The 5000-year-old grave field discovered seven years ago in Dalfsen sheds new light on the people who lived in the time of the hunebed builders. Researchers note that the dead were also buried with dignity at that time. Each in an equal way, in their own grave with a utensil that was given as a gift.
Archaeologist Henk van der Velde looked back yesterday at the “unbelievable” find that he and his colleagues made seven years ago in the east of the Overijssel village: a total of 142 graves about 5000 years old. “That made it the largest burial field in all of northwestern Europe in one fell swoop.”
The finds have been scientifically examined in recent years and the results have now been published under the title Making a Neolithic non-megalithic monument† Yesterday, Van der Velde handed over the first copy to alderman Jan Uitslag in the Stoomfabriek theater.
‘New story about a special period’
“These unique finds allow us to tell a whole new story from that special period,” said Van der Velde. 5000 years ago the first people settled permanently in the Netherlands and they no longer traveled as hunter-gatherers.
Contrary to the well-known stories about hunebed builders, who placed the dead in burial chambers under the dolmens, all the deceased were given their own pit in this grave field. Gifts such as flint knives, earthenware pots and funnel beakers were carried into the tomb.
According to the researchers, there was little inequality. “It turned out that no special pottery was made for deceased loved ones. Everyone could receive a flint knife or broken pot in their grave,” said Van der Velde. In other finds of historical graves it is often clear that these were influential persons.
Family cemetery
Another thing that has intrigued the researchers is that the graveyard in Dalfsen is a family graveyard. “Three to four families have decided over two hundred years to bury all their relatives in that place,” says the archaeologist.
The various objects found during the excavations are stored at the university in Groningen. There they are kept and restored, so that they can be exhibited in the future, reports RTV East.
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