Nederlandse beschrijving: Zo'n 3000 tot 3500 jaar geleden werden, in een gebied dat we nu kennen als de Slabroekse Heide (Uden, N.-Br.), een aantal grafheuvels opgericht door de toenmalige bewoners. Gedurende de daaropvolgende eeuwen werden hier regelmatig mensen begraven. Tussen circa 800 en 500 v. Chr. ontstond een zogenaamd urnenveld wat uiteindelijk meer dan honderd kleine heuvels op de heide omvatte, grafmonumenten waaronder de crematieresten van overleden veelal in aardewerken urnen waren begraven. Uit deze periode dateert ook een uniek inhumatiegraf waarin een man of vrouw liggend op de rug is bijgezet in een zorgvuldig gecreëerde grafkamer van aangekoolde balken, gekleed in een fraai gekleurde jurk met lange mouwen en met metalen ringen in het haar. Bijzondere bronzen arm- en enkelbanden sierden de ledematen, en spelden en toiletgerei werden meegegeven als grafgift. Een aantal eeuwen later, tijdens de Romeinse tijd, is het grafveld opnieuw als begraafplaats in gebruik genomen. Hierna komt het gebruik van het grafveld definitief aan zijn einde. Langzaam raken de overledenen in de vergetelheid. In de late middeleeuwen wordt door het grafveld een zogenaamde landweer aangelegd, de grens tussen de vrije heerlijkheid Ravenstein en het hertogdom Brabant. In de jaren 50 worden de heuvels definitief uit het landschap verwijderd. Het gebied wordt in gebruik genomen als akker. Hier eindigt het verhaal niet. In 2003 komt het gebied in bezit van Staatsbosbeheer en na de opgraving in 2010 wordt het grafveld Slabroekse Heide ge(re)construeerd. Tegenwoordig is het toegankelijk voor wandelaars. Het maakt deel van het omvangrijke natuurgebied de Maashorst en draagt bij aan het oergevoel dat dit gebied wil oproepen. Dit boek presenteert de resultaten van drie opgravingscampagnes op deze bijzondere plek. In 1923 is het onderzocht door Remouchamps van het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. In 2005 en 2010 hebben de Faculteit der Archeologie en Archol bv het grafveld verder onderzocht met moderne technieken, waardoor we het gebruik van dit grafveld en het bijzonder inhumatiegrafritueel in detail kunnen reconstrueren. Hierbij komen deze Heuvels op de Heide weer tot leven. English abstract: Some 3000 to 3500 years ago a number of barrows were erected in an area now known as the Slabroekse Heide (Uden, N.-Br.). In the following centuries people were regularly buried here, and between circa 800 and 500 BC a small urnfield evolved with several hundred small mounds on the heath. These burial monuments covered the cremated remains of the dead, which were generally buried in urns. A unique inhumation burial in which a man or woman was interred lying on his or her back in a small chamber carefully constructed from charred oak beams also dates from this period. Here the deceased was dressed in a colorful dress with long sleeves and wore metal rings in her hair. Extraordinary bronze bracelets and anklets adorned the limbs, and pins and toiletries were interred as grave goods. Several centuries later, during the Roman Age, the cemetery was once again used as a place of burial. Following this, the area went out of use, and the dead buried here were slowly lost to time. In the late Middle Ages a so-called landweer was constructed, running straight through the cemetery and marking the border between the vrije heerlijkheid Ravenstein and the dukedom Brabant. In the 1950s the mounds were removed from the landscape and the area was taken into use as an agricultural field. But this is not where the story ends - in 2003 Staatsbosbeheer took ownership of the land and following the excavation in 2010 the Slabroekse Heide cemetery was (re)constructed. Today the area is part of the nature reserve the Maashort and accessible for recreational use, and contributes to the primal feeling that this regions wants to evoke. This book presents the results of three excavation campaigns conducted at this special place. In 1923, Remouchamps of the National Museum of Antiquities explored this area. In 2005 and 2010 the Faculty of Archaeology and Archol bv further researched this cemetery using modern techniques, which allow us to reconstruct the use of the cemetery and the special inhumation funerary ritual in detail, thereby bringing these mounds on the heath back to life.

