Solar/lunar symbolism on the Rechte Heide (heath), Netherlands

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Notes

1. The longest known row of barrows in the Netherlands runs between Epe and Niersen, on the wooded Veluwe, there 50 mounds form a straight alignment, this extends some 6 km (3.72 miles) distance. It is associated with the extreme southern position of the moon in the lunar cycle of 18.6 years, the Major Lunar Standstill, with the Harvest moon followed by the full moon.

2. Curiously, the majority of Dutch archaeologists avoid recognising the sacred symbolism, as at the Celtic temple excavated on the Kopse Hof, Nijmegen, where a Bronze Age ring of pebbles with the ghost images of eight equidistant placed posts was wilfully wiped out. Doubtless it was the sense of the sacred which generated the impulse and reason of prehistoric man to construct their open temples. Not respecting the sacred fails the understanding of such archaeological sites.

3. At Ittersumerbroek (Overijssel province) amateurs recognised in 1992 on archaeological maps two geometrically identical circles formed by an equal number of 14 posts. Dated to the Bronze Age, the circles were apparently designed with calendric functions in mind. The unit of measure to transfer this knowledge may have been the ell (0.52 m). Professional Dutch archaeologists harboured great reluctance in accepting the astronomical function of these circles, although it is known wooden circles as solar constructs existed in Britain and Ireland.

4. School children were allowed to scour archaeological ground: this is known to have happened at a Roman site at Nijmegen and at a prehistoric-to-Medieval site at Dalfsen.

5. On 29 August 2016, the owner of Archaeodienst (=Archaeo-service; a commercial oriented company) at Zevenaar made public his intention of selling 250 crates filled with finds from their digs to the highest bidder, because the project developer refused to pay for the archaeological research. On 11 September 2016, the Gelderland province impounded thousands of archaeological objects dug up by the commercial Archaeodienst, to prevent these being sold off. Archaeodienst has since gone bankrupt.

6. Apparently oblivious to the ongoing destruction of barrows, the Ministry of Culture informed me in writing (7 August 2013) it is not in doubt about the ‘quality of Dutch archaeology’.