Grafheuvel No 2
Image credit: Les Hamilton
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Grafheuvel No 2
Image credit: Les Hamilton
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Nieuwegein is a municipality and city in the Dutch province of Utrecht.
It was reported on January 31, 2017 that, in a thick layer of clay on the site of a new business park in Nieuwegein, archaeologists had found a nearly intact skeleton dating from approximately 6000 years ago. The location had already yielded pots and jewellery from the Swifterbant Culture (5300-3400 BCE), named after the village of Swifterbant in the Flevopolder, where the first finds were made.
Although the skeleton looks almost intact, it is remarkable that the bones are not all in their logical positions. Why the skeletal parts have been moved out of anatomical context is unclear: possibly they became disorganised through earth movements.
The original Dutch Report includes a photograph of the cast in which the skeleton was removed.
Here’s another illustrated report with a photograph showing archaeologists uncovering a third skeleton from the site.
My 17th Century Dutch isn’t so good but I can still look at the illustrations in Johan Picardt’s 1660 book “Korte beschyvinge van eenige vergetene en verborgene Antiquiteten” eg here, here and here. Mr Picardt is considered the founding father of the study of archaeology in the Netherlands. The drawings seem to show the hunebedden being built by giants and dwarfs. But the dwarfs seem to get the raw end of the deal as the giants end up eating them. That’s certainly what it looks like at any rate.
Throughout Europe and even adjacent areas there was the widespread belief in thunderstones. These peculiar stones (prehistoric flint and stone axes) were thought to have crashed into the earth during a lightning strike. Although nowadays this superstition has largely vanished, it was still widely accepted in the first half of the 20th century.
Deinse* describes this situation for the Dutch province of Overijssel, directly south of Drenthe. He reports that virtually every farmer has at least one prehistoric axe at his farm. They were believed to protect the house against lightning, as lightning never strikes the same place twice. He even reported that particular axes were believed to possess special powers. Small bits of stone were scraped off these axes and were given to children as a medicine against convulsions.
Deinse, J.J. (1925): Uit het Land van Katoen en Heide – Oudheidkundige en Folkloristische schetsen uit Twente. p102-111
This is from p25 of ‘Ceci n’est pas une hache. Neolithic Depositions in the Northern Netherlands’ by Karsten Wentink, 2006 – which you can read online at Google Books – it has lots of Serious archaeological information and discussion in it.
This excellent site (in Dutch) presents a page of thumbnail images of all the Dutch hunebedden.
Clicking on any of these images opens a page dedicated to that hunebed, presenting a photogallery of images, a Google Map with marker, plus thumbnail links to other hunebedden in the vicinity.
In some instances, there is also a short YouTube video showing the hunebed in its surroundings.
Informative, and very much recommended.
This interactive map bears numbered markers, each of which, when clicked, opens up an information page about a specific hunebed.
Not only is there informative text (in English), but also attractive photographs of each hunebed, a ground plan of the stones, and a location map.
Click the above link to display a Google Map indicating the locations of all 54 Hunebedden in the Netherlands.
Each marker is clickable, offering a table of information about its hunebed.
Full copy of “Megalith Research in the Netherlands, 1547-1911” by Jan Albert Bakker (2010), including plans of many of the Hunebeds.
