By Youssef Kanjou and Michael Seifert
We don’t know why and when humans decided to give up their lives as nomads and to live in a fixed place and to build mud houses instead of tents. The first villages then emerged from this. It was certainly a process that took thousands of years before humans reached this developed stage. To do this, they had to work together and exchange experiences in order to develop their cultural and technological know-how over many generations. We are talking here about an era that began around the 10th millennium BC in Anatolia and the ‘Fertile Crescent’ region. Archaeologists refer to this process as the ‘Neolithic Revolution’ in the Neolithic period, long before tools could be made of metal.
Anatolia and the Fertile Crescent: the first villages
It was an apparently favoured time—due to climatic conditions and due to cooperation and the absence of conflict. Archaeological excavations have provided a clear picture of the lives of the people in these villages in terms of religious beliefs, architecture, economic life, the burial of the dead and, above all, the beginnings of agriculture and animal husbandry. These are the main foundations on which later civilisations were built.
But how did archaeologists determine when and where agriculture first appeared? In these first villages, archaeologists discovered tools used in agriculture and tools for grinding and preparing grain (cultivated forms of what had previously been wild wheat) for food. Structures for storing the grain were also found. This provided evidence that agriculture was practised there for the first time. Radiocarbon dating was used to determine that agriculture began in the 9th millennium BC.
From the site of Çatalhöyük (7500–5700 BC) in what is now central Turkey, there is clear archaeological evidence of advanced Neolithic life in the region in architectural, religious and cultural terms. Numerous rectangular, adjoined mud-brick houses were discovered here, with no streets between them and accessible only via the roofs of the houses. Numerous wall paintings were also found in the houses, depicting daily life, hunting scenes and religious rituals. The inhabitants also buried their dead in their houses under the floors, placing valuables such as jewellery and tools with them. Apparently, there were no distinct social or political classes, but rather a largely egalitarian society, because the houses were similar in size and design. Overall, the architecture indicates a lifestyle characterised by collective cooperation.
The fact that people were able to farm sustainably and live in the region for a long period of time led to a significant increase in population. This put pressure on the environment and led to a scarcity of natural resources. Finally, the climate also changed, with higher temperatures. These and other reasons, which we do not yet know, favoured the migration of people from the Anatolia region to Europe.
Migration brought agriculture to Europe
Agriculture had developed slowly in Anatolia over thousands of years. In Europe, on the other hand, agriculture suddenly took hold within a few centuries – this has been proven by finds at numerous archaeological sites. And this also refutes an older theory of archaeologists: according to this, the new technologies of agriculture were slowly carried further and further into the European area through constant cultural exchange.
Genetic analyses of the bones of hundreds of people who lived in Europe as farmers during this period clearly show that a massive migration of people from Anatolia brought the new technologies and the new way of life to Europe. This was first demonstrated in 2014 by scientists from Tübingen using the genome of a woman who had lived in the Stuttgart area 7000 years ago. Her genome is identical to that of the Anatolian farmers and differs significantly from that of the hunters and gatherers who had lived alone in Europe until the Anatolian immigration. Today, people in Central Europe still have about 40 percent of their genetic material from these Anatolians. The route taken by the immigrants can be traced: they came from the area of present-day Turkey, initially to the Balkans (so there was already a ‘Balkan route’ some 8,000 years ago!) From there, they either followed the course of the Danube or the coasts of the Mediterranean to finally reach Central Europe and the north.
Just discovered: ‘Cradle of agriculture in Europe’
In 2023, underwater archaeologists from the University of Bern (Switzerland) discovered the oldest settlement in Europe to date at Lake Ohrid in Albania. It is a pile dwelling settlement that was built almost 8,000 years ago on wooden piles in the lake and was thus well protected. The lack of oxygen under water preserved the wood for thousands of years; on land, microorganisms would have decomposed it long ago. This place can therefore be called the ‘cradle of agriculture in Europe’. Similar lake settlements emerged in later times in many places in Central Europe, including on Federsee and Lake Constance in our region.
As the migrant groups advanced ever further, the numerically inferior native nomads retreated into mountainous areas and to the north. The two population groups lived as if in parallel societies, and according to geneticists’ findings, interbreeding occurred only rarely. The fact that the nomads did not adopt the seemingly more successful agricultural culture could be because the farmers had to work all day to ensure their food supply, while the nomads had more free time.
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