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:
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
The stones, or menhirs — some as tall as six feet — buttressed a massive capstone set in a tumulus, or a mound of earth and pebbles.
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
“What is this you keep talking about about not being here, and the tumulus and so on?”
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 essential facts connected with these discoveries, are these:—The tumuli, which are small, occupy a wood near the dwelling of a Mr. Long.
From Scenes and Andventures in the Semi-Alpine Region of the Ozark Mountains of Missouri and Arkansas by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft
These tumuli exact models of mole-hills, from ten to fifteen yards high, are the only hills in the country, and appear to be the burial-places of its old masters, the Scythians.
From Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian Sea, the Crimea, the Caucasus, &c. by Xavier Hommaire de Hell
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