Austria’s 6,500-year-old earthwork factory is thousands of years larger than Stonehenge – Huge
About 10,000 years ago, the paradigm shift in human history began to unfold. Prior to this transitional period, archaeologists called it the Neolithic Revolution (the last stage of the Stone Age), which revolved around hunting and gatherings to make ends meet. During the Neolithic Age, the gradual adoption of agricultural practices has changed our way of life forever.
Over the next few thousand years, humans began to domesticate plants and engage in animal husbandry around the world. As farming takes less time than nomads search for food, ancient people can enjoy other activities that lead to economic, political, religious and artistic development.
The Neolithic Age was the first civilization. Similarly, old buildings like the Newgrange Passage Tomb in Ireland and the Boulder Complex in England were built, with the latter’s old structure beginning around 3100 BC and completed about 600 years later. In the context, construction of the Giza pyramids may be underway when Stonehenge is in its final stages. Recently, a series of circular works dating back to the 5th millennium BC (5000-4001 BC) in Bergenland, Austria, probably predated 200,000 years ago.
At the newly excavated site, three monumental buildings are close to each other near the town of rechnitz. Earthwork was initially discovered through aerial and geomagnetic surveys between 2011 and 2017. A total of four were found, three of which were ring-shaped structures that were previously invisible to the naked eye.
These structures, known as circular trench systems, were built for at least 6,500 years in the middle of the Neolithic period (between 4850 and 4500 B.C.).
“The Rechnitz site can be regarded as the center of the upper zone in the mid-Neolithic period,” Burgenland Director of Archaeology Nikolaus Franz said in a statement. In a ditches spanning about 340 feet, archaeologists recorded pits containing ceramic discoveries and holes that indicate the location of the ground wooden beams that once supported the shelter.
This type of circular ditch monument is called Kreisgrabenanlagen In German, it is always found throughout Central and Europe. Although their expected function remains unknown, researchers generally believe that they have ancient religious or religious purposes. Similar to Stonehenge, their orientation includes openings that are consistent with the dissolving agent and appears to correspond to the astronomical calendar.
“The excavation opened a veritable window for the Stone Age,” Franz said. “We are learning a lot from the Neolithic settler clans, who found it a favorable geographical location to establish cultural technologies for agriculture and livestock farming in what is now Bergenland… After centuries of hunting and gatherings, the gradual settlement of humanity was truly revolutionary.”
You may also like to explore the amazing complex of over 10,000 earthworks done by prehistoric indigenous societies in the Amazon Basin.
