dolmen D1
Also known asD1 · D01 · dolmen D01
DatedEst. 3500–2800 BCE
Photo Gouwenaar · Public domainSource file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The passage grave of Steenbergen (dolmen D1) is a megalithic tomb of the Neolithic western group of the Funnel Beaker culture, near Steenbergen, a district of Noordenveld in the province of Drenthe, the Netherlands. It carries the Van Giffen number D1 and is dated by typological estimate to 3500 to 2800 BCE.
It is the northernmost megalithic tomb in Drenthe. The chamber is 11.6 m long and 3.6 m wide, and the tomb has been a national monument (Rijksmonument) since 1993. No systematic archaeological excavation has taken place.
Read on Wikipedia3 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
dolmen D1
The tomb lies north of Steenbergen, on the border with Roderesch, directly beside a farm track.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Ganggrab von SteenbergenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Ganggrab von SteenbergenCC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb lies north of Steenbergen, on the border with Roderesch, directly beside a farm track.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Ganggrab von SteenbergenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Ganggrab von SteenbergenCC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb is a passage grave oriented approximately east-west. No stone surround could be identified. The chamber has six pairs of side stones along the long sides, one end stone at each short side and six capstones. When Van Giffen first documented the tomb, all the capstones lay fallen inside the chamber; they were placed back on the side stones during the restorations of 1953 and 1954. One stone had broken into five pieces and had to be reassembled with cement. Heavy damage from a campfire made a further repair of one capstone necessary in 1997.
The entrance to the chamber is in the middle of the southern long side. In front of it is a passage of two side stones and one capstone.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Ganggrab von SteenbergenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Ganggrab von SteenbergenCC BY-SA 4.0
The grave was first described by Nicolaus Westendorp, who visited it in 1814 and published a report on it in 1815. Willem Pleyte, curator of the Dutch antiquities collection in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, travelled through Drenthe in 1874 with the photographer Jan Goedeljee and had all the tombs systematically photographed for the first time; he made lithographs from the photographs. Conrad Leemans, director of the museum, travelled to Drenthe independently in 1877, and Jan Ernst Henric Hooft van Iddekinge drew plans of the tombs for him. Leemans's report remained unpublished.
Between 1904 and 1906 the physician and amateur archaeologist Willem Johannes de Wilde documented all surviving megalithic tombs of the Netherlands, but his records on the tomb of Steenbergen have been lost. Albert Egges van Giffen documented the monument in 1918 for his atlas of Dutch megalithic tombs and restored it in 1953 and 1954. Further restorations followed in 1965, 1993 and 1997. In 2017 the tomb was recorded by photogrammetry, together with the other surviving megalithic tombs of the Netherlands, in a 3D atlas produced by the Gratama foundation as part of a project of the province of Drenthe and the University of Groningen.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Ganggrab von SteenbergenCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Ganggrab von SteenbergenCC BY-SA 4.0
The megalithic tombs of the Netherlands are the hunebedden, built between 3470 and 3250 BCE by the western group of the Funnel Beaker culture and used until about 2760 BCE. Of an estimated 100 original tombs, 54 are preserved, 52 of them in Drenthe and two in Groningen.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
German and Dutch Hünengräber (hunebedden)
The megalithic tombs of northern Germany and the Netherlands were built by the Funnel Beaker culture (about 4100 to 2800 BCE), and the style, called Nordic megalith architecture, emerged between 3500 and 2800 BCE. In the Netherlands the tombs are the hunebedden, built between 3470 and 3250 BCE by the western group of the Funnel Beaker culture and used until about 2760 BCE. Of an estimated 100 original tombs, 54 are preserved, 52 of them in the province of Drenthe and two in Groningen. After the Funnel Beaker culture ended the sites were reused by the Single Grave and Bell Beaker cultures in the Early Bronze Age and, to a lesser extent, into the Middle Ages.
In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern up to 5,000 megalith tombs were erected, and more than 1,000 are preserved and protected by law; they belong to the youngest and easternmost part of the western European tradition. Most are dolmens, often lying inside a circular or trapezoid frame of standing stones. Locally they are known as Hünengräber, "giants' tombs", or Großsteingräber, "large stone tombs"; the trapezoid frame is a Hünenbett, "giants' bed", and the circular one a Bannkreis. Between 1964 and 1974 Ewald Schuldt excavated over a hundred sites there and sorted them into simple dolmens, extended dolmens, passage graves, great dolmens, unchambered long barrows and stone cists.
Folklore: the German and Dutch names, with Hüne meaning "giant", carry the old idea that giants were buried here. This is a tradition; the stones were placed by Neolithic farmers.
When visiting, look for the capstones on their supports and the frame of kerbstones around them.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Megaliths in the Netherlands, Wikipedia: Megaliths in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Wikipedia: Nordic megalith architecture, Wikipedia: Funnel beaker culture, Wikipedia: Dolmen · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1874
Willem Pleyte, Kurator der Sammlung niederländischer Altertümer im Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, unternahm 1874 zusammen mit dem Fotografen Jan Goedeljee eine Reise durch Drenthe und ließ dort erstmals alle Großsteingräber systematisch fotografieren.
Source - 1877
Conrad Leemans, Direktor des Rijksmuseums, unternahm 1877 unabhängig von Pleyte eine Reise nach Drenthe.
Source - 1918
1918 dokumentierte Albert Egges van Giffen die Anlage für seinen Atlas der niederländischen Großsteingräber.
Source - 1953
1953 und 1954 wurde das Grab durch van Giffen restauriert.
Source - 1953
Sie wurden bei den Restaurierungen von 1953 und 1954 wieder auf die Wandsteine aufgesetzt.
Source - 1965
Weitere Restaurierungen erfolgten 1965, 1993 und 1997. Eine systematische archäologische Grabung hat bislang nicht stattgefunden.
Source - 1993
Seit 1993 ist die Anlage ein Nationaldenkmal (Rijksmonument).
Source - 1997
Schwere Schäden durch ein Lagerfeuer machten 1997 die erneute Reparatur eines Decksteins nötig.
Source - 2017
2017 wurde die Anlage zusammen mit den anderen noch erhaltenen Großsteingräbern der Niederlande in einem Projekt der Provinz Drente und der Reichsuniversität Groningen von der Stiftung Gratama mittels Photogrammetrie in einem 3D-Atlas erfasst.
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
5 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. 3500–2800 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for dolmens in Germany; this site has not been dated itself. German dolmens (Huengrab) belong to the Nordic megalith tradition which emerged predominantly between 3500 and 2800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Germany
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 53°06′17″ N, 6°24′37″ EFor a GPS or map app: 53.10471, 6.41034
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.
.jpg){kind=link}
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q2786156wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Hunebed D1 bij Steenbergen.jpgGouwenaarPublic domain
- Hunebed bij het dorp Midlaren, RP-P-1904-2217.jpgRijksmuseumCC0
- D1 op de helling van een zandheuvel.jpgEncyachtCC BY-SA 4.0
- Hunebed D1 - 1.jpgLuke McKernanCC BY-SA 2.0
- Hunebed D1 - 2.jpgLuke McKernanCC BY-SA 2.0
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
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Ganggrab von Steenbergen" (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