The FORT Building Societies of Prehistoric Siberia

Common wisdom holds that societies must first development agriculture before they have a need or become capable enough to construct monumental architecture and to socially stratify. However, recent archaeological discoveries in western Siberia of the remains of seven settlements are upturning these views. What is remarkable about the discoveries are that they bear strong evidence of a sedentary culture living permanently in one location and that they are 8,000 years old, which goes back to an era when the peoples of the region were still engaging in hunting and gathering lifestyles. Most astonishing however was that all the settlements bore evidence of having been fortified as the remains of banks, ditches and wooden palisades have been found. Not only were hunter gatherer societies living permanently in single locations for extended periods of time, but they were incredibly territorial and heavily guarded their communities and their hunting ground from competition and violent attacks from hostile groups. This all flies in the face of the commonly held notion that hunter gatherer societies were always moving from one hunting site to the next and were so few in number that warfare and conflict was nonexistent. Further contradicting what constitutes the typical behavioral characteristics of a hunter gatherer society is that the Siberian fort societies were socially stratified with some pit houses being built within the walls of the wooden palisades or on elevated terrain relative to other pit houses built outside of the walled enclosures or on lower terrain. Archaeologists theorize that the region suddenly started building forts and permanent settlements because the region became very abundant with resources prompting the leaders of hunter gatherer groups to begin hoarding food to build their wealth and power, which would have prompted competitors to attack them. Alternatively archaeologists also theorize that food in the region suddenly became scare, which would have prompted the peoples of the region to begin hoarding and guarding resources. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Credits: All music from the YouTube Audio Library ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources: