Dolmen D17
Dolmen D17, also called Rolde Noord, lies on the es, the old village field, by the Jacobuskerk in Rolde. It is over five thousand years old and, unlike its neighbour D18, still looks like a ruin.
Dolmen D17 lies north-east of the village, on the es near the churchyard and the Jacobuskerk. About 200 metres away is dolmen D18, also known as Rolde Zuid. D18 has been tidied up and looks neat; D17 looks more like a ruin. Because they lie close to the church, you can easily walk there from the village.
The dolmen was built between 3400 and 3200 BC by people of the Funnel Beaker culture. It is 13.9 metres long and 3.8 metres wide. There are eight capstones, though not all of them are still in their original position. It also has 15 uprights, two end stones and two entrance stones. The entrance is on the south side.
History
The oldest mention is probably a letter from 1547 by the monk Antonius van Schoonhoven. He writes about the 'Pillars of Hercules' in Rolde, with a sacrificial stone on top. According to him, people were sacrificed here before the coming of Boniface: strangers in particular had to crawl through a narrow passage under the stones while being pelted with dung. He calls the whole thing 's Duvels Kut. Whether he meant D17 is not certain; it may also be D18 or D10.
In 1706 S. Hofstede and the schulte (local magistrate) Kymmell investigated the dolmen. They found a blue pot with gilded stripes. The boermarke of Rolde, the community of the village's landowning farmers, later wanted to put D17 and D18 up for public sale, but the Provincial Executive of Drenthe objected. In the end the Dutch state bought the two dolmens for 150 guilders: D17 in 1872, D18 a year later.
In July 1878 the English antiquaries William Collings Lukis and Sir Henry Dryden recorded the dolmens of Drenthe in measurements, descriptions and watercolours. At D17 they counted seven capstones and seventeen uprights, and they saw that an oak had damaged the grave. Their work is still a source for researchers. In 1925 the archaeologist Albert Egges van Giffen wrote that the dolmen was "in a sorry state". In 1964 a search was made for kerbstones, but none were found. The dolmen was restored between 1957 and 1965.
D17 is one of the most often depicted dolmens in the Netherlands. It appears on paintings, tiles and many old picture postcards.
