Almost 1000 Previously Undiscovered Prehistoric Barrows Identified In The Netherlands
Conny Waters - AncientPages.com - Over 6,500 volunteers have supported accurately identifying approximately 1000 prehistoric burial mounds in the Netherlands in just four months, proving the value of involving volunteers in archaeology.
Volunteers and professional archaeologists taking core samples at a burial mound. Image credit: Quentin Bourgeois
In 2018, the Heritage Quest project was launched to harness the power of citizen scientists, utilising crowd-sourcing to identify archaeological features on lidar imagery of the central Netherlands.
Through the involvement of thousands of people online, prehistoric burial mounds were identified across the region in a short amount of time. However, the accuracy of crowd-sourced data has been questioned in the past, as the majority of volunteers are not professional archaeologists.
“While the volume of data exceeded our expectations, we faced a key challenge common to large citizen science projects: how reliable are the detections made by volunteers?” states lead author of the research, Dr Quentin Bourgeois from Leiden University.
To assess the accuracy of the data, the authors performed a ground-based survey of 380 sites identified during the study, examining them in person to determine whether they were in fact prehistoric barrows.
Four examples of lidar maps, highlighting locations volunteers identified as burial mounds and the number of times they were independently selected. Credit: Antiquity (2024). https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.127
According to Dr Bourgeois, the results are clear: “Citizen science works! We found a direct correlation between the number of volunteers identifying a potential archaeological object and its likelihood of being a prehistoric burial mound.”
This means that the Heritage Quest project has discovered 1,000 previously-unknown burial mounds, doubling the number of known mounds from the region in just four months.
Importantly, this shows the value of involving volunteers in archaeological projects, allowing for the identification of archaeological features much more quickly than could be achieved by professionals alone.
“What would have taken professional archaeologists years to accomplish was achieved in a matter of months thanks to the combination of lidar technology and citizen participation”, adds Dr Bourgeois.
It also has implications for heritage policy-making, as local governments can apply citizen science to quickly and cost-effectively identify heritage sites for protection. In the future, the authors plan to combine volunteer participation with machine learning, identifying archaeological sites on an even greater scale.
However, according to Dr Bourgeois, the most exciting part of the research was seeing how the involvement of the volunteers led to greater community engagement with archaeology, producing outspoken supporters for the region’s heritage.
"I’m blown away by how many previously unknown burial mounds the volunteers helped uncover”, concludes Dr Bourgeois. “I knew we were working in an important area with many traces of a prehistoric landscape still preserved, but I never expected to find so much so quickly! But for me the most amazing outcome is seeing the passion the volunteers had for our research! They have now become vocal advocates for the preserved traces of prehistoric landscapes in their region.”
Their results are published in the journal Antiquity.
Written by Conny Waters - AncientPages.com Staff Writer
More From Ancient Pages
-
A 5,000-Year-Old Anatolian Sword Identified In Armenian Monastery In Venice
Artifacts | Feb 28, 2020
-
On This Day In History: Albertus Magnus – Medieval Person Of Great Historical Importance Died – On Nov 15, 1280
News | Nov 15, 2016
-
Zerzura – Lost Ancient Sahara Oasis Guarded By Black Giants
Featured Stories | Jun 10, 2020
-
The ‘Band Of Peace’ And Ancient Egyptian Technology – Is It Possible These Sites Were Power Generators?
Ancient Technology | Mar 19, 2017
-
Something Unexpected Stopped Mongol Hordes From Conquering Europe
Featured Stories | Jul 11, 2017
-
Ancient Secrets Of The Ukrainian Stonehenge That Is Older Than The Giza Pyramids Of Egypt
Featured Stories | Jul 17, 2021
-
Ashurbanipal – Last Great Ruler Of Assyria And His Famous Well-Organized Library
Featured Stories | Jun 21, 2021
-
How Did A Rare 2,000-Year-Old Gem Seal Depicting God Apollo End Up In The City Of David?
Archaeology | Nov 5, 2020
-
The Navajo People In The Land Of The Four Sacred Mountains
Civilizations | Jun 10, 2020
-
Why Is The Mysterious Menga Dolmen One Of The Greatest Neolithic Engineering Achievements?
Archaeology | Dec 6, 2023
-
1,000-Year-Old Coin And Other Finds Unearthed During Excavations At Carrignacurra Castle in Cork
Archaeology | Oct 6, 2022
-
Chennakeshava Temple In Belur Is Richly Decorated With Scenes From Ramayana Mahabharata And Puranas
Featured Stories | Nov 18, 2021
-
Viking Treasures Discovered In Chamber Grave In Denmark
Archaeology | Apr 4, 2014
-
Mystery Of The Hidden Wooden Hieroglyphic Tablets And The Unknown White Bearded Men – The Civilization That Died Twice – Part 2
Civilizations | Mar 6, 2021
-
On This Day In History: American General Benedict Arnold Commits Treason – On Sep 21, 1780
News | Sep 21, 2016
-
Paris Of Troy: He Caused Destruction Of Troy As The Seer Had Predicted
Featured Stories | Mar 26, 2019
-
What Is The Meaning Of Ankh – Ancient Egyptian Symbol
Ancient Symbols | Sep 21, 2023
-
Is This The Face Of Queen Nefertiti? 3-D Facial Reconstruction Of Egyptian Queen Sparks Controversy
Archaeology | Feb 12, 2018
-
Researchers Will Search For “Fingerprints” Of Thera/Santorini Eruption In Tree Rings
Archaeology | Mar 4, 2017
-
Geb – Egyptian God Of Earth And Member Of The Ennead – His Laughter Created Earthquakes
Egyptian Mythology | Feb 12, 2019