Archaeologists in Prague-Bubenec have uncovered a site with the oldest traces of field ploughing in the Czech Republic, that date back to the mid-4th millennium BCE. The research, completed late last year, also uncovered a rich evidence on the area's population in later periods, Archaeological Institute spokeswoman Jana Marikova said.
     The most important find is the system of four approximately parallel lines that are nine metres long, ten metres wide and eight centimeters deep, which archeologists think are furrows. Experts believe the furrows date back to the earlier phase of Copper Age, i.e. between 3800 and 3500 BCE. The oldest evidence on the use of primitive ploughs in Europe also coincide with this period.
     "The Bubenec finds are exceptional in that the furrows probably cannot be considered ritual ploughing. If so, it would be the oldest trace of a field in the Czech Republic," Marikova said,

Edited from Prague Daily Monitor (17 January 2012)