2023-11-28 07:00:09
Archaeologists from University College Dublin, working with colleagues from Serbia and Slovenia, have unearthed a little-known network of massive sites in the heart of Europe, shedding light on the emergence of Bronze Age megafortifications, the largest prehistoric constructions before the Iron Age.
KaÄŤarevo 2 TSG site showing:
A) Lowlands,
B) Raised sand plateau,
C) Enclosure ditch,
D) Activity areas.
Photography and caption by Barry Molloy and Darja Grosman.
Credit: PLOS ONE (2023).
Using satellite images and aerial photographs, the team reconstructed the prehistoric landscape of the southern basin. Carpathian in central Europe, discovering more than 100 sites belonging to a complex society. Their common use of defensible enclosures foreshadows and probably influences the famous European fortifications built later during the Bronze Age to protect communities.
Among the most important sites, some have been known for several years, such as Gradište Iđoš, Csanádpalota, Sântana or the astonishing Corneşti Iarcuri, surrounded by 33 km of ditches, surpassing in size the contemporary citadels and fortifications of the Hittites, Mycenaeans or Egyptians . According to Associate Professor Barry Molloy, lead author of the study, these massive sites are not isolated, but part of a dense network of closely linked and interdependent communities.
The Carpathian Basin extends across parts of central and southeastern Europe, with the vast Pannonian plain in its center, crossed by the Danube river. Published in the journal PLOS ONE, this new research (Scientific research refers primarily to all the actions undertaken with a view to…) discovered more than 100 sites in this region, located in the hinterlands of the river ( In hydrography, a river is a watercourse which flows under the effect of…) Tisza, forming (In intonation, changes in fundamental frequency are perceived as variations of…) a set (In set theory, a set intuitively designates a collection…) now called Group of Tisza Sites (GST).
Almost all GST sites are within 5 km of each other and are aligned along a river corridor formed by the Tisza and Danube, suggesting that the network constituted a cooperative community spread across many different locations.
This discovery offers new insights into European connections in the second millennium BCE, considered a major turning point in prehistory. It appears that this society’s advanced military and earth-working technologies spread across Europe following their collapse in 1200 BCE. The importance and influence of these groups helps explain the similarities in material culture and iconography throughout the world. Europe in the second millennium BC.
The popular perception that archeology relies solely on the use of trowels and brushes, painstakingly cutting the soil to the millimeter, is as close to reality as Indiana Jones. Archaeologists employ an array of cutting-edge technologies, and in this study they relied heavily on spatial images to uncover this little-known network of massive sites. The results obtained from satellite images were verified on the ground through surveys, excavations and geophysical prospections. The majority of sites date from 1600 to 1450 BCE and almost all were abandoned en masse around 1200 BCE.
According to Molloy, 1200 BCE marks a striking turning point in the prehistory of the Old World, with the collapse of kingdoms, empires, cities and entire societies within a few decades across a vast region of southwest Asia , northern Africa (with an area of ​​30,221,532 km2 including the islands, etc.) and southern Europe.
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