Tumuli
A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves.
Connected Sites
| Site | Rationale | Link |
| Al-Faw | "The rich archaeological remains reflect the multifaceted lives of the occupants, including (...) the funerary landscape of tumuli and cairns in the valley" - "There are 178 tumuli (or cruciform tombs) and 2,657 cairns at the foot of Jabal Tuwayq" (AB Ev) | |
| Archaeological Site of Aigai | ||
| Białowieża Forest | 184 old Slav burial tumuli from the 10th and 11th centuries have been found (UNEP-WCMC) | |
| Brú na Bóinne | ||
| Cahokia Mounds | "The mounds served variously as construction foundations for public buildings and as funerary tumuli." (OUV) | |
| Cilento and Vallo di Diano | La tomba del Principe in Monte Pruno | |
| Curonian Spit | 500 tumuli were discovered in Kaup | |
| Danube Limes | Carnuntum (ID No 31): "cemeteries along the ancient radial roads, whereby elaborate tomb architecture such as funeral altars, pillar monuments or tomb chapels as well as tumulus tombs were found" (Nomination file, p. 79) | |
| Dholavira: A Harappan City | "Six hemispherical tumuli are the most conspicuous features of curiosity and promise in the zone of [the] western necropolis." They surround a "depression representing a buried water body and were believed to be of special significance in terms of their shape, size and location. Two of them (...) have been subjected to archaeological investigation which confirmed their being funerary monuments of exceeding importance and unique character". (Nomination text, p. 223) | |
| Dilmun Burial Mounds | "Six of the selected site components are burial mound fields consisting of some dozen to several thousand tumuli. Together they comprise about 11,774 burial mounds." (OUV) | |
| Ennedi Massif | tumuli grouped in large necropolises (AB ev) | |
| Etruscan Necropolises | ||
| Gamzigrad-Romuliana | The mausolea of Galerius and his mother are hidden in two tumuli, visible from the main palace | |
| Gaya Tumuli | “The introduction of new forms of tombs and the intensification of the spatial hierarchy in the tumuli sites reflect the structural changes experienced by Gaya society during its history.” - UNESCO Description | |
| Golden Mountains of Altai | The Pazyryk tombs are Scythian kurgans, that is barrow-like tomb mounds of larch logs covered over by large cairns of boulders and stones, dated to between the 6th and 3rd centuries BCE. (wiki) | |
| Gordion | "Surrounding the Citadel Mound and the Lower and Outer Towns, more than one hundred tumuli – earthen mounds protecting the burials of the ruling class – dot the landscape of Gordion. Their size is variable, from small humps on the ground to large-scale mounds, such as the tumulus known as the Midas Mound" (AB ev) | |
| Gyeongju | ||
| Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump | a tumulus where vast quantities of buffalo (American Bison) skeletons can still be found (Unesco website) | |
| Himā Cultural area | Ceramic remains of mid-to later Holocene times occur widely, and are especially common at a series of rock tumuli at Najd Sahi. (nom file p.14) | |
| Hopewell | Mound City: ".. the highest density of burial mounds of any Hopewell earthwork." (nom file) | |
| Jelling | ||
| Kernavė | ||
| Koguryo Kingdom | "Some of the tombs show great ingenuity in their elaborate ceilings, designed to roof wide spaces without columns and carry the heavy load of a stone or earth tumulus (mound), which was placed above them." - Nomination File | |
| Koguryo Tombs | "The best known cultural heritage remains of this kingdom are thousands of tombs, built of stone and covered by stone or earthen mounds. Earthen mound tombs, including many with murals, were prevalent once Koguryo moved its capital to Pyongyang - but existed in other parts of the kingdom as well." - Nomination file | |
| Moidams | "royal burial mounds or "moidams" ("home"-for-spirit")" - "The moidams (...) are created by providing an earth cover over a hollow vault constructed of brick, stone, or earth. The vaults contain the buried or cremated remains of kings and other royal individuals together with grave goods." (Ab Ev) | |
| Mozu-Furuichi Kofun | "distinctive burial mounds called kofun" (AB ev) | |
| Nemrut Dag | the tumulus at the site, which is 49 m (161 ft) tall and 152 m (499 ft) in diameter (wiki) | |
| Neolithic Orkney | Maeshowe | |
| Pergamon | Ikili tumuli | |
| Saloum Delta | Shellfish tumuli | |
| Sammallahdenmäki | Stone cairns | |
| Solovetsky Islands | over 600 stone burial cairns | |
| Stone Circles of Senegambia | "The complexes conserve their integrity in terms of spatial associations of the component circles, individual megaliths and tumuli." (AB ev) | |
| Stonehenge | Avebury Silbury hill near Avebury (biggest tumulus in Europe), West Kennet Barrow and East Kennet Barrow. Also many smaller ones. | |
| Talayotic Menorca | Torralba d'en Salort in Component C6: "(...) the underground or semi-underground structures like the hypostyle hall (which conserves part of the earthen tumulus that covers the roof)" (Nomination file, p. 443) – "The dolmen of Ses Roques Llises (...) includes a corridor delimited by stone slabs (only the left side slab still exists), a rectangular chamber accessed through a perforated stone slab and the remains of a tumulus (which likely covered the entire tomb) that enveloped the structure." | |
| Tanbaly | "A huge number of ancient burials are known on the site. ... the later types consist of mounds (kurgans) of stone and earth built above tombs. The latter seem to date from the Early Iron Age to the present day." (AB ev) | |
| Tassili n'Ajjer | The lowlands have stone tumuli and hearths dating between 6000 to 4000 BCE. (wiki) | |
| Taxila | tumulus of Saraikala | |
| The Royal Court of Tiébélé | "Other characteristic symbolic elements of the Royal Court of Tiébélé are located outside the compound. These include the pourou, the sacred tumulus where the placenta of the new-borns of the royal family are buried". (Ab Ev) | |
| Thracian tomb of Sveshtari | The tomb is covered by a burial mound | |
| Volubilis | AB: "there is a burial mound dating from the 3rd/2nd century BC" | |
| Western Caucasus | There have been numerous findings in the tumuli including unique golden adornments and artifacts of metal and clay. (EOEarth) |
Suggestions?
Do you know of another WHS we could connect to Tumuli?
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