Old Europe in the spotlight – fact or fiction?
The existence, distinct features and influence of Old European civilization on that of Ancient Greece are matters not presently taught in schools. The existence of Old Europe has been debated for years in academia, and few scientists are familiar with the role this civilization plays in the history of humanity.
How is it possible to even consider Old Europe as being in the spotlight? In the least, it would require some sort of bestselling book to captivate audiences and recognize the existence of Old Europe, underlining its value and meaning. Surpisingly, such a bestseller already exists! “The Dawn of Everything”, written by anthropologist David Graeber and archeologist David Wengrow. The Finnish translation, titled “Alussa oli... – Ihmiskunnan uusi historia” (Teos), was released this Autumn. The book covers a profuse amount of material and deals with such a wide variety of themes that the topic of Old Europe may even go unnoticed by the reader.
However, the book does place Old Europe directly in the spotlight in its discussion about the birth of cities throughout world history. According to earlier assumptions, the first urban centers developed in Mesopotamia. However, new research has shown that older cities were under construction as early as circa 4000 BCE in the eastern parts of Old Europe, in the western parts of contemporary Ukraine and in the northern parts of Moldova.
In scientific literature, these urban centers are called "mega-settlements", "proto-cities", or "super towns", and they arose a few hundred years prior to the first cities in Mesopotamia. Places such as Maidanetske (circa 7500 inhabitants) or Taljanky (circa 10000 inhabitants) were the largest. Evidence can be found in books published by the prolific Princeton University Press, such as David Anthony's book “The Horse, the Wheel, and Language” (2007) and a catalogue from a major exhibition about Old Europe, organized by The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in New York in 2009–2010.
Refering to the above-mentioned centers, David Anthony states in his book: "These super sites were located in the hills east of the South Bug River, near the edge of the steppe in the southern forest-steppe zone. They were the largest communities not just in Europe but in the world” (Anthony 2007: 279).
In their bestseller, Graeber and Wengrow wonder why the existence of Old Europe and the facts concerning the oldest cities are not well recieved in academia: “Yet, even now, in scholarly discussions about the origins of urbanism, these Ukrainian sites almost never come up. ... How do we account for this reluctance to welcome the Ukrainian mega-sites into the charmed circle of urban origins? Why has anyone with even a passing interest in the origin of cities heard of Uruk or Mohenjo-daro, but almost no one of Taljanky?" (Graeber and Wengrow 2021: 289).
The writers' answer is ambiguous: perhaps these new discoveries are so groundbreaking that the new image of the birth of urbanism isn't compatible with established ways of thinking, and scholars suffer from a phenomenon which could be described as "a fear of touching" certain subjects. This fear is unknown to researchers studying the civilization of Old Europe, discovered by the pioneering archaeologist Marija Gimbutas. Welcome on our journey as we build a genesis for European civilization, inspired by research making its way into the spotlight from the margins!
The world’s earliest cities (mega-settlements).
Harald Haarmann and Virpi Lehtinen
Read this blog in Finnish here.