Archaelogists Uncover Oldest Fortress Wall in the World near Bulgaria's Provadia

The discoveries of archaeologists bring us back into the history of mankind. 7,500 years ago when the first farmers came here. They found places and conditions that evoked their engineering thought, and they became the first inventors in many areas.

A huge cone-shaped salt production site is among the discoveries.The salt springs have been here for billions of years, but the first who thought of using them were representatives of the Neolithic civilization.

7,000 years ago, the need to protect them, led to the construction of the first fortresses in the history of the world at all.

The settlement mound in Provadia's salt production site (East of Bulgaria) keeps traces of a tumultuous millennium. when people here managed to accumulate so much wealth, that many were ready to kill to have the salt mines. That's why huge fortress walls had to be built to protect them.

Prof. Vassil Nikolov, the leader of archaeological excavations explains that these are the remains from first stone fortress in Europe, from about 4,700 years BC. It was destroyed by an earthquake, but then they build a second one.

"As a first attempt at all, the fortress walls are amazingly large: 3-4 metres wide at its base, which probably supported at least 4, and in places 6 metres high walls. And that suggests a huge and constant threat," he noted.

Prof. Vasil Nikolov: "I do not know about such strong fortifications in the Middle Ages and Antiquity, and this was built 4,700 BC. It is in fact 6,600 years old. Indeed, there is no such thing in Europe at the time," he said.

"These people were exceptionally rich," Nikolov added. "They were the richest people in Europe at the time because they owned salt and salt was one of the greatest treasures of the ancient world. Salt was the first universal equivalent," he said.

"Gold at this time only an indication of people's status and prestige, but it was not an equivalent. Not until the 7th century BC. Gold became equivalent when the first gold coins appeared. At that time salt was exchanged and salt bars as well. Gold bars were not so important."

People understood that salt was sharply decreasing in their vegetable menue, and for the first time in human history, they had to search for additional sources of salt themselves. Something they used to get from eating wild game. They probably had serious health problems and somehow figured out what caused them. They had probably learned to use the instinct of animals to find more saline aquatic plants. But here they directly came upon salt springs. And put them straight into production.

Prof. Nikolov showed the production facilities.

Salt quickly brought them incredible power and wealth, and they found a way to increase the production. They changed the single-walled vessels with more tall and narrow ones.

The moist salt was put in clay cylinders and they were baked. The obtained salt bars were traded and stored most likely in the ground floors of the houses behind the fortress wall. After the earthquake destroyed the first fortress, the second one was significantly improved.

Prof. Nikolov says that the art of constructing stone walls was born here, on those lands. The first idea for bastions appeared, so that the defender could go forward and see what was happening, and if someone attacked that part of the wall, he could fire from the side as well as from above.

"This in the textbooks on fortress construction was described as important elements of the defense system. It is usually believed to be the Bronze Age and Troy is given as an example. But many of the elements appear here," he explained.

And the fortress has certainly suffered many attacks, bone toe arrows are everywhere. Whether by an earthquake or numerous attacks, but the second wall was also destroyed. The people then built a third wall, this time with large massive stones. And another innovation: several radial walls were built along the slope.

1,250 years after salt production began, the climate changed, the salt springs dried up. The society was shaken by internal conflicts, mass graves revealed murders, the fortress fell and everything faded for the next 4,000 years. When the Thracians discovered the salt again, the royal residence was founded. And the mound has not even told us the whole story. What is behind the fortress walls - it is yet to be discovered.

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