After the first decade of large scale settlement research at Oss-Ussen (1974-1984), a second and a third decade followed (1986-2008). The present book is a report on the second decade of settlement excavations, all carried out under supervision of the first author. Started with a focus on the Bronze Age, the project developed into a large scale research of Iron Age and Roman Period settlements and cemeteries over a total area of about 13 ha. The ten campaigns of fieldwork functioned also as the fieldschool of the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University, so many of the archaeologists in Dutch Archaeology used their shovels and trowels for the first time in Oss. Due to its narrative style the book is not only meant for professional archaeologists but for everyone interested in Metal Ages and Roman Period in general and the local history of Oss specifically. The book is divided in two parts. Part 1 describes the results of the excavations in a personal account of how research goals developed in relation to ever changing theoretical and practical circumstances. It presents a synthesis of different study areas with a focus on how the past may have influenced new phases of settlement. In this synthesis also the fieldwork of the first decade and to some extent the third decade of excavations at Oss (Horzak) are taken into account. Part 2 describes the primary data of the 1986-1995 excavations on which the analyses are based. Due to these mass of data, we have restricted ourselves to a (large) selection of features and structures that yielded information for the synthesis in part 1.

After the first decade of large scale settlement research at Oss-Ussen (1974-1984), a second and a third decade followed (1986-2008). The present book is a report on the second decade of settlement excavations, all carried out under supervision of the first author. Started with a focus on the Bronze Age, the project developed into a large scale research of Iron Age and Roman Period settlements and cemeteries over a total area of about 13 ha. The ten campaigns of fieldwork functioned also as the fieldschool of the Faculty of Archaeology of Leiden University, so many of the archaeologists in Dutch Archaeology used their shovels and trowels for the first time in Oss. Due to its narrative style the book is not only meant for professional archaeologists but for everyone interested in Metal Ages and Roman Period in general and the local history of Oss specifically. The book is divided in two parts. Part 1 describes the results of the excavations in a personal account of how research goals developed in relation to ever changing theoretical and practical circumstances. It presents a synthesis of different study areas with a focus on how the past may have influenced new phases of settlement. In this synthesis also the fieldwork of the first decade and to some extent the third decade of excavations at Oss (Horzak) are taken into account. Part 2 describes the primary data of the 1986-1995 excavations on which the analyses are based. Due to these mass of data, we have restricted ourselves to a (large) selection of features and structures that yielded information for the synthesis in part 1.

Some 2800 years ago, a man died in what is now the municipality of Oss, the Netherlands. His death must have been a significant event in the life of local communities, for he received an extraordinary funeral, which ended with the construction of an impressive barrow. Based on the meticulous excavation and a range of specialist and comprehensive studies of finds, a prehistoric burial ritual now can be brought to life in surprising detail. An Iron Age community used extraordinary objects that find their closest counterpart in the elite graves of the Hallstatt culture in Central Europe. This book will discuss how lavishly decorated items were dismantled and taken apart to be connected with the body of the deceased, all to be destroyed by fire. In what appears to be a meaningful pars pro toto ritual, the remains of his body, the pyre, and the objects were searched through and moved about, with various elements being manipulated, intentionally broken, and interred or removed. In essence, a person and a place were transformed through destruction. The book shows how the mourners carefully, almost lovingly covered the funeral remains with a barrow. Attention is also given to another remarkable monument, long mound 6, located immediately adjacent to mound 7. Excavations show how mound 7 was part of an age-old ritual heath landscape that was entirely restructured during the Early Iron Age, when it became the setting for the building of no less than three huge Hallstatt C barrows. Thousands of years later, during the Late Middle Ages, this landscape underwent a complete transformation of meaning when the prehistoric barrows became the scenery for a macabre display of the cadavers of executed criminals. This publication is part of the Ancestral Mounds Research Project of the University of Leiden.

C.R. Hermans is one of the founding fathers of archaeology in the Dutch Brabant-region. In 1865 he published the first collection of archaeological finds and find spots in this region. This publication is now reprinted in a facsimile-edition with an extensive introduction that puts the original book into perspective and supplies the reader with biographical information about Hermans. Dutch text.

