Saturday, July 15, 2023

The Dutch Stonehenge: ancient site in the Netherlands reveals its secrets

Amazing stuff! Dedicated to the sun!

"Archaeologists have uncovered a 4000-year-old structure that is laid out in a way strongly reminiscent of Stonehenge. Though the sanctuary lacks the big stones that Stonehenge boasts, it's made up of ditches and burial mounds that resemble its British counterpart. ... the sanctuary in the Netherlands is pretty vast. It's around three football fields in size and to make it even more interesting, the entire site is riddled with ritualic offerings, including animals, human skulls, and valuable items. The sanctuary was built from wood, and these offerings are placed precisely where light would have shone through the openings. This hints at the site also being used as a calendar. ...
The modern story of the sanctuary starts in 2017, when archaeologists discovered several graves. When they started exploring the graves in more detail, scientists found that one contained a special glass bead. This bead came from Mesopotamia, today's Iraq -- 5000 km away from the site in the Netherlands. Not only is this the oldest bead discovered in the Netherlands, but it also shows that these ancient people were in contact somehow with Mesopotamia. ..."

"... The shrine has been in use for 800 years. ... The discovery of a sanctuary from the early Bronze Age, 4000 years ago, is unique for the Netherlands. The excavations took place in 2017 at Medel, an industrial estate in the Betuwe municipality of Tiel. It is one of the largest archaeological projects in the Netherlands ever. ...
Not only people are buried in the largest mound. That hill was also used as an observatory.  ...
Due to the amount of finds – more than 1 million – it took a lot of time before the archaeologists could form a good picture of the past. When they had put all the puzzle pieces together, they made this extraordinary discovery; six years after the start of the excavations. This created a unique picture of the people and their customs in the Bronze Age in the Netherlands. ..."

The Dutch Stonehenge: ancient site in the Netherlands reveals its secrets This type of sanctuary may have been more common than we thought.

Archaeologists discover 4000 year old sanctuary with solar calendar in Tiel (original article is in Dutch language, but thanks to Google Translate ...)




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