A 5,000 - year - old Neolithic situation has been unearthed on a Danish island that holds an unusual secret : a stone - paved cellar associated with the Beaker Culture .

The internet site , know as Nygårdsvej 3 , is place near the Danish village of Eskilstrup on the island of Falster . It was disclose during the extension and electrification of a railway bloodline that passed through a local farm .

The excavation give away two phases of house construction that were built using designs common to theFunnel Beaker Culture . Named after the decided funnel - forge beakers they produced , these people were a pregnant Neolithic archaeological culture that existed in Northern Europe between around 4000 and 2800 BCE .

They were the first farming gild in the region and spread across much of what is now forward-looking Denmark , northern Germany , southern Sweden , and parts of the Netherlands and Poland . With this change , people start to work up the first houses in the part , along with megalithic tombs ( dolmens ) , and other landscape - altering structures . This marked a drastic transmutation aside from the hunting watch - gatherer lifestyle of the Late Mesolithic epoch .

The find is important simply because it is an extremely rarefied discovery .

One such body structure has been identify at Nygårdsvej 3 land site . Among 141 post hole found at the site , several appear to mold the wall and central posts of two house make on the same spot in unlike form . In total , 38 posthole were used for the first construction and 35 for the indorsement , suggesting that considerable preparation plump into its construction .

The building ' floor were made of compacted loam , which is made by mixing sand and clay . This type of flooring was being used elsewhere in the world at the metre , but was prettyadvancedfor Scandinavia . But below this floor was the most challenging aspect of the site .

Archaeologists discovered a gamy number of pebble that were deliberately placed as a recessed feature film that resemble , so the researchers exact , a cellar . This may not sound like much to us today , but if this rendering is right , then this would represent a substantial technical jump that would have helped conserve food for thought .

“ The find is significant simply because it is an extremely uncommon find ” , Marie Brinch , an archeologist with the Museum Lolland - Falster and lead writer of a raw subject field on the site , explained to IFLScience .

“ In Denmark , as well as most of Northern Europe , Stone Age endocarp architecture is ‘ limited to ’ the megalithic anatomical structure . To my knowledge stone architecture connected to average houses is almost unknown . The question is if this was a vulgar feature in Stone Age star sign or whether it is a interrogation of good preservation at the site . ”

to put forward the “ cellar ” rendition , Brinch and confrere had to annihilate alternatives . For instance , could the natural depression be a grave or dolmen that the house was built upon ? The layout for sure resemble that of these types of structures , but the team ruled it out because they did not see any stiff to keep going it .

The team also rejected the idea that the distance was used for ritualistic practices based on other artifacts found at the website that could be interpreted as votive in nature . However , there was not enough material grounds to paint a picture this was the case .

As such , the researchers are still not totally certain what the space was used for .

“ I do n’t have an answer to that ” , Brinch add together , “ but since we have been excavating many Neolithic theatre and since the preservation at the site did not seem out of the ordinary , I am inclined to retrieve that this was not a mutual feature film – but only time will distinguish . ”

According toradiocarbon datingresults , the “ cellar ” and the first house were construct between 3080 and 2780 BCE , while the second house was build around 2800 BCE .

In addition to the structures , the archaeologists recover 1,216 artifact , including flint pecker , thrower , fire - crack flint , and fire bone fragment . The team also found two fossilized sea urchin in the deep-set space . It was the urchin that originally suggested the sunken story may have been used for ritualistic purposes , but the team could not predominate out whether they or any other artifact at the site was placed there deliberately or just accumulated at the infinite over time .

Nygårdsvej 3 proffer some intriguing insight into the structure of Neolithic Denmark , even if it beg more question than it reply . However , there are no design to excavate at the website in the future .

“ The archeological site was a ‘ rescue archeological site ’ ( according to the Danish Museum Law ) in relation to a large construction project along the railway that runs through Falster , ” Brinch explained . “ The orbit had to be excavated because it was to be used for the construction project , so even if we wanted to it is impossible to go back . ”

Still , this does not have in mind continued research into what was recovered will not offer answers to the strange cellar - like space and the people who built it .

The study is published inRadiocarbon .