The secret of Tripoli. Who built the first city on Earth

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The secret of Tripoli. Who built the first city on Earth
The secret of Tripoli. Who built the first city on Earth
Anonim

In the 1960s, archaeologists discovered huge settlements in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, built by representatives of the Trypillian culture six thousand years ago. The territory is hundreds of hectares, tens of thousands of houses. Perhaps these were the direct predecessors of the cities of Mesopotamia. About the most ancient proto-cities - in the material of RIA Novosti.

The fruits of collective labor

At the turn of the Stone and Bronze Ages, the fertile lands between the Dnieper and the Southern Bug were occupied by farmers and cattle breeders for more than three thousand years, leaving behind many artifacts - dwellings, mounds, utensils, tools. Archaeologists combine them into the culture of Tripolye-Cucuteni.

In Soviet times, scientists using aerial photography discovered traces of large archaeological sites resembling settlements. Excavations have confirmed the hypothesis.

The largest object is Nebelevka, three thousand wooden houses on an area of 320 hectares. Maidanetskoye and Talyanki are of the same order. In the terminology of specialists, these are mega-sites. There are two dozen of them on the territory of Romania, Moldova and Ukraine.

Settlement Nebelevka

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The scale of the Nebelevka settlement, which is more than six thousand years old. Kirovograd region of Ukraine

Megasites are designed in a circular manner: in the center there is a large empty space surrounded by two lines of buildings with a buffer zone between them. Houses were located on the outskirts. In the mid-2000s, geophysical methods established clear external boundaries in some settlements. For example, in Nebelevka the length of the ditches is six kilometers.

A sensational find was made here during excavations in 2012 - a two-storey house 20 by 40 meters with a large open courtyard. The spire over the entrance was crowned with a crescent with its horns upward - a symbol that is constantly found among the artifacts of the Trypillian culture. In all of Europe at that time there was no more grandiose building than this one. Orientation to the cardinal points, dimensions, large altars on the ground floor, several vessels-goblets, baking dishes, many broken vessels, figurines, animal bones in the cultural layer around indicated that this was most likely a temple where rituals were performed and sacrifices.

Most of the buildings, including the temple house, are found burnt down. This is one of the mysteries of Trypillian culture. Ukrainian and British scientists have proved that houses were burned on purpose.

The artist's reconstruction shows what a house in Nebelevka might have looked like

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Artistic reconstruction of the house-temple in Nebelevka

Union of equals

Nebelevka - the largest settlement of the Copper Age in Europe, and possibly in the world - existed for only seven hundred years. Its meaning and function are not yet completely clear. Researchers from the University of Durham (UK) draw attention to the paradox. On the one hand, the scale, the multitude of buildings, clear traces of planning testify to the fundamental, permanent character of the settlement. It is no coincidence that such complexes are considered proto-cities.

On the other hand, there are no signs of administrative bureaucracy and social inequality that are characteristic of cities. The houses are all the same, nothing says about the division into rich and poor. It is surprising that the natural environment around the megasite is not disturbed, which would be expected during the construction of a large, permanently operating city.

The authors of the work come to the conclusion that Nebelevka functioned in the summer as a place of ritual gatherings. Whole families flocked here, residents of small settlements within a radius of one hundred kilometers. They brought with them things, dishes, food, brought in pets and performed joint rituals. Preliminarily, meeting houses and temples were erected, an area was equipped for national celebrations, and a barrage moat was erected. Houses were built for living, but after one or several visits they were burned. With the onset of cold weather, a small permanent population remained in Nebelevka, maintaining the basic infrastructure until the next season.

In a recent article, John Chapman and his colleagues concluded that mega-sites brought together disparate, equitable communities in a given space, allowing them to feel part of a single culture. In this sense, such huge villages with a low population density can be seen as an alternative to cities. It is possible that they will be discovered in other parts of the world.

Founding fathers and migrants

According to existing ideas, the first cities appeared in Mesopotamia at about the same time as mega-sites in the forest-steppe of Eastern Europe. However, such settlements require strict management as they serve the interests of small ruling groups.

Since 1976, British scientists have been exploring the city of Tel Brak in northeastern Syria, mainly its central, once densely populated part (English archaeologists began excavations here back in 1937). With the help of aerial photography and geophysical methods, the surroundings were examined and it was found that the monument occupies a much larger area due to the suburbs with a low population density.

About a decade ago, scientists from Harvard, the University of Edinburgh and the MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research in Cambridge analyzed the distribution of artifacts and structures and concluded that Tel Brak was growing at the expense of migrants who settled in the outskirts. The aliens lived in separate groups - the mechanisms of integration then, apparently, were absent. The autonomy of the central part of the city, where the bureaucracy was located, is noticeable.

Until recently, the oldest city on Earth was considered Uruk in the south of modern Iraq. According to legend, it was founded by the Sumerian king Gilgamesh. However, more and more facts indicate that Tel Brak appeared earlier.

And the most ancient of the continuously existing cities is Jericho, located on the western bank of the Jordan River. British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon, who conducted extensive excavations there in the 1950s, believed that it was ten thousand years old.

Jericho was founded by sedentary gatherers who lived in semi-dugouts. Later, a large agricultural commune was formed here. People surrounded the settlement with walls and erected a tower 8, 5 meters high, possibly more than one. The discoveries of recent years have shown that even then the Jericho people were building public buildings for storing crops, gatherings and, probably, temples.

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