Iron Age Echoes Groups of Burial Mounds May Be Among the Most Tangible and Visible Remains of Europe’S Prehistoric Past
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D. Fontijn, Q. Bourgeois & A. Louwen (eds.) IRON AGE ECHOES Groups of burial mounds may be among the most tangible and visible remains of Europe’s prehistoric past. Yet, not much is known on how “barrow landscapes” came into being . This book deals with that topic, by presenting the results of archaeological research carried out on a group of just two barrows that crown a small hilltop near the Echoput (“echo-well”) in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. In 2007, archaeologists of the Ancestral Mounds project of Leiden University carried out an excavation of parts of these mounds and their immediate environment. They discovered that these mounds are rare examples of monumental barrows from the later part of the Iron Age. They were probably built at the same time, and their similarities are so conspicuous that one might speak of “twin barrows”. The research team was able to reconstruct the long-term history of this hilltop. We can follow how the hilltop that is now deep in the forests of the natural reserve of the Kroondomein Het Loo, once was an open place in the landscape. With pragmatism not unlike our own, we see how our prehistoric predecessors carefully managed and maintained the open area for a long time, before it was transformed into a funerary site. The excavation yielded many details on how people built the barrows by cutting IRO and arranging heather sods, and how the mounds were used for burial rituals in the Iron Age. N AGE E CHOE S IRON AGE ECHOES PREHISTORIC LAND MANAGEMENT AND THE CREATION OF A FUNERARY LANDSCAPE THE TWIN BARROWS AT THE ECHOPUT IN APELDOORN Sidestone – “ ” ISBN 978-90-8890-073-0 Sidestone Press ISBN: 978-90-8890-073-0 Bestelnummer: SSP60880002 edited by D. Fontijn, Q. Bourgeois 693157149 & A. Louwen 9 789088 900730 This is an Open Access publication. Visit our website for more OA publication, to read any of our books for free online, or to buy them in print or PDF. www.sidestone.com Check out some of our latest publications: IRON AGE ECHOES Sidestone Press IRON AGE ECHOES PREHISTORIC LAND MANAGEMENT AND THE CREATION OF A FUNERARY LANDSCAPE - THE “TWIN BARROWS” AT THE ECHOPUT IN APELDOORN edited by D. Fontijn, Q. Bourgeois & A. Louwen © 2011 Ancestral Mounds Project, Leiden University Published by Sidestone Press, Leiden www.sidestone.com Sidestone registration number: SSP60880002 ISBN 978-90-8890-073-0 Cover design: K. Wentink, Sidestone Press Lay-out: P.C. van Woerdekom, Sidestone Press Contents Preface: On the chatty Echo girl and her forgotten barrows 11 David Fontijn 1 Barrow excavations at the Echoput. Problem, research aims and methods of the 2007 fieldwork campaign 13 David Fontijn 1.1 Introduction 13 1.2 Barrow research in the Netherlands: cold case? 13 1.3 Reasons for new barrow research 15 1.4 New barrow excavations and the birth of the Apeldoorn barrow research 16 1.5 The N.W.O. funded research project: Ancestral mounds 18 1.6 Why Apeldoorn? 19 1.6.1 A TRB prelude to barrow landscapes? 19 1.6.2 Studying the development and lay-out of barrow groups 20 1.6.3 The Middle Bronze Age 22 1.6.4 The history of barrow landscapes in the Iron Age 22 1.7 Selecting a suitable research area: the Echoput-site 24 1.8 Research questions and approach 27 1.8.1 Exit strategy 28 1.9 Topography, geology, soils and history of the Echoput-site 29 1.9.1 Topography 29 1.9.2 History 31 1.10 Organization of this book 32 2 Mound 1 - A monumental Iron Age barrow 33 Cristian van der Linde and David Fontijn 2.1 Introduction 33 2.2 State of preservation – the 1999 restoration 34 2.3 Excavation strategy 35 2.3.1 Reasons to excavate an entire quadrant and the use of ‘exit strategies’ 35 2.3.2 Excavation in artificial horizontal levels 35 2.3.3 Recording 37 2.3.4 Tree trunks 38 2.3.5 Connecting the mound to trench 4 39 2.4 Mound stratigraphy and excavation administration of mound layers and finds 39 2.5 Features 40 2.5.1 General ‘readability’ of features 40 2.5.2 Top soil: recent additions and disturbances: the 1999 restoration 40 2.5.3 The thick black top soil of the mound 41 2.5.4 Top soil find concentration S 1: “grave” 1 44 2.5.5 S 2: A Late Iron Age cremation burial dug into the top of the mound 45 2.5.6 On the relationship between S 1 and S 2 46 2.5.7 Mound construction: the evidence of sods 47 2.5.8 Features that appeared to be of natural origin 56 2.5.9 S 15: A peripheral ditch 57 2.5.10 Sherds found at the old surface covered by the mound 59 2.5.11 Where is the central grave? 