The archaeologists identiied amazing 120 Starčevo settlements in the region around the rivers Sava, Danube, and Drava.
"Late Neolithic Culture Vinča sites" is the term now used to identify the archaeological complex of people, and cultural heritage that belonged to ancient civilization settlements in Serbia, western Bulgaria and southwestern Romania.
Early Neolithic settlements in the northwestern Balkans were usually located in valleys of major rivers, on fertile land. Archaeological evidence indicates that, during the Early Neolithic, settlements were relatively small. They consisted of small rectangular houses made of wattle and daub.
In western Romania, more than 300 Early Neolithic sites have been identiied, in the region of Šumadija in Serbia, around a 200 Starčevo Culture sites have been noted, while in tHungary, there are 230 sites. The site size varies from 0.2 ha to as large as 12 ha.
So far, only a few Early Neolithic settlements have been excavated.
The excavated settlement in Serbia, called Biserna Obala-Nosa near Subotica is from the Starčevo-Körös Culture, with several houses and as many as forty storage pits. Pit walls were covered with clay. The Neolithic community using this settlement was sedentary, and the settlement was long-lived.
Their above ground houses were diferent from the traditional Neolithic architecture in southern parts of the Balkans. Within the Starčevo settlements the majority of ovens, fireplaces, were located in the open. Various zones for comunal or ritual purpose were identified. Distinct areas represent houses, spaces for production of pottery, or stone tools, food storage places had been also identiied.
The setting up of the Starčevo Culture settlements in Bosnia are linked to the exploitation of the salt mines.
At first, these were settlements which today look like hills of various sizes. In Sesklo in Thessaly (Greece) the excavation of the hill of Kastraki has revealed a tell type settlement from the Early and Middle Neolithic. In the history of archaeology, archaeologists of all nations had explored these artificial hills.
The prominent position of the hill and their history, including the social memory, have in Balkan's countries revealed the Neolithic communities and their ancient settlements.
The tells and flat settlements often had coexisted, surrounded with an established social and economic network, and bound by identity.
The collective identity of Neolithic groups is evidenced, bound by a trench, or a dry wall, in south-eastern Europe, during the Neolithic, fortiications were rare. Putting up fortiications as defence against wild beasts also has a symbolic role, separated nature from culture.
Archeologists and sociologists emphasize that the houses were set in a circle surrounding a public space or a large central dugout or fireplace.
Archaeological excavations in Slavonski Brod, measured areas of 6200 m², in Galovo over 2200 m², and Tržnica in Vinkovci, over 12000 m². In Galovo, radiometric measurements indicate that the construction of the Neolithic settlement was done in several phases, while in Tržnica in Vinkovci, the evidance suggest a single layer settlement In Vinkovci, another house from the Starčevo Culture has been excavated.
At the famous Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia, we find a different story, dating from 7400 - 6 200 BC, houses were built like honeycomb – they shared walls. The way in was an opening in the roof, which was also the only source of light.
In contrast to the Near East and Anatolia, in Vinča, people favoured timber as the construction material. With mudcovered wickerwork, with a north-west to south-east orientation and dozens of metres between each house. The area surrounding the long houses was used for production of pottery, used as gardens, farm yards or places in which other daily activities were taken place. The area adjacent to the houses was sometimes used for burials, usually children.
On their Radmilovic estate at Vinča Serbia, the University of Belgrade's Faculty of Agriculture had built a replica of the prehistoric fishermen's village within Mali Dunav (Little Danube). The houses were reconstructed on the basis of archaeological and etno-archaeo data. The project was managed by an architect, a master builder in traditional materials, an archaeologist, & the curator of the Belgrade City Museum. For the reconstruction of houses a traditional mix of clay (30%), sand (40%), and chaff (30%) was used.
On the autumn morning just after the full moon of the Equinox month, in the year 1460 BC, an un-named volcano in Southern Italy that had been silent for decades, suddenly burst into life and exploded. By the end of the following day, the islands of Malta and Crete were buried under ash, rock and mud, carried by an 80 meters high tsunami wave, where they remained lost and forgotten for the next 4,500 years.
