Grave

In the late Neolithic Period, burial customs changed in Northern Germany. Instead of using burial chambers, people now buried their dead in single graves, upon which mounds of earth were heaped. Therefore, the second Neolithic culture in Northern Germany is called Single Grave Culture. Normally, the dead were not cremated before burial at that time; in the cemetery of Hamburg-Lohbrügge, however, only cremation burials were found. The typical beakers, which otherwise were only found as grave goods, served as urns for cremation remains here. The custom of cremation burials supposedly reached the north from the Hungarian Plane via Bohemia.