Were Greeks & other peoples of Aegean influence (Etruscans,Romans) the only europeans to create civilization?

Question

Mathilda I'm well read on all those groups and I wouldnt qualify wood huts and some pictographs on an amulet as civilization.As much I adore their pottery.

Answer 1

No, there were the Trypillians (earliest 5000BC) from the Ukraine, and the Vinca from the Rhine area (earliest 5000BC). Both were metal working cultures that lived in towns, and the Trypillians built some fairly large cities.

The Vinca may have founded the ancient Greeks, as they preceded them by a few millenia, and came from the area the Greeks were meant to come from. They may have had the worlds first writing system too, although the jury is still out on that one, some think it's writng, some think it's just symbolic symbols. Technically they are pre-historic, because there are no texts from that far back in Europe. The Macedonians also pre-date the Greeks and Egyptians, and it looks like they had writing too, as there's some definitely writing like finds there, at Sitovo (carved into cave wall) , and Dipsilo (piece of wood).

Generally, around the Black sea there were a lot of pretty well developed, but for some reason very ignored, civillisations.

All three pre-date Egyptian history and anything from the middle East, bar the Sumerians.

http://www.trypillia.com/museum/settleme...

http://www.trypillia.com/museum/architec...

http://www.ukraine-observer.com/articles...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin%C4%8Da_...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin%C4%8Da_...

Thank you William.

The  Northern Europeans build houses of wood a lot. Are they uncivillised? A lot of cottages in England are hundreds of years old, built of wattle and daub. You build out of what's convenient. Cities of 10,000 to 15,000 two story buildings are not wood huts. They had some very sophisticated metalworking facilities too. To maintain a city of that size you'd need all kinds of organisation.

Answer 2

yes , as fully self supporting civilization . true democracys . like all greatness had to be destroyed . not self imploding . but through trust , and the use of limited warfare . if history is important , why do we refuse to return to the times of peace and harmony . the population per built mileage was more dense per capita than it currently is . what progress sorry for the tiriade , but obviosly from my answer i am ancient

Answer 3

You nailed it right there in your snarky additional comment: it depends on how you define civilization. If you think Stonehenge, Woodhenge, and all those fortified cities the Romans took over and occupied were built by a bunch of amulet carving hut dwellers, I guess that's up to you.

Much of Europe was taken over by the Romans, but that doesn't mean nothing substantial was there before they came through.

Answer 4

She asked about Europeans not Africans or Middle Easterners...

No. Northern Europeans had civilization as well, but as Mediterranean society was held to a higher standard by others and more accessible, Nordics were eventually dubbed "savage" by Mediteraneans.

Of course the "standard" of their civilization is completely relative and Mediteranean society  referring to them as such

does not remove the fact that they were civilized.

Answer 5

mathilda is correct with the exception that the Vinca symbols are clearly demonstrated as writing. i suggest you read the books by haarmann, and others on this topic.

Sorry noyesno, but the vinca script is more than just symbols on amulets. there are hundreds of inscriptions on wooden bowls, vases, etc that can be unequivocally be a script based on their morphology. there is also a clear link when comparing this script to later sumerian and minoan linear-a where ther script eventually transferred.

Answer 6

Civilization was created independently many times - Sumerian, Egyptian, Chinese, Mayan, Indian, at least 2 places in Africa, and probably many more.

Egyptian civilization was more than a thousand years old when the first Greek villages were built, and continued long after Athenian style democracy was destroyed by Philip of Macedonia. Even during the brightest days of Greece, The Egyptian live much better than the average Grecian. (Greek "democrats" were supported by a large slave population. Egyptian slaves were rare.)