The World's Oldest Settlements Were Built by a Culture Nobody Expected (Clearly debatable, of course!)

HUMANS
16 December 2023
By CARLY CASSELLA



An aerial view of Amnya archaeological sites. (Nikita Golovanov)

Thousands of years before ancient people in Central Eurasia learned to farm, hunter-gatherer groups in the subarctic were building some of the first permanent, fortified settlements, challenging the notion that agriculture was a prerequisite for societies to 'settle down'.

Researchers now think they have dated the earliest known fortifications in the icy north, if not the world, near a curve of the Amnya River in Western Siberia.

The Amnya archaeological sites were officially unearthed from 1987 onwards, but recent radiocarbon dating has found the main pit house at Amnya Site I and its fortifications date back 8,000 years or so.

The ancient building (circled in red in the illustration below) is now just a wide depression in the ground, but it was once protected by a ditch and possibly also another pit house. Radiocarbon dating suggests it was built in the final century of the seventh millennium BCE.



An illustration of the layout of the Amnya Site I and Site II in Western Siberia near the Amnya River, showing trenches and buildings. In the right hand corner is an aerial photograph showing the site. (illustration by N. Golovanov, S. Krubeck & S. Juncker)

Later, in the sixth millennium BCE, another two ditches at the back of the site were built. Along with several more buildings, banks, and fences, these features represent a period where the site was more consistently occupied.

More:
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-worlds-oldest-settlements-were-built-by-a-culture-nobody-expected