Wietrzychowice (Powiat Włocławski)
Wietrzychowice - a village in Poland , in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship , in the powiat Włocławek , in the municipality of Izbica Kujawska .
In the years 1919–1975 the village belonged to the Poznan Voivodeship and in 1975–1998 to the Włocławek Voivodeship. According to the census (March 2011) Wietrzychowice had 157 inhabitants. It is the thirteenth largest town in the Izbica Kujawska municipality.
Archaeological Natural Park
In the forest there is an archaeological nature park with megalithic tombs (long hill necropolis). They were built by shepherd and peasant tribes who lived there 5500 years ago. Because of the size of the tombs, also known as the Kujaw Hills, they are called the Polish pyramids .
In these developed tribes, a system of religious beliefs arose, which was evident in the construction of monumental stone and earth structures. These huge hills in the shape of an elongated triangle were often up to 150 m long. They were bordered with rocks and larger stones, the mass of which reached 7 to 10 tons at the top; as the grave narrowed, the stones became smaller. Thanks to this, they did not slide off and the buildings could last for almost millennia. There are gaps in the stone enclosure at the top of the hill. There were probably the entrances to wooden chambers that had served as burial places.
An average of about 150 m³ of stones and about 1000 m³ of earth were used to build a grave. Due to their size and weight, building blocks were likely carried by oxen. In these graves - also called żalki in Polish , according to Oskar Kolberg - only men were buried. Research has shown that these were individual burials, but there are discoveries of two men buried at the same time. The dead were placed upright on their backs. The heads of the dead were on the forehead of the grave.
The burial equipment was usually modest and limited to just a flint tool, part of the vessel, or limestone, indicating its symbolic nature. At last the concern for the fate of the deceased and the honor that his closest relatives had shown him, even in the erection of the pyramid and the enormous work that was given to build the tomb, which was massive according to burial custom.
Due to the construction of the graves and their inner parts made of large stones, they belong to the so-called megalithic graves. They date from the Neolithic Age and are the oldest grave complexes in Poland associated with the funnel beaker culture (end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd millennium BC). They precede the building of the Egyptian pyramids. They were probably burial sites for chiefs, local rulers, priests or tribal elders. At the tops of the graves remains of later funerals and ceremonies in honor of the deceased can be found. They were probably also a place of cult rituals in which the entire community participated.
Individual evidence
- ^ CIS: Ludność - Struktura według ekonomicznych grup wieku. Retrieved March 31, 2011 (Polish, March 31, 2011).
- ↑ Alicja Edyta Krzemińska, Anna Dzikowska, Anna Danuta Zaręba, Katarzyna Rozalia Jarosz, Krzysztof Widawski: The Significance of Megalithic Monuments in the Process of Place Identity Creation and in Tourism Development . In: Open Geosciences . tape 10 , no. 1 , September 18, 2018, ISSN 2391-5447 , p. 504-516 , doi : 10.1515 / geo-2018-0040 .