Are there cities and fairs in the neolithic? Part I – from PPN to late Neolithic (Part II is refering to Copper Age)

Abstract

In this study we have resumed the problem of Neolithic settlements with a complex architecture (defense systems with ditches, palisades, towers, bastions; residential buildings; cult constructions; social constructions) which support the idea of a proto-urban organization since the PPN. We have analyzed current definitions of cities and fairs, which mainly reflect situations from classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, but they cannot be applied to prehistoric realities, which, according to interdisciplinary research, offer another perspective. We also believe that religion too has played an important part in these sites, some of them being real centers of worship.

Creating Histories: Different Perspectives, Controversial Narratives at Rákóczifalva, an Early Copper Age Site on the Great Hungarian Plain

“…A comparison of the results obtained from Rákóczifalva with the data from the Cheile Turzii site (the first Copper Age goldsmithing workshop known from the Carpathian Basin) and with Transylvanian gold mineral sources (Lazarovici et al, 2015) reveals considerable differences. Whereas high silver and low copper contents are generally characteristic of Transylvanian gold, primarily owed to the hydrothermal origin of the gold from the Transylvanian Ore Mountains (Munţii Metaliferi) (Hauptmann et al, 1995; Cojocaru et al, 2006; Constantinescu et al, 2008: 2326; Pop et al, 2011), the Rákóczifalva gold objects contain less silver and more copper.…”