Danube civilization or Old Europe is the name for several advanced (for the period) pre-Indo-European linked cultures in southeastern Europe and surrounding areas of the Danube River valley and beyond into Central Europe and the Aegean Sea. It was a cycle of cultures beginning around 7,000 BC, its time of peak was between 5,500–3,500 BC. At around 3,500 BC the civilization fell into decline, and by 3000–2700 BC only fragments of the civilization remained.^[1] The main reasons for this were perhaps the spread of the Yamna culture from 3500 BC into the Balkans and the arrival of the Indo European people from Eastern Europe, according to Marija Gimbutas and the kurgan hypothesis.

Some of the achievements of the Danube Valley civilization include:

• The world´s first industrial revolution^[2]
• The world's earliest known large scale copper smelting industry and oldest dated copper smelting from 5500–5000 BC.
• The oldest golden treasure and elite burial in the world, dating from 4,600–4,200 BC, from the Varna Necropolis.^[3]
• Potentially the oldest proto-writing - Vinča signs in the world, beginning in 6000 BC.
• The oldest wooden wheel ever found, Ljubljana Marshes Wheel from 3350–3150 BC.^[4]
• The earliest known image of a wheeled vehicle (Bronocice pot), 3635–3370 BC.
• The oldest solar observatory, (Goseck circle), 4900 BC.
• The largest Neolithic settlements in the world, with the possibility of state-level societies.
• Monumental architecture.^[5][6]
• The oldest wooden water wells, which were also the world's oldest wood architecture, dating to 5200 BC. This was constructed by the first carpenters in the world from the linear pottery culture in Central Europe.^[7]
• Long-distance trade was one of the traits of Old Europe, with copper pieces from Bulgaria found as far away at the Volga River 2000 km (1200 mi) east of Bulgaria.^[8]

As a result of the Cold War, the knowledge of this civilization was for a long time unknown in the West, but today we know that southeastern Europe achieved a level of artistic creativity, technological skill and social sophistication that defies our standard categories. European civilization between 6500–3500 BC was not an imitation of the cultures of the Near East, but a distinct civilization developing a unique culture.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

Although it was less known, the cultural development was earlier and faster in Old Europe than in Anatolia, Mesopotamia or Egypt. The progress was so dynamic that it created the world´s oldest high culture. 7000 years ago, the Danube civilization was the most advanced region in the world. It flourished at a time when the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt did not yet exist. The Danube civilization is also the root of the Greek civilization.^[14]

Geography

The area of the Danube Valley civilization covered all of southeastern Europe from central Ukraine to southern Italy, and from Slovakia to Crete in the south. This included the modern day countries of Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Slovenia, Turkey, Poland, Italy, and Germany.^[15]

Chronology

The Danube Valley civilization was a hybrid of many linked local cultures overlapping each other in time and area, starting with the Lepenski Vir culture around 7000 BC. It gained momentum when people from the Sesklo culture in Thessaly moved north and merged.^[16] The same people from Thessaly merged with the proto Starčevo culture and then later this created the Vinča culture.^[17]

The roots of Cucuteni-Trypillian culture can be found in the Starčevo culture and Vinča culture, in the East Balkan tradition. The linear pottery culture began an expansion north of the Carpathians into the steppe region of Ukraine, and there it became the pre Cucuteni-Trypillian culture. It constitutes the most northeastern outpost of the Old European culture. Its classical period around 4500-4000 BC.^[18][19] The most southern fringe of the Danube civilization was in the Aegean sea on the islands of Crete and the Cyclades. In the peak of the Danube civilization the islands were of little importance, but the inhabitants of the islands shared the same cultural and religious (Mother Goddess) background as those on mainland Europe. With the spread of the Indo European culture into the Balkans and the following decline of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, the southern part of Old Europe in the Aegean sea and the islands of Crete and the Cyclades evolved into great civilizations with cultural layers rooted into the culture of mainland Europe. The Minoan civilization, Cycladic civilization, and Helladic period were the offspring of older traditions.^[14]

There are many other cultures belonging to the Danube civilization before the arrival of the Indo European culture. Some of them include the Tisza culture, the Butmir culture, the Rössen culture and the later cultures of the Baden culture, the southern Funnelbeaker culture, who where all in the process of being kurganized, as in being Indo-Europeanized. The Danube civilization covers many cultures with regional differences; below are the most famous and important ones.