Malta Temple Culture 3,500 BC Rituals
At the time of eruption, the temples were long abandoned by its builders, following a harsh climate change that increased storms and rains, removing layers after layers of carefully cultivated and for centuries fertilised land. The evidence of this catastrophic event was found on the skeleton of the last generation of Neolithic Temple Builders, around 2400 BC. In an attempt to keep the land from disappearing, many ancestors’ bones show the evidence of strained wrists.
A rich and bustling community of 2,000 people, at its peak, had built 66 temples during the period of 1,000 years. Now, a new exciting archaeological excavation at Tas-Silġ in Marsaxlokk, sheds further light about Neolithic Temple Builders of Malta.
National Geographic photo of now not existing Coradino 3 Temple
In British times Neolithic were confused with Phoenicians origins, so most of the artefacts did stay in Maltese hands, now exhibited in Archaeological Museum in Valletta and within the Temple Complexes. With the development of meta-physics, meta-psychology, or micro-biology, our scientists and researchers stay amazed with the Culture that used healing with sounds within their rituals, had extra-ordinary artists that sculpted with precision, had architects, clothes makers, and farmers that fertilised their cultivated land.
The British Excavation in 1830 - 1840
The Island’s first Temples have been unearthed during the British excavation in 1830 - 1840, at the same time with Crete excavation, and since the Islands were during the Second World War a British colony, viewed as a military zone, they have experienced lots of bombarding and damage to all the buildings.
Several Maltese civilians sheltering within the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, a prehistoric underground temple, BBC war image
Hypogeum, the most amazing 11 meters deep, carved in stone underground temple, was for example used as a Bomb Shelter. It was only in 1970s that Malta gained its independence, and its scientists & archaeologists have started claiming the natural heritage from the investors, roads builders, and various other intruders.
The Xaghra Stone circle excavated in 1890s
Nearly 6,000 years, numbering several thousand people, is far denser than the people of mainland Europe. The islands were visited by neighbouring islands, was a trading port and ritual site at the heart of the Mediterranean. The decisive blow to the Culture occurred around 2350 BC, when the whole region, geologists tell us, suffered a catastrophic climate event.
With 66 temple sites buried under the earth, most of the Neolithic culture remains would have decayed long ago, or been built over, if the earth hadn’t buried it.
Another under volcanic ash buried Italian city, at the time of its destruction, in 79 AC, Pompei was a rich and prosperous city with splendid public buildings, a library, 5 public baths complexes, a court and a number of luxurious villas with amazing wall paintings of Greek myths and history, 2 theatres and an amphitheatre in a maze of perfectly architecture parallel streets,. The most powerful job was a magistrate, and this was 2,000 years ago. One of the houses had a mosaic of 25 year old Alexander the Great.
Learning from a Scientific Paper, March 2021, Runes from Lány (Czech Republic) - The oldest inscription among Slavs. An Ancient Debate #archeology #Slavic Since the 19th century, Slavonic scholars had theorized that Slavs had achieved literacy pre-Christ
Monday 08 November 2021 at 2:38 pm
Runes as the oldest inscription among Slavs
Neolithic European wisdom, symbols and divine learning from a Scientific Paper, March 2021, Runes from Lány (Czech Republic) - The oldest inscription among Slavs
An Ancient Debate #Archeology #Slavic #History. Since the 19th century, Slavonic scholars had theorized that Slavs had achieved literacy pre-Christ.
Like many extraordinary discoveries, it happened by accident, just recently, and it sparked a number of years of careful scientific research.
A Czech archaeologist, Alena Slamova, was routinely cleaning the excavations from a dig when her sharp eye noticed unusual scratching on the surface of one fragment. So she has decided to examine it further with her colleagues, not dispose of it.
"Our find is the first one after nearly 200 years of discussions to suggest that it is possible that the [early Slavs] had some script," says Jiri Machacek, head of the Department of Archaeology in Brno, the co-author of the report.
