Draft:History of Eastern Europe
{{AfC submission|t||ts=20240827200152|u=Outlined Sandbox|ns=118|demo=}}
This article covers the history of Eastern Europe from early hominids to the modern day.
Prehistory
=Paleolithic=
The first modern human culture in Eastern Europe and Europe in general was the Aurignacian culture, parts of which were located in the modern-day Czechia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. It is thought to have lasted from around 43,000 to 28,000 BP.{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kZG1BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA62 | title=European Prehistory: A Survey| isbn=9781461507512| last1=Milisauskas| first1=Sarunas| date=2012-12-06| publisher=Springer}}{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oMQgAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA154 | title=Stone Tools in the Paleolithic and Neolithic Near East: A Guide| isbn=9781139619387| last1=Shea| first1=John J.| date=2013-02-28| publisher=Cambridge University Press}}
File:Szeleta-barlang.jpg, Miskolc, Hungary.]]
The Szeleta Culture was a culture contemporary to that of the that of the Aurignacian culture that existed between the Middle Paleolithic and Upper Paleolithic periods in Austria, Moravia, northern Hungary and southern Poland.{{cite book
| last = B
| first = Adams
| author-link =
| date = 1998
| title = The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Transition in Central Europe: The Record from the Bükk Mountain Region
| url =
| location =
| publisher = BAR Publishing
| page = 175
| isbn =
}} It is dated to have existed 44,000 to 40,000 years ago when both modern humans and Neanderthals co-existed with each other. Most experts believe it to be a Neanderthal culture though this is still disputed.
File:Moravianska venusa.jpg, a Gravettian Venus figurine discovered in Slovakia.]]
In around 33,000 BP, the Gravettian culture of the Upper Paleolithic would form.{{cite journal |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00099749 |title=Radiocarbon chronology for the Early Gravettian of northern Europe: New AMS determinations for Maisières-Canal, Belgium |journal=Antiquity |volume=84 |issue=323 |pages=26–40 |year=2015 |last1=Jacobi |first1=R.M. |last2=Higham |first2=T.F.G. |last3=Haesaerts |first3=P. |last4=Jadin |first4=I. |last5=Basell |first5=L.S. |s2cid=163089681 }}{{cite journal |doi=10.1126/science.1219957 |pmid=22700921 |title=U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain |journal=Science |volume=336 |issue=6087 |pages=1409–13 |year=2012 |last1=Pike |first1=A. W. G. |last2=Hoffmann |first2=D. L. |last3=Garcia-Diez |first3=M. |last4=Pettitt |first4=P. B. |last5=Alcolea |first5=J. |last6=De Balbin |first6=R. |last7=Gonzalez-Sainz |first7=C. |last8=De Las Heras |first8=C. |last9=Lasheras |first9=J. A. |last10=Montes |first10=R. |last11=Zilhao |first11=J. |bibcode=2012Sci...336.1409P |s2cid=7807664 }} The eastern Gravettians lived in modern day Ukraine and Russia and would hunt mammoths in the East European Plain.{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2011.09.008 |title=Charcoal scarcity in Epigravettian settlements with mammoth bone dwellings: The taphonomic evidence from Mezhyrich (Ukraine) |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=109–20 |year=2012 |last1=Marquer |first1=L. |last2=Lebreton |first2=V. |last3=Otto |first3=T. |last4=Valladas |first4=H. |last5=Haesaerts |first5=P. |last6=Messager |first6=E. |last7=Nuzhnyi |first7=D. |last8=Péan |first8=S. |bibcode=2012JArSc..39..109M }}{{cite journal |doi=10.1016/j.jaa.2008.07.003 |title=Possible evidence of mammoth hunting during the Epigravettian at Yudinovo, Russian Plain |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=475–92 |year=2008 |last1=Germonpré |first1=Mietje |last2=Sablin |first2=Mikhail |last3=Khlopachev |first3=Gennady Adolfovich |last4=Grigorieva |first4=Galina Vasilievna }}
The eastern Gravettian culture would be succeeded by the Epigravettian culture. The Epigravettian culture was the last Upper Paleolithic culture and existed in parts of modern day Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Russia. It is estimated to have started around 21,000 years ago and ended around 10,000 years ago.
=Mesolithic and Neolithic=
File:Lepenski Vir, muzej 13.jpg, a major site of the Iron Gates Mesolithic culture.]]
One of the first Mesolithic cultures to exist in Eastern Europe is that of the Iron Gates Mesolithic culture which is dated anywhere between 13,000-6,000 BCE. It existed in the Iron Gates which is a gorge in the river Danube between modern day Serbia and Romania.
