Oldest European cities



Well, you can tell from the list that it was an Indo-European language. The mu for I and the words beginning with K for who, where, what and when match up with the same words in Sanskrit and Lithuanian (Lithuanian is one of the most conservative of the Indo-European languages and hasn't changed much since it was born.)
 
Well, you can tell from the list that it was an Indo-European language. The mu for I and the words beginning with K for who, where, what and when match up with the same words in Sanskrit and Lithuanian (Lithuanian is one of the most conservative of the Indo-European languages and hasn't changed much since it was born.)

i tried to find some words;
eng.-----lith.---------------luvi
who-----kas, kuris----------kuis
where---kuwar(i)-----------kame, kur
what----kam, koks,kiek,-----kuī
when----kai, kuomet -------kuwati
not-----------------------nāwa
three----trejetas------------tarris
big------įstrižas ------------urazzas
grass---marihuana----------zuhri:cool-v:(y):LOL:

these are really alike.
but, luvvi language had lived 3000-1000 BC, and in that period there was no immigration from central anatolia to baltics. and i guess lithuanian was emerged about 300 (?) AC.
 
I know that Durres is an ancient city, and also Tønsberg in Norway, which dates back to the viking times, making it probably the oldest Scandinavian city.
 
I know that Durres is an ancient city, and also Tønsberg in Norway, which dates back to the viking times, making it probably the oldest Scandinavian city.

Viking times were only 1000 years ago. That's medieval not ancient. This thread only lists cities that are at least 3,000 years old (in other words that are older than Rome and predate the Classical Greek Antiquity).

According to Wikipedia, Durrës was founded in 627 BCE. That's ancient, but relatively recent compared to other cities in the Balkans.
 
Does Dolní Věstonice count as a city - some cities were very small - even Troy - but a permanent settlement, especially one including stone construction and pottery like this one maybe should be included (and dating from c.25,000 bce).
Catal Huyuk is in Turkey rather than Europe proper too - but very ancient. Anyone know if it has been determined yet which haplogroup, or any broader gentic classification, to which the builders of Catal Huyuk would have belonged?
 
It's tricky to make the difference between a city and a settlement. The city implies a community living off or getting incomes from commercial trade, that narrows dramatically the scope of the research. North-East Ireland, around Sligo, is dotted with ancient pre-historic settlements and burial grounds that attest the presence of sizeable human societies. That cannot be considered as "cities" in any case, but as in Wéris in Belgium, Carnac in Brittany, Stonehenge in England and all across Europe, monumental remains attest of a form of collaborative work that point to forms of societies able to network and build communal projects. The city as we define it would be hard to justify much before the early bronze age in Europe anyway.
 
the oldest city in europe and six oldest city in the world is Plovdiv |Bulgaria|
 
You have the city of Durres! ---> Though surviving remains are minimal as one of the oldest cities in Albania, the city was founded as Epidamnos in the ancient region of Illyria in 627 BCAlso Berat ---> The earliest recorded inhabitants of the city (6th century BC)
 
I fear that much of the information gived here is a bit wrong....


the OP talks of most ancient founded cities , but most on the list are not cities , but just ancient settlements of neolitic age.


It was said to contribute with settlements and cities that are more ancient than Rome ...


but it is very controversial that affirmation, because then most of the actual named cities placed on the original list should not be even considered, because some if not most of them are as said archeological sites of prehistorical finds, the names are not even the original ones , because those had been lost in ime and so are unknown, finally most of those sites are not continuously inhabited to the present date.


the same condition considered ( predating Rome) is ambiguos , because either you talk of prehistorical settlements , and you cannot talk of cities ,or you talk of urbanization , in wich case most of the mentioned cities would not be considered valid for the enlisting.


for example Rome has a canonic founding date of 753bc , but the site is inhabited since neolitic times up to 14000 years Bc so that what makes of Rome? One of the most ancient cities in world? The same can be said for most of the other ancient proper cities of the mediterranean and greek world, their line of hiatory goes in the past way beyond the canonical dates... The same city of Matera in Italy is probably the most ancient inhabited without interruption city in the world since neholitic times, and I mean people still living in the neholitic caves...


so there is something that really needs a clarification in that thread ... And I only signed to this forum to correct it.
 
It seems on the G2a map there are distinctive hot spots near Los Millares and Zambujal. More distinctive then for J2 or E1b1b. Seems there are other hot spots near Bilbao? La Rochelle and Calais France?
 
  1. Starčevo (Serbia) => E1b1b, G2a and J2
  2. 5,500 BCE : Pločnik (Serbia) => E1b1b, G2a and J2

That's wrong. Starcevo wasn't found by "Near Eastern" people. The Starcevo culture has it origins from mesolithic people of the "Lepenski Vir" culture. The first settlements dated back around 7000bc. Thats long before the neolithic expansion.
The neolithic "expansion" influenced the people(transformation), but it didn't replace them.
And iam sure that outside of greece neolithic "the most" people were of Haplogroup I type in the balkans, because the cultures show a mesolithic pre neolithic charakter with influence from near eastern neolithic cultures.
 
Vinkovci in Croatia is actually the oldest European city - indeed the oldest urban settlement in the continuity of which more than 8,300 years, says prof. dr. sc. Aleksandar Durman, Zagreb archaeologist who works at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb.
 
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Vinkovci in Croatia is actually the oldest European city - indeed the oldest urban settlement in the continuity of which more than 8,300 years, says prof. dr. sc. Aleksandar Durman, Zagreb archaeologist who works at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb.

Vinkovci is nowhere written to be oldest town in Europe, but it is written in wikipedia "The area around Vinkovci (German: Winkowitz, Hungarian: Vinkovce, Latin: Colonia Aurelia Cibalae) has been continually inhabited since the Neolithic period, well before the Roman period."

I also agree that the most "cities" in the list are actually settlements. But I haven't seen nowhere Prowadia (actually ancient town was called Solnitsata (Bulgarian: Солницата, "The Saltworks") by the historians, the real name in that time is unknown) which is shown in wikipedia as a real oldest town in Europe, established some where in 4700 BC. The settlement was walled to protect the salt, a crucial commodity in antiquity.[3] Although its population has been estimated at only 350,[3] archaeologist Vassil Nikolov argues that it meets established criteria as a prehistoric city.[4] Salt production drove Solnitsata's economy, and the town is believed to have supplied salt throughout the Balkans. A large collection of gold objects nearby has led archaeologists to speculate that this trade resulted in considerable wealth for the town's residents.[1]

Regards
 

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