From the sky you can see incredible human creations that are impossible to capture at ground level. To the Nazca lines, the wall of China or the Bingham Canyon mine, there is now a new batch of megastructures invisible to the human eye and which have been revealed thanks to satellite images.
Archaeologists at University College Dublin, working with colleagues from Serbia and Slovenia, have discovered a previously unknown network of superfortresses in the heart of Europe that could explain the rise of Bronze Age megaforts, the largest prehistoric constructions ever seen. of the Iron Age.
Using images taken from space and aerial photographs, researchers have detected the boundaries of more than 100 of these structures located in the southern Carpathian basin, in Central Europe, belonging to a complex society. The common use of defensible enclosures was a precursor and probably an influence of the famous forts of Europe, experts say.
Some of the largest sites have been known for some years, such as Gradište Iđoš, Csanádpalota, Sântana or the amazing Corneşti Iarcuri, surrounded by 33 kilometers of moats and dwarfing in size both contemporary citadels and the fortifications of the Hittites, Mycenaeans or Egyptians.
“What is new, however, is the discovery that these massive sites were not alone, but were part of a dense network of closely related and dependent communities. At its peak, the people living within this network of Lower Pannonian sites must have numbered in the tens of thousands,” says Associate Professor Barry Molloy, lead author of the paper published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The Carpathian Basin extends across parts of central and southeastern Europe, with the vast Pannonian Plain at its center, crossed by the Danube River. Archaeologists discovered dozens of sites in this region located inland of the Tisza River, leading to these previously unknown communities being collectively called the Tisza Group of Sites.
Almost all sites are within 5 kilometers of each other and are aligned along a river corridor formed by the Tisza and the Danube River, suggesting that the network was a cooperative community distributed in many different places in the region. region.
This new research indicates that this community was an important center of innovation in prehistoric Europe and formed a prominent nerve center in the area when the Mycenaeans, Hittites and New Kingdom Egypt were at their peak around 1500-1200 BC.
For years, specialists have considered that this second millennium BC was an important prehistoric turning point, with the rise of great Empires such as the Egyptian, the Babylonian or the Hittite at a time when the world population probably exceeded 100. million for the first time.
The advanced military and earth-moving technologies of this society discovered in the Carpathians spread throughout Europe after its collapse in 1200 BC. “Our understanding of how their society functioned challenges many aspects of European prehistory. It would be extremely unlikely that each of these 100-plus sites would have been individual chiefdoms competing with each other,” says Molloy.
“Exceptionally, we have been able to do more than identify the location of a few sites using satellite imagery. We have now defined a complete landscape, including the locations of the homes that are located within the fortresses. “This really offers an unprecedented insight into how these Bronze Age people lived with each other and with their many neighbors,” he adds.
Despite the architectural advances, this was not a moment of peace. “There were important innovations in war and organized violence,” says Barry Molloy. The scale of this society indicates that it was relevant and powerful on the European stage and, between strength of arms and major defensible features in the settlements, they were well equipped to protect their gains.”
The vast majority of megaforts were established between 1600 and 1450 BC. C. and practically all of them collapsed around 1200 BC and were abandoned en masse.
“The year 1200 was a stunning turning point in Old World prehistory, with kingdoms, empires, cities and entire societies collapsing within a few decades across a vast area of southwest Asia, northern Africa and southern Europe.” , the researchers conclude.
