Old Europe (archaeology)

Old Europe
Geographical rangeSoutheast Europe and adjoining areas of Central Europe and Eastern Europe
PeriodNeolithic, Copper Age, Prehistoric Europe
Datesc. 6000—3500 BC
Preceded byMesolithic Europe
Followed byBronze Age Europe

Old Europe is a term coined by the Lithuanian archaeologist Marija Gimbutas to describe what she perceived as a relatively homogeneous pre-Indo-European Neolithic and Copper Age culture or civilisation in Southeast Europe, centred in the Lower Danube Valley.[1][2][3] Old Europe is also referred to in some literature as the Danube civilisation.[4]

The term 'Danubian culture' was earlier coined by the archaeologist Vere Gordon Childe to describe early farming cultures (e.g. the Linear Pottery culture) which spread westwards and northwards from the Danube Valley into Central and Eastern Europe.

  1. ^ Jacques Leslie, The Goddess Theory: Controversial UCLA Archeologist Marija Gimbutas Argues That the World Was at Peace When God Was a Woman, Los Angeles Times, June 11, 1989.
  2. ^ Sharpe, Katherine (May 2013). "Europe's First Farmers". Archaeology Magazine. 66 (3): 13. ISSN 0003-8113. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
  3. ^ Theresa Thompson, The Lost World of Old Europe: the Danube Valley, 5000-3500BC, The Ashmolean Museum, The Oxford Times, June 8, 2010.
  4. ^ Haarmann, Harald (2020). The Mystery of the Danube Civilisation. Marix Verlag. ISBN 9783843806466.