KEY POINTS:
If the figurines found in an ancient European settlement are any guide, women have been dressing to impress for at least 7500 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.
In the Neolithic settlement in a valley nestled between rivers, mountains and forests in what is now southern Serbia, men rushed around a smoking furnace melting metal for tools. An ox pulled a load of ore, passing by an art workshop and a group of young women in short skirts.
"According to the figurines we found, young women were beautifully dressed, like today's girls in short tops and miniskirts, and wore bracelets around their arms," said archaeologist Julka Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic.
The unnamed tribe, who lived between 5400 and 4700 BC, knew about 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. The community was especially fond of children. Artefacts include toys such as animals and rattles of clay, and clumsily crafted pots apparently made by children.
One of the most exciting finds 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 Copper Age marks the first stage of humans' use of metal, with copper tools used alongside older stone implements. It is thought to have started around the 4th millennium BC in south-east Europe, and earlier in the Middle East.
The Vinca culture flourished from 5500 to 4000 BC on the territories of what is now Bosnia, Serbia, Romania and Macedonia.
- Reuters