PLOCNIK (Serbia): If the figurines found in an ancient European settlement are any guide, women have been dressing to impress for at least 7,500 years. Recent excavations at the site — part of the Vinca culture which was Europe’s biggest prehistoric civilisation — point to a metropolis with a great degree of sophistication and a taste for art and fashion, archaeologists say.

“According to the figurines we found, young women were beautifully dressed, like today’s girls in short tops and mini skirts, and wore bracelets around their arms,” said archaeologist Julka Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic.

The unnamed tribe who lived between 5400 and 4700 BC in the 120-hectare site at what is now Plocnik knew about trade, handcrafts, art and metallurgy. Near the settlement, a thermal well might be evidence of Europe’s oldest spa.

“They pursued beauty and produced 60 different forms of wonderful pottery and figurines, not only to represent deities, but also out of pure enjoyment,” said Kuzmanovic.

The findings suggest an advanced division of labour and organisation. Houses had stoves, there were special holes for trash, and the dead were buried in a tidy necropolis.

People slept on woollen mats and fur, made clothes of wool, flax and leather and kept animals.

One of the most exciting finds for archaeologists was the discovery of a sophisticated metal workshop with a furnace and tools including a copper chisel and a two-headed hammer and axe.

“This might prove that the Copper Age started in Europe at least 500 years earlier than we thought,” Kuzmanovic said.

The Vinca culture flourished from 5500 to 4000 BC on the territories of what is now Bosnia, Serbia, Romania and Macedonia.

“These latest findings show that the Vinca culture was from the very beginning a metallurgical culture,” said archaeologist Dusan Sljivar of Serbia’s National Museum. “They knew how to find minerals, to transport them and melt them into tools.”

The Plocnik site was first discovered in 1927 when the then Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was building a rail line from the southern city of Nis to the province of Kosovo.

“The saddest thing for us is always the moment when we finish our work and everything has to be covered up with earth again,” Kuzmanovic said. .—Reuters