Death Revisited

This book presents a group of small and inconspicuous barrows that were recently discovered in the forest of Apeldoorn, the Netherlands. They are part of an extensive barrow landscape of which little was yet known. Fieldwork carried out in and around them yielded a wealth of new data. It was discovered that even the most inconspicuous and heavily damaged mound of this group still contained many special features.

This special place was anchored around a site that probably had a particular significance in the Late Neolithic, and where special rituals were carried out during the Bronze Age, resulting in the construction of an enigmatic row of pits – rituals the likes of which have not previously been attested around barrows in the Netherlands, but which are known elsewhere in Europe. The dead were buried at locations that were probably only later covered by monuments. During the Bronze Age (between the 18th and 15th centuries BC) the mounds of this small barrow group were used as collective graves for what was probably perceived as one specific ‘community of ancestors.'

The burial practices in the mounds show strong similarities and it is argued that these barrows were each other’s successors, representing the funeral history of people who wished to unite their forebears in death as one unproblematic whole without distinctions. The fieldwork showed that even small-scale, partial excavations of a seemingly minor barrow group can inform us on the significance of the extensive barrow landscapes they are part of – a knowledge that can help us to understand the prehistoric legacy of the Netherlands and to protect it for the future as heritage.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
David Fontijn, Arjan Louwen

2. Research plan and methodology
Cristian van der Linde, Arjan Louwen

3. Physical geography and site formation processes
Arjan Louwen

4. Archaeological and historical context
Arjan Louwen

5. Results landscape related research
Arjan Louwen, Cristian van der Linde, Marieke Doorenbosch, Hans Huisman

6. The surroundings of the four barrows of Monument 145
Arjan Louwen, David Fontijn & Cristian van der Linde

7. Mound 1
Arjan Louwen, Quentin Bourgeois & David Fontijn

8. Mound 2
Arjan Louwen, David Fontijn, Cristian van der Linde, Maurits Pruysen, Liesbeth Smits & Erica van Hees

9. Mound 3
Arjan Louwen, David Fontijn, Cristian van der Linde, Patrick Valentijn, Liesbeth Smits & Erica van Hees

10. The surroundings of the barrow group of Apeldoorn-Wieselseweg
Arjan Louwen, David Fontijn & Cristian van der Linde

11. The barrow landscape of Apeldoorn-Wieselseweg in context
David Fontijn & Arjan Louwen

Appendix 1. Summary of the analysis of the cremated remains of Apeldoorn – Wieselseweg
Liesbeth Smits

Arjan Louwen (1986) studied archaeology at Leiden University. During his time at Leiden, while specializing in the late prehistory of North-Western Europe, he developed a keen interest in the archaeology of the Urnfield period (1200 – 500 BC). He also took part in multiple barrow excavations (Oss-Zevenbergen, Apeldoorn-Echoput, and Apeldoorn-Wieselseweg) of the ‘Ancestral Mounds’ project led by Dr. David Fontijn (Leiden University).

After graduation he started working as a research assistant in the Ancestral Mounds project and took part in the excavation of a large urnfield in the southern Netherlands (Uden-Slabroekse Heide). From the start of 2011 until the end of 2012, he worked in commercial archaeology, carrying out archaeological fieldwork throughout the Netherlands.

Since November 2012, Arjan is working at Leiden University again. He is currently replacing Dr. David Fontijn for several of his teaching tasks. In addition, he is working on the publication of the latest barrow excavation of the Ancestral Mounds project.

In cooperation with the Municipality of Apeldoorn, he also started the new project Beyond and Before Barrows that took off in June 2013.

David Fontijn (1971-2023) was professor in the Archaeology of Early Europe at the Faculty of Archaeology, University of Leiden, the Netherlands. His research dealt with the early agrarian societies of Europe from prehistory up until the early historical period, with a particular focus on the Bronze and (early) Iron Age, the exchange and deposition of metalwork and the archaeology of so-called ritual landscapes. He led the NWO-VICI project ‘Economies of Destruction’ investigating the puzzling destruction of valuable objects in Bronze Age Europe (2015-).

He graduated and wrote his PhD-thesis at Leiden University, both theses were marked cum laude and both were awarded the W.A. van Es Prize for Dutch Archaeology (1996 and 2003). His book ‘Sacrificial landscapes’ was also awarded the Praemium Erasmianum Study Prize (2003). He had a short-list nomination for best teacher of Leiden University in 2005 and won this LSR Teaching award in 2008. His project ‘Ancestral Mounds’ received the SIKB Prize for best archaeological research team in 2009 and a book resulting from it was received by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in 2012. Fontijn was senior research fellow in the excellence cluster ‘TOPOI’ in Berlin, where he worked at the Eurasia Department of the German Archaeological Institute DAI (2009-2010). From 2013-2016, he was director of Research at the Faculty of Archaeology.

Recent books are ‘Living near the dead’ (2010, editor and co-author), ‘Iron Age Echoes’ (co-editor with Q. Bourgeois and A. Louwen and co-author), ‘Transformation Through Destruction’ (co-editor with S. van der Vaart and R. Jansen and co-author), and ‘Beyond Barrows’ (co-editor with A. Louwen, S. van der Vaart, and K. Wentink and co-author). The volume ‘Death Revisited’ (co-editor with A. Louwen and co-author) came out in 2018, and he published an acclaimed book on deposition with Routledge entitled ‘Economies of Destruction’ in 2020. David Fontijn was working on a book offering a new perspective on the Bronze Age when he passed away in 2023.