Finds point to far earlier European civilisation

Archaeologists have uncovered a network of 150 huge temples and buildings beneath the fields and cities of modern-day Germany, Austria and Slovakia.

They appear to have been built nearly 7,000 years ago, between 4,800BC and 4,600BC, and their discovery will radically change the understanding of civilisation in Europe, which is traditionally thought to have lagged far behind the development of urban life and culture in the Middle East.

The temples were built of earth and wood, and had ramparts and palisades that stretched for up to half a mile. They were built by a highly religious people who lived in communal dormitories up to 50 yards long, which were grouped around substantial villages.

It appears their economy and lifestyle were based around farming of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. But puzzlingly, their civilisation - or at least the style of building and living in communal homes around the villages - seems to have died out after only about 200 years.

Europeans did not begin putting together similar buildings for another 3,000 years, by which time the continent was firmly in the shadow of the glittering civilisations of the Middle East.

The most complex of the sites excavated so far, located inside the German city of Dresden, consisted of an apparently sacred internal space surrounded by two palisades, three earthen banks and four ditches.

Harald Staeuble, the person directing the archaeological investigations, said: "Our excavations have revealed the degree of monumental vision and sophistication used by these early farming communities to create Europe's first truly large-scale earthwork complexes."

One village complex and temple at Aythra, near Leipzig, covers an area of 25 hectares, and 200 houses have been found there.