Kuyavian Pyramids (), known as Kuyavian Mounds (), Graves of Giants () or Polish Pyramids are enormous tombs, megalithic structures in Kuyavia, Poland. They were built in the late stages of the Younger Stone Age (ca. 3000âÂÂ2200 BC), over a period of no more than 500 years. They demonstrate a relatively high level of architectural knowledge, the ability to use simple devices such as levers, and good organization of their builders' work. The orientation of the graves relative to the cardinal directions (east-west) indicates knowledge of certain basic astronomy.
In Poland, outside Eastern Kuyavia, they occur in Western Pomerania. These structures are elongated trapezoidal in shape, less frequently circular.
Two tomb clusters are located near Izbica Kujawska â currently archaeological reserves in Wietrzychowice and Sarnowo, Gmina Lubraniec. Individual tombs have survived in the villages of and Obaà Âki. Until the 1920s, they survived in the village of à Âmieà Ây and on the border of Wietrzychowice and Osiecz Maà Ây. Oskar Kolberg reported that tombs were still very numerous in Kuyavia in the 19th century.
The stone enclosure of the grave likely reflects the shape of the large houses of the first farmers of this region, dating from around 4300âÂÂ3000 BC, belonging to the (Danubian culture) or Funnelbeaker culture. Some of the individual boulders forming the eastern wall weigh up to several tons. Their size gradually decreases as the grave narrows westward. The entire structure may have been up to 100 meters long, and the base (eastern wall) 8âÂÂ10 meters wide. At the top of the grave, in a designated rectangle and in a special pit, was the skeletal burial of one person (presumably the leader â the patriarch of the family), surrounded by stones in a mound. The entire enclosure was covered by a stone and earth mantle up to 4 meters high. It is estimated that the construction of an average-sized structure of this type required up to 600 tons of earth and over 200 tons of stone. In the 1970s, from Poznaà Â, represented by Prof. T. Wià Âlaà Âski, conducted a series of archaeological works, examining, among others, two megalithic graves located next to each other, situated at the present border of the Pomietów and Karsko, Pyrzyce County fields, and others located in the KrÃÂpcewo fields and near Dolice.