Balkan Peninsula instead of Mesopotamia was the cradle of civilization

An unexpected furor was caused by the exhibition in New York, “The Lost World of Old Europe”, wrote the New York Times. Long before the flourishing of Greece and Rome, even earlier than the first cities in Mesopotamia and Egypt, at the downstream of Danube River lived a nation ahead of its time in trade, arts and craftsmanship.

Many American specialized issues and daily newspapers point out that, during its efflorescence the “Old European” civilization had been one of the most advanced cultures in the world. In 1972, near Varna (Bulgaria) was discovered the Varna Necropolis and its priceless Chalcolithic treasure. Also in the Durankulak complex, which is a Neolithic settlement with 1200 graves was excavated the biggest prehistoric treasure in southeast Europe.

The people on the northwest Black Sea coast were a highly developed community, its traditions merging with the heritage of the Thracian ethno-cultural community and later the Ancient Greek civilizations, the oldest of them being the Mycenaean civilization (2700-1120 BC).

Douglas Bailey from the University of San Francisco writes the following in the exhibition’s catalogue: “The ability to build, use and understand symbolic objects, defines people as such. This capability unites us – the modern people – with the Neolithic people and Paleolithic artists”. Evidence of this are the golden, copper and ceramic bracelets, figurines and dishes.

According to Michel Louis Seferiad, an anthropologist in the French National Center for Scientific Research, these items are shrouded by ancient mysteries, cults and myths. Also in these lands were discovered the oldest written signs in the world.

The discoveries of Transylvania (Romania) and around Vinča (Serbia) are approximately of the same period. In addition, even older are the symbols on a small clay dish found in the village of Gradeshnitsa (Vratsa, Bulgaria). Their age is considered to be at least 6000 years.

Other urls found in this thread:

academia.edu/8641305/High_precision_Tripolye_settlement_plans_demographic_estimations_and_settlement_organization
youtube.com/watch?v=mFVTBZl81BM
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2734288/Unearthed-Croatia-Stone-Age-Aga-Archaeologists-discover-6-500-year-old-oven-provided-cooked-food-heating-hot-water-like-modern-day-version.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel#History
mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/proto-indo-european-speakers-of-the-late-tripolye-culture-as-the-inventors-of-wheeled-vehicles/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinča_symbols
ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-europe/danube-valley-civilisation-script-oldest-writing-world-001343
archaeology.about.com/od/mesopotamiaarchaeology/fl/Clay-Tokens-The-Neolithic-Seeds-of-Mesopotamian-Writing.htm
sciencemag.org/news/2016/07/worlds-first-farmers-were-surprisingly-diverse
twitter.com/SFWRedditVideos

In comparison we point out that the Sumerian script, until recently considered the oldest one, was created around 3100 BC. Due to the big popularity of the exhibition in the USA, now Europe also begins to notice these facts. New discoveries point out something really sensational: The Balkan area is the cradle of civilization, these lands were inhabited by a highly developed culture that is much older than the Mesopotamian civilization, says Deutsche Welle.

In his book “The mysteries of the Danube Civilization” Harald Haarmann proves that the Balkans were inhabited by the civilization that developed the first written language. Haarmann calls this culture“Old European”. It existed on the territories of modern-day Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece as well as parts of Ukraine and Hungary. According to archaeological discoveries, its emergence can be traced back to 7000 BC. Haarmann claims that words, which have hitherto been considered as Ancient Greek, are actually “Old European” and are still used today. Such examples are fireplace (кaминa, kamina), olive (мacлинa, maslina), ceramics (кepaмикa, ceramica) metal (мeтaл), hymn (химн) and others.

The Danube civilization arose 2000 years before that of the Sumerians.

Haarmann confirms what has long been known that the oldest gold in the world was found within the territory of modern-day Varna (Bulgaria). According to results from modern methods and techniques, it was made in 4500 BC, which means that it is 2000 years older than the famous Egyptian gold treasure.