In what is now Poland, the Swiderian culture existed and lasted from c. 11,000 to c. 8,200 BCE.
The Kunda culture of Estonia (c. 8500– c. 5000 BC) is thought to have succeeded from the Swiderian culture.
Around a thousand years or so after the start of the Kunda culture, the Elshanka culture would start. Located in the middle of the Volga river in modern day Russia, the culture formed around 7,000 BCE.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DhiWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA56 | title=History of Central Asia, the: 4-volume set | isbn=9781838608682 | last1=Baumer | first1=Christoph | date=18 April 2018 | publisher=Bloomsbury }}
The sites of the Elshanka culture are home to the oldest pottery ever discovered in Europe.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FDqf415wqgC&pg=PA149 | title=The Horse, the Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World | isbn=978-1400831104 | last1=Anthony | first1=David W. | date=26 July 2010 | publisher=Princeton University Press }}{{cite book|last1=Anthony|first1=D.W.|editor1-last=Yanko-Hombach|editor1-first=V.|editor2-last=Gilbert|editor2-first=A.A.|editor3-last=Panin|editor3-first=N.|editor4-last=Dolukhanov|editor4-first=P.M.|title=The Black Sea Flood Question: changes in coastline, climate and human settlement|date=2007|isbn=978-9402404654|pages=245–370|chapter=Pontic-Caspian Mesolithic and Early Neolithic societies at the time of the Black Sea Flood: a small audience and small effects|publisher=Springer }} The creation of pottery would spread to other cultures in Eastern Europe such as the Dnieper–Donets culture (c. 5000-4200 BCE), which was a culture was located in Ukraine near the Black Sea, and the Narva culture (c. 5300 to 1750 BCE),{{cite web |url=http://www.musicalia.lt/meli/papildymai.php?PaId=18 |work=Tautos kilmė |title=Papildymai. Narvos kultūra |publisher=Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas |year=2007 |first1=Zigmas |last1=Zinkevičius |first2=Aleksiejus |last2=Luchtanas |first3=Gintautas |last3=Česnys |language=lt |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722151814/http://www.musicalia.lt/meli/papildymai.php?PaId=18 |archive-date=2011-07-22 }} which was a culture located in the eastern Baltic and succeeded the Kunda culture.
=Chalcolithic=
The Varna culture (c. 4550 BC – c. 4,100 BC){{Cite book|last1=Chapman|first1=John|title=The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, Volume 1|chapter=Varna|date=2012|page=342|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xeJMAgAAQBAJ&dq=varna%2Bcarnelian&pg=RA2-PA342|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-973578-5}}{{Cite book|last1=Jeunesse|first1=Christian|title=The Neolithic of Europe|chapter=From Neolithic kings to the Staffordshire hoard. Hoards and aristocratic graves in the European Neolithic: The birth of a 'Barbarian' Europe?|date=2017|page=175|chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/36876527|publisher=Oxbow Books|isbn=978-1-78570-654-7}} was a Chalcolithic culture in northeastern Bulgaria. The main site of the Varna culture is that of the Varna Necropolis which is home to 294 graves and the oldest gold jewellery ever discovered in Europe. {{cite book
| last1 = Grande
| last2 = Augustyn
| first1 = Lance
| first2 = Allison
| date = 15 November 2009
| title = Gems and Gemstones: Timeless Natural Beauty of the Mineral World
| url = https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Gems_and_Gemstones/RnE9Fa4pbn0C?hl=en
| publisher = University of Chicago Press
| page =
| isbn = 9780226305110
}}
The culture was contemporary of and closely related to the Gumelnița culture which was a culture in modern day Romania based around the banks of the Danube river.
