What archaeologists are learning from an eerie 2,600-year-old burial chamber

A prehistoric burial chamber believed to have been constructed around 2,600 years ago has been discovered by in .

According to the press release, the eerie wooden chamber was found during excavations near the town of Riedlingen in southwest Germany, on the plains of the Danube, the State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Württemberg.

The chamber is located in the centre of a large burial mound with a dimension of over 210 feet in diameter and six feet in height, although it may have once reached around 20 feet high.

Speaking about the discovery, Andrea Lindlohr an official with the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for Regional Development and Housing, said at a press conference: "The newly discovered burial chamber represents an extraordinary testimony of our rich monument landscape. 2,600 years after its construction, the [burial chamber] is still fully preserved.

"The archaeological heritage of Baden-Württemberg is impressive and opens insights into long-gone periods and societies."

The "princely burial mounds" were reportedly constructed by the Celtic people who once inhabited southwest Germany.

One such mound is near Riedlingen and is thought to have been constructed between around 620 B.C. and 450 BC.-typically for particularly high-ranking individuals.

Archaeologists discovered substantial oak timbers of a large, completely preserved burial chamber-with its ceiling, wall, and floor-just below the modern ground surface within the burial mound near Riedlingen.

The State Office hailed the discovery as "unique and of outstanding scientific importance" given that buried wood usually does not preserve for very long, usually surviving for a few years to decades under normal conditions.

According to the experts, finding wood in these mounds is extremely rare as timber was the most crucial building material during the Early Celtic period.

Experts suggest that the preservation of the wooden burial chamber for such a long time may be due to the low oxygen conditions within the mound.

Dirk Krausse, an archaeologist with the State Office for Cultural Heritage Baden-Württemberg, said in the press release: "The Riedlingen grave is a stroke of luck for archaeology: the scientific significance of this fully preserved Celtic chamber grave, investigated using modern methods, extends far beyond the boundaries of Baden-Württemberg and southern Germany."