Category Archives: EUROPE

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

Ancient buildings found in Russia which is 25,000 years old

25,000-Year-Old Buildings Found In Russia

In Russia, in the Caucasus mountains, not far from the cities Tzelentzchik, Touapse, Novorossiysk and Sochi, there are hundreds of megalithic monuments.

The Russians call them dolmens. Russian and foreign archaeologists have not yet discovered their use. All these megalithic dolmens you see below in the pictures are dated from 10,000 years to 25,000 years ago, according to the website Kykeon. Other archaeologists put the age of these megalithic structures at 4000 to 6,000 years old.

Thousands of prehistoric megalithic monuments are known throughout the world. Some of the least known outside the former Soviet Union, however, are those in the Caucasus. These dolmens cover the Western Caucasus on both sides of the mountain ridge, in an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometers of Russia and Abkhazia.

The Caucasian dolmens represent a unique type of prehistoric architecture, built with precisely dressed cyclopic stone blocks.

The stones were, for example, shaped into 90-degree angles, to be used as corners or were curved to make a perfect circle. The monuments date between the end of the 4th millennium and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.

While generally unknown in the rest of Europe, these Russian megaliths are equal to the great megaliths of Europe in terms of age and quality of architecture but are still of an unknown origin.

The Caucasian dolmens represent a unique type of prehistoric architecture, built with precisely dressed large stone blocks. The stones were, for example, shaped into 90-degree angles, to be used as corners or were curved to make a circle.

In spite of the variety of Caucasian monuments, they show strong similarities with megaliths from different parts of Europe and Asia, like the Iberian Peninsula, France, Great Britain, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Israel, and India. A range of hypotheses has been put forward to explain these similarities and the building of megaliths on the whole, but still, it remains unclear.

Approximately 3,000 of these megalithic monuments are known in the Western Caucasus, but more are constantly being found, while more and more are also being destroyed. Today, many are in great disrepair and will be completely lost if they are not protected from vandals and general neglect.

Ancient buildings found in Russia which is 25,000 years old

The dolmens are found in the area of Krasnodar. Krasnodar is a city and the administrative center of Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the Kuban River about 148 kilometers (92 mi) northeast of the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

Concentrations of megaliths, dolmens, and stone labyrinths have been found (but little studied) throughout the Caucasus Mountains, including Abkhazia.

Most of them are represented by rectangular structures made of stone slabs or cut in rocks with holes in their facade. These dolmens cover the Western Caucasus on both sides of the mountain ridge, in an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometers of Russia and Abkhazia.

The dolmens have a limited variety in their architecture. The floor plans are square, trapezoidal, rectangular, and round. All of the dolmens are punctuated with a portal in the center of the facade. While round portholes are the most common, square ones are also found. In front of the facade is a court that usually splays out, creating an area where rituals possibly took place.

The court is usually outlined by large stone walls, sometimes over a meter high, which encloses the court. It is in this area that Bronze and Iron Age pottery has been found – which helped date these tombs -, along with human remains, bronze tools and silver, gold, and semi-precious stone ornaments.

The repertoire of decoration for these tombs is not great. Vertical and horizontal zigzags, hanging triangles and concentric circles are the most common motifs.

One decorative motif that is quite common is found across the top of the porthole slab. It can best be described as a lintel held up by two columns. Pairs of breasts, done in relief, have also been found on a few tombs. These breasts usually appear above the two columns of the porthole decoration.

Perhaps related to these are the stone plugs, which were used to block the porthole, and are found with almost every tomb. They are sometimes phallic-shaped. Some unusual items associated with dolmens are big round stone balls, double balls, and animal sculptures.

One of the most interesting megalithic complexes – a group of three dolmens – stands in a row on a hill above Zhane River on the Black Sea coast in the Krasnodar area near Gelendzhik, Russia. In this area, there is a great concentration of all types of megalithic sites including settlements and dolmen cemeteries. Large stone mounds surrounded the two monuments.

BULGARIA, EUROPE, WORLD

Bulgarians find oldest European town, a salt production center

Bulgarians find oldest European town, a salt production center

Archaeologists in eastern Bulgaria say they have unearthed the oldest prehistoric town ever found in Europe, along with an ancient salt production site that gives a strong clue about why massive riches were discovered in the region.

