Næsbyholm Forest

Facts

Forest protects burial mounds

By Flemming Kaul, Museumsinspektør, mag. art. (31 stories)

Among the rolling hills of central Zealand, in a large forest at Næsbyholm, looking out over Tystrup-Bavelse Lakes, is one of the largest clusters of burial mounds in Denmark. 118 Bronze Age burial mounds have been preserved. There are also three dolmens (portal tombs) and a passage grave from the Stone Age. More than 70 cup marks, sacred Bronze Age marks, are engraved on one of the stones on the northernmost dolmen. And recently, a stone with about 30 cup marks was discovered to the south. A neighbouring forest west of Broby houses more dolmens and burial mounds.

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Were dead people buried in the forests?

Story written by Flemming Kaul

Time / Periode -3500 -500

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No. The forests were not used as burial sites. Back in the Bronze Age, the burial mounds were built on farm land. They belonged in open countryside where they could be seen from far and wide to mark the family's territory. Næsbyholm Forest has well-defined traces of Iron Age field systems, so back in the centuries before Christ was born, this was still open countryside. Some time later, the fields were abandoned and the forest took over. Many burial mounds on open land have been removed, especially over the past 300 years. This was to make room for larger fields that rationalised farming. Everywhere in Denmark you can see the remains of burial mounds that have been ploughed over looking like small hillocks on the farmed fields. But the forests have preserved the mounds and the ancient landscapes.