Archaeologists Uncover Rare Prehistoric Cellar in Denmark, Complete With Paved Floor

It may seem hard to relate to Neolithic humans, who lived a vastly different lifestyle from what modern people are used to, but just like us, they needed a place to store their junk.

That’s one possible reason a group of Stone Age people went to the trouble of constructing a cellar beneath a home in what’s now Denmark. While such archaeological finds aren’t exactly unheard of for the time period, this one is unusual because it featured a paved floor—an almost unheard of feature for the Neolithic.

Members of the Funnel Beaker Culture created the cellar, a population that arose around 4000 BCE and was composed of groups that lived across parts of Germany, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands. One of those groups lived on the island of Falster in southeast Denmark, where workers stumbled on the remains of ancient homes while extending a railway in the area.

When archaeologists began to excavate the area, which they named Nygårdsvej 3, they found holes and pits they determined had held up walls and posts from two houses, built on the same spot at different times. Describing their findings in the journal Radiocarbon, the team, led by Marie Brinch of Denmark’s Museum Lolland-Falsterr, wrote that as they dug deeper, they found a large number of pebbles, packed together in a way that made it obvious it was done by humans. The archaeologists had found the ancient remains of a paved floor, measuring around 5 feet by 6.5 feet (2 meters by 1.5 meters).

Archaeologists had discovered Neolithic paved floors before, but they were usually connected to grave sites. The houses, however, were built differently from megalithic tombs. While many artifacts were scattered around the site, including pottery shards, bone fragments, tools, and a pair of petrified sea urchins, none appeared to be linked to burial rituals. Nygårdsvej 3, the archaeologists concluded, was home to something far more mundane than a sacred burial ground: It was a cellar. Carbon dating of charcoal found nearby suggests the cellar was likely built sometime between 3500 and 3000 BCE, making it the second oldest paved cellar ever found in the area.

It’s unclear what the room may have been used for. “Due to the limited number of finds from the cellar itself, its function can only be surmised,” Brinch and her colleagues wrote, adding that storing food in a cool environment seems like a good bet.

The purpose of the cellar remains unclear, and the overall function of Nygårdsvej 3 is still a mystery. Brinch’s team noted that remnants of fences suggest the site was fortified, making it unlikely to have been a simple home. Instead, it may have served as a gathering place and trading post, where people exchanged goods and possibly formed alliances.

It’s possible the cellar may have been used to hide from the Neolithic version of those acquaintances and family members who come over and never take a hint on when they’ve overstayed their welcome, but we may just be reading too far into this. Still, European Stone Age humans: they’re just like us (in that they had basements, sometimes).