Overview

Towards the capstone of the European Bronze Age, in an area stretching from the Carpathians in the East to the North Sea in the West, vast cremation grave cemeteries occur that are perhaps better known as ‘urnfields.’ Today some 700 of these burial sites have come to light in the Netherlands alone. In this corner of Europe, also known as the ‘Lower-Rhine-Basin,’ these cemeteries are often characterised by vast collections of small burial mounds under which the cremated remains of decedents were buried in small shaft-like pits. In many a case the cremated remains had been put in urns first, providing these cemeteries with their very name. Though rich in numbers, urnfield graves are often described as ‘poor’ and ‘simple’ as only in rare occasions decedents were provided with grave gifts. However, when close attention is paid to the actions involved in the creation of these seemingly simple graves, they in fact reveal a richness in funerary practices that on their turn hint a complex and intricate mortuary process. This book delves into the wealth of funerary practices reflected in more than 3,000 urnfield graves excavated throughout the Netherlands in order to reconstruct the mortuary process associated with the urnfields in this particular part of Europe. Together these graves tell interesting stories about how the dead related to each other, how plain and simple objects could be used as metaphors in the creation of relational and ancestral identities and how the dead were inextricably linked to the land.

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Arjan Louwen (1986) studied ‘Prehistory of Northwest Europe’ at Leiden University. Already as a student he developed a keen interest in funerary archaeology and took part in several key-excavations of prehistoric barrows and urnfields. After graduation in 2010, Arjan has worked alternatingly in commercial archaeology (Archol bv. Leiden) and for Leiden University as a field archaeologist. Since 2012 he has worked full-time at Leiden University, first as a teacher and field director, later as PhD-student. His PhD-research revolved around the funerary practices associated with the urnfields in the Lower-Rhine-Basin. Arjan is currently still working at Leiden University as a teacher and trains students in their first field skills. Key publications: Fontijn, D./ Q. Bourgeois/ A.J. Louwen 2011. Iron Age Echoes. Prehistoric land management and the creation of a funerary landscape – the “twin barrows” at the Echoput in Apeldoorn, Leiden, Sidestone press. Fontijn, D.R./ A.J. Louwen/ S.A. van der Vaart/ K. Wentink 2013. Beyond Barrows. Current research on the structuration and perception of the prehistoric landscape through monuments. Leiden, Sidestone press. Louwen, A.J., 2018. -1629 – Een bronstijdbegrafenis volgens Brusselse conventies? In: ’t Hart, M., K. Davids, K. Fatah-Black, L. Heerma van Voss, L. Lucassen and J. Touwen (eds.). Wereldgeschiedenis van Nederland (Huygens instituut voor Nederlandse geschiedenis). Amsterdam: Ambo/Anthos, 33 – 38. Louwen, A.J./ D.R. Fontijn 2019. Death revisited. The excavation of three Bronze age barrows and surrounding landscape at Apeldoorn-Wieselseweg. Leiden, Sidestone Press.

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