Six feet under – the Funnel Beaker megalithic graves under the Ahlen-Falkenberger Moor, Germany

Abstract

In the Elbe-Weser Triangle, located in the north-west of Germany and framed by the rivers Elbe and Weser, a total of approx. 350 megaliths of the Funnel Beaker Culture (FBC) have been identified. Despite their large number there is little knowledge about the monuments themselves, their architecture or their history of use. This lack of information is partly attributed to widespread destruction or disturbance of the megaliths located in the open landscape during the past centuries. Other monuments have been covered by bog or clay deposits of marine inundations and thus have not been investigated or even found, yet. However, due to intense draining measures within the bog area of Ahlen-Falkenberg, dist. Cuxhaven several megalithic graves were discovered in the past decades, revealing a protected burial landscape of the 4th and 3rd millennium BC. This paper focuses on three passage graves, which have been examined in the scope of a research project in the years 2019–2022. The fieldwork has brought to light well preserved elements of the original burial structures, including a protective massive stone packing around the chambers. We were further able to identify and typochronologically date different burial activities of the FBC, as well as activities related to people associated with the Single Grave Culture. The latter seem to have had massive impact on the monuments and their accessibility. In the light of environmental changes in the Neolithic, the reconstruction of the monuments biographies was attempted. In sum the monuments show individual, local and regional traditions that were embedded in a supra-regional FBC network.