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Hunebed
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The Strubben Kniphorstbos is an area of some 150 hectares of predominently oak woodland, located between Anloo and Schipborg in the Dutch province of Drenthe. It contains two hunebedden (D7 and D8) as well as some 60 Bronze Age burial mounds, and was declared the Netherlands' first (and currently only) archaeological reserve in 2001. Its double name derives from the special way in which its native oak trees were originally cultivated (strubben), and from Gerrit Kniphorst, a 19th century lawyer and politician who was the landowner.
'Strub' is the Dutch word for 'Stump'. When this woodland was originally planted, the oak trees bordering the fields and moors were cut down to stumps to encourage the growth of a thick oak coppice with typically squat stems. The idea was that the coppice would act as barriers to keep sheep in their fields. But the constant nibbling of the young oak stems by sheep meant that tall growth was impossible, turning the trees into gnarled shrubby specimens—the so-called 'strubben'.
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Posted by LesHamilton
24th September 2013ce
Edited 24th September 2013ce
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