Archaeologists Excavating Europe’s Oldest Civilization

For the last several years, archaeologists have been steadily working to excavate a network of dozens of temples that are believed to be older than the pyramids in Egypt, and even older than Stonehenge. More than 150 gigantic monuments have already been identified and unearthed beneath fields and cities in Austria, Germany, and Slovakia. The temples are built from wood and earth and are surrounded by fences and ramparts that extend for thousands of feet. The fortifications and buildings, built between 4800BC and 4600BC, are believed to have been constructed by a civilization based on farming and agriculture. The people were obviously religious, based on the number of temples discovered, and the lived in communal longhouses grouped around large village areas, each surrounding a central temple. The people raised large herds of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and fashioned tools out of stone, wood, and bones. They also fabricated small ceramic statues of humans and animals, as well as large amounts of geometrically decorated pottery. The established community seems to have died out after about 200 years. The discovery is so new, and the excavations are so preliminary, that this culture has not even been given a name yet.

Archaeologists are working to unearth what is believed to be the oldest civilization in Europe, built almost 7,000 years ago

Very interesting. Not earth shattering, but interesting non-the-less.

Good find.this is one of the reasons that I'm addicted to ARS>

If anyone can find anything else on this dig, please post I want to read more about this.

Thanks for the post DarkStormCrow, I love reading about new finds, and this is a good one. I guess this will put a new look on stone age people. I have not read anything about stone age people building temples to worship in or even growing their own food.

This will change the way we look at our ancestors.

Nice find.
Though this probably doesnt count as Europe you might find it interesting, there is evidence being unearthed in Turkey that predates this find. The city of Çatalhöyük first existed approximately 9000 years ago.

The worlds first city?

At a time when most of the world's people were nomadic hunter-gatherers, Çatalhöyük was a bustling town of as many as 10,000 people.

I started a thread about it here with more links if your interested. It continues to amaze me how many exciting discoveries continue to take place and enrich our meagre knowledge of the past. I'll see if i can find anything on more on the dig you posted DarkStormCrow.

mojo