It’s probably just some kids messing around:
Your title is a bit misleading. It’s not one tunnel or an interconnected tunnel network. And most of the tunnels are pretty short. No more than 50 meters most of the time.
But what if, though? Maybe the mole men do exist.
My kid is obsessed with Henry Danger. It’s corny as all get out, but can be pretty funny. This is one of the better scenes and entirely related: https://youtu.be/a3q4IXx7zeY?feature=shared&t=117
Has anyone alerted the Fantastic Four?
End the mole men patriarchy! Mole women unite!
Ice storage?
Damn, good guess! That beats the hell out of “ceremonial”.
The most common explanation is that they served some religious purpose, but many archaeologists are very happy to label all kinds of things religious and ceremonial when they don’t know what else to call it, so who knows? There have been very few artifacts found in them. We’ll probably never find out.
(“Ceremonial” is often archaeology speak for “we have no idea what the fuck this was for.”)
My favorite thing is when archaeologists dig up female statues with big breasts and wide hips and call them evidence for a “cult of fertility”. I guess that sounds more sciencey than “porn”.
Dark meditation retreats are common in Tibetan Buddhism. The birthing canal metaphor is also extremely common in ritual ceremonies.
The equivalent to this I know of are located outside of central europe, specifically Ireland. Located in and under church grounds and graveyards they were used to hide/store valuables during raids, if not the congregation in like the 6th century.
This was according to the local priest in deep rural donegal, mind you.
(“Ceremonial” is often archaeology speak for “we have no idea what the fuck this was for.”)
I was just about to post this, but I see you already covered it lol
Looks like that kid dug it