Excavations at the site near the modern-day town of Provadia have so far uncovered the remains of a settlement of two-storey houses, a series of pits used for rituals as well as parts of a gate, bastion structures, and three later fortification walls — all carbon dated between the middle and late Chalcolithic age from 4,700 to 4,200 BC.

“We are not talking about a town like the Greek city-states, ancient Rome or medieval settlements, but about what archaeologists agree constituted a town in the fifth millennium BC,” said Vasil Nikolov, a researcher with Bulgaria’s National Institute of Archeology, after announcing the findings earlier this month.

Fortified walls at Solnitsata, believed to be the earliest town in Europe.

Nikolov and his team have worked since 2005 to excavate the Provadia-Solnitsata settlement, located near the Black Sea resort of Varna. A small necropolis, or burial ground, was also found, but has yet to be studied more extensively and could keep archaeologists busy for generations.

Archeologist Krum Bachvarov from the National Institute of Archeology qualified this latest find as “extremely interesting” due to the peculiar burial positions and objects found in the graves, which differed from other neolithic graves found in Bulgaria.

“The huge walls around the settlement, which were built very tall and with stone blocks … are also something unseen in excavations of prehistoric sites in southeast Europe so far,” Bachvarov added.

Well fortified, a religious center and most importantly, a major production center for a specialized commodity that was traded far and wide, the settlement of about 350 people met all the conditions to be considered the oldest known “prehistoric town” in Europe, the team says.

“At a time when people did not know the wheel and cart, these people hauled huge rocks and built massive walls. Why? What did they hide behind them?” Nikolov asked.

The answer: “Salt.”

As precious as gold

The area is home to huge rock-salt deposits, some of the largest in southeast Europe and the only ones to be exploited as early as the sixth millennium BC, Nikolov said.

This is what made Provadia-Solnitsata what it was.

Nowadays, salt is still mined there but 7,500 years ago it had a completely different significance.

“Salt was an extremely valued commodity in ancient times, as it was both necessary for people’s lives and was used as a method of trade and currency starting from the sixth millennium BC up to 600 BC,” the researcher explained.

Salt extraction at the site first began in about 5,500 BC when people started boiling brine from the nearby salty springs in dome kilns found inside the settlement, Nikolov said, citing carbon dating results from a British laboratory in Glasgow.

“This is the first time in southeast Europe and western Anatolia that archeologists have come upon traces of salt production at such an early age, the end of the sixth millennium BC, and managed to prove it with both archeologic and scientific data,” Bachvarov confirmed.

Salt production was moved outside the settlement towards the end of the sixth millennium and productivity gradually increased. After being boiled, the salt was baked to make small bricks. Nikolov said production increased steadily from 5,500 BC when one load from the kilns in Provadia-Solnitsata yielded about 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of dry salt. By 4,700-4,500 BC, that amount had increased to 4,000 to 5,000 kilos of salt.

“At a time when salt was as precious as gold you can imagine what this meant,” he said.

The salt trade gave the local population huge economic power, which could explain the gold riches found in graves at the Varna Necropolis and dating back to around 4,300 BC, Nikolov suggested.

The 3,000 jewelry pieces and ritual objects have been internationally recognized as the oldest gold treasure in the world, raising questions as to how a culture of farmers and stock-breeders from a region otherwise poor in natural resources could acquire such wealth. The excavations have however suffered from a chronic lack of state funding, which Nikolov replaced with private donations.

A British anthropologist, a Japanese ceramics expert, and a team of radiocarbon specialists from Germany have worked on the site for free this season.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Man accidentally finds a ‘perfectly preserved’ Roman villa in his backyard

Man accidentally finds a ‘perfectly preserved’ Roman villa in his backyard

This began out as a bit of basic home improvement, which ended up with the finding of one of the biggest Roman Villas ever to be found in the UK. While laying an electricity cable beneath the grounds of his home, near the village of Tisbury, in Wiltshire, Luke Irwin found the remains of what appeared to be an ornate Roman Mosaic.

It was sheer luck for British rug designer, Luke Irwin, when he asked the electricians working in his backyard to lay cable wires underground and not overhead. The digging led to the discovery of an ancient palatial Roman villa. Just like Irwin, even archaeologists were astonished by this discovery.

