Tumulus burial, Apollonia

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. The regional background, “Burial mounds and tumuli worldwide”, is given below.

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