Archaeologists have discovered evidence of a highly complex prehistoric society in Central Europe that thrived in a region experts previously believed was abandoned in 1600 BC. This sophisticated society was one of the “major cultural centers of southern Europe” and exerted “regional scale influences across the continent and into the Mediterranean,” they report in a new study.
The Pannonian Basin is a region that centers on modern-day Hungary and touches upon multiple nations in Central Europe. Thousands of years ago, Bronze Age humans settled there and built a complex and influential society that lasted for centuries before it was mysteriously abandoned in 1600 BC. Ancient sites examined by experts show signs of depopulation over several decades, leading to the theory of a “regional scale collapse” and a relatively “abrupt end” for this prehistoric social order. However, the authors of a paper published this month in PLOS One write, based on a remote survey and excavations “a fully opposite trajectory can be identified–increased scale, complexity and density in settlement systems and intensification of long-distance networks.” Rather than disappear, ancient people adapted.
“In many ways it provides a missing link,” lead author Barry Molloy of University College Dublin told Motherboard in an email. “We know that societies in Europe in the later second millennium BC were interacting at a continental scale. We also knew that material and symbols from this area were influential within Europe, but we had not identified the kind of sophisticated society that would be a driver in those communication networks. This find changes this.”
Hellbound and Down 