Old Europe (archaeology)

alt=changed map|thumb|[[Chalcolithic Europe|Copper age cultures in Southeastern Europe]]

Old Europe, or Danubian civilisation, was a relatively homogeneous pre-Indo-European Neolithic and Copper Age culture or civilisation in Southeast Europe, centred in the Lower Danube Valley. The term was coined by the Lithuanian-American archaeologist Marija Gimbutas.

The term "Danubian culture" was earlier coined by the archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe to describe early farming cultures (e.g. the Linear Pottery culture) which spread westwards and northwards from the Danube Valley into Central and Eastern Europe.

Description

thumb|Miniature cult scene, [[Karanovo culture, 5th millennium BC]]

Neolithic Europe refers to the time between the Mesolithic and Bronze Age periods in Europe, roughly from 7000 BC (the approximate time of the first metal processing societies in Bosnia and Serbia, and first farming societies in Greece), to c. 2000 BC (the beginning of the Bronze 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 suspected proto-writing.

thumb|[[Hamangia culture pottery, c. 4500 BC]]

Regardless of specific chronology, many European Neolithic groups share basic characteristics, such as living in small-scale communities, being more egalitarian than the city-states and chiefdoms of the Bronze Age, subsisting on domestic plants and animals supplemented with the collection of wild plant foods and hunting, and producing hand-made pottery, without the aid of the potter'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 in Britain were usually small (possibly 50–100 people).

thumb|left|[[Cucuteni–Trypillia culture|Cucuteni–Trypillia figurine, Romania, 4050–3900 BC|221x221px]]

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. In contrast, she characterizes the later Indo-European influences as warlike, nomadic, and patrilineal. and the Vasconic substratum hypothesis of Theo Vennemann (also see Sigmund Feist's Germanic substrate hypothesis).

Indo-European origins

thumb|[[Maidanetske, Ukraine, c. 3700 BC. Cucuteni–Trypillia culture.]]

According to Gimbutas' version of the Kurgan hypothesis, Old Europe was invaded and destroyed by horse-riding pastoral nomads from the Pontic–Caspian steppe (the "Kurgan culture") who brought with them violence, patriarchy, and Indo-European languages. More recent proponents of the Kurgan hypothesis agree that the cultures of Old Europe spoke pre-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.

Colin Renfrew's competing Anatolian hypothesis suggests that the Indo-European languages were spread across Europe by the first farmers from Anatolia. In the hypothesis' original formulation, the languages of Old Europe belonged to the Indo-European family but played no special role in its transmission. According to Renfrew's most recent revision of the theory, however, Old Europe was a "secondary urheimat" (linguistic homeland) where the Greek, Armenian, and Balto-Slavic language families diverged around 5000 BC. Three genetic studies in 2015 gave partial support to the Steppe theory regarding the Indo-European Urheimat. According to those studies, haplogroups R1b and R1a, 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 an autosomal 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.

Gallery

Artifacts

File:Female figurine with child small painted terracott neolithic, NAMA 5937 080804.jpg|Sesklo culture figurine

File:Ancient Greece Neolithic Pottery - 28171056730.jpg|Sesklo and Dimini culture ceramics

File:Clay vase with polychrome decoration, Dimini, Magnesia, Late or Final Neolithic (5300-3300 BC).jpg|Dimini culture ceramic vessel

File:Serbia, Vinça culture, Neolithic Era - Vinca Idol - 2000.202 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|alt=Vinca culture figurine|Vinča culture figurine

File:Винча — Бело брдо 2.jpg|alt=Vinca culture ceramics|Vinča culture ceramics

File:Copper axes with modern replicas, National Museum of Serbia 04 2413-2423 (09).jpg|Vinča culture copper axe

File:Tartaria2.jpg|alt=Vinca culture, Tartaria tablet|Vinča culture, Tartaria tablet

File:Керамичен съд от с. Слатино, ранен халколит 009.jpg|Karanovo culture ceramic vessel

File:NeolithicVessel B&W 1.jpg|Karanovo culture ceramic vessel

File:Hotarani bowl 5500-5000 vadastra culture nrim.jpg|Vădastra culture ceramic bowl

File:Tisza1.jpg|Tisza culture ceramic altar

File:Gumelnita1.jpg|Gumelnița culture ceramic vessel

File:Ceramic House Model - National History Museum of Romania 12156.jpg|Gumelnița culture architectural model

File:思想者塑像.JPG|Hamangia culture figurine

File:Human-sized clay head found at Varna necropolis.png|Hamangia culture ceramic sculpture

File:Bodrogkeresztur gold.jpg|Bodrogkeresztúr culture gold idol

File:Boian culture 2011 12 (edited angle).jpg|alt=|Boian culture ceramic

File:Journal.pone.0278116.g008.png|Tiszapolgár culture, copper ornaments

File:Museum of History Kardzhali 2011 PD 015.JPG|Jade pendant, Karanovo culture

File:Butmir1.jpg|Butmir culture ceramic vessel

File:Zivotinjski riton.jpg|Danilo culture ceramic vessel

File:Bull pendants from Grave 36 (Varna Necropolis) (36756066545).jpg|alt=|Varna culture gold pendants

File:Alba Iulia National Museum of the Union 2011 - Petresti Culture Pottery Belonging to a Ritual Complex from Ghirbom.JPG|Petresti culture pottery

File:MuzeuldeistorienaturalavienaCucutenitripolieartefacts.JPG|alt=|Cucuteni–Trypillia ceramic and copper artefacts

File:Neolithic Pottery (28650540752).jpg|Cucuteni–Trypillia ceramics

</gallery>

Settlements

File:Sesklo DSC 2020a.jpg|alt=|Sesklo, Sesklo culture

File:Dimini 3.jpg|Dimini walled acropolis

File:Okoliste. Neolithic settlement 5200 BC. Bosnia and Herzegovina (cropped).jpg|Okoliste, Butmir culture

File:Durankulak-Tell Golemija ostrov.JPG|alt=|Durankulak, Varna/ Hamangia culture

File:Solnitsata 4700 - 4200 B.C..jpg|Solnitsata, Varna culture

File:Talianki 1c.jpg|Talianki, Cucuteni–Trypillia culture

File:ScaleRepoductionOfaCucutenivillage.JPG|alt=|Village model, Cucuteni culture

File:Cucuteni houses 1.jpg|alt=|Houses, Cucuteni–Trypillia culture

File:Maidanetske ground plan.jpg|Maidanetske ground plan, Ukraine

File:Trypillia house.png|House with raised platform at Maidanetsk, c. 3700 BC

File:Nebelivka megastructure, reconstruction.jpg|Nebelivka temple, Cucuteni–Trypillia culture

File:TellYunatsite.jpg|Tell Yunatsite, Karanovo culture

File:Magura - Pietrele, Neolithic - Chalcolithic tell site, Romania.png|Magura tell site, Gumelnița culture

File:White Hill in Vinča, profile and approach.jpg|Vinča-Belo Brdo, Vinča culture

File:LBK house 1.jpg|Longhouse model, Linear Pottery culture

File:Smac Neolithikum 122.jpg|Linear Pottery culture settlement

File:Neolitic houses reconstruction 01.JPG|Neolithic house reconstructions, Karanovo culture

</gallery>

References

External links

The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000-3500 BC, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, exhibition video (2010)
The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000-3500 BC, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, exhibition video, 2010
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World : Neolithic and Copper Age
culture.gouv.fr: Life along the Danube 6500 years ago
Kathleen Jenks, "Old Europe": further links