| Geographical range | Southeast Europe and adjoining areas ofCentral Europe andEastern Europe |
|---|---|
| Period | Neolithic,Copper Age,Prehistoric Europe |
| Dates | c. 6795—3500 BC |
| Preceded by | Mesolithic Europe |
| Followed by | Bronze Age Europe |
Old Europe is a term coined by the Lithuanian-American archaeologistMarija Gimbutas to describe what she perceived as a relatively homogeneouspre-Indo-EuropeanNeolithic andCopper Age culture or civilisation inSoutheast Europe, centred in the LowerDanube Valley.[1][2][3] Old Europe is also referred to in some literature as theDanube civilisation.[4]
The termDanubian culture was earlier coined by the archaeologistVere Gordon Childe to describe early farming cultures (e.g. theLinear Pottery culture) which spread westwards and northwards from the Danube Valley intoCentral andEastern Europe.
In 4500 bc, before the first cities were built in Mesopotamia and Egypt, Old Europe was among the most sophisticated and technologically advanced places in the world ... At its peak, about 5000–3500 bc, Old Europe was developing many of the political, technological, and ideological signs of "civilization". Some Old European villages grew to citylike sizes, larger than the earliest cities of Mesopotamia ... Old European metalsmiths were, in their day, among the most advanced metal artisans in the world, and certainly the most active. The metal artifacts recovered by archaeologists from Old Europe total about 4,700 kilograms (more than five tons) of copper, and over 6 kilograms (13.2 pounds) of gold, more metal by far than has been found in any other part of the ancient world dated before 3500 bc. The demand for copper, gold, Aegean shells, and other valuables created networks of negotiation that reached hundreds of kilometers. Pottery, figurines, and even houses were decorated with striking designs. Female "goddess" figurines, found in almost every settlement, have triggered intense debates about the ritual and political power of women. Signs inscribed on clay suggest a system of primitive notation, if not writing.
— Anthony (2010)[5]
Neolithic Europe refers to the time between theMesolithic andBronze Age periods inEurope, roughly from 7000 BC (the approximate time of the first metal processing societies inBosnia andSerbia, and first farming societies inGreece), to c. 2000 BC (the beginning of theBronze Age in Scandinavia). Its peak period is estimated as 5000–3500 BC, during which its population centers exceeded the first Mesopotamian cities. A high level of craft skill and trade is evident from tons of recovered copper artifacts and a small amount of gold, as well as pottery and carved items. These include the period's signature female figurines which have raised interest in the role of the society's women, as well as suspectedproto-writing.[6]
Regardless of specific chronology, many European Neolithic groups share basic characteristics, such as living in small-scale communities, being more egalitarian[disputed –discuss] than thecity-states andchiefdoms of theBronze Age, subsisting ondomestic plants and animals supplemented with the collection of wild plant foods and hunting, and producing hand-made pottery, without the aid of thepotter's wheel. There are also many differences, with some Neolithic communities in southeastern Europe living in heavily fortified settlements of 3,000–4,000 people (e.g.,Sesklo in Greece) whereas Neolithic groups inBritain were usually small (possibly 50–100 people).[7]
Marija Gimbutas studied the Neolithic period in order to understand cultural developments in settled village culture in the southern Balkans, which she characterized as peaceful,matristic, and possessing a goddess-centered religion.[8] In contrast, she characterizes the later Indo-European influences as warlike, nomadic, andpatrilineal.[8] Using evidence from pottery and sculpture, and combining the tools ofarchaeology, comparativemythology,linguistics, and, most controversially,folkloristics, Gimbutas invented a new interdisciplinary field,archaeomythology.
In historical times, someethnonyms are believed to correspond to Pre-Indo-European peoples, assumed to be the descendants of the earlier Old European cultures: thePelasgians,Minoans,Leleges,Iberians,Nuragic people,Etruscans,Rhaetians,Camunni andBasques. Two of the three pre-Greek peoples of Sicily, theSicans and theElymians, may also have been pre-Indo-European.
How many Pre-Indo-European languages existed is not known. Nor is it known whether the ancient names of peoples descended from the pre-ancient population actually referred to speakers of distinct languages. Gimbutas (1989), observing a unity of symbols marked especially on pots, but also on other objects, concluded that there may have been a single language spoken in Old Europe. She thought that decipherment would have to wait for the discovery of bilingual texts.
The idea of a Pre-Indo-European language in the region precedes Gimbutas. It went by other names, such as "Pelasgian", "Mediterranean", or "Aegean". Apart from marks on artifacts, the main evidence concerning Pre-Indo-European language is in names:toponyms,ethnonyms, etc., and in roots in other languages believed to be derived from one or more prior languages, possibly unrelated. Reconstruction from the evidence is an accepted, though somewhat speculative, field of study. Suggestions of possible Old European languages include Urbian bySorin Paliga,[9] and theVasconic substratum hypothesis ofTheo Vennemann (also seeSigmund Feist'sGermanic substrate hypothesis).
According to Gimbutas' version of theKurgan hypothesis, Old Europe was invaded and destroyed by horse-ridingpastoral nomads from thePontic–Caspian steppe (the "Kurgan culture") who brought with them violence,patriarchy, andIndo-European languages.[11] More recent proponents of the Kurgan hypothesis agree that the cultures of Old Europe spokepre-Indo-European languages but include a less dramatic transition, with a prolonged migration of Proto-Indo-European speakers after Old Europe's collapse due to other factors.[12][13]
Colin Renfrew's competingAnatolian hypothesis suggests that the Indo-European languages were spread across Europe by the first farmers fromAnatolia. In the hypothesis' original formulation, the languages of Old Europe belonged to the Indo-European family but played no special role in its transmission.[14] According to Renfrew's most recent revision of the theory, however, Old Europe was a "secondaryurheimat" (linguistic homeland) where theGreek,Armenian, andBalto-Slavic language families diverged around 5000 BC.[15] Three genetic studies in 2015 gave partial support to the Steppe theory regarding theIndo-European Urheimat. According to those studies, haplogroupsR1b andR1a, now the most common in Europe (R1a is also common in South Asia) would have expanded from the steppes north of the Pontic and Caspian seas, along with at least some of the Indo-European languages; they also detected anautosomal component present in modern Europeans which was not present in Neolithic Europeans, which would have been introduced with paternal lineages R1b and R1a, as well as Indo-European languages.[16][17][18]
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![Tisza culture ceramic altar[19]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aTisza1.jpg)
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![Solnitsata, Varna culture[20]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aSolnitsata_4700_-_4200_B.C..jpg)
![Maidanetske ground plan, Ukraine[21]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aMaidanetske_ground_plan.jpg)
![Nebelivka temple, Cucuteni-Trypillia culture.[22]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aNebelivka_megastructure%2c_reconstruction.jpg)
![Tell Yunatsite, Karanovo culture.[23]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aTellYunatsite.jpg)
We generated genome-wide data from 69 Europeans who lived between 8,000–3,000 years ago by enriching ancient DNA libraries for a target set of almost 400,000 polymorphisms.... This steppe ancestry persisted in all sampled central Europeans until at least 3,000 years ago, and is ubiquitous in present-day Europeans. These results provide support for a steppe origin of at least some of the Indo-European languages of Europe.
Tell Yunatsite in Bulgaria, associated with the Karanovo culture
Media related toOld Europe (archaeology) at Wikimedia Commons