Hundreds of new burial mounds have been discovered in the Veluwe, using new aerial images. This makes the Veluwe one of the busiest areas in Europe during prehistoric times.
Migrants from the Russian steppe region came in large numbers to the west in the third millennium BC. They buried their dead in mounds of earth, which lay side by side in straight lines for miles. Archaeologist Quentin Bourgeois (Leiden University) recognizes this pattern, which has been found from Russia to England, also in the Veluwe. “These burial mounds acted as markers along through routes. If you were on a hill, you could see the next one a hundred yards away. This is how the ancestors protected you on your journey.”
The migrants introduced their way of burial to the areas where they settled and also decorated these graves in the same way. “The men lay on their right side and the women on their left side. They also all received the same kind of grave goods. It was really a standardized way of burial, which we also find in the Veluwe”, says the archaeologist. We already knew about the existence of about 750 burial mounds, but now hundreds more have been added.
Volunteers help
Bourgeois leads the Erfgoed Gezocht project, which was set up with Erfgoed Gelderland. For this project, hundreds of volunteers look at tens of thousands of elevation maps of 300 by 300 meters in the Veluwe, in search of burial mounds, among other things. Everyone can participate, from the comfort of their own home at home, by viewing images on the website. No prior knowledge is necessary, because the explanation is next to the images.
Each statue has to be viewed by fifteen people, after which the archaeologists check the identified objects. Identification can still be quite difficult, says Bourgeois. “A hay bale, for example, looks a lot like a burial mound on the elevation maps. That is why several people have to view the same images.”
In total, they will examine approximately 1,000 km2 of Veluwe. A labour-intensive job, but Bourgeois really enjoys working with the enthusiastic volunteers. “The investigation is moving faster than expected. We have been working since May and the volunteers have already viewed more than 228 thousand images. We also see that if about six people see a burial mound in the same image, it is actually always correct. In addition, the results are simply spectacular.”
LiDAR cards
It was already known that there were many burial mounds on the Veluwe, but in the three months that the project has now been running, the number of finds has almost doubled. It is expected that fifteen hundred burial mounds will be identified, making it the largest concentration of prehistoric burial monuments in the Netherlands. This largely concerns burial mounds that were raised about four to five thousand years ago. Although the new finds were not uncovered on site, Bourgeois assumes that these also concern graves of the Russian steppe peoples. This is because of the recognizable pattern of hills in rows.
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The fact that these graves have only just been discovered is not only because so much manpower can be deployed, but also because of the help of technology. The images that the volunteers and the archaeologists are looking at were taken quite recently by the government. The whole of the Netherlands has been mapped using LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) and these measurements together form the Current Height File of the Netherlands (AHN). The AHN's LiDAR maps are public and archaeologists can get to work with certain algorithms.
Bourgeois:“LiDAR are laser beams that measure the height to the ground from airplanes or helicopters. The rays therefore measure through the vegetation, so that you can now also 'see' what is under the trees. And because it is measured per fifty square centimetres, it shows the relief of the landscape in great detail.” Very handy for a densely wooded area like the Veluwe.
Graphrituals
The discovery of all these new burial mounds indicates that the Veluwe was an important and densely populated place in prehistoric times. Not only for Dutch, but also for European standards, explains Bourgeois. “What we found in burial mounds is just the tip of the iceberg. Tens of thousands of people must have lived in the Veluwe. This really changes our view of prehistory.”
A burial mound wasn't for everyone either; the archaeologist estimates that only one in a hundred people ended up in a burial mound. “We don't know who, but probably someone with a higher status, for example a family head. This is difficult to estimate, because we do not know the social composition of that society.”
The fact that no children have been found in these types of burial mounds seems to confirm that idea. The dead were also given precious grave goods. “Whether they are buried near Moscow or at Epe, these are always the same grave goods. Men were given an earthenware cup, a stone axe, a flint knife and sometimes a flint axe. The women pottery, and beads of amber and sometimes copper. They were almost never given a battle axe. This strong gender difference is very characteristic of this group of migrants.”
Migration wave
Other than the manner of burial, researchers know little about how these people lived because they have not left many traces in the landscape. Their houses have perished, but they probably lived from cattle breeding. What we can find nowadays are traces in the DNA.
“We have only known since 2015 that this massive migration from the Russian steppes to Western Europe has taken place. The original inhabitants of the Veluwe, the Funnel Beaker population who built the Hunnenbeds, largely disappeared genetically from this area. And a DNA study from last year shows that even 90 percent of the residents in Britain, the Stonehenge builders, have been replaced by these migrants,” explains Bourgeois.
Archaeologists don't yet know why this wave of migration started from Russia, but they are looking into it. “We see DNA traces of the plague in the dental plaque of these migrants for the first time. A plague could be the cause of this large migration wave. Traces of violence have also been found here and there, such as massacres of families, but this cannot be the only explanation for the almost complete eradication of the original population," according to the archaeologist.
In any case, DNA research has radically changed the image we had of the prehistoric inhabitants of our areas. This migration turns out to have been hugely determinative for us, the current population of Europe:seventy-five percent is genetically descended from this group of migrants. “We now also think that this group introduced the Proto-Indo-European language to our area at the time. It was really a special period.”
Don't dig
There is therefore still plenty of research to be done, including into the newly discovered burial mounds. However, they are not exposed. “With this project we look at the bigger picture, it is about data analysis. We especially want to know where the burial mounds are located. For now to protect them and for the future to be able to investigate them with new techniques, such as ground radar. You no longer have to dig, because you can see through the earth," says a hopeful Bourgeois.
What is still on the program these summer months, are walks through the forest. Together with the volunteers, the researchers check the marked locations to check whether they are really burial mounds and to take pictures of them. So walkers, take a good look around you on the quiet Veluwe, and realize that it was a busy place here in prehistoric times. Each hill can contain a story.