MEGALITHS IN POLAND. The megalithic idea in the funerary rites of the funerary cup culture

Megaliths (from the Greek: mégas = great + líthos = stone) are among the most famous ancient monuments in Europe, and similar structures are also found on other continents. They bear witness to a particular trend of religious beliefs and related social behavior that permeated various archaeological cultures in Western, Northern and Central Europe during the Neolithic Age, leaving material traces in the form of gigantic stone and stone-earth structures.

In our exhibition, the main focus is on the builders of the Polish megaliths, i.e. the people of the funnel-shaped cup culture (the name comes from the form of a vessel with a funnel-shaped neck), the development of which falls into the Neolithic era, the time of farmers and ranchers (from the late 4th through the entire 3rd millennium BC).

The exhibition will be mainly illustrative in nature. Among the objects on display will be ceramics (a special category of artefacts will be vessels that are grave furnishings), flint, stone and bone working tools and objects of daily use, but also copies of flint artefacts and replicas of vessels. An exceptional find presented here are two unique amber rings from a megalithic tomb in Łupawa (Pomeranian Voivodeship). Information charts, films and computer animations will be a valuable complement to the monuments on display.

In Poland, the most recognizable megaliths are the so-called Kujawy tombs, which were built around 3,500 BC – a thousand years earlier than in Egypt. Megalithic structures have also been discovered in other areas of our country: including Pomerania, Swietokrzyskie, Malopolska and Wielkopolska, Silesia and Mazovia or Podkarpacie.

Depending on the characteristic elements of their construction, many types and types of them were distinguished, which are not only tombs, such as dolmens, circles, avenues of menhirs, corridor and gallery tombs. One can guess that the remains of important personalities were deposited under the mounds. Unfortunately, apart from the megaliths, nothing else indicates this, as the equipment of the tombs was usually very modest (single vessels, flint tools of daily use, elements of weapons). An exceptional find presented at the exhibition are two unique amber rings from the megalithic tomb of Łupawa, Pomeranian Voivodeship.

When and where the megalithic idea originated is one of the most important and difficult questions. Scientists’ views are divided. Without prejudging the question of the origin of megaliths on a global scale, their oldest center in Europe is the Iberian Peninsula, Brittany and the British Isles. Here, monumental stone tombs have been found since at least the fifth millennium BC, and from this region the megalithic idea spread to Germany, Scandinavia and Poland. The disappearance of these structures occurred around 2000 BC, but this is a conventional date, since megalithic assumptions are still found in the Bronze Age, such as Stonehenge, which functioned until around 1400 BC.

In Poland, the idea of megalithism was prevalent from the end of the 4th, throughout the 3rd millennium BC, and is linked to the people of the Funnel Cave culture. Later it appeared again at the turn of the eras with the Goths, who came to Pomerania from Scandinavia. The exhibition attempts to present selected megalithic issues from the Neolithic period.

The artefacts for the exhibition come from the collections of the District Museum in Sandomierz, the Department of Archaeology at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Rzeszów and the Regional Museum in Stalowa Wola. 

Curator of the exhibition: Monika Kuraś

Arrangement: BUDCUD

Replicas of vessels: Archaeological Workshop Three Ages Monika Bajka

All those interested in deepening the subject of megaliths in Poland are invited to watch the excellent film “Megaliths – a story from 5500 years ago”, made by Krzysztof Paluszyński