Tumulus
A mound grave or grave hill (latin tumulus, plural tumuli ) is a stretched, round or oval-shaped bank of earth, under which or in which there are grave sites. It may be inhumations (possibly in the tree coffin ), urn or disseminated cremated remains. The hills may internals ( eg, concentric ring or stone boxes ) have. The not found in Germany stone versions of the hill called Cairns (French Tumuli de pierres ) in Denmark and Sweden Gravröse.
- 4.1 Western and Central Europe 4.1.1 British Isles
- 4.1.2 France
Demarcation
No grave mound for the purposes of this article ( the mound describes ) are Cairns and Rösen.
Dissemination
Grave mound can be limited neither in time nor regional. They are available in Europe regionally almost continuously from the Stone Age through the Bronze Age to the Iron Age and the Middle Ages. Even literate cultures knew the grave mound. The Greeks threw in antiquity for their heroes as grave hill on how the Romans. In the Mediterranean they were called tumuli, burial mounds in Eastern Europe. In Eurasia there are burial mounds in many countries and cultures. The largest grave mounds are probably the hill over the graves of early Chinese emperors. They contain huge underground grave sites. The most famous is the Mausoleum Qin Shihuangdis.
Even when Native Americans were common before Christopher Columbus.
Time position
Mounds were erected in many epochs in Europe from the beginning of the Neolithic Age to the Middle Ages. The plants from Niedźwiedź type and the type " Konens Høj " (Mrs. Hill - named after a locality ) are the oldest in northern central Europe and originate from the makers of the Funnel Beaker Culture ( TBK ). The enclosures of the type Passy in France are even older. Numerically dominant, however, the hills of the Final Neolithic, the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age.
Neolithic
In Central and Northern Europe, the funeral was under the mound apart from those of the early phase of TBC for the cord ceramic or single grave culture or Streitaxtkultur typical. In Denmark alone are 11,054 large (mostly in Jutland ) and get 8846 small grave mound. The low hills are often to cemeteries like the mountains or the Männige Mans mountains in Emsland, the burial ground of Pestrup in the Geest. The older hill took (partly by multiple overbuilding ) to height.
Bronze age
This was followed by the hills of the Tumulus Culture in the Middle Bronze Age. The Tumulus Culture brings together various local culture groups of the Bronze Age from the Carpathian Basin together until the Rhineland, where grave mounds were common. In northern Germany, bronze or iron age grave mound with double ring ditch, or as grave mounds are enclosed with keyhole trench, as the Plagge shell near Osnabrück. The grave mound in the forest of Bremlevænge on Langeland are taken by a single or double stone wreaths.
Iron Age
In the early Iron Age ( Hallstatt period ) there are burial mounds as the Magdalenenberg in Villingen -Schwenningen from the Hallstatt D1 stage, dendrochronological dating at the end of the 7th century BC. The illustrated grave of high village on the Enz also comes from the Hallstatt period ( HaD1 ). The grave mound 1 of calibration fief in Frankfurt City Forest barg over 20 tombs of the Bronze Age levels B to Hallstatt D.
Grave mound with a flat tip
Approximately 75 - that's about one-third - of the hills lying on old Danish cemeteries have flat tops. Do you have a connection between the ancient sacred sites of the Iron Age and the oldest Christian churches recognize. Occasionally the flat summit was created in the Middle Ages to build a bell tower (Churches of Birket on Lolland and Tandslet on Als ). Also, " Kong Rans Høj " in the cemetery of Randbol west of Vejle in Jutland has a flat top. His investigation revealed that it was built over a grave mound of the Bronze Age. This also applies to the northern hills of Jelling and the Galgebakken (slots Bjergby ) on Zealand. The flat tip had a function. In the saga literature is reported that the Kings " on a hill sat ", from which they exercised violence. This we know from the " Tynwald Hild " in the Isle of Man, published by the tip to the present king changes and laws are recited. The custom is known north of Lund also from Lybers Høj, worshiped from which the inhabitants of Scania Oluf, the son of Queen Margrethe and several of his successors, for the last time in 1610. That one on the flat tops and animal offered sacrifice, let the detect bone finds and the christian laws against victims on grave mounds. The victims customs were preserved to our days. In 1909, a mound was excavated in Raundal in Norway. His owner reported that they have sacrificed an animal if someone died on the court. The animal was for " cooking process " who lived in the hills. When his father died, they sacrificed ( for the last time ) a heifer.
Grave mound with wet core
Among the archaeologically excavated grave hills, particularly the Nordic Bronze Age, there have been instances that stood out through perfect state burials. In its interior, the burials were preserved by an unusually high water content. Many archaeologists reported large amounts of water, which when pierced the grave hill poured out of him. Recent excavations suggest that such grave mound with wet core possibly have been created for reasons still unknown by their builders targeted. This was achieved by the internal structure of the grave mound, that in the area of the burials accumulated large amounts of water and talked. The consequent absence of oxygen had the effect that the burials similarly well received as peat or bog finds. Currently can only explore these difficult conditions, as almost all grave mound with a preserved wet core already historically destroyed or not documented were excavated. Perennial experimental archaeological attempts in the Danish free-range research Sagnlandet Lejre confirmed the observed conditions during the excavations.
