Archaeologists discover a massive 7000-year-old pre-historic settlement in Serbia

A prehistoric settlement of massive size has been discovered in the Banat region of northeastern Serbia. Archaeologists date back the previously known settlement to some 7,000 years, much later than the Late Neolithic period.

"This discovery is of outstanding importance, as hardly any larger Late Neolithic settlements are known in the Serbian Banat region," research leader Martin Furholt from the Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology (IPPA) at Kiel University in Germany, said in a press release.

The settlement is located near the Tamis River in the Banat region of northeastern Serbia, a landlocked country in the Balkans.

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The team managed to fully map the extent of the geographical area of the settlement, determining that it covers an area of roughly 11-13 hectares. It is also surrounded by four and six ditches on each side.

"A settlement of this size is spectacular. The geophysical data also gives us a clear idea of the structure of the site 7,000 years ago," Fynn Wilkes, co-team leader of the German-Serbian research team with the IPPA, said in the release.

During the mapping of the site, archaeologists also found some artefacts that show a link to the Vinca culture, which dates back to between 5400 BC and 4400 BC. The Vinca culture is a prehistoric group that occupied a region of southeastern-central Europe during this period.

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Its territory now primarily corresponds to Serbia and Kosovo, as well as parts of Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. Among other distinctive characteristics, the culture is known for producing some of the largest settlements in prehistoric Europe.

The newly uncovered settlement is also associated with the Vinca culture based on the material found at the site. The site also appears to have been strongly influenced by the regional Banat prehistoric culture.

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"This is also remarkable, as only a few settlements with material from the Banat culture are known from what is now Serbia," Wilkes said.

Further investigations of the site are still going on, but the discovery of the settlement itself will be of great help to researchers to better understand prehistoric societies in the region.

(With inputs from agencies)