RECHNITZ, AUSTRIA—According to a report from All That’s Interesting, a team from Archäologie Burgenland unearthed a set of massive circular monuments in Rechnitz along the Hungarian border that has provided an unprecedented glimpse at life there during the Neolithic period. The features were first tentatively identified several years ago through aerial photography and geophysical survey, but researchers are only now understanding how extensive the site truly is. Excavations have uncovered at least three monumental earthen enclosures, some measuring 350 feet across, formed by a series of concentric circular ditches and wooden palisades that were built between 4850 and 4500 b.c. The team also discovered two Neolithic settlements that are even older, with houses nearby that were likely built by some of the region’s first farmers. The concentration of so many significant sites in such a small area indicates that the location was a major social, cultural, and ritual center more than 6,500 years ago. “We are learning a great deal about the Neolithic settler clans who found this a favorable location to establish the cultural techniques of agriculture and livestock farming in what is now Burgenland in the 6th millennium b.c,” said Nikolaus Franz, director of Archäologie Burgenland. To read about the earliest known pair of identical twins, whose remains were uncovered in northeastern Austria, go to "A Twin Burial."
