(ORDO NEWS) — Archaeologists have found a Neolithic fortress in the west of France, in which the builders of the most ancient European megaliths lived six thousand years ago.
Scientists consider megaliths to be the earliest monumental structures in Europe – structures made of huge boulders, obviously not adapted for habitation and, most likely, of a sacred nature.
Initially, they appeared in the west of France, later – in the British Isles and in the territory of modern Germany.
We do not know who built the megaliths and where these first European architects lived.
Traces of Neolithic settlements, which could be unequivocally interpreted as non-sacred, have not yet been found near the stone giants.
This raised questions: if people managed to build Stonehenge or Karnak stones, then why did they not use their skills to build settlements?
In the second half of the last century, several groups of scientists at once announced the findings of, let’s say, examples of everyday monumentalism.
We are talking about the settlements of the carriers of the culture of linear-tape ceramics.
It turned out that these people very often surrounded their houses with rather serious fortress walls. True, unlike megaliths, the main material of the fortifications was wood.
At the same time, fortified settlements were never found near megaliths. These two types of large structures existed as if separately from each other.
The most ancient megaliths (mid-5th millennium BC) in France have been explored since the 19th century.
Since about the same time, archaeologists have been unsuccessfully trying to locate the settlements that existed simultaneously with these sites.
Although more than 300 fortified settlements of the Linear Pottery culture have already been found in France, dating indicates their appearance about one millennium after the date of the megaliths (3700-2200 BC).
Moreover, in a number of places only walls were found – without houses inside, which is why the very assumption about the residential function of the fortress remains a subject of controversy.
In 2011, aerial photography near the town of Le Peux in the Charente department in western France showed the presence of two strange ditches there.
They were clearly part of a common structure. Interest was reinforced by the fact that just 2.5 kilometers from this place is one of the ancient megaliths – the Bugon necropolis, dated to about 4800 BC.
For several years, archaeological excavations were carried out at the site.
The researchers found the remains of a fortress wall with two entrances in the form of the so-called crab claw, which is typical of the European Neolithic.
The fortress is located in a limestone ledge, higher than the surrounding area.
Inside the enclosure, at the very edge of this ledge, archaeologists discovered four quadrangular buildings, a form previously completely unknown in this region of France for this period.
Three more such houses were found outside the fence.
Using various methods, the fortress and houses were dated to the beginning of the 5th millennium BC – that is, the approximate time of the construction of the megaliths of the Bugon necropolis.
This necropolis consists of five elongated mounds with megalithic chambers. And it is located so that it is perfectly visible from the fortress.
According to the authors of the work, for the first time they managed to find a settlement of builders of European megaliths.
The fortress wall around the houses indicates that in the west of Europe at that time it was, frankly, restless. Some social changes were taking place, during which attacks from other communities were possible.
The builders of megaliths feared not in vain. Not later than 4400 BC, the fortress was destroyed, the houses were burned.
No one else lived at this place, although the burial chambers of the Bugon necropolis were used for a long time: the latest burials there date back to the 3rd millennium BC.
In addition to the fortress, archaeologists found a quarry from which they took material for megaliths.
Here the question arises: if these people worked well with stone and had enough of it on hand, why did they not build a stone wall in their fortress?
They obviously understood that a wooden fence is less reliable simply because it burns.
The authors suggest that such a distribution of building materials had a sacred character.
The tree and the earth, in their opinion, were suitable for arranging the settlement of the living, while the stone was intended for the world of the dead.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.