Archaeologists discover ‘extraordinary’ 8,000-year-old house from early settlers

Archaeologists in Europe made a staggering discovery of an 8,000-year-old house believed to have belonged to some of the continent’s first settlers.

Researchers at the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) in Svinjarička Čuka, Serbia discovered the house and they hope it can provide insights into Europe’s earliest settlers and agricultural societies. 

The building was made out of wattle and daub – wooden strips and twigs covered in clay – and wooden posts. It had been remarkably preserved despite the fact it once caught on fire. The group called the find “extraordinary”.

Barbara Horejs, scientific director of the ÖAW’s Austrian Archaeological Institute, said: “The new finds in Svinjarička Čuka provide substantially new insights and data that are likely to change previous models on the development of settlement in the Balkans.

“The partially collapsed and burned architectural elements covered the floors inside the house as well as artefacts, tools and scattered vessels in the presumed outdoor area.”

There is evidence that whoever lived in the house stored grains and seeds, revealing more about the lives of agricultural people of the Neolithic period. 

Horejs said: “Instead of nomadic or only seasonally settled small groups, the Neolithic pioneers in the Balkans apparently built stable houses with facilities for supplies and grain storage.”

The Neolithic period spanned from 6,500 BC until around 3,500 BC in the Balkans and marked the move forward from hunting and gathering to agriculture and permanent settlements. 

Some of the earliest farming communities were found in the Balkans during this period.

The discovery of the house goes against what was previously thought about people in the region – that they were nomadic and did not have fixed dwellings. 

Svinjarička Čuka has been the site of excavations since 2018 that have provided findings from the early-to-middle Neolithic period. 

This is believed to be because of the influence of the Starčevo culture – one of the earliest Neolithic cultures found in Serbia and around the Balkans. 

The culture introduced agriculture, domesticated animals, and established semi-permanent villages in the region.