Article available only for subsribers of
- The Indipendent news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp
www.dawn.com/2005/06/12/int13.htm
reports:
LONDON, June 11:
Europe’s oldest civilization has been discovered by archaeologists across the continent, The Independent newspaper said on Saturday.
More than 150 large temples, constructed between 4800BC and 4600BC, have been unearthed in fields and cities in Germany, Austria and Slovakia, predating the pyramids in Egypt by some 2,000 years, the newspaper revealed.
The network of temples, made of earth and wood, were constructed by a religious people whose economy appears to have been based on livestock farming, The Independent reported.
Excavations have taken place over the past three years, but the discovery is so new that the civilization has not yet been named.
The most complex centre discovered so far, beneath the city of Dresden in Saxony, eastern Germany, comprises a temple surrounded by four ditches, three earthen banks and two palisades.
“Our excavations have revealed the degree of monumental vision and sophistication used by these early farming communities to create Europe’s first truly large-scale earthwork complexes,” said Harald Staeuble, from the Saxony state government’s heritage department.
The temples, up to 150 metres in diameter, were made by a people who lived in long houses and villages, the newspaper said. Stone, bone, and wooden tools have been unearthed, along with ceramic figures of people and animals.
A village at Aythra, near Leipzig in eastern Germany, was home to some 300 people living in up to 20 large buildings around the temple.
- AFP
The original article by Nicholas Christian, The Indepent, is available at
A notional view by David Keys, The Independent, is available at:
and Ahimsa Times, Delhi, India steps ahead:
- 150 Large Temples Of 4800 B.C. Unearthed In Germany, Austria & Slovakia Could Be Jain Temples
the quotations might be taken from:
"Jain Temples in India and around the World" authored by L.M. Singhvi with photographs by Tarun Chopra; 2003 [somebody may confirm this please]
More maybe relevant reports:
08.08.2003:
Archaeologists Unearth German StonehengeGerman experts on Thursday hailed Europe’s oldest astronomical observatory, discovered in Saxony-Anhalt last year, a “milestone in archaeological research” after the details of the sensational find were made public.
Observatory had scientific and religious value.
Found: The 3,600-year-old bronze Nebra disc is considered the oldest-known image of the cosmos.
article including pictures, e.g. Bronze Nebra Disc
04.06.2005:
Rebuilding Germany's Temple of the Sun
- www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1604678,00.html
article including pictures.