tumulus

plural tumuli

1. archaeologyA mound of earth, especially one placed over a prehistoric tomb; a barrow.

   They planted the cannon on the tumuli, sole elevations in this level country, and formed themselves into column and hollow square.

   1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC

   3 more examples

   Near Smeinogorsk an octagonal tumulus has been found containing the corpse of a horse near a rectangular one with a human corpse, both within stone circles.

   1898, Friedrich Ratzel, The History of Mankind, volume III, London: Macmillan and Co., page 325

   The delicate white body will be covered to-day, The tumulus be reared, the green sod give way: And there, oh Cynvarch, thy son they will lay.

   1898, Ernest Rhys, “The Lament for Urien from the Herbest”, in Welsh Ballads

   The tumulus is one of mankind's oldest burial monuments, dating back to 4,000 to 5,000 years B.C. […] Examples of tumuli can be seen peppering the landscape all over Western Europe.

   2004, Douglas Keister, Stories in Stone, Gibbs Smith, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 14

   Synonyms: burial mound § Synonyms