A hunebed is a prehistoric burial monument built from large boulders: heavy supporting stones with even heavier capstones on top. It is one of the oldest structures in the Netherlands. The hunebedden were built by the so-called Funnelbeaker culture, around 3400 to 3100 BC, so more than five thousand years ago. They are a form of megalithic construction (building with large stones).
Build and construction
- Material — large boulders (erratics) carried in during the ice age by land ice from Scandinavia
- Construction — upright supporting stones form the walls, with flat capstones over them as a “roof”; the whole was originally partly covered with earth
- Function — collective grave; remains of pottery, tools and human bones have been found in and around hunebedden
Occurrence and preservation
In the Netherlands, most hunebedden are located in the province of Drenthe, with a few in the north of Groningen. Slightly more than fifty have been preserved. The largest is hunebed D27 near Borger, where there is also a visitor centre.
Hunebedden are protected archaeological monuments. They show that as early as the Neolithic, people were able to move and stack stones weighing many tonnes without machines, presumably with the aid of rollers, levers and a great deal of manpower.
Related terms
- Megalith
- Dolmen
- Natural stone
- Monument
- Cultural-historical value
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