Found: Europe's oldest civilisation

[Outdoorsman]

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=645976

Found: Europe's oldest civilisation

11 June 2005

Archaeologists have discovered Europe's oldest civilisation, a network of dozens of temples, 2,000 years older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids.

More than 150 gigantic monuments have been located beneath the fields and cities of modern-day Germany, Austria and Slovakia. They were built 7,000 years ago, between 4800BC and 4600BC. Their discovery, revealed today by The Independent, will revolutionise the study of prehistoric Europe, where an appetite for monumental architecture was thought to have developed later than in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

In all, more than 150 temples have been identified. Constructed of earth and wood, they had ramparts and palisades that stretched for up to half a mile. They were built by a religious people who lived in communal longhouses up to 50 metres long, grouped around substantial villages. Evidence suggests their economy was based on cattle, sheep, goat and pig farming.

[Draconian Umpire]

That's awesome. It's curious on how the mainstream news hasn't covered it whatsoever.

[Liffrea]

That's awesome. It's curious on how the mainstream news hasn't covered it whatsoever.

I think its called political correctness. The mear idea that Europeans were capable of developing a high civilisation without the aid of Asian or indeed African influence, would be abhorent to their political agenda. Not to mention the epi-centre of the culture appears to be Germany......

[battleax]

the page is 404 now for some reason

[Liffrea]

the page is 404 now for some reason

Here is a few links:

http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/001336.html
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15581021-23109,00.html
http://www.mirabilis.ca/archives/003013.html

[Tyr's Hand]

Wow. It's surprising and not surprising at the same time. So much for ex oriente lux.

[Trothskjold]

Aye; I've always been a firm disbeliever in "all light coming from the East." The notion of a vast majority of the ancient world's knowledge being imparted on Europe through good-willed Middle Easterners is something that never sat right with me.

[The Mersey's Watcher]

Absolutely amazing !.


Why this monumental culture collapsed is a mystery.

Anyone here got any theories ?. I'm no historian but usually when civilisations collapse it's due to war or poverty. Maybe they had a few poor farming seasons and had to move on. Maybe they were invaded and destroyed. I'd love to know.

[Liffrea]

Hmmmm. I would have said at first glance probably Indo-European invasions. But I think these would have been 2,000 years later. The Achaeans arrived in Greece about 2250BC and the ancestors of the Celts and Latins did not start moving into central Europe until around 2100BC. Celtic Hallstatt Culture did not arise until 1200BC.

Its a mystery, maybe they decided to up-sticks for Mesopotamia, its a bit warmer. :D, Or they could of course be Atlanteans! ;)

[beowulf]

Anyone familiar with this story? A bronze disk found in Germany reputed to be an ancient astronomical map?http://www.thefab.net/topics/culture_history/hg06_german-stonehenge_02.htm. Indeed, so much for all civilization flowing west from the Orient. :rolleyes: It's interesting but not surprising that a discovery of such importance if authentic would be mostly ignored by 'mainstream media' at least here in the US. We can't have EUROPE, esp. GERMANY as the birthplace of early civilization now can we? :mad: :rolleyes: Granted, the people that built such things likely weren't much related to our own Folk and ancestors.

[Liffrea]

I have had one thought. They are going to have to reclassify stone age periods for Europe. The Mesolithic in Europe lasted from 10,000BC to 3,000BC. It overlaps with the Neolithic in the Near East, which developed 9,000-6,000BC. Now traditionally the Mesolithic was a transition period between hunter-gatherer societies and farming communities. The Neolithic saw farming communities become the norm. This new civilisation they have found though existed in what at the moment is classed as the Mesolithic. It cetainly was not a hunter-gatherer culture though, but traditionally, farming did not spread into Europe until after 3,000BC.

[Der Einzelgänger]

But puzzlingly, their civilisation - or at least the style of building and living in communal homes around the villages - seems to have died out after only about 200 years. Europeans did not begin putting together similar buildings for another 3,000 years, by which time the continent was firmly in the shadow of the glittering civilisations of the Middle East.


First, each complex was only used for a few generations - perhaps 100 years maximum.

Does anyone have any ideas why this may have happened?

I think maybe that some drastic change in the climate occured that caused these people to need to change their way of life. I think I remember reading that Scandinavia's climate is a few degrees different today then it was during the Viking age, which is one of the reasons the Vikings started to raid. Maybe something similar happened here?

[BerserkrKin]

They may have done what they Mayans did..Lost faith in there society and went to run around in the wilds.