The rune bone was found near the town of Breclav in what is now the Czech Republic
Alena Slamova and Jiri Machacek with the fragment of cow rib that could change a lot of what we know about the early Slavs
Runes are an alphabetic script, called fuþark, used among Germanic tribes
What scientists are after are abecedaries (passed through Europe as a script). Longer time period, more difficult the find. I.e. many inscriptions exist in younger fuþark, and there are only about 430 in older fuþark, used until 700 AC, of which only 17 contain complete, or incomplete abecedaries. Less than 100 span from 300 AC to 700 AC creating what is known as the South-Germanic corpus.
A researcher can easily imagine that the most scripts found would belong to our wealthy and influential men's graves (in Balkan read: Germanic or Ottoman or Byzantine).
During the last 2,000 years, the only women buried were Queens or Saints, surely not slaves. In Balkans, since Slavs were slaves, changing the names to reflect the power-God-Goddess structure (for example Dio-nisus. or Herodotus, or St Whoever Christian Name) was common.
What has survived came from the scripts found on metal objects in 600 AC graves containing personal names. It is a typical example of an Early Slavic settlement of the 6-700 AC. The same ones you find following the river Danube. The above mentioned rib bone fragment, originates from Břeclav Lány in South Moravia, Czechia.
Codex Runicus, 1300 AC containing one of the oldest and best preserved texts of the Scanian law (Skånske lov), written entirely in runes.
“This important find renders six of the last eight runes of the older fuþark, making it the first find containing the final part of the older fuþark in South-Germanic inscriptions, and the only one found in a non-Germanic context.”
The first written reports about Slavs, referred to Slavs as Sclavini, and their attacks on the Byzantine & later Ottoman Empire during the 600 AC – 1,500 AC. Early written mentions of Slavs include Sclauos in the 777AC, 805 AC, 822 AC, 855AC, etc.
This rune-inscribed fragment of a bone could be the first archaeological evidence for a direct contact between Germanic and Early Slavic tribes in Europe from the late 600 BC found in any Slavic settlement said the groundbreaking report.
As often happens with important archaeological discoveries, the Lany bone may shed light on old historical mysteries but also raises new questions that could open up enticing avenues of research.
One interesting puzzle facing scholars is to figure out why a Germanic script ended up being used in a Slavic setting. There is a possibility that it was written by Slavs who learned it from a Germanic tribe, or the Germanic people have learned it from the Slavs.
It is a tantalizing question that might not be solved for unfortunately, the Lany bone is the only physical evidence to date of writing among early Slavs.
"Nobody was interested in looking for inscriptions on these bones because we had no idea that something like this could be here,” says Machacek. "So perhaps now that we have this first find, we and other archaeologist colleagues will attempt to look for more… There are thousands of animal bones, and this writing could also be on some of these."
The deeply engraved runic inscriptions are no doubt authentic, they have been confirmed using optical & electron microscopy.
Yet, the conventional scientist, Robert Nedoma, an expert in comparative literature at the University of Vienna, has categorically identified it as “Elder Futhark”, the oldest known form of runic lettering used by Germanic speaking inhabitants of Central Europe.
This “categorical identification” cannot come from a Slavic Phd holder from a Balkan country because our cultural upbringing of Slaves to Germanic or Ottoman powers, during the past 2,000 years, has given us, Slavs, only a very strong “doubt as the scientific principal”.
I often wonder does this “scientific certainty” ignite this age-long nationalism.
This ancient system consisted of 24 letters.
The Serbian Vinča’s (A Danube settlement spanning 6,000 years in Neolithic Europe’s Serbia) sculptures, artifacts have used symbols for religious purposes, and these were always placed in a particular manner around the head of the sculpture.
The Egyptian script had used symbols for magical purposes.
Slavs with their maternal culture mainly used cremation graves, a few burned bones and pots. The inscription would have been on wood and burnt. Machacek suggests that the discovery of the Lany bone could eventually resonate far beyond the halls of academia.
