Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)The Copper Age
Venslev Huse
DatedEst. 3500–500 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
Venslev Huse is a megalithic mound in Ferslev parish, Frederikssund Municipality, Denmark, belonging to the northern group of the Neolithic Funnel Beaker culture. The catalogue record gives a broad date range of 3500 to 500 BCE, based on typology.
The rectangular mound is poorly preserved. Its small burial chamber was destroyed before 1873, and human bones found in it were not kept.
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
Venslev Huse
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab Venslev HuseCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab Venslev HuseCC BY-SA 4.0
The tomb lies in the east of Venslev Huse, in a meadow. There are, or were, numerous other megalithic tombs in the immediate surroundings.
The mound is poorly preserved and rectangular, oriented north-east to south-west, and the records differ on its size.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab Venslev HuseCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab Venslev HuseCC BY-SA 4.0
The mound is poorly preserved and rectangular, oriented north-east to south-west, and the records differ on its size. The report of 1873 gives a length of about 16 m and a width of about 12.5 m. The report of 1942 records a round mound about 15 m in diameter, probably in error. The report of 1985 gives a length of 25 m, a width of about 13 m and a height of 1.5 m. No stone kerb can be made out.
A burial chamber stood about 6 m from the north-eastern end of the mound and 3.6 m from its north-western long side, but had been destroyed before 1873. It was oriented north-east to south-west and had a rectangular plan, 1.1 m long, 0.8 m wide and 1.1 m high. The number of wall stones is not recorded. The gaps between them were filled with dry stone walling of slabs, and the floor of the chamber was paved with stone slabs. A capstone lay on the wall stones and carried numerous cup marks on its upper side. After the chamber was dismantled, its stones were buried deep in the ground beside the mound.
The exact type of tomb is not known. It was probably a small dolmen, although the chamber is registered as a stone cist in the Fund og Fortidsminder database.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab Venslev HuseCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab Venslev HuseCC BY-SA 4.0
Human bones were found in the burial chamber but were not kept.
Research historySources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab Venslev HuseCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab Venslev HuseCC BY-SA 4.0
Staff of the Danish National Museum documented the site in 1873 and 1942. Staff of the monument authority documented it in 1985 and staff of the forestry and nature authority in 1989.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab Venslev HuseCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (German): Großsteingrab Venslev HuseCC BY-SA 4.0
Denmark has a very large number of surviving barrows, protected by law since 1937. The oldest belong to the Funnel Beaker culture of the fourth millennium BCE, whose long barrows and stone-chambered tombs are the earliest. The great majority of the round mounds are younger, and many were raised in the Nordic Bronze Age, from about 1700 to 500 BCE.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Danish barrows (gravhøje)
Denmark has a very large number of surviving barrows, protected by law since 1937, and the Atlas draws most of its Danish mounds from the national register of monuments. The oldest belong to the Funnel Beaker culture of the fourth millennium BCE, whose long barrows and stone-chambered tombs are described in their own articles. The great majority of the round mounds are younger. Many were raised in the Nordic Bronze Age, from about 1700 to 500 BCE.
The Bronze Age barrows hold remarkable burials. In a number of them, oak coffins stayed sealed and waterlogged, so that wool clothing, hair and textiles survived; only the bones of the dead are gone. The Egtved Girl, a young woman buried beneath the mound Storehøj in a woollen blouse and corded skirt with a bronze belt plate, is the best-known case: tree rings in her oak coffin date the burial to the summer of 1370 BCE. Borum Eshøj gave similar finds from the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BCE. Later in the Bronze Age cremation took over from inhumation, and the dead were buried in urns.
Mound-building did not stop with the Bronze Age: Danish round barrows were raised from the Neolithic to the Viking Age.
When visiting, look for flat tops where old diggers cut in, and for the hollows where kerb stones were once removed.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Tumulus, Wikipedia: Funnel beaker culture, Wikipedia: Nordic Bronze Age, Wikipedia: Egtved Girl, Wikipedia: Borum Eshøj, Wikipedia: Jelling · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1873
In den Jahren 1873 und 1942 führten Mitarbeiter des Dänischen Nationalmuseums Dokumentationen der Fundstelle durch.
Source - 1873
Der Bericht von 1873 nennt eine Länge von etwa 16 m und eine Breite von etwa 12,5 m.
Source - 1873
Etwa 6 m vom nordöstlichen Ende des Hügels und 3,6 m von der nordwestlichen Langseite befand sich eine Grabkammer, die bereits vor 1873 zerstört worden war.
Source - 1942
Der Bericht von 1942 vermerkt (wohl fehlerhaft) einen Rundhügel mit einem Durchmesser von etwa 15 m.
Source - 1985
Weitere Dokumentationen erfolgten 1985 durch Mitarbeiter der Denkmalbehörde und 1989 durch Mitarbeiter der Forst- und Naturbehörde.
Source - 1985
Der Bericht von 1985 nennt eine Länge von 25 m, eine Breite von etwa 13 m und eine Höhe von 1,5 m.
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. 3500–500 BCEHow this date was established: Type comparisonTypical range for megalithic mounds in Denmark; this site has not been dated itself. Denmark has about 20,000 preserved tumuli with the oldest around 5,000 years old; the Neolithic examples are Nordic megalithic mounds (dysser) of c. 3500-2800 BC.Source for this date
Where it stands
Denmark
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 55°46′40″ N, 11°52′17″ EFor a GPS or map app: 55.77778, 11.87150
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.
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Venslev Marker3500–500 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Fagerhøj3500–500 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Saltbjerg3500–500 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Saltbjerg3500–500 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Vejleby Marker3500–500 BCE
- Megalithic long barrowFagerhøjgård3500–2800 BCE
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Venslev Marker3500–500 BCE
- DolmenVejleby Marker3500–2800 BCE
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
2 sources behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q30146841wikidata.org
- 02Source for this dateen.wikipedia.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Großsteingrab Venslev Huse" (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