Sometimes it feels like every corner of our planet has been mapped, catalogued, portioned up, explained, and generally drained of any of its mystery. Which...
The most common explanation is that they served some religious purpose, but many archaeologists are very happy to label all kinds of things religious and ceremonial when they don’t know what else to call it, so who knows? There have been very few artifacts found in them. We’ll probably never find out.
(“Ceremonial” is often archaeology speak for “we have no idea what the fuck this was for.”)
The equivalent to this I know of are located outside of central europe, specifically Ireland. Located in and under church grounds and graveyards they were used to hide/store valuables during raids, if not the congregation in like the 6th century.
This was according to the local priest in deep rural donegal, mind you.
The most common explanation is that they served some religious purpose, but many archaeologists are very happy to label all kinds of things religious and ceremonial when they don’t know what else to call it, so who knows? There have been very few artifacts found in them. We’ll probably never find out.
(“Ceremonial” is often archaeology speak for “we have no idea what the fuck this was for.”)
The equivalent to this I know of are located outside of central europe, specifically Ireland. Located in and under church grounds and graveyards they were used to hide/store valuables during raids, if not the congregation in like the 6th century.
This was according to the local priest in deep rural donegal, mind you.
I was just about to post this, but I see you already covered it lol