Yet it was even more shocking that there was an excavation by archeologists from Historic Great Britain and the Salisbury Museum. They found the mosaic was part of the floor of a much larger Roman property, similar in size and structure to the great Roman villa at Chedworth.

But in a move that will surprise many, the remains – some of the most important to be found in decades – have now been re-buried, as Historic England cannot afford to fully excavate and preserve such an extensive site.

Dr David Roberts, the archaeologist for Historic England, said:  “This site has not been touched since its collapse 1400 years ago and, as such, is of enormous importance. Without question, this is a hugely valuable site in terms of research, with incredible potential.

“The discovery of such an elaborate and extraordinarily well-preserved villa, undamaged by agriculture for over 1500 years, is unparalleled in recent years. 

Overall, the excellent preservation, large scale and complexity of this site present a unique opportunity to understand Roman and post-Roman Britain.”

Excavations at the site revealed a large Roman property, similar in size and structure to Chedworth

He added: “Unfortunately, it would cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to fully excavate and the preserve the site, which cannot be done with the current pressures.

“We would very much like to go back and carry out more digs to further our understanding of the site. But it’s a question of raising the money and taking our time, because as with all archaeological work there is the risk of destroying the very thing you seek to uncover.” 

Mr Irwin, a Dublin-born designer who makes hand-made silk, wool and cashmere rugs, made the fortunate find last summer while laying electricity cables beneath a stretch of ground to the rear of his property, so that his children could play table tennis under lighting in an old barn.

An artist’s impression of how the site would have looked

His builders had barely begun to dig a trench for the cables when they hit something solid, just 18 inches below the surface. On closer inspection it appeared to be a section of a Roman mosaic in remarkably good condition. Intrigued, Mr Irwin called in experts from the Wiltshire Archaeology Service, Historic England (formerly English Heritage) and nearby Salisbury Museum. 

Further exploratory excavation of the site – now known as the Deverill Villa after the name of Mr Irwin’s 17th-century house – revealed surviving sections of walls, one and a half metres in height, confirming that the mosaic formed part of a grand villa, thought to have been three storeys in height, its grounds extending over 100 metres in width and length.

It is thought the villa, which had around 20 to 25 rooms on the ground floor alone, was built sometime between 175 AD and 220 AD, and was repeatedly re-modelled right up until the mid – 4th century. The remains at Deverill are similar to those found at Chedworth, in Gloucestershire, suggesting that the building belonged to a family of significant wealth and importance. 

A Roman coin found at the site

Chedworth was built as a dwelling around three sides of a courtyard, with a fine mosaic floor, as well as two separate bathing suites – one for damp-heat and one for dry-heat. The villa was discovered in 1864, and it was excavated and put on display soon afterwards. It was acquired by the National Trust in 1924.

The discovery at Mr Irwin’s home also revealed a number of fascinating objects from the Roman period. Among the artefacts discovered during the excavations were a perfectly preserved Roman well, underfloor heating pipes and the stone coffin of a Roman child. Another was the stone coffin of a Roman child, which had long been used by the inhabitants of the adjoining house as a flower pot, most recently for geraniums.

Also found were discarded oyster shells, which would have had to be transported over 45 miles from the coast– further evidence of the villa would have been the home of a wealthy and important family. Archaeologists believe that during the post-Roman period timber structures were erected within the ruins of the once-ornate villa.

One of the discarded oyster shells

They say further research of what was found at Deverill would  throw light on what remains one of the least understood periods of British history – between fall of the Roman Empire and the completion of Saxon domination in the 7th century.

Simon Sebag Montefiore, one of Britain’s leading historians said: “This remarkable Roman villa, with its baths and mosaics uncovered by chance, is a large, important and very exciting discovery that reveals so much about the luxurious lifestyle of a rich Romano British family at the height of the empire.

“It is an amazing thought that so much has survived almost two millennia.”  Mr Irwin was inspired by his discovery to create a series of rugs based around the theme of the Roman mosaic he unearthed. His collection will be put on display at his showroom in central London.

A child’s coffin found at the site

He said: “When I held some of the tessaras, the mosaic tiles that were found, in the palm of my hand, the history of the place felt tangible, like an electric shock. The brilliance of their colours was just extraordinary, especially as they have been buried for so long.

