Beyond Barrows: Current Research on the Structuration and Perception of the Prehistoric Landscape Through MonumentsDavid R. Fontijn, Arjan Louwen, Sasja van der Vaart, Karsten Wentink Europe is dotted with tens of thousands of prehistoric barrows. In spite of their ubiquity, little is known on the role they had in pre- and protohistoric landscapes. In 2010, an international group of archaeologists came together at the conference of the European Association of Archaeologists in The Hague to discuss and review current research on this topic. This book presents the proceedings of that session. The focus is on the prehistory of Scandinavia and the Low Countries, but also includes an excursion to huge prehistoric mounds in the southeast of North America. One contribution presents new evidence on how the immediate environment of Neolithic Funnel Beaker (TRB) culture megaliths was ordered, another one discusses the role of remarkable single and double post alignments around Bronze and Iron Age burial mounds. Zooming out, several chapters deal with the place of barrows in the broader landscape. The significance of humanly-managed heath in relation to barrow groups is discussed, and one contribution emphasizes how barrow orderings not only reflect spatial organization, but are also important as conceptual anchors structuring prehistoric perception. Other authors, dealing with Early Neolithic persistent places and with Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age urnfields, argue that we should also look beyond monumentality in order to understand long-term use of "ritual landscapes". The book contains an important contribution by the well-known Swedish archaeologist Tore Artelius on how Bronze Age barrows were structurally re-used by pre-Christian Vikings. This is his last article, written briefly before his death. This book is dedicated to his memory. This publication is part of the Ancestral Mounds Research Project of the University of Leiden. |
Common terms and phrases
14C dates Achterhoek aerial Age and Early Age burial Age settlement Amersfoort Amsterdam analysis Archaeology Archaic mounds Archeologische Arnoldussen Artelius barrow lines barrows were built Bergschenhoek bet-hedging Bourgeois bronstijd Bronze Age barrows Bronze Age monuments burial mounds burial sites cal BC cemeteries communities construction context coversand cultural ditched barrows dolmen Doorenbosch Doserygg Early Iron Age East Flanders eastern Netherlands Echoput environment environmental Evergem example excavated Fokkens Fontijn Gerritsen Ghent University graves Halland Hardinxveld heath ice-pushed ridge indicate inner ditch Kidder Late Bronze Age Leiden University Louwe Kooijmans Louwen Lund megalithic tombs Meganck Mesolithic Middle Bronze Age Mississippi mound building Neolithic ofthe Overijssel palisade patterns period perspective pollen post alignments post rows Poverty Point pre-Christian Viking Age prehistoric Press prov region relation roads Roeyen Roymans samples Schipluiden Semey Skegrie sods spatial structures Swifterbant urnfields Vanmoerkerke vegetation Verlinde Viking Age wetland