Hallebrøndshøj

Facts

Communal grave with amber beads

By Lars Bjarke Christensen (11 stories)

Hallebrøndshøj portal tomb near Svaneke was built in the Peasant Stone Age about 5,000 years ago. Thousands of portal tombs are scattered over large parts of Europe but Denmark has one of the densest concentrations. The tombs were a kind of communal grave for many people, and when Hallebrøndshøj was excavated in the 1880s, about 200 amber beads, several clay pots and a couple of stone axes were found. These were all gifts the dead took will them to their graves. Due to the special soil, only a few burned bones from the interred bodies were found. The bodies were not all buried at once, but over a long period.

Public place

Selected entry

Buried treasure

Story written by Lars Bjarke Christensen

Time / Periode -3400 -3000

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J. A. Jørgensen wrote in his detailed excavation report: That this small collection of coins has been buried at the edge of the burial mound as hidden treasure proves once again that in turbulent times, burial mounds were used as safe hiding places for buried treasure, as we have seen here earlier." Even before Hallebrøndshøj was excavated and described by a schoolteacher named Jørgensen from Ibsker in 1884, parts of it had been investigated in the 1820s. During the excavation, a collection of Medieval coins were unearthed, including a German coin from Würzburg. Schoolteacher Jørgensen was one of Bornholm's most active 19th century archaeologists, and he carried out countless excavations at the end of the century. You can visit Mr Jørgensen's own grave at the churchyard in Ibsker. "