In 1875, archaeological excavations led by the Hungarian archeologist Zsófia Torma (1840–1899) at Tordos (today Turdaș, Romania) unearthed a cache of objects inscribed with previously unknown symbols. In 1908, a similar cache was found during excavations conducted by Miloje Vasić (1869–1956) in Vinča, a suburb of Belgrade (Serbia), some 120 km from Turdaș. Later, more such fragments were found in Banjica, another part of Belgrade. Since 1875, over one hundred and fifty Vinča sites have been identified in Serbia alone, but many, including Vinča itself, have not been fully excavated.[1] Thus, the culture of the whole area is called the Vinča culture, and the symbols are often called[citation needed] the Vinča-Turdaș script.

The discovery of the Tărtăria tablets in Romania by Nicolae Vlassa in 1961 reignited the debate. Vlassa believed the inscriptions to be pictograms and other items found at the same place were subsequently carbon-dated to before 4000 BC (while the tablets themselves cannot be dated by physical or chemical methods[2]), thirteen hundred years earlier than the date he expected, and earlier even than the writing systems of the Sumerians and Minoans. However, the authenticity of these tablets is disputed.[3] To date, more than a thousand fragments with similar inscriptions have been found on various archaeological sites throughout south-eastern Europe, notably in Greece (Dispilio Tablet), Bulgaria, Romania, eastern Hungary, Moldova, and southern Ukraine.

WE

Just kidding, don't please.
It's an interesting topic because these cultures built actual planned settlements. Oldest settlements, first proto writing.
Also some interesting fish like statues.
I read somewhere that there are some things that suggest river/fish worship, i'm not sure tho.

The ucrainians hosted the most populated cities on earrth for a time with populations of 20,000 to 46,000 people Its astoundishing.

academia.edu/8641305/High_precision_Tripolye_settlement_plans_demographic_estimations_and_settlement_organization

Why didnt they continued to be relevant though?
Did PIE-steppeayyrans ruins it?

It looks as if Varna was contemporary with Vinca. I do know an archaeologist now deceased believed that those 'Old Europe' cultures had more similarities than differences say in pottery styles or settlements. The other cultures brought in were the Cucuteni, Tripol'ye, Cernavoda, Bodrogkeresztur...

>The discontinuity of the Varna, Karanovo, Vinča and Lengyel cultures in their main territories and the large scale population shifts to the north and northwest are indirect evidence of a catastrophe of such proportions that cannot be explained by possible climatic change, desertification, or epidemics. Direct evidence of the incursion of horse-riding warriors is found, not only in single burials of males under barrows, but in the emergence of a whole complex of Indo-European cultural traits. The original term for: 'Castes' in India was: 'Varna', meaning: 'Color', cognate to French: 'Vernis', and Spanish: 'Barniz' (both= Varnish).

youtube.com/watch?v=mFVTBZl81BM

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2734288/Unearthed-Croatia-Stone-Age-Aga-Archaeologists-discover-6-500-year-old-oven-provided-cooked-food-heating-hot-water-like-modern-day-version.html

I mean, I am sold. If you accept that all of these cultures are related under the umbrealla of "Danube river valley" or "old Europe," then you have:

Oldest writing/proto writing in the world: Vinca Script (used by many Old European cultures)
Oldest gold working: Varna graves
Oldest Copper working: Vinca and others
Extensive trade networks: Vinca
Separation of trades: all of old Europe
Two story Houses: vinca
Urbanization: Vinca
Stone Walls: New find in Bulgaria
Evidence of iron Smelting: New find in Croatia
Solar/Calender knowledge: Gosseck Circle and related
Social stratification: Evidenced by Varna

It is hard to see what was lacked to call this a civilization....if indeed you accept all of these cultures as related.

Add to these the discovery of the wheel. It was known that the wheel was an European discovery because the oldest previously known representations of wheel are on artefacts discovered in Europe, one from Slovenia and one from Poland, dated to 3,500 and 3,300 BCE:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel#History

Also, the Near East ancient civilisations' words for wheel seems to have their roots in the Proto-IndoEuropean words:
mathildasanthropologyblog.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/proto-indo-european-speakers-of-the-late-tripolye-culture-as-the-inventors-of-wheeled-vehicles/

A recent discovery from a site of Cucuteni Culture in Romania is an artefact with the representation of a cow on wheels, which was carbon dated to 3950-3650 BCE (read previous link).