The finding sheds important light on Neolithic Europe’s social, religious, and architectural sophistication.
Two enormous prehistoric buildings known as the “Polish pyramids” were discovered by Polish archaeologists, who made a startling discovery. The Neolithic burials were discovered in the General Dezydery Chlapowski Landscape Park in the Wielkopolska region’s Wyskoc settlement. The Wielkopolska Voivodeship’s Complex of Landscape Parks shared the discovery on Facebook.
The megalithic tombs, which are approximately contemporaneous with Stonehenge and predating the Egyptian pyramids, date back more than 5,500 years to the 4th millennium BCE, according to archaeologists from Adam Mickiewicz University.
Massive stones, some weighing up to 10 tons, were used to build the tombs and were moved with the use of labor and tools, according to Archaeology News. Up to 200 meters in length and 4 meters in height, the buildings are elongated trapezoids.
The meticulous alignment of the tombs with the instructions suggests that the builders had a highly developed knowledge of astronomy.
In addition to grave goods including ceramics, stone axes, and opium pots, the graves most likely held lone skeletons that were placed on their backs with their legs pointing east.
The Funnelbeaker Culture, a Neolithic society renowned for its agricultural methods and magnificent funeral architecture, built the graves, according to the experts.
According to Artur Golis of the regional landscape park association, “the tombs held important figures for the community—the leader, the priest, and the shaman,” despite the fact that the Funnelbeaker cultures were highly egalitarian societies.
“Each generation of a given community built its own megalith,” he said in an interview with Poland’s press outlet PAP.
The finding sheds important light on Neolithic Europe’s social, religious, and architectural sophistication. Our knowledge of early European civilizations is likewise called into question.
Only the tombs concealed in wooded regions have survived into the current age; many others have been lost or deteriorated over the centuries.
“Potentially, these might include stone axes, hatchets, pottery, or characteristic clay vessels, including ones used for opium,” Golis stated to TVP World.
