This dataset is part of the PhD project by Arjan Louwen (Leiden University) called 'Breaking and making the ancestors. Making sense of the inconspicuous 99% of urnfield graves' The research was funded by NWO and the dissertation was succesfully defended at Leiden University on 17 June 2021; 15:00hrs.

The research is about the funerary practices associated with urnfields in the Lower-Rhine-Basin. The dataset comprises a selection of 75 well excavated urnfield sites throughout the Netherlands that together produced more than 3,000 graves. Among other things a list of all sites in the Netherlands that produced graves dating to the period of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age (1100-500 BC) complete with references was created. The more than 3000 graves that formed the basis for the research have all been meticulously described and entered in a database. The dataset deposited here consists of:

• Urnfield graves database - Inventory of sites - Maps of the case study areas - Reference list of all sites that produced Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age graves