The History of the Ancient World: Практическое пособие по английскому языку. Часть 1. Гончарова Л.Ю. - 7 стр.

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       This Old European civilization lasted for approximately 3000 years, and
then fell before waves of new invaders, the Indo-European or Nordic tribes sweeping
in from the area we now know as Russia.

      Europe – Organized Farming and Copper
       Cereal grain farms were established in central Europe by 8000 BC (almost
simultaneously with the Mesopotamian “Fertile Crescent” River Valley crop
civilization). Significantly, copper working had been established in the Balkans by
the year 5000 BC – some 2000 years before the first civilization in the Mesopotamian
River Valley. There are copper mine shafts – some 20 meters deep – still existing in
the Balkans which date from before the year 4000 BC.
       In Neolithic Europe, where food was abundant, rectangular timber houses were
constructed. Some had two rooms and even gabled roofs. Remains found in
Switzerland show that even on soft, swampy ground, the builders were able to erect
houses by first laying down wooden foundations or on piles going deep into the
ground.
       By the year 5000 BC, Neolithic settlements had taken on the form of
established villages, towns and in a few cases, even cities, scattered throughout
Europe, western and southern Russia.
       These early Neolithic farmers cultivated cereals, and kept domesticated
animals such as pigs, cattle and dogs. Their tools and hunting weapons were mostly
made of flint, and their houses of timber. Clothes were made of leather and there is
also evidence of weaving. Other small implements were made of antler and bone, and
there have been left many examples of fairly sophisticated pottery.

      Burial Mounds and Writing
       The leaders of this early society were buried according to religious rituals
which are now unfortunately lost – but the physical graves are a good source of
knowledge about their society as a whole. Important leaders were buried in specially
constructed narrow mounds called barrows which differed in size thus indicating their
social status.
       The original continental European inhabitants had also developed a form of
writing – called Old European linear script – around the year 4000 BC. The exact
origins of this language are lost (there is evidence that some or all of it may have
come from Indo-European or Nordic invaders who penetrated Europe from their
bases in Southern Russia around this time). This language most likely laid the basis
for sharp angular writing known as runes.

      Critical Development – Iron Working 1000 BC
       The introduction of iron working into Western and Northern Europe – around
the year 1000 BC – from central Europe and the Near East – ushered in a new era,
and it is from approximately this time that the early West Europeans started building
hill top forts, which later evolved into castles. These hill top forts are scattered all
over Europe, and some remained in use as forts right until the time of early
Christianity, some 1600 years later.