Approximately 120-150 Neolithicearthworksenclosures are known in Central Europe. They are called Kreisgrabenanlagen in German, or alternatively as roundels. They are mostly confined to the Elbe and Danube basins, in modern-day Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, as well as the adjacent parts of Hungary and Poland, in a stretch of Central European land some 800 km across. They date to the first half of the 5th millennium BC; they are associated with the late Linear Pottery culture and its local successors, the Stroke-ornamented ware and Lengyel cultures. The best known and oldest of these Circular Enclosures is the Goseck circle, constructed c. 4900 BC. Only a few examples approximate a circular form; the majority are only very approximately circular or elliptic. One example at Meisternthal is an exact ellipse with identifiable focal points. The distribution of these structures seems to suggest a spread from the middle Danube towards the west along the Danube and to the northwest following the Elbe. They precede the comparable circular earthwork or timber enclosures known from Great Britain and Ireland, constructed much later during c. 3000 to 1000 BC. But, by contrast to the long lifetime of the "Megalithic" culture, the time window during which the neolithic Roundels were in use is surprisingly narrow, lasting only for about 200-300 years. The earliest roundel to be described was the one at Krpy, Bohemia, by :cs:Jan Nepomuk Woldřich|Woldřich 1886, but it was only with systematic aerial survey in the 1980s and the 1990s that their ubiquity in the region became apparent. Three types have been distinguished:
two semicircular ditches forming a circle and separated by causeways at opposing entrances.
multiple circuits of ditches interrupted with entrances at cardinal or astronomically-oriented points and also having an internal single or double timber palisade.
The structures are mostly interpreted as having served a cultic purpose. Most of them are aligned and seem to have served the function of a calendar , in the context of archaeoastronomy sometimes dubbed "observatory", with openings aligned with the points sunrise and/or sunset at the solstices. This is the case with the "gates" or openings of the roundels of Quenstedt, Goseck and Quedlinburg. The observational determination of the time of solstice would not have served a practical purpose, but could have been used to maintain a lunisolar calendar. Known Circular Enclosures:
in Slovakia : about 50 candidate sites from aerial surveys, not all of which are expected to date to the Neolithic. There are 15 known neolithic sites. The largest of these are : Svodín 2, Demandice, Bajtava, Horné Otrokovce, Podhorany-Mechenice, Cífer 127 m, Golianovo, Žitavce, Hosťovce, Prašník. others: Borovce, Bučany, Golianovo, Kľačany, Milanovce, Nitrianský Hrádok, Ružindol-Borová
in Hungary: Aszód, Polgár-Csőszhalom, Sé, Vokány, Szemely-Hegyes
in the Czech Republic : 15 known sites, all dated to the late Stroked pottery. Běhařovice, Borkovany, Bulhary, Krpy, Křepice, Mašovice, Němčičky, Rašovice, Těšetice, Vedrovice
in Austria : 47 known sites with diameters between 40 and 180 m. Lower Austria: Asparn an der Zaya, Altruppersdorf, Altruppersdorf, Au am Leithagebirge, Friebritz, Gauderndorf, Glaubendorf, Gnadendorf, Göllersdorf, Herzogbirbaum, Hornsburg, Immendorf, Kamegg, Karnabrunn, Kleedorf, Kleinrötz, Michelstetten, Moosbierbaum, Mühlbach am Manhartsberg, Oberthern, Perchtoldsdorf, Plank am Kamp, Porrau, Pottenbrunn, Pranhartsberg, Puch, Rosenburg, Schletz, Simonsfeld, Statzendorf, Steinabrunn, Stiefern, Straß im Straßertale, Strögen, Velm, Wetzleinsdorf, Wilhelmsdorf, Winden, Würnitz. Upper Austria: Ölkam.