In roughly relative order and approximate start of culture.^[20][21]

State-level societies

The Danube civilization created societies with a high level of organisation. The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture was quite sophisticated with a complex hierarchy which most likely involved chiefdoms. This civilization's settlements had three levels of hierarchy; this implies the possibility of state-level societies.^[22] The strong organization made it easier to solve problems, from the distribution of land to the protection of territories and trade over great distances. The chiefdoms with their huge settlements could muster up to 1000 warriors for their defense, with the most advanced copper weapons in the world. The chiefdoms controlled a powerful and well armed military contingent for the time.

According to archeologists' calculations, the population in the area of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in its peak could number as much as 400,000—a huge figure for the time. In late Cucuteni-Trypillian, the population fell to approximately 120,000 people.^[1]

Settlements

The urban life in the Danube valley started early with the settlement of Lepenski Vir, Serbia in around 6250 BC. It consisted of one large settlement with around ten satellite villages. The next big urban life came with the Vinča culture in form of the Vinča-Belo Brdo Tell and from the Sesklo culture in central Greece. These early towns could have been home to as many as between 2500 and 5000 people in 5000 BC. The Belovode settlement occupied an area of 100 hectare with 700 buildings in the period 5500-4800 B.C. The size of the settlement was properly due to the fact that Belovode was one of the "capitals" of the first industrial revolution. Belovode are the site of copper smelting from 5000 BC making it the earliest record of fully developed metallurgical activity anywhere in the world along with Pločnik.

Early Vinča settlement population density was 50-200 people per hectare, in later phases an average of 50-100 people per hectare was common.^[23] The Divostin site 4900-4650 BC had up to 1028 houses and a maximum population size of 8200, and could perhaps be the largest Vinča settlement. Another large site was Stubline from 4700 BC. It may have contained a maximum population of 4000.^{[24][25][26][27][28][29]}

Central Europe had large settlements with large longhouses up to 45 meters (148 feet) in length. The Neolithic Central Europeans built many settlements covering several hectares as far north as central Poland. The settlement at Oslonki (4300-4000 BC) in Poland was first discovered in 1985. The settlement was very large with 30 trapezoidal longhouses, fortification ditches and satellite settlements. Only 8 km from Oslonki, another large settlement—Brzesc Kujawski—was discovered. This settlement had up to 60 longhouses. From the last 30 years of archaeological work we can conclude that Central Europe was the home of a many complex and enormous settlements. With estimates of up to 15 people living in one house, the population size of Linear Pottery settlements could have been quite high before 4000 BC.^{[30][31][32][33][34]}

Just south of Vienna, Austria, in Brunn am Gebirge, the largest of the early Linear Pottery culture settlements was discovered in 1989, called Brunn Wolfholz. The settlement had up to 100 longhouses with the standardized size of 20x7m, dating to 5700–5060 BC. The settlement size is 850 x 500 m (2800 x 1600 ft).^[35][36]

The settlement of Aszód in Hungary belonging to the Lengyel culture was populated by 500 people at one time. The settlement covered an area of 25 heactares and dating to around 4850-4360 BC.^[37][38] Bučany in Slovakia represents a Lengyel settlement, 530 m long and 60–200 m wide and covering 6 hectares. The settlement had a Neolithic circular enclosure, which was common in Central Europe at that time. The enclosure had an outer diameter of 87 meter with two concentric ditches, the inner one with palisade and four gates. within the palisade there was a building with the measurements 15x7,5 m. The Neolithic circular enclosures in Central Europe are the oldest monumental architecture in that part of Europe.^[39]

