Europe’s Earliest Prehistoric Town Discovered

Europe’s oldest prehistoric town is thought to have been unearthed by archaeologists, in Bulgaria.

The fortified settlement of Europe’s earliest prehistoric town is near modern day Provadia, Bulgaria and was believed to be an important salt production center, BBCreports.

According to archaeologists, the prehistoric town is thought to date back to between 4700 and 4200 BC. To put it in to perspective, the prehistoric town’s population of about 350 inhabitants, existed around 1,500 years before Greek civilization had begun.

The prehistoric town’s industry was salt and they were able to do so by boiling water from a nearby spring to create the commodity. The inhabitants would then make bricks of salt and either trade them or use them to preserve meat.

Salt is thought to have been a very valuable commodity at the time and may explain the large, stone wall encapsulating the town, archaeologist say.

Vasil Nikolov, a researcher with Bulgaria’s National Institute of Archaeology spoke about the site:

“We are not talking about a town like the Greek city-states, ancient Rome or medieval settlements, but about what archaeologists agree constituted a town in the fifth millennium BC.”

What is particularly interesting and insightful about the site of Europe’s earliest prehistoric town is a small necropolis, or burial ground.

The residents of the prehistoric town would cut their dead in half and then bury them with their pelvises up, Mail Onlinereports.

Bulgaria has a rich prehistoric past and only months ago a site was found with evidence of vampire rituals.

Similar sites dating from the same period were found near Tuzla in Bosnia and Turda in Romania and help to prove that a series of populations who traded natural resources existed at the same time as Europe’s earliest prehistoric town.