Scientists find 4,000 years old
Dutch archaeologists have unearthed a 4,000-year-old “Stonehenge in the Netherlands”. The ancient religious building contains a mound that serves as a solar calendar, as well as the remains of about 60 people.
Archaeologists have unearthed a 4,000-year-old religious structure, nicknamed the «Netherlands Stonehenge», which includes a burial mound that served as a solar calendar.
According to Agence France-Press, the mound, which contained the remains of approximately 60 men, women and children, had several passages through which the sun shone directly on the longest and shortest days of the year.
The city of Thiel, where the site was discovered, posted on its social media page: “What an impressive archaeological discovery! Archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old religious sanctuary on an industrial site.”
The message added: “This is the first time such a site has been found in the Netherlands”.
Excavations in the so-called The open-air sanctuary began in 2017 in a small village located about 31 miles (50 km) southeast of Utrecht, and the results of the research were made public this Wednesday.
Studying differences in the composition and color of the clay, the scientists unearthed three burial mounds located several miles from the banks of the Vaal River, notes Agence France-Press.
The main mound is about 20 meters (65 feet) in diameter, and its passages are arranged in such a way as to serve as a solar calendar. “People have used this calendar to determine important dates, including holidays and harvest days”, – archaeologists said.
National broadcaster NOS added: «The hill was reminiscent of Stonehenge, a well-known mysterious prehistoric site in Britain where the phenomenon also occurs.»
Scientists have also found two smaller burial mounds. According to archaeologists, all three burial mounds have been used as burial sites for about 800 years.
Archaeologists, according to Agence France-Press, have made another exciting discovery: a single glass bead inside the grave, which, as analysis showed , arrived from Mesopotamia – modern Iraq. “This bead covered a distance of about 5000 km four millennia ago”,– the chief researcher Christian van der Linde does not hide his surprise. “Glass was not made here, so the bead must have been a showy piece, as it was an unknown material to those people at the time”,– added Stein Arnoldussen, a professor at the University of Groningen.
He said in a NOS commentary that the Mesopotamian bead may have existed for a long time before eventually ending up in the area around Thiel, called Betuwe in Dutch.