Newly Discovered ‘Stonehenge of the Netherlands’ is 4,000 Years Old

The burial mound, which contained the remains of some 60 men, women and children had several passages through which the sun directly shone on the longest and shortest days of the year. "What a spectacular archaeological discovery! Archaeologists have found a 4,000-year-old religious sanctuary on an industrial site," the town of Tiel said on its Facebook page.

"This is the first time a site like this has been discovered in the Netherlands," it added in a statement. Diggings around the so-called "open-air sanctuary" started in 2017 in the small village about 50 kilometers southeast of Utrecht.

Studying a difference in clay composition and color, the scientists located three burial mounds on the excavations, a few kilometers from the banks of the Waal river. The main mound is about 20 meters in diameter with its passages lined up to serve as a solar calendar.

"People used this calendar to determine important moments including festival and harvest days," the archaeologists said. "This hill reminded one of Stonehenge, the well-known mysterious prehistoric monument in Britain, where this phenomenon also occurs," NOS, the Dutch national broadcaster, added.

Scientists also discovered two other smaller mounds. The three mounds were used as burial sites for about 800 years, the archaeologists said. They made another fascinating discovery: A single glass bead inside a grave, which after analysis was shown to have originated in Mesopotamia, today's Iraq.