Prague Archaeologists found the remains of a Stone Age structure near Prague. StonehengeEven the Egyptian pyramids: A mysterious complex known as a Roundel.
This circular building was built approximately 7,000 years ago in the New Stone Age. It may have been used by a local farming community. However, its purpose is not known.
The excavated roundel is large – about 180 feet (55 meters) in diameter, or about as long as the Leaning Tower at PisaIs tall Radio Prague International reported.
Although it’s too early to comment on the builders of this roundel, it’s evident that they were part. Stroked Pottery culture, which flourished between 4900 BCE and 4400 BCE, Jaroslav Řídký, a spokesperson for the Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IAP) and an expert on the Czech Republic’s roundels, told Live Science in an email.
Miroslav Kraus, director of the roundel excavation in the district of Vinoř on behalf of the IAP, said that revealing the structure could give them a clue about the use of the building.
Researchers first learned about the Vinoř roundel’s existence in the 1980s, when construction workers were laying gas and water pipelines, according to Radio Prague InternationalThe current dig however has revealed the entirety of the structure.
So far, his team has recovered pottery fragments, animal bones, and stone tools in the ditch fill, according to Řídký.
Carbon-datingThe team could use organic remains found in this roundel excavation to help them pinpoint the date of construction and link it to a Neolithic settlement nearby.
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The people who made Stroked Pottery ware are known for building other roundels in the Bohemian region of the Czech Republic, Řídký said. Their sedentary farming villages – located at the intersection of contemporary Poland, eastern Germany, and the northern Czech Republic – consisted of several longhouses, which were large, rectangular structures that held 20 to 30 people each.
But the “knowledge of building of roundels crossed the borders of several archaeological cultures,” Řídký noted. “Different communities built roundels across central Europe.”
Roundels were not widely known until decades ago, when aerial and drone photographs became an integral part of the archaeological toolkit.
But now, archaeologists know that “roundels are the oldest evidence of architecture in the whole of Europe,” Řídký Radio Prague InternationalThis year, earlier.
Roundels are viewed from above. Each roundel consists of one or more circular ditches with many gaps that served as entrances. Radio Prague International suggests that roundels were lined with wooden poles or mud plastering the gaps in their inner parts.
These earthworks, which are circular in shape, have been discovered throughout central Europe. However, they only date back to two or three centuries. Although they were popularized in the Neolithic, their exact function is not known.
In Germany, in 1991, the first known roundel was discovered. It also corresponds to the Stroked Pottery cultural. It was called the Goseck Circle and measures 246 feet (75m) in circumference. There were three entrances and a wooden palisade.
Two of the entrances correspond to sunrise and sunset during daylight hours WinterAnd SommerSolstices, one interpretation for the Goseck Circle according to a 2012 journal study Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association.
Řídký preferred a more general interpretation of the Vinoř structure, noting that “roundels probably combined several functions, the most important being socio-ritual,” he told Live Science.
It is possible that roundels were created for large groups of people to remember important events, such as rites or passage, astronomical phenomena, and economic exchange.
Given that the people who built roundels had only stone tools to work with, these roundels’ sizes are quite impressive – most commonly, about 200 feet (60 m) in diameter, or half the length of a football field.
We know very little about the people, and there are not many burials that can provide any more information about their lives seven centuries ago.
Roundels disappeared suddenly from the archaeological record in 4600 BCE, after three centuries of popular popularity. ArchaeologistsWe don’t know the reason for why the roundels were dropped.
But considering over one-quarter of all roundels found to date are located in the Czech Republic, future research similar to the excavation at Vinoř may eventually help solve the mystery of the roundels.
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This article was first published in Live Science. Please read the Original article available here.
