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Megalithic research in the Netherlands, 1547-1911 : from "giant's beds" and "pillars of Hercules" to accurate investigations

The impressive megalithic tombs in the northeastern Netherlands are called 'hunebedden', meaning 'Giants' graves'. These enigmatic Neolithic structures date to around 3000 BC and were built by the Funnelbeaker, or TRB, people. The current interpretation of these monuments, however, is the result of over 400 years of megalithic research, the history of which is recorded in this book.The medieval idea that only giants could have put the huge boulders of which they were made into position was still defended in 1660. Others did not venture to explain how hunebeds could have been constructed, but ascribed them to the most ancient, normally sized inhabitants. 16thcentury writings speculated that Tacitus was referring to hunebeds when he wrote about the 'Pillars of Hercules' in Germania.Titia Brongersma is the first person recorded to do excavations in a hunebed, in 1685. The human bones she excavated were from normally sized men and suggested that such men, not giants, had constructed the hunebeds. Other haphazard diggings followed, but much worse was the invention of stone covered dikes which required large amounts of stone. This launched a widespread collection of erratic boulders, whi

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