For over a decade, an apparently anonymous agricultural land in the south of Austria has hidden a secret that today reports Europe back over 6,500 years. TO Rechnitza small town in Burgenland near the Hungarian border, archaeologists led to light Three huge Neolithic circular fences (Kreisgrabenanlagen) who anticipate Stonehenge of almost two millennia.
These structures, dated between the 4850 and 4500 BCopen an unexpected window on the European Neolithic and show how the first agricultural communities of Central Europe were able to organize collective monumental projects With a social and symbolic complexity that until recently was considered the exclusive of Mediterranean and Mesopotamian civilizations.
In Rechnitz the largest Neolithic circular fences ever found in Austria emerge
The excavations, launched within the regional program Masterplan Archäologiehave revealed three circular structures with a diameter greater than 100 meters, initially visible only thanks to geomagnetic investigations and aerial photographs conducted between 2011 and 2017.
The confirmation came with the work on the field, which brought to light not only the concentric ditches and the embankments, but also remains of houses, poles of poles, ceramics and toolsunequivocal signs of continuous Neolithic settlements. The simultaneous presence of three monumental complexes on the same site is what makes Rechnitz a unicum in central Europesuggesting that the area was an important ceremonial and community center.
Scholars hypothesize that the access to the structures were aligned with astronomical phenomena such as solstices, a feature already documented in similar sites such as the Goseck circle in Germany. It would therefore not be a fortifications, but of places related to collective rituals, to the observation of heaven and forms of shared social organization.
A ritual, economic and astronomical center in the heart of Neolithic Europe
The project, coordinated by Archaeologie Burgenland In collaboration with the University of Vienna and the Pannarch specialized company, he reported evidence of a constant attendance between ancient and middle Neolithic.
These finds are placed in the context of the Neolithic revolutionthe period in which the European communities abandoned nomadism to organize themselves in stable settlements based on agriculture and breeding. The monumental roundabouts of Rechnitz seem to represent concrete symbols of this historical passage: common areas dedicated to ceremonies, observations of the sky and community activities, real spiritual and social reference points.
In addition to the circular monuments, ceramic tools, wells and champions of agricultural sediments that will be analyzed in Vienna with bioarcheological and geological techniques have been found. These studies will allow to reconstruct Agricultural practices and the evolution of the Burgenland landscape Over six millennia ago, offering precious data on the management of resources and the environmental impact of the first peasant communities.
From the Archaeological Shipyard to the park that can be visited
The government of Burgenland has announced the creation of a Visitor center and a reconstructed Neolithic villagewhich will allow you to relive the techniques, tools and daily life of the 5th millennium BC
It is not just a matter of tourist enhancement: the future archaeological park will also be a place of historical and environmental education, with educational paths, activities for schools and popular events. A project that will make a page of the European Prehistory remained to the public remaining for centuries under a few centimeters of cultivated land.
Ultimately, the discovery of Rechnitz, but enriches it with new and important shades. It shows that, already 6,500 years ago, in the heart of Austria, agricultural community were able to coordinate great collective works and to impress monumental signs in the landscape that still tell their way of living and believing today.
