dolmen D2
Also known asD2 · D02 · dolmen D02
DatedEst. 3500–2800 BCE
Photo Basjuh at Dutch Wikipedia ( Original text: Basjuh ) · CC BY-SA 3.0Source file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
Dolmen D2, the Großsteingrab Westervelde, is a megalithic tomb of the Neolithic western group of the Funnel Beaker culture (TBK) at Westervelde, a locality of Noordenveld in the province of Drenthe, the Netherlands. It carries the Van Giffen number D2 and has been a national monument (Rijksmonument) since 1993. The catalogue dating is a typological estimate of 3500 to 2800 BCE.
No systematic archaeological excavation has taken place so far.
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 D2
The tomb stands in a field on the north-eastern edge of Westervelde and is reached by a footpath.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab WesterveldeCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab WesterveldeCC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb stands in a field on the north-eastern edge of Westervelde and is reached by a footpath. It is a passage grave oriented approximately east-west. No stone surround could be identified. The chamber is about 8 m long and about 3 m wide, with four pairs of wall stones on the long sides and one end stone at each narrow end.
Of the four original capstones, the two eastern ones still rest on the wall stones. Of a third, only a fragment survives, lying inside the chamber and showing traces of blasting holes. Capstone no. 3 has two small cup marks on its upper side. The entrance to the chamber lies in the middle of the south long side, and in front of it is a passage of two wall stones.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab WesterveldeCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab WesterveldeCC BY-SA 4.0
Only slight remains of cremated bone were recovered from the tomb, 10.7 g in all. The bones belonged to one individual whose age at death and sex could no longer be determined. Slight remains of burnt animal bone, 6 g in all, were also found. Possible traces of working were noted, so they may originally have been tools.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab WesterveldeCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab WesterveldeCC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb was first mentioned in 1869 in a letter from a mayor. In 1874 Willem Pleyte, curator of the Dutch antiquities collection in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, travelled through Drenthe with the photographer Jan Goedeljee and had all the megalithic tombs systematically photographed for the first time. In 1877 Conrad Leemans, director of the museum, made a separate journey to Drenthe, 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 Westervelde tomb are lost. In 1918 Albert Egges van Giffen documented the monument for his atlas of the Dutch megalithic tombs. Restorations took place in 1928, 1952 and 1965. In 2017 the monument and the other surviving Dutch megalithic tombs were recorded by photogrammetry in a 3D atlas, in a project of the province of Drenthe and the University of Groningen carried out by the Gratama foundation.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab WesterveldeCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab WesterveldeCC BY-SA 4.0
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.
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 - 1928
1928, 1952 und 1965 erfolgten Restaurierungen.
Source - 1993
Seit 1993 ist die Anlage ein Nationaldenkmal (Rijksmonument).
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°03′21″ N, 6°26′45″ EFor a GPS or map app: 53.05572, 6.44588
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 Q2090122wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
Image files
- Hunebed-d2.JPGBasjuh at Dutch Wikipedia ( Original text: Basjuh )CC BY-SA 3.0
- D2, met poortstenen.jpgEncyachtCC BY-SA 4.0
- 20201125 Hunebed D2 Westervelde1.jpgGouwenaarCC BY-SA 4.0
- 20201125 Hunebed D2 Westervelde3.jpgGouwenaarCC BY-SA 4.0
- Hunebed Westervelde.jpgAlex HoekerdCC0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Großsteingrab Westervelde" (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