Bill graves
Many flattened grave mound of Iron Age tombs are empty. Among them are some of the largest of the north, such as the southern grave mound of Jelling, the Galgebakken at Slots Bjergby the " Farmannshaugen " and the " Raknehaugen " in Norway. The latter is 15 m high and the highest Nordic grave mound. He covered just a collection of timbers. There are several explanations as to why large hills are empty. In the Skjoldungesaga is reported that the mythical King Sigurd had put ring I. ( 735-756 ) after a serious injury in the lofting, the elevated structure in the back of his ship, the one on fire and sent out to sea. On the beach you threw on a hill, which was given the name Ringhøje. In Snorri Sturluson Ynglingesaga reported that they throw the ashes of the dead into the sea or buried in the ground should, and in memory of eminent men, one should erect a grave mound. Other hill ( later runestones ) has piled up for chiefs who were in a foreign land.
Roman Empire
Barrows there was also in the late Roman Empire.
Early Middle Ages
Modern Times
Shapes and sizes
The hills can be low (around one meter ) or high ( 2 to 13 m ) and be outside surrounded by small ditches or stone circles. The diameter of the landfill can range from a few meters to more than 100 m. The biggest hill is the Raknehaugen in Norway with a diameter of 100 m and a height of 15 m. Sweden's biggest hill is the Anundshög with 60 m diameter and ten meters in height. The Hallstatt Magdalenenberg in Villingen -Schwenningen has 100 m in diameter and 10 m in height; and about 46,000 m³ bulk mass. There they found - in addition to a central grave chamber - in landfill 126 side graves with a total of 136 burials.
Western and Central Europe
British Isles
Grave hills come in the UK isolated against since the early Neolithic period. Your grave chambers of wooden poles ( nichtmegalithische round hill ) or megaliths are created. There are grave mound in many shapes, the oval and round shape may be surrounded by a moat. However, especially in the north of the British Isles outweigh the cairn. The Silbury Hill at Avebury is not a grave mound.
France
In France, the Tumulus Saint Michel is in Carnac the largest grave mound on the continent. In 1993 presented Ch Boujot and S. Cassen before an investigation after the Breton passage facilities were precursors as small, round and rectangular, in the hill longitudinally and transversely Asked chambers. This includes, for example, in the Morbihan systems Mane Pochat he Uieu, Hui Mane, Mane Ty ec, Le Manio I II and Kerlescan.
Northern Europe
The tumuli in Scandinavia were ( as in the northern German lowlands ) from the Neolithic period applied to the 11th century AD. Many Danish hills are exceptionally large. Of the smaller many have been destroyed in the meantime due to plowing. The grave mounds of Jelling (DK) and a World Heritage Site. In Denmark, but especially in Sweden, there are large Bronze Age burial cairn ( Roese ) and small (2-3 m) circular stone tombs. Some are walled circular, like those in the cemetery of Trullhalsar on Gotland.
Eastern Europe
The kurgans (round hill with single burials ) in Moldova, South Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Bessarabia were built of semi-nomadic peoples of the beam grave and pit grave culture and were a characteristic of the steppe. The tumuli in Pomerania eg Wesiory and other places of Poland today are mostly attributed to the Goths.
South East Europe
The Thracians in South-Eastern Europe built burial mounds. They are mainly in the Valley of the Thracian Kings, but also found in the Danube plain and in Thrace. Some of these, such as the Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak of Sveshtari and are a UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
Southern Europe
The Etruscans built from the 7th century BC necropolis in which numerous tumuli were. Both simple mound and firmly walled grave hill with underground grave chambers were found in Cerveteri, Populonia and other Etruscan archaeological sites.
Africa
In Egypt tumuli were used until the end of the pre-dynastic time for funerals, are thus the forerunner of the mastabas and pyramids.
In almost all Nubian cultures (eg, C - group, X - group, but also in historical times ) barrows occur.
Asia
From the prehistoric Tumulusgrab monumental princely tombs developed in India with a large hemispherical mound. In the form of the stupa mound grave from the 3rd century BC rose to prominence as a grave and Reliquienmal in Buddhism. There remembered as a central symbol of the final extinction ( nirvana ) of the historical Buddha and found in many variations spread in several regions of Asia ( eg, as a pagoda in East Asia ).
In Japan, the tumuli that were built for deceased rulers, called the Kofun. The Kofun period of Japanese history (about 300-552, Japanese era structure: about 300-710 ) derives its name from these graves ago, the largest of which is more than 700 meters long.
Other grave types
Elongated tombs, some with megalithic fixtures are referred in Central and Western Europe as a long beds. Rock graves are dug in the solid rock, whether above or below ground. The Neolithic megalithic sites consist of large stones and were überhügelt in Europe mostly with soil. As a flat tombs the archaeologist designated burials without hills.