60 2.5.12 Features underneath the mound: Late Mesolithic and Late Neolithic traces 60 2.5.13 Features just outside the mound 62 2.6 Dating the mound 62 2.7 Conclusion 63 3 Antiquarian leftovers - Mound 2 65 Quentin Bourgeois and David Fontijn 3.1 Introduction 65 3.2 State of preservation - the 1999 restoration 66 3.3 Excavation strategy 67 3.3.1 Trench (quadrant) 2 68 3.3.2 Trench (quadrant) 3 68 3.3.3 Tree trunks 69 3.4 Mound stratigraphy and excavation administration of mound ‘layers’ and finds 69 3.5 Features 71 3.5.1 General ‘readability’ of the features 71 3.5.2 The large central disturbance 71 3.5.3 Mound construction: the evidence of sods 74 3.5.4 Traces of a peripheral ditch with posts 78 3.5.5 A Bell Beaker feature (S 3.8.2) 85 3.5.6 Features in and under the mound 85 3.5.7 The remnants of the primary grave (S 2.7.2)? 86 3.6 Finds done at the prehistoric surface covered by the mound 87 3.7 Dating the mound 87 3.8 Conclusion 88 4 Excavating the surroundings of the barrows 91 Patrick Valentijn and David Fontijn 4.1 Introduction 91 4.2 Research method 91 4.3 Soil profile and visibility of the features 93 4.4 A Middle Bronze Age feature? 96 4.5 A ditch and a post alignment? 99 4.6 A cluster of features around mound 2 101 4.7 A round construction 104 4.8 Features near the westernmost flank of the hill 107 4.9 Conclusions 107 5 An environmental history of the Echoput barrows 111 Marieke Doorenbosch 5.1 Introduction 111 5.2 Present day environmental setting 112 5.3 Research method: Pollen sampling and analysis 112 5.4 Results 113 5.4.1 Pollen from the old surface underneath the mounds and from the sods 114 5.4.2 Pollen from the soil profile underneath mound 2 114 5.4.3 Pollen from the post features 117 5.5 Discussion 117 5.5.1 Dating the barrows 117 5.5.2 The barrow landscape 119 5.5.3 The impact of sod-cutting 120 5.6 The pre-barrow landscape 121 5.7 Posts at the barrow site 123 5.8 Veluwe barrows and heath 124 5.9 In conclusion: the history of a barrow landscape 124 6 Finds 129 Arjan Louwen, David Fontijn, Patrick Valentijn, Cristian van der Linde and Annemieke Verbaas 6.1 Introduction 129 6.2 Finds from mound 1 129 6.2.1 Pottery sherds 129 6.2.2 Stone artefacts 132 6.2.3 Metal objects 134 6.3 Finds from mound 2 136 6.3.1 Pottery sherds 136 6.3.2 Stone artefacts 138 6.4 Finds done in the surroundings of the Echoput Mounds 139 6.4.1 A pottery sherd 139 6.4.2 A granite quern 140 6.4.3 A “royal” bullet? 140 6.5 Conclusions 141 7 Analysis of the cremated bone remains from mound 1 143 Liesbeth Smits 7.1 Introduction 143 7.2 Context of the cremated remains 143 7.3 Methods 144 7.3.1 Bone description- variables used 144 7.3.2 Description of physical anthropological characteristics 145 7.4 Results 146 7.4.1 “Grave” 1 146 7.4.2 Grave 2 146 7.5 “Grave” 1 and grave 2: pyre and burial? 147 7.6 Conclusions 147 8 The genesis and history of the Echoput barrows 149 David Fontijn 8.1 Introduction 149 8.2 The Echoput hill before the barrows 149 8.2.1 Long before the barrows 149 8.2.2 An open place 150 8.2.3 Activities during the Late Neolithic/Bell Beaker Period 151 8.2.4 The use of the hilltop during the Bronze Age and earlier Iron Age 151 8.3 When were the barrows built? 152 8.4 In what kind of environment were they built? 153 8.5 How were the mounds built? 153 8.5.1 Mound 1 154 8.5.2 Mound 2 155 8.5.3 Similarities between the building method of mound 1 and 2 155 8.6 The outlook of the barrows 156 8.7 Activities relating to funerary practices during and not long after construction 157 8.8 History of the barrow landscape in historical times 158 8.9 Recent times: a hunting party and grave robbers/early antiquarians 159 8.10 The Echoput barrows: unexpected results 160 References 163 Acknowledgments 171 Administratieve gegevens 173 Preface ON THE CHATTY ECHO GIRL AND HER FORGOTTEN BARROWS David Fontijn Once upon a time, there lived a nasty little demon in the Aardmansberg (Goblin’s mound) of Apeldoorn.