4,000 year old open-air shrine found near Tiel

Archeologists found a 4,000-year-old open-air shrine during excavations in the Medel hamlet near Tiel. The shrine includes a solar calendar, as can be seen in Stonehenge. It is the first of its kind discovered in the Netherlands.

The shrine consists of three burial mounds and is about the size of four football fields, the municipality said. The solar calendar was on the largest mound, which had a diameter of 20 meters.

The solar calendar consisted of a low wall with several passages. The sun shone straight through those passages on certain days, including the winter- and summer solstices. On those days, sunrays also pointed to other important sites, including areas where offerings were made.

The researchers are especially excited about the solar calendar. It’s the first one of its kind found in the Netherlands, project leader Ilse Schuuring told Omroep Gelderland on Wednesday. The solar calendar showed that the people of 4,000 years ago tracked the passage of time and were aware of the past and planned for the future - a crucial step in human development, she said.

“The calendar can be seen as our first physical observatory. More than that, it provides insights into the cosmological and social world at the beginning of the Bronze Age. The cycle of life and death, the sun, and ancestors, but also the world of the living were intertwined in it.”

According to the archeologists, the largest burial mound with the solar calendar on top was used as a cemetery for at least 800 years. Men, women and “remarkably many children” were buried in the mound.

“Archeologists have long thought that burial mounds were also built and used for rituals and celebrations. The research in Tiel proves that this was indeed the case,” the municipality said.

The archeologists are investigating the area before the expansion of the Medel commercial park. According to the municipality of Tiel, it is the largest archeological investigation in the Betuwe since the construction of the Betuwelijn in the late 1990s. Archeologists made over a million finds in the area, including the oldest glass bead ever found in the Netherlands.