They said three of the tunnels had millstones in them.
I think they're missing a concept...One being that many begin in kitchens.
I'd say they're gonna feel really, really stupid when they find out the primary use...
I’d agree that it’s something probably more mundane. What might complicate it is that some tunnels might be for some uses while others were for different ones. I think that since they have trouble keeping water out of them it might point to them still doing what they were designed to do (maybe) - be a semi-horizontal well. And that would also explain why some of them are quite narrow, not meant for people to pass through, and why some of them are blind, that they’re meant to drain water from the soil there.
Argument against it though would be that they tend to be in places that have abundant supplies of surface water. I can’t think of any deserts in Germany, Austria, etc. whereas qanats are for ensuring water in dry climates. But maybe that they are accessed by kitchens points to wanting a supply of water that can’t be interrupted by above-ground events, and a supply that is a purer water than found in streams, since it’s filtered through the soil, is similar to spring water.
I’ve heard of ancient grain pits, where the harvest was stored in anaerobic conditions, and it would explain things like millstones found in them, but they mentioned that the tunnels were extraordinarily clear of clues, and I’d think if they stored grain in them there would still be evidence of that. It’s hard to clean up every grain of rye or wheat in a bushel of it, even today. Maybe they were used as ancient ice houses, to store ice through the summer?