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tumulus

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
tumulus (t`myələs), plural tumuli (–lī), in archaeology, a heap of earth or stones placed over a grave. The terms mound mound, prehistoric earthwork erected over a burial place as a memorial or landmark, a defensive embankment, or a site for ceremonial or religious rites. Such structures are found in many parts of the world, but the name is applied in particular to those of North
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, barrow barrow, in archaeology, a burial mound. Earth and stone or timber are the usual construction materials; in parts of SE Asia stone and brick have entirely replaced earth. A barrow built primarily of stone is often called a cairn.
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, or cairn cairn, pile of stones, usually conical in shape, raised as a landmark or a memorial. In prehistoric times it was usually erected over a burial. A barrow is sometimes called a cairn.
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 are more common in modern usage.
tumulus
Archaeol (no longer in technical usage) another word for barrow2

tumulus
A mound of earth or stone protecting a tomb chamber or simple grave; a barrow, 2.


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The Celtic dolmen and cromlech, the Etruscan tumulus, the Hebrew galgal, are words.
In the centre was a hillock or tumulus, surmounted by a scorched hawthorn.
The shadow of the Saxon hero-king still walks there fitfully, reviewing the scenes of his youth and love-time, and is met by the gloomier shadow of the dreadful heathen Dane, who was stabbed in the midst of his warriors by the sword of an invisible avenger, and who rises on autumn evenings like a white mist from his tumulus on the hill, and hovers in the court of the old hall by the river-side, the spot where he was thus miraculously slain in the days before the old hall was built.
 
 
 
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