Latest Posts

This roughly 25 by 5.5 metre long barrow was badly damaged at its eastern end when a forest track was cut straight through it. The remains of the chamber — a simple dolmen — sit at this same eastern end, but are so disturbed that no coherent structure can be made out any more. The information board on site displays a plan showing both the current and the original outline of the long barrow.

From the B105 in the forest between Gressow and Grevesmühlen, head towards Barendorf. After about 2.4 km, turn left at the junction. After a further 250 m you reach the wooded area of the northern group. A small parking area with an information board showing the layout of the graves can be seend from. Everstorfer Forst Nord 1 lies right at the forest edge, the first tomb you reach.

Visited June 2026

Everstorfer Forst Süd 5 is a heavily damaged extended dolmen oriented in a north-west to south-east direction. Only four supporting stones remain in an elongated depression. The dimensions of the chamber were determined from the cobblestone paving found during an excavation in 1967. Each short side of the chamber, measuring 4.6 by 1.3 metres, featured four supporting stones. The reconstruction assumes the presence of two capstones.

To get to the tomb, walk a short distance north-west along the road from the Südgruppe car park, leaving the B105 behind you. After about 30 metres, a forest track branches off to the left towards the west. Follow the path for about 75 metres; a sign reading ‘Geschütztes Bodendenkma’l (Protected Archaeological Site) marks the footpath that leads to the left and in about 40 metres to the tomb.

Visited June 2026

Taken from the on-site information board:

Stone Age megalithic tomb
—a destroyed dolmen—

At a time when humankind made do with simple earthen caves, tent-like huts or stilt houses as dwellings, they erected structures for eternity for their dead. Even today, on remote moors or in secluded woods, we still find massive stone structures as the half-vanished remnants of that distant prehistory (4th millennium BCE), some of which, like this one, fell victim to stone quarrers.

This structure consisted of an approximately square chamber, which was sealed from above by capstones. Originally, this structure was probably also surrounded by a stone ring and covered with earth. This is a large dolmen of which only fragments remain. Apart from the four wall stones, the capstones, wall stones and keystones were dismantled by stone cutters and were probably used for road construction.

During an investigation of the site by the Mecklenburg archaeologist Prof. Dr Ewald SchuIdt in 1967, remains of a cobblestone paving were found in the chamber floor. This made it possible to determine the chamber’s original dimensions precisely as 1.3 m wide and 4.6 m long. The positions of the wall stones, which are now missing, could also be identified.

Despite the extensive damage to the site, the drawn reconstruction provides an impressive picture of the original chamber.

Everstorfer Forst Süd 4 or Ganggrab von Jamel is a near-complete passage grave that sits within a trapezoid long barrow; of the kerb, however, only a few stones on the western and southern sides survive. The tomb is a north-west/south-east oriented Funnel Beaker Culture (TBK) construction dating to 3500–2800 BC — the classic passage-grave form of a chamber with a laterally attached, structurally separate passage.

Of the two surviving capstones, both have slipped down into the chamber; the western one is now propped up on a modern concrete base. The southern end of the entrance passage, along with its capstones, is missing entirely.

To get to the tomb, walk a short distance north-west along the road from the Südgruppe car park, leaving the B105 behind you. After about 30 metres, a forest track branches off to the left towards the west. Follow this for about 170 metres; here, a small footpath leads north-west and, after a further 40 metres or so, you reach the grave.

Visited June 2026

Taken from the on-site information board:

As arable farming and livestock rearing became increasingly prevalent in the North German Plain, supplanting the traditional hunter-gatherer economy, the farming communities settling there began, during the 4th millennium BCE, to construct burial monuments from large boulders that remain impressive to this day.

These stone monuments, also known as ‘megalithic tombs’ (a term derived from Greek), were communal graves. They were not used to inter the mortal remains of distinguished individuals, but rather those of a settlement or village community. However, as we now know, it was not the bodies of the deceased that were interred here, but rather, in the manner of ossuaries, their bones—which had already been buried elsewhere for some time—together with the remains of the original burial site.

This megalithic tomb was first mentioned in 1846 by G. L. F. Lisch. In 1927, it was investigated by R. Beitz. A follow-up investigation was carried out in 1966 by the Mecklenburg archaeologist Prof. Dr Ewald Schuldt.

Despite the absence of some blocks, the length of the bed was determined to be 15 m and the width 10.5 m. The boundary stones, which are remarkably small compared to the chamber stones, were arranged in a trapezium shape. The rather wide gaps were filled with dry stonework made from rolled stones. A passage leading into the chamber was situated on the southern long side of the enclosure, between two larger blocks. Although the capstones were missing, it was possible to determine that it was originally probably constructed from three yokes. The passage, which ended between the third and fourth wall stones, was marked at the end by a large, broad threshold stone. The passage is approximately 2.5 m long, 0.6 m wide and 0.8 m high. In the large chamber, the floor was partly paved with boulders and divided into six sections by upright red sandstone slabs. Of the burial chamber, which consisted of six yokes, only two capstones remain.

This complex was built by members of the so-called Funnel Beaker Culture; subsequent burials in the burial chamber also date from the significantly younger Globular Amphora Culture and the Late Neolithic Individual Grave Culture.

The current appearance of the passage grave is the result of a reconstruction commissioned by the State Archaeologist W. Bastian in 1936.