has been published for this site.
Setting
1 other recorded monument lies within 10 km (0 within 1 km, 0 within 5 km). In Bonfol, Switzerland, 1 of the 1 recorded monuments are of this type.
The nearest recorded monuments are Courgenay holed stone (7.6 km south, dolmen); Cromlech des Fourneaux (19.1 km west, stone circle); Goben, burial mound of unknown date (24.1 km east, megalithic mound); dolmen des Issières (27.4 km north-west, dolmen).
ProtectionSources for this section
Sources for this section
Heritage status: class B Swiss cultural property of regional significance.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Central European tumuli
Central Europe has a long sequence of burial mounds. The Unetice culture of the Early Bronze Age came first, and the Tumulus culture of the Middle Bronze Age, about 1600 to 1300 BCE, raised mounds across Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland and neighbouring regions. The Hallstatt culture of the Early Iron Age made the mound grand again. From the Hallstatt B phase, tumulus burial becomes common, and the Hallstatt period proper, 800 to 450 BCE, produced the "princely" graves of elites who lived in fortified hilltop centres.
The largest Hallstatt-period mound in Central Europe is the Magdalenenberg near Villingen-Schwenningen. Its central tomb, of an early Celtic prince, has been dated by tree rings to 616 BCE. The mound once stood 10 to 12 metres high with a diameter of 104 metres; 126 further graves were set in concentric rings around it in the decades after the prince's death, and about 500 BCE the central chamber was plundered by robbers whose wooden spades archaeologists later found. Folklore marks it too: in the 1640s, during a series of witch trials, several women confessed under torture to dancing with the devil on the Magdalenenberg. That is evidence of a belief, not of any event.
The Atlas's records in Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are mostly tumuli of this Bronze Age and Iron Age sequence, and most are dated only by their form.
When visiting, look for mounds grouped in a cemetery rather than alone, since families and communities buried together, and for ploughed-down circular rises in fields.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Tumulus culture, Wikipedia: Hallstatt culture, Wikipedia: Magdalenenberg, Wikipedia: Unetice culture, Wikipedia: Tumulus · 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.
Where it stands
Switzerland
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 47°28′27″ N, 7°07′54″ EFor a GPS or map app: 47.47407, 7.13153
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.
Courgenay holed stone
Cromlech des Fourneaux3300–2500 BCE- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Goben, burial mound of unknown date
dolmen des Issières4000–3000 BCE
Neolithic stone box tomb- Dolmen von Laufen
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Leiwald, Iron Age burial mounds
Gmeiniwald, Neolithic dolmen grave
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q29785318wikidata.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
- Courgenay holed stone7.6 km S
- Cromlech des Fourneaux19 km W
- Goben, burial mound of unknown date24 km E
- dolmen des Issières27 km NW
- Neolithic stone box tomb28 km E
- Dolmen von Laufen28 km E
- Leiwald, Iron Age burial mounds33 km E
- Gmeiniwald, Neolithic dolmen grave35 km E
- menhir, Büttenberg, Locus Dei38 km S
- Menhir of Attiswill44 km SE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Compiled from open records (Wikidata, CC0; OpenStreetMap, ODbL) and a regional background article based on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Wikidata Q29785318CC0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0
- en.wikipedia.orgCC BY-SA 4.0