Nederland - Midlaren, hunebed D3 en D4

Hunebedden (megalithic tombs) are the oldest monuments in the Netherlands. They were built more than 5.000 years ago in the last phase of the Stone Age by people of the Funnel Beaker Culture, who buried their dead in these hunebedden.
The stones of which the dolmens are built are originating from Scandinavia. They were carried south by the advancing land ice during an ice age. When the ice melted at the end of the ice age, the stones that were carried along were left behind.

Most of these tombs in the province of Drenthe lie in fields or woods. Hunebed D4 is an exception, as it lies next to a wall of a small 19th century farmhouse and has survived nearly intact. Its ‘twin’ D3 lies close by and was for a long time partly covered by a mound of sand that was part of the original burial monument. The remains of that mound were dug away in 1870.

Although almost complete, with all of the lintels and all but two of the uprights being present, these two tombs have never been restored. Only the cracks in the lintels have been filled with cement. They make a pretty picture, not least because of the wildly shaped branches of the old oak trees above the stones.

Despite standing by the side of the road, the hunebedden are not immediately visible. We had to follow the signs to a narrow path that squeezes between two small dilapidated farmhouses and only then we found the large green lichen-covered lumps of stone, standing ‘head to tail’.