Old Europe (archaeology)

Old Europeis a term coined by the Lithuanian archaeologistMarija Gimbutasto describe what she perceived as a relatively homogeneouspre-Indo-EuropeanNeolithicandCopper Ageculture or civilisation inSoutheast Europe, centred in the LowerDanubeValley.Old Europe is also referred to in some literature as the Danube civilisation.
The term 'Danubian culture' was earlier coined by the archaeologistVere Gordon Childeto describe early farming cultures (e.g. theLinear Pottery culture) which spread westwards and northwards from the Danube Valley intoCentralandEastern Europe.
Neolithic Europerefers to the time between theMesolithicandBronze Ageperiods inEurope, roughly from 7000 BC (the approximate time of the first farming societies inGreece) to c. 2000 BC (the beginning of theBronze Age in Scandinavia). Its peak period is estimated as 5000–3500 BC, during which its population centers exceeded the first Mesopotamian cities. A high level of craft skill and trade is evident from tons of recovered copper artifacts and a small amount of gold, as well as pottery and carved items. These include the period's signature female figurines which have raised interest in the role of the society's women, as well as suspectedproto-writing.
Regardless of specific chronology, many European Neolithic groups share basic characteristics, such as living in small-scale communities, being more egalitarianthan thecity-statesandchiefdomsof theBronze Age, subsisting ondomesticplants and animals supplemented with the collection of wild plant foods and hunting, and producing hand-made pottery, without the aid of thepotter's wheel. There are also many differences, with some Neolithic communities in southeastern Europe living in heavily fortified settlements of 3,000–4,000 people (e.g.,Seskloin Greece) whereas Neolithic groups inBritainwere usually small (possibly 50–100 people).
Marija Gimbutasstudied the Neolithic period in order to understand cultural developments in settled village culture in the southern Balkans, which she characterized as peaceful,matristic, and possessing a goddess-centered religion.In contrast, she characterizes the later Indo-European influences as warlike, nomadic, andpatrilineal.Using evidence from pottery and sculpture, and combining the tools ofarchaeology, comparativemythology,linguistics, and, most controversially,folkloristics, Gimbutas invented a new interdisciplinary field,archaeomythology.
In historical times, someethnonymsare believed to correspond to Pre-Indo-European peoples, assumed to be the descendants of the earlier Old European cultures: thePelasgians,Minoans,Leleges,Iberians,Nuragic people,Etruscans,Rhaetians,CamunniandBasques. Two of the three pre-Greek peoples of Sicily, theSicansand theElymians, may also have been pre-Indo-European.
How many Pre-Indo-European languages existed is not known. Nor is it known whether the ancient names of peoples descended from the pre-ancient population actually referred to speakers of distinct languages. Gimbutas (1989), observing a unity of symbols marked especially on pots, but also on other objects, concluded that there may have been a single language spoken in Old Europe. She thought that decipherment would have to wait for the discovery of bilingual texts.
The idea of a Pre-Indo-European language in the region precedes Gimbutas. It went by other names, such as "Pelasgian", "Mediterranean", or "Aegean". Apart from marks on artifacts, the main evidence concerning Pre-Indo-European language is in names:toponyms,ethnonyms, etc., and in roots in other languages believed to be derived from one or more prior languages, possibly unrelated. Reconstruction from the evidence is an accepted, though somewhat speculative, field of study. Suggestions of possible Old European languages include Urbian bySorin Paliga,and theVasconic substratum hypothesisofTheo Vennemann(also seeSigmund Feist'sGermanic substrate hypothesis).
According to Gimbutas' version of theKurgan hypothesis, Old Europe was invaded and destroyed by horse-ridingpastoral nomadsfrom thePontic–Caspian steppe(the "Kurganculture") who brought with them violence,patriarchy, andIndo-European languages.More recent proponents of the Kurgan hypothesis agree that the cultures of Old Europe spokepre-Indo-European languagesbut include a less dramatic transition, with a prolonged migration of Proto-Indo-European speakers after Old Europe's collapse due to other factors.
Colin Renfrew's competingAnatolian hypothesissuggests that the Indo-European languages were spread across Europe by the first farmers fromAnatolia. In the hypothesis' original formulation, the languages of Old Europe belonged to the Indo-European family but played no special role in its transmission.According to Renfrew's most recent revision of the theory, however, Old Europe was a "secondaryurheimat" (linguistic homeland) where theGreek,Armenian, andBalto-Slaviclanguage families diverged around 5000 BC.Three genetic studies in 2015 gave partial support to the Steppe theory regarding theIndo-European Urheimat. According to those studies, haplogroupsR1bandR1a, now the most common in Europe (R1a is also common in South Asia) would have expanded from the steppes north of the Pontic and Caspian seas, along with at least some of the Indo-European languages; they also detected anautosomalcomponent present in modern Europeans which was not present in Neolithic Europeans, which would have been introduced with paternal lineages R1b and R1a, as well as Indo-European languages.
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