Parţa in Romania is the site of another neolithic settlement (7000-3500 BC) with 150 dwellings (population perhaps 1575) and two sanctuaries or temples with monumental statues. In addition, the findings show 4 blocks of houses with 4-5 rooms and a suspended floor. The site also contained the Deer House (Casa Cerbului) named after a monumental statue of a deer head that once hung in one of the inner walls.^[40][41][42] The Butmir culture settlement of Okoliste in Bosnia dating to 5200-4500 B.C. was home to 1000-1500 people. The settlement was largest in the early phase (5200 BC) with an area of 7.5 hectares. From there it gradually declined to reach the size of 1.2 hectares in 4500 BC.^[43][44] The Cucuteni–Trypillian culture settlement of Petreny, Moldova 4000-3600 B.C. are very interesting, it is neither the oldest or largest settlement even though the settlement had 500 buildings covering an area of 30 hectare. It is interesting because of the layout of the settlement. It consist of concentric circles of buildings, just like the other Cucuteni–Trypillian settlements, but at Petreny there are the very high number of 10 concentric circles. Most of the building was the same size, but some was considerably larger at the length of 15 x 6 m.^[45]

With the mega settlements of the Cucuteni–Trypillian culture starting in 4300 BC, the period of very large settlements would continue for almost 2000 years. To date (2014) more than 2440 Cucuteni-Trypillia settlements have been discovered so far in Moldova, Ukraine and Romania. 194 (8%) of these settlements had an area of more than 10 hectares dating to 5000 - 2700 BC, and more than 29 settlements had an area in the range of 100-450 Hectares and 2800 houses.^{[46][47][48][49][50]}

The settlements were primarily administrative, military and religious centers and not for crafts. The typical Trypillian hierarchy was one dominant "capital" with a population up to 15,000 people over more than 100 hectares. This capital was surrounded by dependent towns (satellite towns) typically in the size range of 10-40 hectares, and villages in the range of 2-7 Hectares. The capital controlled territories as far away as 20 km (12,5 mi) from the center. ^[51]

The latest research indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture settlements had three levels of settlement hierarchy, this imply the possibility of state-level societies. Mega-structures suggest the presence of public buildings for meetings or ceremonies.^[22]

The following are a list with the largest settlements with approximate time of peak population. Remember, population estimates of ancient settlements should always be taken with caution, with different interpretations depending on the scholar.

Neo-Eneolithic "writing"

The face and the backside
of a copy of the Gradeshnitsa tablets

According to the world's foremost leading expert on ancient scripts and languages, Harald Haarmann,^[52] and other experts like Christa Dürscheid, the Danube script or Vinča signs constitutes writing. The principle of writing is logographic with occasional marking of phonetic elements.

The Starčevo culture (Romania) was the earliest to use the signs and where most of them congregated. The very first occurrence was at Ocna Sibiului in 6000-5900 BC, the inception was quite rapid. From 5950-5850 BC there was a widespread dispersal of the Danube script. In the period of 5600-5500 BC, further development of the script was energetic.

The late period of the script, 3400-2300 BC, were some of the elements were used and developed in the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture. They developed a sign system, but in 3200 BC the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture faded away and the writing creation was interrupted, but some signs were used by different local cultures in the Bronze Age. Several writings systems were inspired by the Danube script, among them Linear A of the Minoan civilization on Crete, Cypro-Minoan syllabary on Cyprus, Linear B of the Mycenaeans on mainland Greece.

