Tin Tab Trackway
Valtherbrug Timber Trackway · Drenthe Bog Road
Neolithic Funnel Beaker 3300 BCE to Bronze Age·Funnel Beaker (TRB) culture·🇳🇱 Drenthe Province, Valtherbrug / Emmen, Netherlands
http://museaindrenthe.nl/collectie/object/27368409-69dc-0888-ab8e-252b1d4f5760 · CC BY 3.0
About
About Tin Tab Trackway
8-m wide substructure with longitudinal oak sleepers and transverse birch roundwood, dated dendro-C14 to 3300 BCE (Funnel Beaker / Trechterbekerkultur). Excavated 1987-1993 by Wijnand Casparie, the road is a 3-tier construction: alder raft base, birch transverse, oak longitudinal deck with pegged joints, indicating heavy sledge traffic for megalithic (hunebed) stone transport - Tin Tab directly aligns to the D43 hunebed at Emmen 3 km NE, supporting the long-suspected bog-road-to-megalith transport hypothesis.
The trackway's 'tin tab' nickname comes from the tin-tab marker used by peat cutters who first reported it. 2-m runner grooves.
Why it mattersType-site for Dutch bog roads and direct evidence for megalithic heavy haul hypothesis linking bog trackways to hunebed erratic transport.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Whether Runner grooves are sledge diagnostic vs later cart
Theories
- 01TRB vs later Bronze Age reuse continuity
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.3300 BCE (Funnel Beaker) with Bronze Age reuse c.1500 BCE
- Period
- Neolithic Funnel Beaker 3300 BCE to Bronze Age
- Culture
- Funnel Beaker (TRB) culture
- Builders
- Drenthe TRB megalith builders
- Purpose
- Heavy haul road for sledge transport of hunebed erratics across bog
- Abandoned
- c.1500 BCE final reuse
- Rediscovered
- 1987 peat cutter tin-tab marker; 1993 Casparie excavation
- Excavation
- Excavated
3300 BCE
Oak sleeper felling 3300 BCE
1987
Peat cutter exposes tin tab and oak sleepers
1993
Casparie proves 2.8-m haul road to D43 hunebed
On the ground
Structures & features
52.9500° N · 6.5500° E · 15 m · 2 mapped features
Heavy Haul Deck Section
trackwayOak sleeper deck 2.8 m wide with 1.2-m sledge runner grooves
52.9500° N · 6.5500° ED43 Hunebed Alignment
megalithHunebed D43 Emmen 3 km NE on alignment of bog road
52.9700° N · 6.6000° E
Gallery