6,000-year-old burial mound in Czech Republic may be one of earliest funeral monuments ever found in Europe

Archaeologists have unearthed what may be Europe's largest prehistoric burial mound ahead of excavations beside a highway in the Czech Republic.

The burial mound, known as a barrow, is roughly 620 feet (190 m) long — nearly twice the length of an American football field — about 50 feet (15 m) across at its widest point, and oriented along a northeast-to-southwest axis, according to a translated statement from the University of Hradec Králové (UHK). 

The archaeologists think it dates from the fourth millennium B.C., which would make it one of the earliest funeral monuments ever found in Europe.

The date corresponds with the Funnel-Beaker people who lived in the area between 3800 and 3350 B.C. They are named after the distinctive pottery vessels given as grave goods in many of their burials.

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The barrow "represents the longest prehistoric mound not only in our region, but probably in the whole of Europe," Petr Krištuf, an archaeologist at the UHK, said in the statement.

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In addition to the two central burials in the barrow, which were probably those of high-status members of the prehistoric community that built it, about 30 graves thought to date from around the same time have been located nearby, according to a translated Facebook post from the department.