4000 y settlement and burial in Edegem-Buizegem, Flanders

Vandevelde J.et al (2007)
"Vierduizend jaar bewoning en begraving in
Edegem-Buizegem (prov. Antwerpen)".
Relicta 3:9-67
<http://oar.vioe.be/publicaties/RELT/3/RELT003-001.pdf>
[4.25mb]
In Dutch, but with a 1031 words English summary
and the many figures have English captions

Partial summary
"During the summer of 2005 and 2006 the Flemish
Heritage Institute (Vlaams Instituut voor het
Onroerend Erfgoed) carried out an archaeological
excavation on the site of a fu-ture housing
estate in the town of Edegem province of Antwerp
(fig. 1 & 2). A 10th to 12th century church and
graveyard were known to be in the northeast
corner of the development area, and had been the
subject of earlier amateur investigations in the
1930’s, 1960’s and 1970’s. The whole area, about
4.5 hectares, was first investigated using test
trenches, after which two smaller areas were
selected to be fully excavated (fig. 44 & 45).
The site yielded an amazing array of features
from just about every archaeological period, from
the late Neolithic to the late Middle Ages.

The most unexpected find was a double ring ditch
in the north-eastern area, the remains of two
consecutive barrow periods (fig. 44: 1 and 2).
The inner ditch was approximately 8.5 m in
diameter, 40 to 55 cm wide and up to 50 cm deep
(fig. 6 and fig. 7). Taking into account the
dramatic soil erosion that affected this area
since the end of the Iron Age, the ditch
originally must have been about 1.5 m deep. A
single ring of 39 heavy, close-set posts were
set in this ditch.

This type of barrow only appears in the Late
Neolithic or early Bronze Age. A number of them
are known in the Netherlands, but none had
previously been found in Flanders. A small
fragment of bell beaker pottery, dating from
about 2000 BC, further supported the Late
Neolithic date of the barrow (fig. 9). No traces
of a central burial were found, probably as a
result of soil erosion.

The outer ditch is of much later date, probably
the early Iron Age (fig. 44: 2). It ran
perfectly concentric to the inner barrow, which
suggests that the older barrow was still clearly
visible at the time (fig. 11). In the early Iron
Age, reuse of older barrows from the late
Neolithic, early or middle Bronze Age, is not
uncommon. Urnfields can appear centred around
older barrows, secondary burials were dug into
existing mounds or older bar-rows got covered
with new ones. This burial mound however, had an
astonishing diameter of 53 to 54 m. It’s the
largest barrow ever re-corded in Flanders.
Barrows dating from this period are usually
between 3 and 10 m in diameter, occasionally up
to 20. Unfortunately, the ditch could not be
fully excavated: over 2/3 of the circle remains
inaccessible under the neighbouring garden
plots. No burial was found belonging to this
barrow either. Whether this is a result of the
soil erosion or of the impartial excavation,
remains uncertain.

The only comparable site is the equally
exceptional 7th century ‘royal barrow’ of Oss in
the Netherlands, which also had a 53 m diameter.
This barrow featured a central burial with a
number of rich grave goods, such as a bent iron
sword with gold decorations, knives and horse
gear. This selection of grave goods is typical
for the, rare, 7th century elite burials in the
Low Countries; the dimensions of the burial
mound however, are certainly not. The ditch was
2.6 m wide and 1.7 m deep (approximately 1 m of
soil erosion not taken into account!), and the
lower half had a strange, cone-shaped profile
(fig . 1 2 and fig. 13). Again, this is
exceptionally large.

A close parallel for the shape and size of the
ditch was found on the nearby site of Hove-
Cuethegem (fig. 14-16). Here, an Early or Middle
Iron Age ring ditch was discovered in 2000 that
was very similar in section, though the diameter
of this oval shaped ditch was only 13.5 to 17.5
m. Unfortunately, it could not be dated more
precisely.

It leaves no doubt that a 7th century chief of
great local importance was buried under this
mound. Whether the unusual shape and size of the
ring ditches in Edegem and Hove are really
exceptions, or whether they point to a
previously unknown type of peripheral structures
of prehistoric burrows, remains to be seen. ...."

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