“To think that someone lived on this site 1,500 years ago is almost overwhelming. You look out at an empty field from your front door, and yet centuries ago one of the biggest homes in all of Britain at the time was standing there.”

But while the artefacts have been removed and are now in the care of Salisbury Museum, the remains of the villa and its mosaics have been re-buried and grassed over to protect them from the elements. To expose and preserve the mosaics and fragments of walls would be prohibitively expensive and beyond the budget of Salisbury Museum. Even if it was financially possible, Mr Irwin does not want his garden turned into an open-air museum.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

500,000-Year-Old Earliest European Bone Tools Found In UK

500,000-Year-Old Earliest European Bone Tools Found In UK

The earliest known bone tools in European archeological history, archaeologists claim, were found. The implements come from the renowned Boxgrove site in West Sussex, which was excavated in the 1980s and 90s.

One of the oldest organic tools in the world. A bone hammer used to make the fine flint bifaces from Boxgrove. The bone shows scraping marks used to prepare the bone as well as pitting left behind from its use in making flint tools

The bone tools came from a horse that humans butchered at the site for its meat. Flakes of stone in piles around the animal suggest at least eight individuals were making large flint knives for the job.

Researchers also found evidence that other people were present nearby – perhaps younger or older members of a community – shedding light on the social structure of our ancient relatives.

There’s nothing quite like Boxgrove elsewhere in Britain: during excavations, archaeologists uncovered hundreds of stone tools, along with animal bones, that dated to 500,000 years ago.

They were made by the species Homo heidelbergensis, a possible ancestor for modern humans and Neanderthals. Researchers found a shin bone belonging to one of them – it’s the oldest human bone known from Britain.

A photograph of the Horse Butchery Site, Boxgrove, under excavation in 1990.

Project lead, Dr. Matthew Pope, from UCL’s Institute of Archaeology, said: “This was an exceptionally rare opportunity to examine a site pretty much as it had been left behind by an extinct population after they had gathered to totally process the carcass of a dead horse on the edge of a coastal marshland.

“Incredibly, we’ve been able to get as close as we can to witnessing the minute-by-minute movement and behaviours of a single apparently tight-knit group of early humans: a community of people, young and old, working together in a co-operative and highly social way.”

The researchers were able to reconstruct the precise type of stone tool that had been made from the chippings left at the site. However, humans must have taken the tools with them – as they had not been recovered.

At the inter-tidal marshland, which was on what would have been Britain’s southern coastline, there was a nearby cliff that was starting to degrade, producing good rocks for knapping – the process of creating stone tools. Silt from the sea had also built up here, forming an area of grassland.

“Grassland means herbivores and herbivores mean food,” explained Dr. Pope. Dr. Pope added that it was still unclear how the horse ended up in this landscape.

“Horses are highly sociable animals and it’s reasonable to assume it was part of a herd, either attracted to the foreshore for freshwater, or for seaweed or salt licks. For whatever reason, this horse – isolated from the herd – ends up dying there,” Dr. Pope told BBC News.

“Possibly it was hunted – though we have no proof of that – and it’s sat right next to an intertidal creek. The tide was quite low so it’s possible for the humans to get around it. But shortly after, high tide comes in and starts to cover the site in fine, powdery silt and clay. It’s so low energy that everything is left as it was when the hominins moved away from the site.”

The horse provided more than just-food. Analysis of the bones by Simon Parfitt, from the University College London (UCL) Institute of Archaeology, and Dr. Silvia Bello, from London’s Natural History Museum, found that several bones had been used as tools called re-touchers.

Left: A small knapping scatter relating to the reshaping of a biface, preserving the imprint of an early human knee in the shards of waste flint, 1989. Right: A small refit group that preserves the complete reshaping of a tool, presumably during its use in butchering the horse.

Simon Parfitt said: “These are some of the earliest non-stone tools found in the archaeological record of human evolution. They would have been essential for manufacturing the finely made flint knives found in the wider Boxgrove landscape.”

Dr. Bello added: “The finding provides evidence that early human cultures understood the properties of different organic materials and how tools could be made to improve the manufacture of other tools.

She explained that “it provides further evidence that early human populations at Boxgrove were cognitively, social and culturally sophisticated”.

