Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Tumulus Flaxweiler
Datedc. 400 CE
Photo Ioni at lb.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 luSource file on Wikimedia Commons
Overview
About this site
Overview
The Tumulus bei der Tonn is a Roman burial mound of the 4th century in the commune of Flaxweiler (Fluessweiler), Luxembourg. With a height of 8 m and a circumference of 30 m, it is the largest burial mound in the country.
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Article
Tumulus Flaxweiler
It lies at an elevation of 285 m in the Buchholz section of the commune, about 1,400 m south-east of Flaxweiler, directly beside the road CR122 from Flaxweiler to Dräibuer.
SettingSources for this section
- Wikipedia (lb): Tumulus bei der TonnCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (lb): Tumulus bei der TonnCC BY-SA 4.0
The mound is overgrown with trees and surrounded by a trench. It lies at an elevation of 285 m in the Buchholz section of the commune, about 1,400 m south-east of Flaxweiler, directly beside the road CR122 from Flaxweiler to Dräibuer. The stream Donwer Baach runs 50 m to the north.
The mound stood at the crossing of two Roman roads: the road from Reims to Arlon, and the road from Metz and Dalheim to Flaxweiler, from which a shared route led via Trier to Cologne. The grave could be seen by anyone approaching from the west on the Reims road or from the south on the Metz road, which made it a suitable place for the burial of prominent Roman military leaders.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (lb): Tumulus bei der TonnCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (lb): Tumulus bei der TonnCC BY-SA 4.0
The entrance to the burial chamber and the chamber itself have collapsed, so that the mound now consists of two parts. In 1809, when the mound was still intact, excavations in a rectangular burial chamber found six niches in which Romans had been buried. Several bronze figures and vessels were also recovered.
About 500 m further on, in the middle of the forest, there are a dozen smaller burial mounds about 1 m high.
ConservationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (lb): Tumulus bei der TonnCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (lb): Tumulus bei der TonnCC BY-SA 4.0
The Luxembourg state bought the plot on which the mound stands at the beginning of the 20th century. Since 11 April 2018 the mound has been listed on the supplementary inventory of national monuments.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (lb): Tumulus bei der TonnCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (lb): Tumulus bei der TonnCC BY-SA 4.0
A tumulus, or barrow, is a mound of earth and stones raised over one or more graves. Mounds of this kind were built in Europe from the Stone Age to the Iron Age and beyond. More complex examples have ditches, stone kerbs, and chambers of stone or timber.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Burial mounds and tumuli worldwide
A tumulus, or barrow, is a mound of earth and stones raised over one or more graves. A cairn is the same idea in stone, and in different places the same monument is called a barrow, kurgan, kofun, haugr or mound. Mounds are among the oldest and most widespread grave markers on Earth. They were built in Europe from the Stone Age to the Iron Age and beyond, across the steppe and Central Asia, in China, Korea and Japan, and in the Americas. A simple mound is a hemispherical heap of earth or stone raised over a burial placed in the middle; more complex ones have ditches, stone kerbs, and chambers of stone or timber, and many were built up in layers of soil, stone and turf.
Dating mounds is hard because most have never been opened. Archaeologists use radiocarbon dating of bone, charcoal and wood; tree rings where timbers survive; pottery and metalwork inside; and the typology of the mound's shape. Where none of these is available the Atlas gives a broad range. The grave goods of the richest mounds, such as weapons, gold, horses and even ships, show that the mounds were also statements of rank and power.
Cairns carry a good deal of folklore. In Ireland it is traditional to carry a stone up from the bottom of a hill and add it to a cairn at the top, and an old Scottish Gaelic blessing says "I'll put a stone on your cairn". In Portugal a legend says that the stones of a cairn (moledro) are enchanted soldiers. These are traditions, not facts about who is buried.
When visiting, look for the setting: mounds are usually placed to be seen from a path, a ridge or the sea.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Tumulus, Wikipedia: Burial mound, Wikipedia: Kurgan, Wikipedia: Cairn, Wikipedia: Round barrow · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1809
Am Joer 1809 – wéi den Tumulus nach intakt war – goufe bei Ausgruewungen an enger rechteckeger Grafkummer sechs Nischen entdeckt an deenen d'Réimer begruewe waren.
Source - 2018
De Lëtzebuerger Staat huet d'Parzell op dem den Tumulus läit uganks vum 20. Joerhonnert kaaft an den Tumulus steet zanter dem 11. Abrëll 2018 um Inventaire supplémentaire des monuments nationaux.
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
7 photographs, each with its author and licence
More photographs
Where it stands
Luxembourg
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 49°39′22″ N, 6°21′13″ EFor a GPS or map app: 49.65611, 6.35367
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.
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Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q108105172wikidata.org
Image files
- Tumulus Flaxweiler.jpgIoni at lb.wikipediaCC BY-SA 3.0 lu
- Flaxweiler Tumulus - 51167500162.jpgTimeTravelRomeCC BY 2.0
- Flaxweiler Tumulus - 51167500317.jpgTimeTravelRomeCC BY 2.0
- Flaxweiler Tumulus - 51169266765.jpgTimeTravelRomeCC BY 2.0
- Flaxweiler, Tumulus Tonn (101).jpgGilPeCC BY-SA 3.0
- Flaxweiler, Tumulus Tonn (102).jpgGilPeCC BY-SA 3.0
- Flaxweiler, Tumulus Tonn (109).jpgGilPeCC BY-SA 4.0
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Groesteen7.2 km NE
- Tumulus op der Schanz10 km N
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- Konz Weisser Wacken16 km E
- Monument Raymond Petit Bäerdref18 km N
- US-Monument Iechternach18 km N
- tertres funéraires gallo-romains de Basse-Rentgen21 km SW
- menhir of Beisenerbierg23 km NW
- Merowengesch Grafhiwwele vun Dondel-Telpeschholz24 km W
- Fraubillen cross24 km N
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Tumulus bei der Tonn" (lb), 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 (lb): Tumulus bei der TonnCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q108105172CC0