It appears the advanced military and earthwork technologies of the society spread across Europe after their collapse in 1200 BC. This discovery provides new insights into European connections in the second millennium BC, commonly seen a major prehistoric turning point. This new research indicates that the TSG were an important centre of innovation in prehistoric Europe and formed a major network hub for the region when the Mycenaeans, Hittites and New Kingdom Egypt were at their height around 1500-1200 BC. The Carpathian Basin extends across parts of central and southeast Europe, with the vast Pannonian Plain lying at its centre, with the River Danube cutting through it.ĭetailed in a paper just published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE, the new research discovered over 100 sites in this region located in the hinterlands of the Tisza river, leading to these previously unknown communities to be collectively called the Tisza Site Group (TSG).Īlmost all TSG sites lay within 5km of another and are aligned along a river corridor formed by the Tisza and the river Danube, suggesting that the network was one of a cooperative community spread across many different locations. At their peak, the people living within this lower Pannonian network of sites must have numbered into the tens of thousands.” “What is new, however, is finding that these massive sites did not stand alone, they were part of a dense network of closely related and codependent communities. “Some of the largest sites, we call these mega-forts, have been known for a few years now, such as Gradište Iđoš, Csanádpalota, Sântana or the mind-blowing Corneşti Iarcuri enclosed by 33km of ditches and eclipsing in size the contemporary citadels and fortifications of the Hittites, Mycenaeans or Egyptians,” said lead author Associate Professor Barry Molloy, UCD School of Archaeology. Their commonplace use of defensible enclosures were a precursor and likely influence behind the famous hillforts of Europe, built to protect communities later in the Bronze Age. Using satellite images and aerial photography to stitch together the prehistoric landscape of the south Carpathian Basin in Central Europe, the team discovered over 100 sites belonging to a complex society. Archaeologists from University College Dublin, working with colleagues from Serbia and Slovenia, have uncovered a previously unknown network of massive sites in the heart of Europe that could explain the emergence of the continent’s Bronze Age megaforts – the largest prehistoric constructions seen prior to the Iron Age.
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