Little people love Drenthe. As an exception, we are not referring to the many children who enjoy an unforgettable camping holiday on and around our campsite. No, in this case we mean the Funnel Beaker People, small people from a distant past who left unique historical traces in Drenthe.
The Funnel Beaker People? You probably know them better as the Hunebed builders. Not much is known about them, except that they were not much taller than about 1.65 metres and did not live to be much older than 35 to 40 years. They are called the first generation of farmers of Drenthe, because they settled in a fixed place, where they grew crops and kept cattle. This was about three thousand years before the birth of Christ, which we have just celebrated.
Camping in Drenthe includes a visit to the dolmens
The Funnel Beaker people did not yet have a script, so everything we know about them can be attributed to the finds in their magical burial chambers, the dolmens. Among these finds were many funnel-shaped cups made of ornately decorated earthenware. That is how these small, early inhabitants of Drenthe got their name.
What we do know is that the Funnel Beaker people had a special burial culture. They buried the dead together and gave them all kinds of objects for the afterlife. The magical 'burial vaults' - the dolmens, in other words - were built using insanely large and heavy boulders dating back to the Ice Age, when the province of Drenthe was covered in glaciers.
In the Hunebedcentrum in Borger, on the Drenthe Hondsrug, you can see how this was done. And the nice thing is: children can try it out for themselves as real hunebed builders. The Hunebedcentrum is a great activity museum for children. Early history comes to life here in a fun and active way.
Borger: the largest hunebed and the nicest child-friendly campsite
In a circle of thirty kilometres you will find more than fifty unique hunebeds in Drenthe. They are the oldest monuments in the Netherlands. The largest is in Borger, close to the hunebed centre. The hunebed of Borger is 23 metres long. The boulders weigh more than twenty thousand kilos. You can walk there, as the nicest child-friendly campsite in Drenthe is also close to Borger. Your own little people will not lightly forget their experience of building a hunebed!
