Burial mounds to be excavated
Submitted by coldrum on Wednesday, 25 July 2007 Page Views: 1810
DigsCountry: Netherlands Type: Barrow CemeteryInternal Links:
The Dutch landscape is strewn with them, but what are the stories behind them? Burial mounds are often 4000 to 5000 years old, they are visible to everyone and curious recreationists ask questions about them; questions the council are unable to answer as the research on burial mounds has for a number of decades been at a standstill. Leiden archaeologist David Fontijn intends to change this situation. From 16 July to 3 August, together with a team of colleagues and students, he will excavate two burial mounds belonging to the town council of Apeldoorn.
Unexplained phenomena
Fontijn’s excavations will take place 101 years after Queen Wilhelmina had the first mound excavated by a Leiden archaeologist. What remains to be researched in these mounds in 2007? ‘For a long time it was thought that we knew everything there was to know about the hundreds of burial mounds that are to be found in the Netherlands,’ Fontijn recounts. ‘After they acquired the status of artefacts of cultural heritage in the seventies, the mounds were no longer excavated. When I started examining old research reports, I discovered that all kinds of phenomena concerning these burial mounds remained unexplained. For example: Why are the mounds situated where they are? Or: why were cows sometimes buried inside? In the Netherlands as in other European countries, there are still a lot of unanswered questions.’
Public interest
Apart from scientific interest, Fontijn’s research is also prompted by public interest. The archaeologist was approached by his colleague Maarten Wispelwey who works for the Apeldoorn town council. Wispelwey:’ The town council is receives many questions about the burial mounds, from nature wardens who wonder how best to treat the mounds, from schools who want to organise excursions to visit the mounds and from interested members of the public who cycle past the mounds and wonder what is buried inside. As town council, we are unable to answer these questions at present. Although the mounds constitute half the number of national state monuments, very little is known about them. Obviously, this is not acceptable to the public, and we therefore support the excavations wholeheartedly.’
What makes Apeldoorn such an interesting research site for the archaeologist? Fontijn: ’Apeldoorn contains the oldest burial mounds in the Netherlands. The first were constructed in 3000 BCE. Added to this, the conservation conditions are good. ’What does Fontijn expect to unearth? ‘Definitely not only skeletons. In earlier excavations, weapons, jewellery and other objects were found. I am also curious about what we will find in the direct vicinity of the mounds. House remains would be an indication that the mounds were built on top of settlements; the houses of the deceased above the houses of the living. During the earlier excavations, rows of poles were also found in the vicinity of the burial mounds. They may have marked processional routes. This has implications for nature management; not only will the burial mound itself have to be preserved, but also the surrounding area.’
Modern techniques
In order to answer the new questions, Fontijn’s team will set to work using novel techniques. ’With the instruments currently available to archaeologists, much more is possible now than during the excavations of a century ago,’ he says. ‘For this research, a special partnership has been formed with TNO (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research) and the TU (Delft University of Technology). We have access to the most modern techniques and so we will be able to do some real pioneering work. Ground-penetrating radar will enable us, for example, to very precise soil composition measurements, and to trace interesting objects. TNO and TU will also benefit from this research as they will be able to further refine their instruments based on our experience with them.’
Support
According to Fontijn, the unique quality of this project is that it unites scientific and public curiosity. ‘For a researcher, nothing is more stimulating than knowing that there is public interest in the knowledge he is gathering. There is a great deal of support for these excavations. This is apparent from the fact that the town council and the land owners are willing to invest money in the project. Everyone wants the burial mounds’ secrets to be unravelled.’
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