Aerial view of the Middle Neolithic trapezoidal ditch; disturbance caused by late medieval earthworks can be observed in the southeast.
Another erdstall discovered. After all, what were these narrow and discreet passages that our ancestors excavated for?
Archaeologists in Germany recently discovered yet another ancient and very unusual underground tunnel, inside a prehistoric funerary complex. The finding that the team responsible describes as “very special” once again casts doubt on something that is still very much understood: the so-called erdstallswhich appear to be narrow and discreet passages, excavated by humans, spread across various regions of Europe.
The most recent tunnel was identified near the town of Reinstedt, in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, according to . It is a buried structure measuring around 60 centimeters wide and 1.2 meters high and was built between 800 and 1,100 years ago.
Inside, researchers found a small chamber with pottery fragments datable to the 13th or 14th centuries. In a separate cavity, a horseshoe, a fox skeleton and the bones of small mammals were collected. One detail caught our attention: a layer of coal along the tunnel — a sign that, at some point, fires were lit there.
The discovery took place as part of prospecting and documentation work that began last year, before the installation of wind turbines in the area. The site was already known for containing a trapezoidal pit used as a funerary space by communities from the Baalberge culturewho lived in that region during the Neolithic, around 6,000 years ago.
According to archaeologists, in , the underground passage was excavated much later: part of the ancient moat was cut almost at right angles. At first glance, the shape of the cut in the ground, an elongated oval cavity, led the team to suspect a grave; the confirmation that it was, after all, an erdstall came as a surprise.
Erdstalls remain one of the biggest questions in European archeology to this day. There are hundreds of registered examples, but no one knows exactly what their function is. Some hypotheses point to hiding places used in times of dangerwhile others suggest economic usessuch as storage cellars, explains the ; There are still interpretations that admit religious functions or ritualspossibly associated with Christian practices. The problem is that these structures rarely contain enough archaeological material to support firm conclusions, and it is possible that they played different roles depending on the local context.
In the case of Reinstedt, the team considers it plausible that the choice of location, an ancient “pagan” cemetery, was not accidental. The area could be a discreet and uncrowded hideout.
Because they are extremely narrow, these passages appear associated in several regions with narratives about elves, goblins and dwarvesreflected in popular designations such as “goblin holes” or “dwarf holes”.
The excavation at Reinstedt is complete and the team is now evaluating the data and materials collected. A scientific publication is planned, and researchers hope that future discoveries will allow us to better understand the distribution, use and, above all, the function of these enigmatic underground structures that remain a mystery.
