The settlement dates to the Stone Age, a time researchers once considered too unsophisticated for such structures. Originally, archaeologists believed similar settlements were only about 3,000 years old, Archaeology magazine reported. The Neolithic settlement is one of the oldest known fortified structures in the world and was constructed hundreds of years earlier than most other similar structures. Researchers long considered more mobile hunter-gatherers incapable of building such sophisticated structures. "The discovery challenges stereotypes of such societies as simple and mobile, revealing their ability to create sophisticated structures," Schreiber told Newsweek .

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Persons: —, Tanja Schreiber, Schreiber, Ekaterina Dubovtseva Organizations: Service, Business, Newsweek Locations: Siberia, Turkey, Europe