Skip to comments.
La Bastida unearths 4,200-year-old fortification, unique in continental Europe
Eurekalert! ^
| September 27, 2012
| Maria Jesus Delgado
Posted on 10/06/2012 6:42:28 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
click here to read article
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-25 next last
1
posted on
10/06/2012 6:42:41 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...
2
posted on
10/06/2012 6:50:47 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
To: SunkenCiv
3
posted on
10/06/2012 6:57:58 AM PDT
by
BenLurkin
(This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
To: SunkenCiv
4
posted on
10/06/2012 7:03:48 AM PDT
by
visualops
(artlife.us)
To: SunkenCiv
Somehow I am not too surprised that perhaps the oldest “for war” ruins in continental Europe are in the Basque country—they is ornery critters to this day.
5
posted on
10/06/2012 7:06:43 AM PDT
by
Happy Rain
("Water is wet and Obama is a liar.")
To: SunkenCiv
The latest excavations and the result of Carbon 14 dating indicate that La Bastida was probably the most powerful city of Europe during the Bronze Age and a fortified site since it was first built, in circa 2,200 BCE, with a defence system never before seen in Europe. This is the sort of flawed thinking that grates at me. The logic goes thus:
- We found a really impressive city
- It's the only one like we've found
- Therefore it is the only one of its kind
- Therefore it is the most powerful in all of Europe
- Therefore it was built by aliens
That last one is a joke but it illustrates that the prior assumptions were based on equally flawed logic.
6
posted on
10/06/2012 7:07:14 AM PDT
by
pepsi_junkie
(Who is John Galt?)
To: SunkenCiv
The wall protected a city measuring 4 hectares located on top of a hill. With architectural elements reminiscent of people with Eastern styled military skills, its model is typical of ancient civilisations of the Mediterranean, such as the second city of Troy. Four hectares is a little under 10 acres. A perimeter of 300 meters makes it a little under two modern city blocks. A nice fortress, but not a huge city, even 4 thousand years ago. Babylonian Ur was 54 acres.
Looking up the location on google maps has me scratching my head. It's not near a river or sea, as most cities tend to be.
7
posted on
10/06/2012 7:22:30 AM PDT
by
PapaBear3625
(Charlie Daniels - Payback Time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWwTJj_nosI)
To: pepsi_junkie
If you spent half your life scrapping in the dirt and finally found something to maybe justify your professional existence would you downplay it?
I remember a while back when various australopithecine fossils were being found all over East and Southern Africa and each finding was always presented as a bit older than the previous oldest. The competition to find the original “missing link” almost had early hominids riding dinosaurs...but then modern academia has been so corrupted by the Leftist agenda it now resembles the "Shadow Science" of the former Soviet Union and thus all theories and discoveries must be taken with a grain of salt big enough to sink the Titanic if it were floating in the North Atlantic.
8
posted on
10/06/2012 7:27:38 AM PDT
by
Happy Rain
("Water is wet and Obama is a liar.")
To: PapaBear3625
It's on a line of trade ~ probably on the end of that line ~ stretching East across the Mediterranean hopping island to island ~ to peninsula to island ~ all the way into the Eastern Mediterranean.
So, what was the quarry? Pretty big investment in fortress stuff for the time ~ so they must have been piling up trade goods to move East to more urban markets, and, at the same time, keeping the hunters and farmers out of their storehouses ~ maybe doing slaves as well. Blond buxomy huntress types~! In an age of very high maternal death rates brought about by particularly abominable indoor housing conditions, they'd been a serious item.
9
posted on
10/06/2012 7:42:12 AM PDT
by
muawiyah
To: pepsi_junkie
It does seem they feel obliged to spin an elaborate story out of not much. I suspect puffing up the importance of a "find" is useful in securing additional grant money to finance the next phase of the project.
To: SunkenCiv
11
posted on
10/06/2012 7:48:11 AM PDT
by
blam
To: visualops
12
posted on
10/06/2012 8:38:17 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
To: BenLurkin; Happy Rain
13
posted on
10/06/2012 8:51:22 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
To: pepsi_junkie; Happy Rain; hinckley buzzard
The site is the largest heavily fortified site in Europe known from that time; it’s a reasonable guess that it didn’t get built so sissy inhabitants could cower down behind the walls when their more powerful neighbors came in. As with the somewhat later Mycenaean sites in Greece and at Troy, the high-walled citadel was the stronghold from which a city-state was ruled, and that most of the habitation was outside the walls, iow, not yet identified and excavated.
IMHO, it’s also reasonable to guess that it’s the first one found, but nowhere near the last one of its kind in Europe.
14
posted on
10/06/2012 8:56:38 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
To: PapaBear3625; muawiyah; blam
Early cities were on trade routes and near a water supply. There was a lot of overland trade, then as now. The great civilizations we know most about arose in major river basins, where irrigation was simple to implement and agricultural surplus was consistent, leading to large standing armies, recordkeeping for tracking of food production and property boundaries — recordkeeping in its turn led to writing systems — and a larger population in better health that had to occupy itself with other business (or in the case of Egypt and Mesopotamia, in large cultic building projects).
One of the “Atlantis was really here” groups have found a coastal civilization in Iberia which may have been wiped by a tsunami, an event that is bound to have happened more than once.
15
posted on
10/06/2012 9:03:10 AM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
To: SunkenCiv
The site is the largest heavily fortified site in Europe known from that time; its a reasonable guess that it didnt get built so sissy inhabitants could cower down behind the walls when their more powerful neighbors came in. As with the somewhat later Mycenaean sites in Greece and at Troy, the high-walled citadel was the stronghold from which a city-state was ruled, and that most of the habitation was outside the walls, iow, not yet identified and excavated. Fortification goes hand-in-hand with agriculture. You need someplace secure to store the harvested grain, and other wealth of the area, so wandering bands of barbarians cant just raid you and carry off your food supply.
16
posted on
10/06/2012 9:41:31 AM PDT
by
PapaBear3625
(Charlie Daniels - Payback Time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWwTJj_nosI)
To: PapaBear3625
17
posted on
10/06/2012 9:56:47 AM PDT
by
GOYAKLA
(Recall/ Impeachment Day, November 6, 2012. FUBO, same for RINOs)
To: SunkenCiv
Is archaeological discovery infinite?
Zillions of digs have been going on for hundreds of years now—is there a limit to welfare government hand-outs to the many superfluous archeology and anthropology grads who hope the Marxist in Chief forgives their student debt so that they may never have to work or think for a living and so can pleasantly zone out with benighted speculative theorizing sans objectivity currently appallingly fashionable to modern Leftist scientific dogma today.
18
posted on
10/06/2012 10:08:04 AM PDT
by
Happy Rain
("Water is wet and Obama is a liar.")
To: Happy Rain
19
posted on
10/06/2012 1:07:50 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
To: SunkenCiv
Perhaps a little tin foil hatted, but far from idiotic FRiend.
Lighten up, don't be as glum as your name. This is a political forum after all regardless of your apolitical yet informative and often entertaining contributions;)
20
posted on
10/06/2012 2:33:52 PM PDT
by
Happy Rain
("Water is wet and Obama is a liar.")
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-25 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson