Oldendorfer Totenstatt, Megalithic burial ground in Oldendorf, Germany

Oldendorfer Totenstatt is a group of six burial mounds and megalithic sites in the Luhe valley north of Amelinghausen. Sites 1, 3 and 4 are long dolmens (Hünenbetten) measuring 45, 43 and 80 metres; sites 2, 5 and 6 are round tumuli, the largest about 20 metres across. Site 4 has a passage grave with an eight-metre chamber of twelve upright stones, set at the very end of the mound.

The oldest chambers at the site were built around 5700 years ago by early farming communities who used large stones to mark their dead. Later mounds on the same ground show that people returned to add new burials over many centuries.

The name "Totenstatt" means "place of the dead" in German, which gives an immediate sense of how people understood this site. Visitors today can walk among the mounds and see how carefully the stones were placed within each chamber.

The site is freely open at all times, with no fences or entry restrictions, so you can explore at your own pace. Information boards placed around the grounds explain each mound and help you find your way between them.

A greenish stone battle axe found in 2023 during excavation of a mound partly investigated in 1964 is over 4,000 years old and probably came from Jutland. Its wooden shaft has decayed, and the blade appears never to have been used.