- The discovery could reshape understanding of early human societies
Archaeologists made a groundbreaking discovery in a remote area of Siberia, unearthing an approximately 8,000-year-old fortress built by hunters and gatherers.
The world’s oldest-known fort
The Amnya I and II fortress is believed to be the world’s oldest fortified settlement and could cause historians to reassess how complex societies evolved.
Where is the world’s oldest-known fort located?
The Amnya fortress is located on a sandy area alongside the Amnya River, suggesting the hunter-gatherers chose the site to control abundant fishing spots.
Archaeologists found evidence that the site was burned to the ground several times from stratigraphy, or the collection of sediment, soil, and debris – and they discovered arrowheads in the outer ditch, indicating violent conflict in the region.
The team discovered wooden palisades indicating a fortified inner area when excavating the site from 1987 to 2000.
‘These things we think about now, like property ownership and social inequality—people have been thinking about since we became human,’ Colin Grier of Washington State University told Science.org.
The remains of 10 pit depressions are located within the wall, making up Amnya I.
Another 10 huts were found outside the fortified structure, suggesting a hierarchical structure of an inner fortified area and an outer, unprotected section identified as Amnya II.
Construction features like central elevated fireplaces indicated the structures were long-term dwellings, contradicting the belief that permanent settlements and defensive structures only emerged in farming societies.
What researchers’ study guide says
In their study, the authors at Freie Universität Berlin state that the Amnya fort was built ‘many centuries before comparable enclosures first appeared in Europe,’ adding that although ancient hunter-gatherer groups constructed defenses throughout the world, ‘the very early onset of this phenomenon in inland western Siberia is unparalleled.’
Researchers and archaeologists previously operated under the assumption that competition and conflict didn’t exist in hunter-gatherer societies.
However, using radiocarbon dating on collected samples, archaeologists could confirm ‘the prehistoric age of the site’ and establish it ‘as the world’s oldest-known fort.’
