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Summary of the Bakker J.A. book

In Dutch the megalith mounds are called hunebedden and are build in the period 2700 - 2150 BCE by the Funnel Beaker culture. The most of these can be found in the north and north-eastern parts of the Netherlands. There are some 76 hunnebedden (54 are exist and 22 are demolished). The Dutch megalithic mounds are (in most instances) missing the moundmaterial (sand washed or taken away), so they look just like standing stones. The space between the uprights and capstones is/was filled up with dry walling.
The following types of hunebedden are defined (between brackets the number of mounds present in The Netherlands):

  1. cist
    A closed space, without entrance.
  2. dolmen
    1. primeval dolmen
      Have no recognisable entrance and are made of 4-6 uprights lying on their sides and one or two capstones.
    2. enlarged/grand dolmen (1, G5)
      Have an entrance at the narrow side of the chamber (axial entrance) and have from two to more pairs of standing uprights with two or more capstones.
    3. polygonal dolmen
      Made from about six standing uprights in a hexagon and usually one capstone.
  3. Wechte type gallery mound
    Have an axial entrance and the length of the chamber is from 15 to 40 m and a width of 2 - 2.5 m.
  4. Long barrow (Langbett) (1, D43)
    A long, rectangular or trapezoidal mound. It can hold one or more chambers.
  5. passage mound with a short-stemmed T form (74, like D25)
    The chamber has some 2 - 10 pairs of uprights in length, a width of 1.5 - 3.2 m. The entrance is in the long side of the chamber (lateral entrance). The passage is 0 - 3 pairs of standing uprights. This mound could have a kerb circle.


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Last content related changes: June 29, 1996