Oberbipp dolmen
Also known asDolmen von Oberbipp
Photo Muettersbueb · CC BY-SA 4.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Oberbipp dolmen (Dolmen von Oberbipp) is a Neolithic collective grave at Oberbipp in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. It was discovered in 2011, when a large granite slab in a pasture proved on closer investigation to be the cover slab of the tomb.
It belongs to a grave type rare in Switzerland, that of the Horgen culture (3400–2850 BCE), and is listed as a class A Swiss cultural property of national significance.
Read on Wikipedia2 min readCC BY-SA 4.0
Article
Oberbipp dolmen
The cover slab is a rectangular boulder with an area of six square metres, one metre thick and measuring two by three metres, resting on several supporting stones of granite.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von OberbippCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von OberbippCC BY-SA 4.0
The monument dates from the second half of the 4th millennium BCE and is largely intact. The cover slab is a rectangular boulder with an area of six square metres, one metre thick and measuring two by three metres, resting on several supporting stones of granite. It was found in the Steingasse at Oberbipp.
ArchaeologySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von OberbippCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von OberbippCC BY-SA 4.0
Roman and medieval finds from the adjoining layers show that the capstone remained visible until at least the 13th century. The tomb survived the centuries protected by a layer of sediment from which only a small part of the cover slab projected. This sediment was deposited by floods of the nearby Mühlebach during the last seven centuries. Undercutting is probably the reason why two of the supporting stones beneath the cover slab have shifted.
The bones of about 30 buried individuals and a few artefacts were found.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von OberbippCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von OberbippCC BY-SA 4.0
After the excavation was completed the dolmen was moved to the churchyard of Oberbipp. The Freistein near Attiswil lies nearby.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von OberbippCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Dolmen von OberbippCC BY-SA 4.0
A dolmen is a single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually made of two or more upright stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone. Most date from the Late Neolithic period, 4000 to 3000 BCE.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Dolmens
A dolmen is a single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually made of two or more upright stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone, or table. Most date from the Late Neolithic period, 4000 to 3000 BCE, and were sometimes covered with earth or smaller stones to form a tumulus. In many dolmens the covering has eroded away, leaving only the stone skeleton. The word entered archaeology when Théophile Corret de la Tour d'Auvergne used it to describe megalithic tombs in his book of 1796.
Dolmens go by many names. In Portuguese and Galician they are antas, in Dutch hunebedden, in Danish dysser, in Swedish dösar, in Basque trikuharri, in Welsh cromlechau, in Cornwall quoits, and in Korean goindol, "propped stone". In Catalan-speaking areas folk names include cova (cave), caixa (crate or coffin), taula (table), arca (chest) and cabana (hut). The German Hünengrab and Dutch hunebed carry the word Hüne, "giant", and evoke giants buried there; that is an old explanation for monuments too large for ordinary people, and it is folklore, not evidence.
They are found in Europe, the Caucasus, the Levant, Korea and India. They are not all of one age or culture. In Europe most belong to the Neolithic, but in the Levant they are of the Early Bronze Age and in Korea they were built from the Bronze Age to the early Iron Age. The Levantine tradition is a different, unrelated one from that of Europe.
The Atlas uses this article for dolmens in countries that do not have their own article, such as Switzerland and Belgium. Dating is by typology, with absolute dates available only where a tomb has been excavated.
When visiting, look for the capstone and its supports, for traces of a mound or kerb around them, and for the direction in which the entrance faces.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Dolmen, Wikipedia: Portal dolmen, Wikipedia: Funnel beaker culture · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 2850 BCE
Der in der Oberbipper Steingasse () gefundene Dolmen gehört zu einem in der Schweiz seltenen Gräbertyp der Horgener Kultur (3400–2850 v. Chr.) Die Megalithanlage aus der zweiten Hälfte des 4. Jahrtausends v. Chr. ist in grossen Teilen intakt.
Source - 2011
Der Dolmen von Oberbipp im Kanton Bern in der Schweiz wurde 2011 entdeckt, als sich eine grosse Granitplatte in einer Weide bei näheren Untersuchungen als die Deckenplatte eines neolithischen Kollektivgrabes erwies.
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
3 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Where it stands
Switzerland
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 47°15′37″ N, 7°39′36″ EFor a GPS or map app: 47.26040, 7.66010
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.
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir of Attiswill2800–1800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Pfaffenweiher, burial mound of unknown age
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Erdbeereinschlag, Iron Age burial mound group
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Eichlibann, Iron Age burial mounds
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Born, burial mound of unknown date
Neolithic stone box tomb- Dolmen von Laufen
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Eggholz, burial mound of unknown age
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q1235950wikidata.org
Image files
- Dolmen Oberbipp 3.jpgMuettersbuebCC BY-SA 4.0
- Dolmen Oberbipp 2.jpgMuettersbuebCC BY-SA 4.0
- Dolmen Oberbipp 1.jpgMuettersbuebCC BY-SA 4.0
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
- Menhir of Attiswill3.8 km SW
- Pfaffenweiher, burial mound of unknown age6.0 km S
- Erdbeereinschlag, Iron Age burial mound group6.8 km S
- Eichlibann, Iron Age burial mounds15 km E
- Born, burial mound of unknown date18 km NE
- Neolithic stone box tomb22 km NW
- Dolmen von Laufen22 km NW
- Eggholz, burial mound of unknown age22 km SW
- Gmeiniwald, Neolithic dolmen grave24 km N
- Hinterer Hardwald, Iron Age burial mounds24 km NE
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dolmen von Oberbipp" (German), 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 (German): Dolmen von OberbippCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q1235950CC0