3200 year old fortress-town discovered in Romania.

[Rik Meleet]

Dutch link. -> I have so far been unable to verify this news on English sites.

Short Translation:
Scientists have found Timisoara an archeological settlement with fortifications dating over 3200 years, close to Timisoara in Romania.

The size is 2000 hectares. This could well be the largest excavation site in Europe.

It is special because of the size and because the whole settlement is intact. It is unknown who build it.

It was locate using Google Earth. More money is needed, says Banat museum in Timisoara.

 

[Mirc]

Interesting, first the oldest human bone in Europe, now this... So the legends of the "fathers of the Dacians" might be true after all. But that's just hopeful thinking, probably.

I did know that around Timisoara there used to be a number of Dacian fortresses, but it's surprising to find something like this, more than 1000 years older than the Dacians themselves. Really curious what they found about who built it. Might be Greek maybe? Histria, the oldest inhabited place / stone fortress in Romania until this one was only 2500 years old, and it's Greek... but it's near the Black Sea so it's understandable why it would be Greek (they colonized the western shore of the Black Sea), while this one is away from sea, in the highlands of Transylvania... So I really don't know.

 

[Julian Delphiki]

What is the story about oldest human bone? I've missed that, link?

 

[Mirc]

It was in 2003...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3129654.stm

 

[Julian Delphiki]

"the wisdom teeth in particular are simply huge. They are bigger than just about anything else we have from the last 200,000 years,"

Clearly they must have been very wise.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

Does this mean i'm no longer living in one of the oldest inhabited places here ?
3200 years means it predates the Hallstatt culture too - no idea who built it then ...

 

[Tee Kay]

3200 years ago! wow

 

[Mirc]

Does this mean i'm no longer living in one of the oldest inhabited places here ?

Yeah, since Histria was flooded Constanta and Mangalia remained the oldest ones around, until now.

Now I get my revenge for living in one of the most recent capitals in Europe.

 

[Sir Matzee]

I did know that around Timisoara there used to be a number of Dacian fortresses, but it's surprising to find something like this, more than 1000 years older than the Dacians themselves. Really curious what they found about who built it. Might be Greek maybe? Histria, the oldest inhabited place / stone fortress in Romania until this one was only 2500 years old, and it's Greek... but it's near the Black Sea so it's understandable why it would be Greek (they colonized the western shore of the Black Sea), while this one is away from sea, in the highlands of Transylvania... So I really don't know.

More probable it's a Kurgan or Doric.

 

[Mîtiu Ioan]

One of my teammates at work has archelogy as a hobby - and he is in current with this discovery and said me that this culture seems to be different from Doric one ... practically not too much is know, but it is very likely to be a old, whiped out culture ...

Regards

 

[Thorgalaeg]

3200 years ago is aproximately the age of the city of Cádiz for instance. So not that old indeed.

 

[Mirc]

Well, the legends of the founding of Cadiz are totally different to finding a huge archaeological site.

According to wiki:

Traditionally, its founding is dated to 1104 BCE[3] although no archaeological strata on the site can be dated earlier than the ninth century.

While I don't doubt for a second that it was indeed a really old Phoenician colony, at least 3000 years old, the discovery of intact ruins this old is quite an impressing thing. Many places in Europe have been continuously inhabited for TENS of thousands of years, but we've got no architecture left from the time.

 

[Stormrage]

It must be Troy! I mean, what did they know of geography anyway

j/k