WYSKOĆ, POLAND—Notes from Poland reports that during a routine archaeological survey of Chlapowski Landscape Park in Wyskoć, a team from Adam Mickiewicz University located two monumental triangular structures sometimes referred to as “Polish pyramids.” These complexes served as burials for high-ranking individuals of the Funnelbeaker culture around 5,500 years ago. “Although the Funnelbeaker cultures were fairly egalitarian communities, individuals important to the population—a leader, a priest, a shaman—were buried in tombs,” said researcher Artur Golis. The recently discovered tombs are around 650 feet long and 13 feet high, and are oriented with their entrances facing east. These kinds of monuments usually contained a single skeletal burial, in which the body was laid in an upright position on its back and its legs pointing toward the front of the megalith. The tombs were typically furnished with grave goods such as stone axes, pottery, and copper ornaments, and were surrounded by a separate stone enclosure. To read about Funnelbeaker graves found at the center of monumental fourth-millennium b.c. mounds in eastern Bohemia, go to "Around the World: Czech Republic."
