Gaby
Dutch archaeologists have discovered a religious site that is about 4,000 years old. Local media have dubbed it the “Dutch Stonehenge.” The site features a burial mound that once served as a solar calendar. The burial hill, which contained the remains of around 60 men, women, and children, had several passages through which sunlight streamed on the longest and shortest days of the year.
“What an impressive archaeological discovery! Archaeologists have found a religious sanctuary dating back 4,000 years right in the industrial zone,” the authorities of the city of Tiel reported on their Facebook page. “This is the first time such a site has been discovered in the Netherlands,” the statement adds.
Excavations around the so-called “open-air sanctuary” began in 2017 in a small settlement located approximately 50 kilometers (31 miles) southeast of Utrecht. By studying the differences in the composition and color of the clay, researchers identified the locations of three burial mounds a few kilometers from the banks of the Waal River.
As reported by the publication ScienceAlert The diameter of the main mound is approximately 20 meters (65 feet). Its passages are arranged in a row to function as a solar calendar. Archaeologists say that people used this calendar to determine important moments, including various holidays and harvest days. “This mound resembles Stonehenge – the well-known mysterious ancient monument in Britain, where a similar phenomenon also exists,” added NOS, the Dutch public broadcaster.
Scientists have also discovered two smaller burial mounds. According to archaeologists, these three burial mounds were used as burial sites for about 800 years. They made another exciting discovery: they found a glass bead in one of the graves, which, after analysis, turned out to originate from Mesopotamia, in present-day Iraq. “Four thousand years ago, this bead traveled a distance of about 5,000 kilometers,” said lead researcher Christian van der Linde. “Glass was not produced here, so the bead was likely an impressive item, as people at that time were not yet familiar with this material,” added Stein Arnoldussen, a professor at the University of Groningen.
He told NOS that it is quite possible the Mesopotamian bead was somewhere for a long time before it eventually ended up in the area around Tiel, which is called Betuwe in Dutch. Arnoldussen said that in those times, people already had a good understanding of what barter was. The bead could have been lying somewhere for hundreds of years before it reached Tiel, but of course, that is just his assumption.
