Posted on 06/11/2005 2:02:58 PM PDT by wagglebee
Europe's oldest civilisation has been discovered by archaeologists across the continent, it was reported yesterday.
More than 150 large temples, constructed between 4800 BC and 4600 BC, have been unearthed in fields and cities in Germany, Austria and Slovakia, predating the pyramids in Egypt by some 2,000 years, The Independent newspaper revealed.
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, The Independent reported.
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.
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 some 300 people living in up to 20 large buildings around the temple.
You are correct about the alphabet.
http://phoenicia.org/alphabet.html
http://www.ancientscripts.com/alphabet.html
The alphabet family tree is a great visual tool for me.
Very neat! I wish there was some more info about the background and subsequent fate of these people except that they arrived in Germany from the Danube Basin.
Sanskrit predates that.
I've heard of Sanskrit but I didn't know it predates it. Do you have a link? I would love to read it.
Sorry, I don't. I should put together some 'net info on Sanskrit and the ancient Vedic culture.
Sanskrit is the mother of all Indo-European languages, very very ancient.
I've read a book which gives lists of Sanskrit derived words in almost every European and many other languages. I don't read it myself (different alphabet) but am familiar with many words, and it is amazing how many English words are Sanskrit derived. Often dictionaries do not mention the Sanskrit derivation; they'll say Old English, or Latin, or Greek. But I'll know that it's Sanskrit.
Take the word "tumultuous" - the Sanskrit word is (written in English letters) "tumulo". Or "youth" - "yauvana". Or "daugher" - "duhitra". "Three" - "trai". I could go on and on.
The Vedic culture was very ancient when Egypt and Greece were pre-history.
Thanks. I'll just use 'Sanskrit' as keyword on the net and see what I can find.
See this Link.
After the last Ice Age, it appears that the general migration came from Spain between 8K and 10K BC.
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this is a duplicate thread, more or less, the following is the oldest one:
Temples Older Than Pyramids Found (In Europe)
BBC | Saturday June 11 2005
Posted on 06/11/2005 12:54:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1421011/posts
fascinating
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