tumulus
Americannoun
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tumuluses,
plural
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tumuli
plural
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Archaeology. an artificial mound, especially over a grave; barrow.
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Geology. a domelike swelling or mound formed in congealed lava.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tumulus
1680–90; < Latin: mound, swelling, equivalent to tum ( ēre ) to swell + -ulus -ule
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Last summer, archaeologists and a metal detectorist conducted a small survey of the tumulus on behalf of the Norwegian Directorate for Culture Heritage.
From New York Times ● May 31, 2024
Both the capstone and the tumulus were dismantled in 1925 during an excavation led by Hugo Obermaier, a Spanish-German anthropologist and prehistorian.
From New York Times ● Sep. 9, 2022
Bassett said afterward that the site includes an apron of riprap around the men’s tumulus, which is in a ravine.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 27, 2015
Bassett said he was sitting on a pile of boulders when he realized that the rocks were the top layer of a tumulus, an archaeological term for a burial chamber or sepulcher.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 27, 2015
“I didn’t know there was a tumulus in it.”
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Sardis' landscape is vulnerable to natural erosion, while many tumuli have already been damaged by farming.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026
With its origins in pre-Buddhist burial mounds or sacred tumuli, it retains a cosmogonic power.
From New York Times ● May 11, 2020
"In the smoky firelight the two old men nodded off like a pair of ancient kings passing the aeons in their tumuli."
From The Guardian ● Jun. 11, 2010
The moors here are scattered over with cairns, tumuli, and Druidical monuments.
From Curiosities of Great Britain: England and Wales Delineated Vol.1-11 Historical, Entertaining & Commercial; Alphabetically Arranged. 11 Volume set. by Thomas Cantrell Dugdale
It is a country, moreover, full of ancient monuments; besides the strongholds of Liddington and Barbury, there are everywhere tumuli, barrows, cromlechs, and stone circles.
From The Eulogy of Richard Jefferies by Sir Walter Besant
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
