The Mysterious Giant Temples of Prehistoric Europe

Five thousand years ago, across the plains of modern Ukraine and Romania, the people of the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture built some of the largest settlements on Earth. For decades, these remarkable communities have been presented as egalitarian proto-cities without kings, palaces, or social hierarchy. But recent discoveries have revealed enormous megastructures whose purpose remains fiercely debated. Were they temples, assembly halls, elite residences, lineage houses, men's houses, or centres of governance? In this video, I explore the archaeology of the Trypillia megastructures and what they reveal about power, inequality, religion, and social organisation in prehistoric Europe.