File:Neolithic vinca culture en.png
In Southeast Europe, the Vinča culture existed. It is dated to have started around 5400 and ended in around 4500 BC.{{Cite book |last=Suciu |first=Cosmin Ioan |url=https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/30503/ |title=The Lower Danube in Prehistory: Landscape Changes and Human-Environment Interactions |date=2011 |publisher=Editura Renaissance |isbn=978-606-8321-01-1 |editor-last=Mills |editor-first=Steve |location=Bucharest |pages=75–86 |chapter=Early Vinča Culture Dynamic in South-Eastern Transylvania |editor-last2=Mirea |editor-first2=Pavel}}{{Cite journal |last=Perić |first=Slaviša |date=June 2017 |title=Drenovac: a Neolithic settlement in the Middle Morava Valley, Serbia |journal=Antiquity |volume=91 |issue=357 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2017.41 |doi-access=free}} {{Cite book |last=Rassmann |first=K |url=https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/93041 |title=The Rise of Metallurgy in Eurasia: Evolution, Organisation and Consumption of Early Metal in the Balkans |last2=Furholt |first2=M. |date=2021 |publisher=Archaeopress |isbn=978-1-80327-043-2 |editor-last=Radivojević |editor-first=Miljana |location=Summertown, Oxford |pages=455–459 |chapter=The social organisation of the Vinča culture settlements. New evidence from magnetic and archaeological excavation data |doi=10.32028/9781803270425 |editor-last2=Roberts |editor-first2=Benjamin |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/66600388 |s2cid=245057541}}
{{clear}}
Bronze Age
In the Bronze Age, the Yamnaya culture{{efn|Also known as the Pit Grave culture and Ochre Grave culture.}} ({{circa|3300}} - 2600 BCE) existed in what is now Ukraine and Russia while the Corded Ware culture ({{circa|3000}} - 2350 BCE) existed in large parts of modern day Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.{{cite journal |last1=Morgunova |first1=Nina |last2=Khokhlova |first2=Olga |year=2013 |title=Chronology and Periodization of the Pit-Grave Culture in the Area Between the Volga and Ural Rivers Based on 14C Dating and Paleopedological Research |journal=Radiocarbon |volume=55 |issue=2–3 |pages=1286–1296 |issn=0033-8222 |doi=10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16087 |doi-access=free}} Further east, thousands of 325,000 year-old artifacts have been found in modern day Armenia. Many early Bronze Age settlements were built in Armenia, most notably, the Shengavit Settlement.{{cite web | title=A View from the Highlands: The History of Shengavit, Armenia in the 4th and 3rd Millennia BCE | website=The Shelby White and Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications | url=https://whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu/view-highlands-history-shengavit-armenia-4th-and-3rd-millennia-bce | access-date=May 11, 2024 | archive-date=11 May 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240511151201/https://whitelevy.fas.harvard.edu/view-highlands-history-shengavit-armenia-4th-and-3rd-millennia-bce | url-status=live }} Such things were discovered in Armenia, for example, the oldest shoe, oldest wagon, oldest skirt, and the oldest wine-making facility.{{cite web | url=https://www.peopleofar.com/2014/12/17/10-worlds-oldest-things-from-armenia/ | title=10 World's Oldest Things from Armenia | date=17 December 2014 }}
World Wars and Interwar period (1914-1945)
=German cession of the Sudetenland=
{{Main|Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)#Demands for Sudeten autonomy|Munich Agreement}}
On the 28 March 1938, pro-Nazi Sudetenland politician, Konrad Henlein would meet with Adolf Hitler in Berlin. Henlein would instruct Hitler to raise demands on the Czechoslovak government for the cession of the Sudetenland to Germany.
Hitler would start demanding that Sudetenland be ceded to Germany. Britain and France, believing Hitler's demands were limited, would pressure Czechoslovakia into giving into German demands though the Czechoslovak president, Edvard Beneš, would continue to refuse to accept such demands. Beneš would mobilise Czechoslovakia due to the threat of a German invasion.{{cite book
| date = 5 May 2022
| title = Timelines of World History
| publisher = DK
| page = 259
| isbn = 978-0-2415-1575-4
| quote = German claims on the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia… led Hitler to threaten to take the disputed territory by force. The Czech government looked to France and Britain for support, but this was not forthcoming. A general mobilization ensued, attracting over a million volunteers, but Hitler was not deterred.
}}
On the 30 May, Hitler would sign the Fall Grün, a secret directive for a war with Czechoslovakia no later than 1 October.
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R69173, Münchener Abkommen, Staatschefs.jpg, and Galeazzo Ciano pictured before signing the Munich Agreement.]]
On the 13 September, British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and French prime minister Édouard Daladier would meet Adolf Hitler in Munich for the Munich Agreement in which they would both agree to accept the German occupation of the Sudetenland.{{cite book
| date = 5 May 2022
| title = Timelines of World History
| publisher = DK
| page = 259
| isbn = 978-0-2415-1575-4
| quote = Seeking to appease Hitler over his claims in Czechoslovakia, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and France’s premier Édouard Daladier flew to Munich to sign an agreement accepting the German occupation of the Sudetenland and establishing a commission to determine the future of other disputed areas.
}}
On the 1 October, the Sudetenland was annexed by Germany.
See also
Notes
{{notelist}}
References
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{{Eastern Europe}}
{{History of Europe}}
{{European history by country}}
{{Europe topics (small)}}
{{Early Modern Europe}}
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