"This period at the very beginning of the Middle Ages is a very important era," he says. "It is the period of the establishment of these nations and states in Europe that exist until now. They are our roots, and therefore, it is a very sensitive period."
"This mystery of runes was really abused in the late history, in Germany by Nazis and so on," he says. "It is a very sad history, but now we can perhaps show that this script and these runes could have been more common among various groups and various nations. And they are perhaps not only connected with Germanic mythology and Germanic history but could be part of the common heritage of Central European people generally."
Machacek says his team has received funds from the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) to continue excavating at Lany."
Ever since its first discovery in 1908 by the Serbian archaeologist Miloje Vasić, Vinča culture, a Neolithic settlement that spanned most of Serbia, parts of Romania, Bulgaria & Macedonia, has been of great interest to the lay public and scientists alike.
Middle Bronze Age Goddess 1800 BC
From Neolithic monuments to Roman Villas and prehistoric figurines the river basin of Danube (Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria) has proved rich for treasure hunters over the years
In 2005, Police in central Germany found the artifacts that date to the Neolithic period and are believed to belong to the Vinca, in a sports bag belonging to two Serbs. Last year, a 2,000 year old Roman monument weighing half a ton was stolen in 24 hours after the find. Such epigraphic monuments, stone monuments with Latin engraving text) are extremely rare in the world so the value is extremely high.
With 100s of objects discovered, Serbia would ranke among the first in Europe for finds declared if there is not a huge Archeological Black Market that leads these priceless artifacts into foreign private hands. If you're into stats, there’s every chance with every new dig unearth more hugely significant finds. The found and stolen monument on the territory of Serbia is unique in the world because they are highly preserved with Latin (Greek) inscription in 15 lines. Based on the inscription on the monument, an expert from the National Museum found that the monument belonged to a chivalrous man. He commanded various military departments and took part in the war with the Dacians and Parthians. The special value of this monument for Serbia and Belgrade was in the fact that it was found in its original place: the ancient Singidunum.
Now Information about the monument is included in the Interpol database of stolen archaeological items so that thieves can never sell it to a museum but still it goes to someelse’s hands.
The Obelisk of Axum (ሓወልቲ ኣኽሱም) is a 400 AC, 24 metre obelisk, weighing 160 tonnes, now in the city of Axum in Ethiopia. The obelisk or Hawelt in Ge'ez in Axum was a "marker" for underground burial chambers. The largest were for royal burial chambers. In Ethiopia there are only a few large ones, and hundreds of smaller ones in various "stelae fields". Near the top of the stele a small house like object is carved in relief, claimed by Ethiopians to house the original Ark of the Covenant.
Salt and Havell (1809) The Obelisk at Axum
In the 19th century, of the three major "royal" stelae, only this one, King Ezana's Stele remained erect, visible in the print "The Obelis of Axum" of Henry Salt (1780–1827).
Salt and Havell (1809) The Obelisk at Axum, Twenty-Four Views in St. Helena, The Cape, India, Ceylon, The Red Sea, Abyssinia and Egypt, London: William Miller. 1809
The Axum obelisk is regarded as one of Ethiopia's national religious treasures.
The stele was one of fifty obelisks in Axum at the time of the discovery, in 1937. Italian troops took it to Rome, Italy, cut into five pieces and transported by trucks.
“A crowd of Ethiopian ministers, priests and other VIPs cheered and clapped as it landed.” News reported the return of the obelisk. 24m tall, it weighs 160 tons, this 1,700 years old monument was welcomed by chanting priests.
Many Ethiopians see the obelisk as a vital national symbol. It was dismantled by Italian experts in 2004 in readiness for its journey home. The journey costed Italian government 6m euros. The 160-ton monument had to be broken into three pieces.
Axum was the largest, heaviest object ever transported by air. Heaters were installed and the obelisk was wrapped in steel bars for the six-hour flight. The airstrip at Axum had to be upgraded to handle the weight of the aircraft, and radar was installed.
