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June 12, 2005
Europe's oldest civilisation has been discovered by archaeologists across the continent, it was reported yesterday.
More than 150 large temples, built between 4800BC and 4600BC, have been unearthed in fields and cities in Germany, Austria and Slovakia, predating the pyramids in Egypt by about 2000 years, London's The Independent newspaper has reported.
The network of temples, made of earth and wood, were constructed by a religious people whose economy appears to have been based on livestock farming.
Excavations have taken place over the past three years, but the discovery is so new that the civilisation has not yet been named.
The most complex centre discovered so far, beneath the city of Dresden in Saxony, eastern Germany, comprises a temple surrounded by four ditches, three earthen banks and two palisades.
"Our excavations have revealed the degree of monumental vision and sophistication used by these early farming communities to create Europe's first truly large-scale earthwork complexes," said Harald Staeuble, from the Saxony state government's heritage department.
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The temples, up to 150 metres in diameter, were made by a people who lived in long houses and villages, the newspaper said.
Stone, bone and wooden tools have been unearthed, along with ceramic figures of people and animals.
A village at Aythra, near Leipzig in eastern Germany, was home to about 300 people living in up to 20 large buildings around the temple.
Europe's oldest civilisation has been discovered by archaeologists across the continent, it was reported yesterday.
More than 150 large temples, built between 4800BC and 4600BC, have been unearthed in fields and cities in Germany, Austria and Slovakia, predating the pyramids in Egypt by about 2000 years, London's The Independent newspaper has reported.
The network of temples, made of earth and wood, were constructed by a religious people whose economy appears to have been based on livestock farming.
Excavations have taken place over the past three years, but the discovery is so new that the civilisation has not yet been named.
The most complex centre discovered so far, beneath the city of Dresden in Saxony, eastern Germany, comprises a temple surrounded by four ditches, three earthen banks and two palisades.
"Our excavations have revealed the degree of monumental vision and sophistication used by these early farming communities to create Europe's first truly large-scale earthwork complexes," said Harald Staeuble, from the Saxony state government's heritage department.
AdvertisementAdvertisement
The temples, up to 150 metres in diameter, were made by a people who lived in long houses and villages, the newspaper said.
Stone, bone and wooden tools have been unearthed, along with ceramic figures of people and animals.
A village at Aythra, near Leipzig in eastern Germany, was home to about 300 people living in up to 20 large buildings around the temple.
