In the Mesolithic Age (ca. 8000-3500 B.C.) people started to settle, farm permanently and keep domestic animals in the following Neolithic Age. The most noticeable object of this time are the so-called megalithic graves - dolmen made of erratic blocks.

The name Hünengrab, German for megalithic grave, originated in the belief that giants or in German Hünen built these dolmen. There are numerous Neolithic settlement sites and megalithic graves along the Elbe, for example: in the Schieringer Forst near Barskamp.