Europe's oldest town found in Bulgaria

[Edgar 2.0 Profile]

A prehistoric town unearthed in eastern Bulgaria is the oldest urban settlement found to date in Europe, a Bulgarian archaeologist said Thursday.

"We started excavation work in 2005, but only after this archaeological season did we gather enough evidence to back up this claim," Nikolov told The Associated Press.

The team has so far unearthed remains of a settlement of two-story houses with a diameter of about 100 meters (328 feet) encircled by a fortified wall .

Excavations have also uncovered a series of pits used for rituals as well as parts of a gate. Carbon analysis has dated them to the Chalcolithic age to between 4,700 and 4,200 B.C., he said – more than a millennium before the start of the ancient Greek civilization.

"New samples of the excavations have been sent to the University of Cologne, Germany, for further evaluation," Nikolov said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/01/europes-oldest-town-bulgarian-archaeologist_n_2056748.html

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Residents of what is thought to be Europe's oldest town cut their dead in half and buried them from the pelvis up, according to archaeologists.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2224702/Residents-Europes-oldest-town-sliced-dead-half-buried-pelvis-up.html

[Cornbread714 Profile]

That's not far from me at all. I want to go and check it out. I've been meaning to post something about it, but I've been kinda busy. Thanks for that one.

Varna itself is one of the oldest cities in Europe. I live in the oldest part of town - the "Greek neighborhood". I'm surrounded by Roman ruins. You can really feel the vibe - or at least I think I can...

Sometimes I almost think I lived here before. I'd love to have been here when the Thracians were around. They knew how to party, bigtime. They were way into sex and drugs, from what I understand - probably some form of rock and roll, too.

They say that the Greek deity Dionysus (Rome's Bacchus) came from the Thracian culture.

"Pass me that bottle, and I'll sing you a REAL song...", as Jimi put it.