The researchers believe other members of the group – which could have numbered 30 to 40 people – were nearby. They might have joined the hunting party to butcher the horse carcass. This might explain how it was so completely torn apart: the Boxgrove humans even smashed up the bones to get at the marrow and liquid grease.

Dr. Pope said that, far from being an activity for a handful of individuals in a hunting party, butchering could have been a highly social event for these ancient humans. The project has primarily been funded by Historic England, the Arts and Humanities Research Council with support from the UCL Institute of Archaeology, the Natural History Museum and the British Museum.

The detailed findings have been published in a book called The Horse Butchery Site.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Volunteers Spot Iron Age Hillfort in Southern England

Volunteers Spot Iron Age Hillfort in Southern England

According to a BBC News report, volunteers with the Beacons of the Past project identified the possible site of an Iron Age hillfort covered with trees and foliage in lidar images of the southern Chiltern Hills, a chalk escarpment stretching 45 miles across southern England.

From digital survey images, last year and the hillfort was verified on 6 August. It is thought the circular site dates from the early Iron Age in England, between 800BC and 500BC.

Work will take place to preserve the site.

Dr Ed Peveler pictured by the iron age hillfort in the southern Chiltern Hills

The remains of the hillfort include a 9m-wide (30ft) bank and an external ditch that is 7m (23ft) wide.

Its perimeter is more than 500m (1,640ft) in length and it is thought it would have covered 7.5 acres (3 hectares).

Despite the name, hillforts are often neither on a hill nor used as forts. Archaeologists believe they may have been used as defended settlements, production sites, or stock enclosures.

The new site in the southern Chilterns was first identified through images from a large scale LiDAR scan of the area. LiDAR technology can penetrate foliage that might hide archaeological sites, using laser pulses.

Beacons of the Past’s trained volunteers, known as “citizen scientists”, helped look through LiDAR data to help identify sites.

The exact location of the hillfort has not been disclosed to protect the site and the landowner’s privacy.

Volunteers Spot Iron Age Hillfort in Southern England
An example of LiDAR technology identifying a different hillfort in the Chiltern Hills.


Work will take place to preserve what remains of the hillfort, but there are no plans to excavate the site at present.

Project manager and archaeologist Dr Wendy Morrison said: “Although one can never be certain of the age of a prehistoric earthwork without excavating for dating evidence, visual inspection of the rampart and ditch, paired with its location, dominating views in the landscape, give me the confidence to say this is very likely to be an Early Iron Age univallate hillfort.”

Beacons of the Past is a National Lottery Heritage Fund project hosted by the Chilterns Conservation Board.

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

Medieval Bridges, Artifacts Found in a Polish Lake

Medieval Bridges, Artifacts Found in a Polish Lake

POZNAŃ, POLAND—According to a report in The First News, archaeologists from Nicolaus Copernicus University and the Museum of the First Piast at Lednica used photogrammetry to map the bottom of west-central Poland’s Lake Lednica, which is located between the city of Gniezno, site of the country’s first capital, and Poznań, the seat of the country’s first Christian bishop.

A 10th-century sword which is decorated with a cross and has the remains of its leather scabbard was discovered along with artifacts dating back to the times of the first Piast by archaeologists exploring Lednica Lake, between Poznań and Gniezno.

Scientists from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń and the Museum of the First Piast at Lednica have conducted research in and around the lake since 1982, though the first works were done there in the fifties. 

The 10th-century sword complete with the remains of a leather scabbard is likely to have belonged to someone of status and power.

Ostrów Lednicki was an important point on the early Piast dynasty Poland’s map, located between the first capital in Gniezno and Poznań, where the first bishop in the country had his seat.

Head of the University’s Centre for Underwater Archaeology professor Andrzej Pydyn said: “This is probably the richest season in a dozen years. Not only because of the number of objects, but also their value and the context in which they were found.”

The researchers focused on the area near two bridges connecting islands Ostrów Lednicki, Ledniczka, and the shore, found in 2017.

The younger bridge dates back to the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, while the older to the beginning of the 10th. The wood used for its construction was cut down in the years 913 and 914.

The bridges are a marvel on their own – measuring several hundred meters, they were an incredible undertaking at that time.