The Minoan Linear A emerges in around 2500 BC and it resembles Old European linearity in its basic organizational features. Almost 1/3 of the sign inventory of the Danube script has been revived in the Minoan Linear A. The revived signs make up 50% of the whole inventory of Linear A.^[53]

With the findings so far, we know the Danube script consisted of several hundreds signs and perhaps more than 1000.^[54]

Long-distance trade

The long-distance trade of old Europe was very developed, the Spondylus gaederopus shells was very popular and excavations have shown that this precious material from the Aegean coasts could be transported more than 2000 km to northern Europe before 4000 BC.^[55][56] Other popular trade goods included obsidian, salt, copper and gold.^[57]

Religion

The religion of Old Europe was the worship of the goddess. The worship of the goddess in Europe could be as old as 30,000 years starting with the Venus figurines in the Palaeolithic and it lasted without a break to the Indo European migration of Old Europe in 3500 BC and the final Mycenaean conquest of Minoan civilization in 1450 BC. Old Europe was agrarian and peaceful, To them the Earth was the mother and they saw the goddess in anything living, all life was sacred. Some of the aspects in the goddess worship were life giving, fertility giving, and birth giving powers.^[58][59][60]

Although largely peaceful the religion could not prevent warfare and there are evidence of village massacres and skeletal trauma which indicates that neolithic Europe was not always so Idyllic.^[61]

Decline

Neolithic Europe had a periode of cultural stability for 2000 years since the beginning of the Danube civilization, but in 4400 BC the first wave of Indo European people of the Kurgan culture began moving west and by 3500 they had infiltrated most of southeastern Europe and the Danube cultures. The newcomers disrupted the Danube valley culture and the world of Old Europe fell into decline, and by 3000 BC the overall picture can be characterized as a cultural chaos, and could be called a Balkan Dark Age. Only in Greece persisted the Old European culture in the Helladic period, Cycladic civilization and the Minoan civilization. People from the north went south bringing them new influx of cultural trends from the heartland of Old Europe. This shows continuity between Old Europe and the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece. ^[62]

Legacy

The world of the Danube valley cultures came to an end with the arrival of the Indo Europeans into southeastern Europe. But the most southern part of Old Europe would thrive with the Minoan civilization some 2000 years after the height of the Danube Valley civilization on mainland Europe. The Minoans had, since the first people came to the island, been a part of the same cultural and religious background as the people in the Balkans. Between 6000-3000 BC, the same kind of pottery and figurines are found on mainland Europe. Shortly after 3000 BC, a wave of migrants from the European mainland reached Crete. Thus the Minoan civilization is a blend of the older Neolithic heritage and the reinforcing cultural influx of the mainland Europeans. Minoan civilization presents the most vital offspring of the old Danube civilization. ^[63]

The Minoan art and architecture were entirely different from that of the Near East. The world view of Crete reflected its Old European-Anatolian roots. When Sir Arthur Evans rediscovered the Minoan civilization, the question of what went before the Minoans remained to be answered. Now it is becoming more and more difficult to understand the Minoan civilization without the study of the culture which preceded it, and that culture was Old Europe.^[60][64]

The Danube civilization is the root of the Greek civilization. The high culture of Old Europe was transferred to subcultures like the Minoan civilization, Helladic period, Cycladic civilization, and thus the Greek cultural layers in Old Europe predate the rise of civilizations in the Near East. The Greek civilization is an offspring of older traditions, and this makes the Greek civilization the grandchild of the Danube civilization.^[14]

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  Interconnected Cucuteni-Trypillian houses in the Maydanets settlement.
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  Interior reconstruction of a Cucuteni-Trypillian house in the Archaeology Museum Piatra Neamț, Romania.
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  Habitable wall fortification, central part of Maydanets 4000 B.C.
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  Reconstruction of mega structure from Nebelivka. 60x20 m 4000 B.C.
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  Reconstruction of public house - sanctuary from Maydanets.
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  Cucuteni–Trypillian culture pottery.
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  Cucuteni–Trypillian culture figurine head.
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  The "thinkers" of Hamangia. 5200-4500 B.C.
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  Vase from the Butmir culture.
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  Cucuteni Pottery.
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  Reconstruction of the Künzing-Unternberg Neolithic wooden circular ditch 4840-4590 BC, Künzing, Lower Bavaria.
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  Zoomorphic vessel from Cucuteni–Trypillian Culture.