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New interpretations of the Stone Age landscape in Falbygden

The Falbygden area of central Västergötland in southwestern Sweden is home to one of northern Europe's greatest concentrations of megalithic graves from the New Stone Age (approx. 4000-1500 BC). A new archaeology thesis from the University of Gothenburg now shows that these “passage graves” were not designed to be visible across wide areas – instead they seem to be almost hidden within the landscape.

Tony Axelsson, doctoral student and archaeologist at the Västergötland Museum, has investigated what the Stone Age landscape in Falbygden actually looked like, and how the people of the time related to their surroundings.

Using a geographical information system (GIS) into which he entered relics in the form of passage graves, settlements and stray finds, he has been able to produce digital maps of the prehistoric landscape. His analyses reveal, among other things, that the passage graves do not seem to have been designed to be seen from great distances....
Read entire article at AlphaGalileo