Underneath the bridges’ remnants, the archaeologists uncovered 21 objects, including the early medieval ornamented sword and two axes, other weapons such as arrowheads and crossbow bolts from the 13th and 14th centuries, as well as a sickle from that period.

Professor Pydyn said: “The most spectacular finding of this research season is the eighth sword found in Lednica Lake, the first in 20 years. But also the spearhead, axes, including the encrusted axe, probably one of the more spectacular ones found here.”

The notable 10th-century sword and axe couldn’t belong to a regular warrior and point to people of the importance of travelling to Ostrów Lednicki. The axe, similar in style to Scandinavian ones, was inlaid with silver and adorned.

The sword was decorated with a cross, a common European trope, but a rare find considering the place and time when it was made. Other findings include ceramics and animal bones.

Using photogrammetry (measuring and scanning the place to create a model), the researchers mapped the bottom of the lake and even 1.5 meters below it and created a detailed 3D model of the area.

The method led to another discovery, which provided new information on the settlement’s role and size. The most valuable seems to be the remains of the shore fortifications, most probably made of solid oak beams.

The finds date back to the times of Duke Mieszko I.

The age of one of them has already been determined by the dendrochronological method. The tree was cut down in 980, during the reign of Duke Mieszko I, the first documented ruler of Poland.

Professor Pydyn said: “They shed completely new light on what took place in this area. Actually, we are becoming certain, that the entire area of settlements around Ostrów Lednicki was important not only in the times of Mieszko I but also for his father or grandfather.”

CZECH REPUBLIC, EUROPE, WORLD

A cache of 14th-Century Coins Discovered in the Czech Republic

A cache of 14th-Century Coins Discovered in the Czech Republic

Kladruby Abbey

PLZEŇ, CZECH REPUBLIC—Radio Prague International reports that hundreds of fourteenth-century coins were discovered in the western Czech Republic, near the Kladruby Monastery, by a couple out for a walk.

“As they were walking through the forest, they spotted a few coins, two made of gold and one of silver, lying on the ground,” explained archaeologist Milan Metlička of the Museum of West Bohemia.

The West Bohemian Museum in Plzeň confirmed hundreds of 14th century silver and gold coins have been found. The cache, discovered in a forest near the Kladruby Monastery in Tachov area, is believed to be one of the largest uncovered troves of gold coins on Czech Republic territory.

The chance discovery occurred already in March, during the coronavirus lockdown, but it was not until this Monday that the museum announced the find to the public.

The coins were stumbled upon by a young couple who went on a walk through the forest near the West Bohemian town of Stříbro.

Milan Metlička is an archaeologist from the Museum of West Bohemia in Plzeň:

“As they were walking through the forest, they spotted a few coins, two made of gold and one of silver, lying on the ground. They were probably dug up by some forest animals, most likely by wild pigs.

“There was a large stone protruding from the ground. When they pulled it out, they saw a large amount of gold and silver coins underneath and they immediately called us to announce the discovery.”

Among the coins are gold ducats bearing the image of the Czech King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, Albrecht of Austria, and Rupert of the Palatinate as well as ducats from the Hanseatic city of Lübeck.

“It also contains 343 silver groschen mostly minted in Bohemia during the reign of Charles IV and several groshen bearing the image of John of Bohemia, the Duke of Luxembourg.

“The discovery of the silver groshen is not that unusual. But such a large trove of gold coins is really unique. No such discovery was made in the country in the past 50 years.”

Archaeologists believe the coins were buried in the ground in the late 1370s. While the reason why someone hid the treasure is likely to remain unknown, it was most likely linked to the nearby Monastery in Kladruby.

“The monastery was located on a strategic medieval trade route between Prague and Nürnberg. And since the discovery was made not far from there and close to the royal town of Stříbro, it is very likely that it is somehow connected to it.”

Museum of West Bohemia in Plzeň,

According to Mr. Metlička, it is hard to express the value of the find in terms of money, but the nominal value of the gold coins, which weigh over 325 grams, is at least CZK 420,000.

“With the silver coins, it is more complicated, because they also contain copper, which reduced their value. However, the historic value of the silver coins could be around CZK 180,000 and the value of the gold coins could range between CZK three and four million.”

