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Unless otherwise stated, this image is the copyright of the submitter. Contact them for permission to reproduce it. |  | | Description | Site in Svendborg (Fyn South Langeland) Denmark
Info board at the barrow
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| Posted Comments: praeceptor
(2011-01-16) | Capeshøj
Long Barrow from the Neolithic period
Dolmens are our oldest stone-built graves. They are built by Neolithic farmers between ca. 3600 and 3200 BC. A dolmen consists of one or more burial chambers surrounded by a round or oblong mound. Around the mound are a number of "stones" placed close. These stones keeps the soil inside and gets the tomb to look more impressive.
Capeshøj was an overplowed big round barrow of the Bronze Age, approx. 40 meters in diameter and had 5 tombs, when it was discovered by a group of amateur archaeologists in 1975. Since large stones still appeared when plowing an investigation began in 1976. Below this mound was found a 36 meters long and 7 meters wide long barrow with a looted tomb in the center and surrounded by 56 stones of which 43 now remain.
These Kerbstones have as other dolmens do, flat bottoms and flat outer surfaces. They pour a little bit into the hill, to resist the pressure from there. The spaces between the Kerbstones are filled with "drywall" ie. stacking of cleaved slabs of red sandstone. The tiles are stacked and put under tension so the façade was smooth. The boundaries between the individual tiles in each switch is shifted to make the wall strong.
Sacrifices in the form of flint tools and pottery was found along the Kerbstones. Two thin necked polished flint axes lay outside the stones. A chisel and a flake of flint was etched into each different stones. Finally, a bronze age axe was put on the flat top of the long barrow, before the bronze age round barrow was built on top of it.
Cup marks, small carved trenches, arre seen on four of the Kerbstones. Making such cup marks also was a cult act.
Ardspor (plow marks), ie. dark parallel and intersecting stripes were preserved under the long barrow. These are now our oldest evidence of plowing.
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