AFP “Archaeologists unearth 4,000-year-old ‘Stonehenge of the Netherlands’” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/21/archaeologists-unearth-stonehenge-netherlands
先月21日付の記事。
和蘭のティール*1で発掘された古代遺跡の話。
また、
Dutch archaeologists have unearthed an approximately 4,000-year-old religious site – nicknamed the “Stonehenge of the Netherlands” – that includes a burial mound that served as a solar calendar.The mound, which contained the remains of about 60 men, women and children, had several passages through which the sun shone directly on the longest and shortest days of the year.
The town of Tiel, where the site was discovered, said on its Facebook page: “What a spectacular archaeological discovery! Archaeologists have found a 4,000-year-old religious sanctuary on an industrial site.”
It added: “This is the first time a site like this has been discovered in the Netherlands.”
Digging on the so-called open-air sanctuary started in 2017 in the small village, about 19 miles (31km) south-east of Utrecht, and the results were made public on Wednesday.
Studying differences in clay composition and colour, the scientists located three burial mounds on the excavations, a few miles from the banks of the Waal River.
The main mound is about 20 metres (65ft) in diameter and its passages are lined up to serve as a solar calendar. “People used this calendar to determine important moments including festival and harvest days,” the archaeologists said.
「ストーンヘンジ」*2とはいっても「石」の建造物ではない。地元当局の提供による想像図が記事に添付されているのだけど、「石」ではなく木の柱が連なっている。ただ、遺体も一緒に発掘されたということは墓場という機能を果たしていた可能性は高いということだろうか。それよりも、メソポタミア産の硝子玉が発掘されたという記述の方が興味深い。青銅器時代において既にこのユーラシアの西の果てとオリエントとの間に直接的或いは間接的な交流があったわけだ。
They made another fascinating discovery: a single glass bead inside a grave, which after analysis was shown to have originated in Mesopotamia – present-day Iraq. “This bead travelled a distance of some 5,000km four millennia ago,” the chief researcher, Cristian van der Linde, said.
See also
Christopher Parker "Archaeologists Discover 4,000-Year-Old ‘Dutch Stonehenge’" https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dutch-stonehenge-solar-calendar-burial-ground-180982430/
