D34 stands at the end of the second sand path 400 metres to the left of the road from Valthe to Odoorn, where there is a signpost. It is an incomplete hunebed with a neglected appearance. It was once a medium-sized hunebed with 5 lintels, of which 3 still remain. One of these is in the right place, the other two lie higgledy-piggledy inside the grave. The 10 uprights and 2 keystones hardly poke out above the ground. Two portal uprights still remain. The foot of the original mound can be seen as a ring around the hunebed.
On the other side of the main road stands the largest burial mound in Drenthe: the ‘Eppiesbarchien’. The dead were buried here from around 2,850 BC until hunebeds gradually ceased to be used.
Location of D34
Visit of Professor van Giffen in 1918
This hunebed formed a pair with the now disappeared D33 and they were only 150 metres apart. It appears to be better preserved, but Van Giffen found it “severely disordered”. Of the original 5 lintels, numbers 1 and 3 are missing. The 12 keystones and uprights are still there, although a few are invisible under the sand. He found 1 portal stone. The foot of the covering mound is still recognisable. D34 is owned by the Province.
(Source: Atlas of “De Hunebedden in Nederland”, dr.A.E.van Giffen, 1925)
For more information about this and other hunebeds in Drenthe see
www.hunebedden.nl and www.hunebeddeninfo.nl
Text Hans Meijer
Translation Alun Harvey
Photography Hans Meijer and Davado
