Editing Tumulus (section)

{{Short description|Mound of earth and stones raised over graves}}
{{Other uses|Tumulus (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
[[File:Bin Tepe, large tumulus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Tomb of King [[Alyattes]] at [[Bin Tepe]] in [[Lydia]], modern Turkey, built c. 560 BC.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Tomb of Atyattes |journal=Publications de l'Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes |date=1993 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/anatv_1013-9559_1993_act_3_1_886 |language=fr-FR|last1=Ratte |first1=Philippe }}</ref> It is one of the largest tumuli ever built,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Richard P. |title=Death and the Afterlife: A Cultural Encyclopedia |date=2000 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0874369397 |page=381 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BMqBAAAAMAAJ }}</ref> with a diameter of 360 meters and a height of 61 meters.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fergusson |first1=James |title=Rubinde Stone Monuments |pages=31–32 |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Rude_Stone_Monuments.djvu/58 }}</ref>]]
[[File:Gamla uppsala.jpg|thumb|The [[Royal Mounds]] of [[Gamla Uppsala]] in Sweden from the 5th and 6th centuries. Originally, the site had 2,000 to 3,000 tumuli, but due to quarrying and agriculture only 250 remain.]]
[[File:German military cemetery Normandy 1.jpg|thumb|[[La Cambe German war cemetery]]]]
[[File:Sulm valley tumulus.jpg|thumb|One of the [[Hallstatt culture]]–era tumuli in the [[Burgstallkogel (Sulm valley)|Sulm valley necropolis]]]]
[[File:Kasta tumulus - view from Amphipolis.jpg|thumb|[[Kasta Tomb|Kasta tumulus]] [[Amphipolis]]]]

A '''tumulus''' ({{plural form}}: '''tumuli''') is a [[mound]] of [[Soil|earth]] and [[Rock (geology)|stone]]s raised over a [[grave]] or graves. Tumuli are also known as '''barrows''', '''burial mounds''', '''mounds''', '''howes''', or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''[[kurgan]]s'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A [[cairn]], which is a mound of stones built for various purposes, may also originally have been a tumulus.

Tumuli are often categorised according to their external apparent shape. In this respect, a [[long barrow]] is a long tumulus, usually constructed on top of several [[burial]]s, such as [[passage grave]]s. A [[round barrow]] is a round tumulus, also commonly constructed on top of burials. The internal structure and architecture of both long and round barrows have a broad range; the categorization only refers to the external apparent shape.

The method of {{linktext|inhumation}} may involve a [[dolmen]], a [[cist]], a [[mortuary enclosure]], a [[mortuary house]], or a [[chamber tomb]]. Examples of barrows include [[Duggleby Howe]] and [[Maeshowe]].