New Dates Obtained for Prehistoric Burial Mound in France

News April 8, 2019

(Zde via Wikimedia Commons)
SHARE:
Bell Beaker Ceramics
(Zde via Wikimedia Commons)

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA—Cosmos Magazine reports that Hannah James of Australian National University and her colleagues dated teeth from the remains of seven adults and one child recovered from a prehistoric burial mound discovered in southwestern France in 2006. Known as Le Tumulus des Sables, the mound contained a jumble of bones from at least 20 adults and 10 children, and an assortment of pottery, much of which was made in the Bell Beaker style. Previous dates obtained for two bone fragments discovered in the mound fell within France’s Bell Beaker period, or between 2500 and 1800 B.C. “It’s one of [the] first cultures which spreads out all across Europe,” James explained. The new dates indicate that an additional six of the individuals buried in the mound also lived during France’s Bell Beaker period, but one person lived much earlier, between 3650 and 3522 B.C., and another lived much later, sometime between 1277 and 1121 B.C. This range of dates suggests the mound was in use for more than 2,000 years. Analysis of strontium, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes in the teeth suggests that all but one of the adults grew up near the burial mound. To read about another burial mound in France, go to “Tomb of a Highborn Celt.”

  • Features March/April 2019

    Sicily’s Lost Theater

    Archaeologists resume the search for the home of drama in a majestic Greek sanctuary

    Read Article
    (Giuseppe Cavaleri)
  • Letter From Texas March/April 2019

    On the Range

    Excavations at a ranch in the southern High Plains show how generations of people adapted to an iconic Western landscape

    Read Article
    (Eric A. Powell)
  • Artifacts March/April 2019

    Medieval Seal Stamp

    Read Article
    (Rikke Caroline Olsen/The National Museum of Denmark)
  • Digs & Discoveries March/April 2019

    Fairfield’s Rebirth in 3-D

    Read Article
    (Virginia Department of Historic Resources)