5,000-year-old cemetery and fortress discovered in Poland

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A gigantic 5,000-year-old complex of long wheelbarrows and stone-lined tombs has been unearthed in Poland, after archaeologists investigated rows of crops in a field they had seen in a photo satellite.

Archaeologists began excavating the rural site near the town of Dębiany, about 50 kilometers northeast of Krakow, more than two years ago. They have now unearthed seven Neolithic graves, as well as the remains of a medieval fortress and a Bronze Age burial place of two horses. But the extent of the old cemetery is not yet known.

Related: In photos: “ demon graves ” discovered in a cemetery in Poland

Archaeologists now believe it to consist of a dozen burial mounds, each between 40 and 50 meters in length, made from earthworks, stones and wooden pole palisades that have now rotted. They believe it is a relic of the area’s prehistoric settlement by the Neolithic funnel-beaker people, which is named after the distinctive pottery vessels they made that are believed to have been Europe’s first farmers.

“The megalithic cemetery of Dębiany is one of the largest and most interesting such sites in Central Europe,” archaeologists Marcin Przybyła and Jan Bulas said in an email. “It provides us with extraordinary data on the funeral customs of the Funnel Beaker culture.”

Satellite Discovery

A four-sided underground structure that turned out to be an early medieval fortress caused crop marks on the ground in satellite photographs. The burial mounds and tombs of the Neolithic cemetery were found to the north and south of the fortress during excavations of the site.

The crop marks in a field that appeared on the satellite images turned out to be a four-sided underground structure. The burial mounds and tombs of the Neolithic cemetery were found to the north and south of the fortress during excavations of the site. (Image credit: Marcin Przybyła and Michał Podsiadło)

Bulas, a freelance archaeologist in Krakow, first noticed that the straight lines seen in a satellite photograph of the field – the result of subtle differences in crop growth – could be caused by the underground remains of a four-sided structure.

Bulas and Przybyła visited the site and used magnetic gradiometers to measure tiny variations in the magnetic field and reveal where the underlying terrain had been disturbed in the past.

The four-sided shape Bulas saw in satellite photography turned out to be a medieval fortress and moat dating from the 9th and 10th centuries, before the first kingdom of Poland was established in 1025.

But excavations in 2019 and 2020 also revealed the long Neolithic burial mounds, believed to be around 5,500 years old, on which the medieval fortress was unknowingly built.

Although they have now eroded into the landscape, the burial mounds were once much higher, Przybyła said. Science in Poland. They were made by piling soil over a central stone-lined tomb, and were reinforced with palisades of wooden posts; the posts are now rotten and only traces of their post holes remain.

The researchers have not yet found any skeletal remains in the central tombs, but they have detected traces of Neolithic burials in the earthen embankments surrounding them, Przybyła said.

Przybyła and Bulas told Live Science that the archaeological team also recently unearthed a grave at the site where two horses were buried side by side, with part of a bridle. They dated this tomb to the mid-Bronze Age in the area, around 3,500 years ago.

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These two horses were buried side by side in a grave at the site which dates to the Middle Bronze Age, thousands of years after the Neolithic cemetery. (Image credit: Marcin Przybyła)

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Each wheelbarrow was made of earthen ramparts stacked above central stone-lined tombs, which were surrounded by a moat and palisades of wooden posts. (Image credit: Jan Bulas)

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The gigantic Neolithic long burial mound complex unearthed in southwestern Poland is believed to date from the Funnel Beaker people, who occupied much of central and northern Europe after around 4,100 years ago. (Image credit: Jan Bulas)

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The old cemetery is believed to date from around 5,500 years ago. Seven wheelbarrows over 130 feet long have been excavated so far and there could be more than a dozen. — Archaeologists estimate that the ancient cemetery in Poland dates from around 5,500 years ago. So far, seven burial mounds have been excavated and there may be more than a dozen. (Image credit: Jan Bulas)

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No human remains have yet been identified in the central tombs, but the remains of several burials from the same period have been found in the earthen embankments surrounding them, including this burial of a Neolithic woman. (Image credit: Jan Bulas)

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A four-sided underground structure that turned out to be an early medieval fortress caused crop marks on the ground in satellite photographs. The burial mounds and tombs of the Neolithic cemetery were found to the north and south of the fortress during excavations of the site. — The crop marks in a field that appeared on the satellite images turned out to be a four-sided underground structure. (Image credit: Marcin Przybyła and Michał Podsiadło)

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The fortress dates from the ninth and tenth centuries before the establishment of the Kingdom of Poland. It was surrounded by a wall of earth and a moat, shown here. — The fortress dates from the 9th and 10th centuries before the establishment of the Kingdom of Poland. It was surrounded by a wall of earth and a moat, shown here. (Image credit: Marcin Przybyła)

Funnel beaker people

The funnel-beaker people who built the ancient burial mounds near Dębiany spread throughout central Europe from around 4100 BC.

Related: 7 bizarre ancient cultures that history has forgotten

It is believed that these were farmers who emigrated to the region from what is now Spain and France, and who were themselves descendants of people who had emigrated from the Balkans, where they had adopted previous agricultural practices from the Middle East.

Archaeologists have unearthed long burial cemeteries built by residents of Funnel Beaker elsewhere in Poland, as well as in Germany and southern Scandinavia. One of the best known is hidden in a forest in the central Polish region of Kujawy – the huge burial mounds are sometimes called the Polish pyramids.

But it is believed that the old cemetery near Dębiany could be one of the largest funnel-burial mound complexes ever found, Przybyła said.

Archaeologists plan to continue their excavations to learn more about the Neolithic burial mounds and tombs, as well as the remains of the medieval fortress and moat that first drew them to the site.

So far, archaeologists have found no evidence that the fortress was permanently inhabited – they believe it may have been a military encampment – and no similar structure has been found in Poland.

Przybyła and Bulas said it was a “unique discovery” that would help them study fortification techniques used during the 9th and 10th centuries, a turbulent period in Polish history.

Originally posted on Live Science.

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