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For two years, an international team of archaeologists from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, the University of Wrocław, the University of Hradec Králové, and Charles University investigated an unusual and exceptionally rare complex of burial monuments. Their research focused on a Late Neolithic long barrow, approximately 20 metres in length, located near the Polish village of Muszkowice. Along its central axis stand two circular burial mounds which, according to the team's new findings, are significantly younger. Initial analyses indicate that the older monument was constructed around 6,000 years ago, while one of the younger mounds most likely dates to the 8th century AD.

The findings suggest that the site retained its sacred character for thousands of years. “It is as if we were to choose a burial place for our loved ones today that people had already been using long before the Egyptian pyramids were built. That is the extraordinary span of time separating the two burial mounds at Muszkowice. It represents more than 150 human generations. Some places in the landscape can preserve their significance for that long, and that is what makes our discovery so remarkable,” said Petr Krištuf, the project's principal investigator from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen.

The research builds on the Czech team's long-term work in the area surrounding Mount Říp, where archaeologists have investigated several long barrows and their relationship with the surrounding landscape in recent years. This is precisely why Muszkowice is of exceptional importance to Czech archaeologists. “The discoveries at Muszkowice allow us to understand the long barrows around Mount Říp better and to determine which features were shared across Central Europe and which were regionally specific,” Petr Krištuf added. “While most long barrows in the Czech Republic have been almost destroyed over the centuries by intensive agriculture, those in Poland have survived in forested environments, preserving not only their locations but also the above-ground elements of their original structures.”

To understand not only the burial mounds themselves but also the surrounding landscape and the reasons why people selected this place for funerary rituals, archaeologists collected more than 1,200 soil samples over two field seasons. Their analyses have already shown, among other findings, that the long barrow was built using local chernozem, one of the most fertile soil types in Central Europe. The same pattern has been identified at long barrows in the Mount Říp region, including the site at Dušníky. For the earliest farming communities, chernozem was the most valuable soil in the landscape, and its use in constructing these monuments was likely connected not only to practical building considerations but also to the symbolic significance of the agricultural landscape.