(ORDO NEWS) — Archaeologists have discovered the oldest settlement in North Macedonia dating back to the early Neolithic.
Judging by radiocarbon analysis, the oldest layers of the Vlaho site date back to 6410–6240 BC.
Not later than the 10th millennium BC, in the region called the Fertile Crescent, one of the turning points in the history of mankind began – neolithization, that is, the process of transition from an appropriating economy (hunting, gathering and fishing) to a producing economy (agriculture and animal husbandry).
Gradually, a new type of farming spread to neighboring regions, primarily to Anatolia.
Subsequently, together with migrants from the territory of modern Turkey, agriculture ended up in Europe. The newcomers displaced or assimilated most of the local hunter-gatherers.
Thus, the neolithization of Greece began around 6800 BC, and soon the entire Balkan Peninsula. About 5000 years ago, this process was completed on almost the entire continent.
Goce Naumov from the Center for Prehistoric Research in Skopje, together with colleagues from Germany, Italy, Poland, North Macedonia and Serbia, studied the early Neolithic settlement of Vlaho, discovered in the southeast of Central Pelagonia.
This monument is under threat of destruction due to intensive coal mining, so archaeologists have carried out security and rescue work.
Explorations have shown that Vlaho is a very large settlement for the Balkans of its time, as evidenced by ceramic fragments found on an area of about six hectares.
In 2021 and 2022, archaeologists laid five exploratory pits 1×1 meters in size, as well as a 10×5 meter excavation to find out the stratigraphy of the site.
Scientists have found that the thickness of cultural deposits in one of the sites reaches 1.34 meters, and all of them belong to the early Neolithic.
In addition to the remains of domesticated plants and animals, fragments of ceramics, the researchers found the remains of several structures.
To find out the age of the monument, archaeologists turned to accelerator mass spectrometry. For dating, they selected samples of charred grains of cereals.
The earliest date obtained showed that the settlement existed around 6410–6240 BC. According to researchers, to date, these are the oldest evidence of the Neolithic era found in North Macedonia.
Moreover, this dating is one of the earliest for all the Balkans. The latest dating on the Vlaho site is 6072–5982 BC.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.