A society of people now called the Cucuteni-Trypillians lived in Eastern Europe five to eight thousand years ago. Evidence of their huge Neolithic settlements was only uncovered in the late 19th century. We know very little about them, as they left no evidence of a written language (and history is written by those who write), but their artifacts indicate they were quite civilized. Another barrier to learning about them was their habit of completely burning down their cities every few decades.
To intentionally torch an entire settlement, huge amounts of whatever they were using for fuel would have been required, as well as a highly organised community effort. There have been some experiments to try to replicate the results of these ancient settlement burnings, but according to the research, “no modern experiment has yet managed to successfully reproduce the conditions that would leave behind the type of evidence that is found in these burned Neolithic sites, had the structures burned under normal conditions.”
Termites, maybe? Or possibly disease? The burnings could have had a cultural importance, or could have been just a general urban renewal project. Read some of what we do know about the Cucuteni-Trypillians at Messy Nessy Chic.
(Image credit: Kenny Arne Lang Antonsen)