Archaeologists in western Poland are investigating what is believed to be a 5,500-year-old monumental tomb built by some of the region’s earliest farming communities.
The ancient earthwork lies at the edge of a forest near the village of Wyrzecz, in the Śrem commune of Greater Poland, within the General Dezydery Chłapowski Landscape Park. Researchers say their latest excavations have provided strong evidence that the elongated mound is a man-made megalithic tomb associated with the Funnel Beaker culture.
The site was first identified in 2024, when an employee of the Wielkopolska Voivodeship Landscape Parks Complex used LiDAR data to document a heavily levelled, elongated mound in the landscape.
Its unusual shape led researchers to suspect that it could be the remains of a long, chamberless megalithic tomb. Non-invasive investigations carried out in 2025 strengthened that interpretation, prompting archaeologists to return for targeted excavations this season.
Monument built by early farmers
Danuta Żurkiewicz, an archaeologist from the Faculty of Archaeology at Adam Mickiewicz University and the Archaeological Museum in Poznań, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that the monument was probably constructed around 5,500 years ago.
“We’re standing at the foot of — actually at the head of — an earth tomb of the Funnel Beaker culture,” Żurkiewicz said.
She described the monument as one of the earliest examples of large-scale construction to appear in what is now Poland.
The tomb was built by early agricultural communities that cultivated crops and raised livestock in Greater Poland. Rather than representing a newly arrived population, Żurkiewicz said these communities are thought to have developed locally.
Similar Funnel Beaker tombs discovered elsewhere could reach extraordinary dimensions, with some extending for 130 to 140 metres.
Although only a small part of the Wyrzecz monument has been excavated, researchers say the evidence already strongly supports its identification as a prehistoric tomb.
According to Żurkiewicz, the investigation has established with “almost 100% certainty” that the mound is a human construction rather than a natural geological feature.
Its distinctive form is an important clue because it does not resemble structures created by earlier or later communities known to have inhabited the area.
Excavations have also exposed elements of the tomb’s construction, including large boulders and smaller stones that appear to have formed a retaining wall around the earthen mound.
Within that monumental structure, archaeologists believe an important member of the prehistoric community may have been buried.
Pottery strengthens the case
Among the finds recovered from the excavation are fragments of prehistoric pottery.
While visually modest, the pottery could prove particularly valuable because preliminary examination indicates that it belonged to the same communities believed to have constructed the monument.
The discovery is significant because Greater Poland was, until recently, largely absent from the archaeological map of such megalithic tombs.
Examples have long been known from central Poland, particularly Kujawy, as well as from areas farther west across the modern German border. Despite abundant evidence that Funnel Beaker communities inhabited Greater Poland, comparable monumental tombs had rarely been identified there.
“If we went back three or four years, we wouldn’t have known of such sites anywhere in Greater Poland,” Żurkiewicz said, describing the region as having effectively been an “archaeological desert” for this particular type of monument.
Excavating as little as possible
The current excavation is deliberately small. Archaeologist Sebastian Teska said researchers began with a trench measuring just two metres by 12 metres.
The limited intervention reflects a broader principle of modern archaeology: extracting as much information as possible while causing minimal disturbance to the surviving monument.
Researchers are removing soil manually in layers approximately 10 centimetres deep. At every stage, the excavation surface is carefully cleaned and documented.
Photogrammetric markers are positioned across the trench before drones are used to produce detailed digital records. Surveying equipment is also employed to take precise measurements, allowing researchers to reconstruct and analyse the excavation digitally.
Because artefacts associated with the megalith are thousands of years old and often extremely small or badly damaged, archaeologists are sieving all excavated material.
According to Teska, the technique allows the team to recover objects measuring roughly one centimetre or more that could otherwise easily be overlooked.
LiDAR revealed hidden mound
The investigation began after Artur Golis of the Wielkopolska Voivodeship Landscape Parks Complex identified the unusual landform using LiDAR technology in 2024.
LiDAR uses laser measurements to produce highly detailed models of the ground surface and can reveal archaeological features that are difficult to recognise at ground level, particularly beneath woodland.
The elongated mound was initially interpreted as the possible remains of a megalithic tomb. In 2025, the parks authority commissioned non-invasive research led by Żurkiewicz in cooperation with Adam Mickiewicz University and the Archaeological Museum in Poznań.
That work included geomagnetic surveys and test drilling conducted by Teska, as well as a metal-detector survey by Maciej Szymczak.
Cartographic analysis has shown that the site has remained forested for at least 200 years. Golis said the long-term woodland cover may have helped preserve subtle prehistoric features that could otherwise have been destroyed or flattened by intensive agriculture.
Such landscapes can retain traces of ancient barrows, mounds and other earthworks for centuries.
Although park specialists were already familiar with prehistoric burial mounds in the region, Golis said finding a potential megalith was unexpected.
“While things like typical, round mounds and barrows — of which we have dozens in the parks here — are also our own discoveries, we didn’t expect to find megaliths here,” he said.
Research only beginning
The results of the initial investigations were sufficiently promising for archaeologists to return this year, accompanied by archaeology students from Adam Mickiewicz University.
Fieldwork at the Wyrzecz site is expected to continue until the end of next week. But researchers stress that completing the excavation will mark only the beginning of a much longer process.
Samples, artefacts, measurements, photographs and digital documentation collected at the site will subsequently undergo detailed laboratory and archaeological analysis.
“Leaving here is just the beginning of our journey,” Żurkiewicz said. “We’ll leave with documentation, samples, something that will only serve to build our knowledge of this site.”
The findings could ultimately help archaeologists fill a significant gap in the prehistoric record of Greater Poland, providing new evidence that the region’s early farming communities were participating in the same tradition of monumental tomb construction already documented elsewhere in prehistoric Europe.
Header Image Credit : Jakub Kaczmarczyk
Sources : PAP