Nederlandse beschrijving: Zo'n 3000 tot 3500 jaar geleden werden, in een gebied dat we nu kennen als de Slabroekse Heide (Uden, N.-Br.), een aantal grafheuvels opgericht door de toenmalige bewoners. Gedurende de daaropvolgende eeuwen werden hier regelmatig mensen begraven. Tussen circa 800 en 500 v. Chr. ontstond een zogenaamd urnenveld wat uiteindelijk meer dan honderd kleine heuvels op de heide omvatte, grafmonumenten waaronder de crematieresten van overleden veelal in aardewerken urnen waren begraven. Uit deze periode dateert ook een uniek inhumatiegraf waarin een man of vrouw liggend op de rug is bijgezet in een zorgvuldig gecreëerde grafkamer van aangekoolde balken, gekleed in een fraai gekleurde jurk met lange mouwen en met metalen ringen in het haar. Bijzondere bronzen arm- en enkelbanden sierden de ledematen, en spelden en toiletgerei werden meegegeven als grafgift. Een aantal eeuwen later, tijdens de Romeinse tijd, is het grafveld opnieuw als begraafplaats in gebruik genomen. Hierna komt het gebruik van het grafveld definitief aan zijn einde. Langzaam raken de overledenen in de vergetelheid. In de late middeleeuwen wordt door het grafveld een zogenaamde landweer aangelegd, de grens tussen de vrije heerlijkheid Ravenstein en het hertogdom Brabant. In de jaren 50 worden de heuvels definitief uit het landschap verwijderd. Het gebied wordt in gebruik genomen als akker. Hier eindigt het verhaal niet. In 2003 komt het gebied in bezit van Staatsbosbeheer en na de opgraving in 2010 wordt het grafveld Slabroekse Heide ge(re)construeerd. Tegenwoordig is het toegankelijk voor wandelaars. Het maakt deel van het omvangrijke natuurgebied de Maashorst en draagt bij aan het oergevoel dat dit gebied wil oproepen. Dit boek presenteert de resultaten van drie opgravingscampagnes op deze bijzondere plek. In 1923 is het onderzocht door Remouchamps van het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden. In 2005 en 2010 hebben de Faculteit der Archeologie en Archol bv het grafveld verder onderzocht met moderne technieken, waardoor we het gebruik van dit grafveld en het bijzonder inhumatiegrafritueel in detail kunnen reconstrueren. Hierbij komen deze Heuvels op de Heide weer tot leven. English abstract: Some 3000 to 3500 years ago a number of barrows were erected in an area now known as the Slabroekse Heide (Uden, N.-Br.). In the following centuries people were regularly buried here, and between circa 800 and 500 BC a small urnfield evolved with several hundred small mounds on the heath. These burial monuments covered the cremated remains of the dead, which were generally buried in urns. A unique inhumation burial in which a man or woman was interred lying on his or her back in a small chamber carefully constructed from charred oak beams also dates from this period. Here the deceased was dressed in a colorful dress with long sleeves and wore metal rings in her hair. Extraordinary bronze bracelets and anklets adorned the limbs, and pins and toiletries were interred as grave goods. Several centuries later, during the Roman Age, the cemetery was once again used as a place of burial. Following this, the area went out of use, and the dead buried here were slowly lost to time. In the late Middle Ages a so-called landweer was constructed, running straight through the cemetery and marking the border between the vrije heerlijkheid Ravenstein and the dukedom Brabant. In the 1950s the mounds were removed from the landscape and the area was taken into use as an agricultural field. But this is not where the story ends - in 2003 Staatsbosbeheer took ownership of the land and following the excavation in 2010 the Slabroekse Heide cemetery was (re)constructed. Today the area is part of the nature reserve the Maashort and accessible for recreational use, and contributes to the primal feeling that this regions wants to evoke. This book presents the results of three excavation campaigns conducted at this special place. In 1923, Remouchamps of the National Museum of Antiquities explored this area. In 2005 and 2010 the Faculty of Archaeology and Archol bv further researched this cemetery using modern techniques, which allow us to reconstruct the use of the cemetery and the special inhumation funerary ritual in detail, thereby bringing these mounds on the heath back to life.

This volume of Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia focuses on how local communities in prehistory define themselves in relation to a bigger social world. Communities from the deep past managed to make a living in landscapes we tend to perceive as inconvenient, build complex and elaborate monuments with relatively simple tools, and by shaping their landscape carved out a place for themselves in a much bigger social world. The contributions in this volume underscore how small worlds can be big at the same time.

This volume of Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia focuses on how local communities in prehistory define themselves in relation to a bigger social world. Communities from the deep past managed to make a living in landscapes we tend to perceive as inconvenient, build complex and elaborate monuments with relatively simple tools, and by shaping their landscape carved out a place for themselves in a much bigger social world. The contributions in this volume underscore how small worlds can be big at the same time.

This books present papers on the archaeology of the region between the river Meuse and the city of Oss (Netherlands), locally known as the "Maaskant". The papers presented in this volume discuss the period from 3000 BC until 1500 AD. The wealth of archaeological data from this region indicated this part of the Netherlands was inhabited by early farmers already 5000 years ago. The strategic location near the river did not only provide fertile grounds but also formed an intersection in transport and communication routes.