Stand among the people who built the hunebeds of Drenthe and watch their world rise around you, from daily life at the farm to the raising of a giant stone tomb. A living reconstruction, right where it happened, on your phone.
Try the appAcross Drenthe stand dozens of hunebeds, giant stone tombs older than the pyramids of Egypt. But the people who raised them, their farms, their fields and their rituals, vanished thousands of years ago. Standing before the bare boulders today, it takes real imagination to picture the world that built them.
TimeLens brings that world back. Working from careful archaeology, we rebuild the life of the hunebed builders and set it back where it happened. Stand at the Hunebedcentrum or beside a real hunebed, raise your phone, and see their village, their harvest and the raising of a tomb restored in every direction around you.
What makes the hunebeds special is their age and their mystery. These are the oldest monuments in the Netherlands, raised more than five thousand years ago, and so much about the people who built them survives only in fragments. TimeLens fills in the living world around the stones, the first farmers of the north brought back to life.
Each TimeSpot is a real place at the Hunebedcentrum and out in the Drenthe landscape where you can stand and see the past restored in full, 360 degrees around you. Travel to a spot to unlock it, then look around the scene at your own pace. The map shows every TimeSpot, and new ones are added as the project grows.
Make your way to one of the historic locations shown on the map. Once you arrive, it automatically unlocks the TimeSpot for you.
Hold up your phone and take in the scene in every direction. A 360-degrees historic reconstruction of the city full of life.
For each location you discover, you receive a badge and some TimeCoins as a reward. Discovering combinations of TimeSpots even gives you special awards.
Every reconstruction takes months of research and craft. A small amount each month helps us build more of them, and brings you along for the journey, with early previews, behind the scenes insights, and a say in which places we bring back next. You can even have your name featured in the app, or appear as a figure in a future scene.
Support us on PatreonFollow our newest reconstructions, fresh TimeSpots and the stories behind our work at the Hunebedcentrum, as the project keeps growing.
Want to see more updates about TimeLens in other locations? Check out all the other updates below.
A single capstone on a Dutch hunebed can weigh as much as twenty tonnes. The people who lifted it had no machines, no metal tools and no wheels. So how on earth did they do it? For centuries the answer seemed so…
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Imagine standing in Drenthe five thousand years ago. Around you lies not empty heath but fields of ripening wheat, timber farmhouses, smoke rising from cooking fires, and children minding the goats. These were the…
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A while ago we shared our collaboration between Hunebedcentrum and TimeLens. Now the first scene has fully come to life. To see the full scene, you will need to visit the museum next year, but we happily share a sneak…
Read MoreEvery Hunebedcentrum TimeSpot is created in collaboration with the Hunebedcentrum in Borger, the national centre for hunebed research, so each scene rests on solid archaeology rather than guesswork. Their decades of work on the hunebed builders and the Funnel Beaker culture are the foundation of what you see.