The coins are expected to go on display in the Museum of West Bohemia in Plzeň at the end of this year or at the beginning of next year after they have been restored and catalogued.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Buried temple in Turkey Built During 12,000 B.C almost 7,500 years older than Egyptian Pyramids

Buried temple in Turkey Built During 12,000 B.C almost 7,500 years older than Egyptian Pyramids

The 12,000-year-old site in south-east Turkey is being considered for Unesco World Heritage listing

Göbekli Tepe in southeast Turkey has been billed as the oldest temple in the world at about 12,000 years of age. It is many millennia older than Stonehenge or Egypt’s great pyramids, built in the pre-pottery Neolithic period before writing or the wheel. But should Göbekli Tepe, which became a Unesco World Heritage Site, also be regarded as the world’s oldest piece of architecture?

Archaeologists are fascinated by Göbekli Tepe, an artificial mound spread across eight hectares at the top end of the Fertile Crescent near the present-day city of Sanliurfa. It features a series of circular sunken structures that had been occupied for a thousand years before they were back-filled and abandoned.

Construction techniques vary but in the most elaborate there is a ring of T-shaped monolithic columns with a pair of larger, carved T-columns at the center up to five meters tall.

These not only supported a roof (for at least some of their life) but also represented abstracted human figures that were part of a belief system that is not yet understood. They are sculptural as well as structural, with animal figures in relief.

A column with a carving of a dog—the first domesticated animal

The largest circle is 17m by 25m but geotechnical surveys suggest there are bigger structures waiting to be unearthed. The earliest limestone monoliths were quarried locally but stones were later transported long distances.

The communal effort involved in this endeavour must have involved hundreds of people at a period when most social groups had no more than 25 members.

Göbekli Tepe was built by hunter-gatherers, apparently, before the Agricultural Revolution when fully permanent settlements came into being with plant cultivation and animal herding.

Rather than architecture being the product of organised societies, as has long been thought, there is new thinking that, in fact, it may have been the organisation needed to build on such a scale that helped usher in agriculture and settled society.

Archaeological definitions of architecture tend to be broader than those of design professionals; it includes structures that create artificial space with, say, mud bricks, smoothed floors and right-angles.

Architects tend to separate building—a simple vernacular shelter assembled out of utility—from architecture, in which conscious design that goes beyond the utilitarian comes into play.

Moritz Kinzel, an archaeologist and architect based at Copenhagen University who is working on the site, says: “Building becomes architecture not just because it is monumental but because of technical solutions and perceptions of space—it has a mindset.” Göbekli Tepe also goes beyond the human scale. He reminds us, however, that the domestic and the ritual cannot be separated to the degree they are today, and that older houses with ritual components have been discovered at sites in Jordan and the southern Levant.

Göbekli Tepe was built by hunter-gatherers, apparently before the Agricultural Revolution

Kinzel argues that the design experimentation found at Göbekli Tepe should encourage us to avoid chicken-and-egg arguments about the primacy of architecture or agriculture. Instead, the site illustrates a cusp period, with architecture emerging alongside more complex organizations that produced surpluses and gradually shifted from gathering wild crops to farming.

Some of the earliest domesticated wheat was found in the area and the Göbekli Tepe stones feature depictions of dogs—the first animal to be domesticated by humans.

It was a trial and error period, an age of architectural and societal experiment at the beginnings of the Agricultural Revolution rather than one preceding the other.

“Permanent buildings do not necessarily reflect permanent settlements,” Kinzel says, suggesting seasonal use at Göbekli Tepe.

The construction process of the monumental structures may have triggered [people] staying longer, forcing them to invent new ways of dealing with arising new challenges.”

Current thinking is that Göbekli Tepe may not have been solely a cult center but had other social and economic functions such as feasting, exchanging goods and finding partners, and other activities that promoted a common social identity. The architecture may mark the beginnings of class society and patriarchy.

Noting the functional as well as the aesthetic purpose of Göbekli Tepe’s T-columns, an architectural researcher who works with Kinzel, Dietmar Kurapkat from the Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg, Germany, has written: “It is no exaggeration to label these… buildings with the term architecture.”

Evidence of a 12,000 year old civilization – almost 7,000 years older than Mesopotamia’s fertile crescent – is unearthed in the Turkish countryside, known as Göbekli Tepe. It took archaeologists 13 years to uncover only 5% of the buried city.