6,000-year-old ditch reveals medieval tunnel in Germany
During routine excavations before the construction of wind turbines, archeologists in Saxony-Anhalt stumbled on a medieval tunnel tucked inside a 6,000-year-old ditch from the Baalberg culture.
This spot on Dornberg hill has layers of history stretching from the Stone Age to the Middle Ages—all in one place.
Evidence of burial practices across ages
Turns out, the site isn't just old—it's been reused for thousands of years.
Archeologists found poorly preserved burial remains, traces of a possible Bronze Age burial mound, and then this narrow tunnel packed with artifacts like pottery, a horseshoe, animal bones—even signs of an ancient fire.
It's like finding a time capsule showing how people kept coming back here for different reasons.
Erdstall tunnel is deliberately sealed
The Erdstall tunnel itself is pretty mysterious: it curves underground with a carved step and a niche, suggested to have been deliberately sealed by a stack of larger stones. Stuff inside dates to the late Middle Ages—so you get both medieval secrets and Stone Age rituals at one dig site.
This discovery is a reminder that beneath modern projects (like wind farms), there are stories waiting to be uncovered—sometimes stacked right on top of each other.