A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, Hügelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world. A cairn (a mound of stones built for various purposes), might also be originally a tumulus. A long barrow is a long tumulus, usually for numbers of burials.
The method of inhumation may involve a dolmen, a cist, a mortuary enclosure, a mortuary house or a chamber tomb. Examples of barrows include Duggleby Howe and Maeshowe.
The word tumulus is Latin for 'mound' or 'small hill', from the PIE root *teuh2- with extended zero grade *tum-, 'to bulge, swell' also found in tumor, thumb, thigh and thousand.
The funeral of Patroclus is described in book 23 of the Iliad. Patroclus is burned on a pyre, and his bones are collected into a golden urn in two layers of fat. The barrow is built on the location of the pyre. Achilles then sponsors funeral games, consisting of a chariot race, boxing, wrestling, running, a duel between two champions to the first blood, discus throwing, archery and spear throwing.
Plot
Caesar has had enough when another legion is hacked to pieces by the damned single indomitable village in Gaul because of the druid's magic potion, so he decides to tackle the problem at the root before conspiratorial senators exploit his humiliation: sycophant Lucullus is ordered to capture the druid (believed immortal) and push him over the edge of the earth (according to the story still believed to be flat as a pizza; actually Greeks and Romans knew better). By pure luck, Lucullus' first net traps both druid and Obelix's pet dog, so the giant and Asterix follow them by ship on the Atlantic, and crash after a storm on the North America coast in pursuit of the druid who was catapulted off the Roman galley before Lucullus triumphantly sets sails back for Europe. They find the druid and meet a tribe of Indians (believing to be in India), literally a whole New World for the equally primitive Celts. At the home front, Caesar sees his chance to overrun the village, but has to wait till the last magic potion has run out, hoping the heroes won't return. In America, the medicine man has a bad eye in the foreigners, especially when the druid proves a dangerous rival...
Keywords: 1st-century-b.c., american-indian, asterix, based-on-comic-book, belief-in-flat-earth, character-name-in-title, damsel-in-distress, dog, earth, edge-of-the-world
Danger lurks on foreign shores!