Provadia (Bulgarie): The ancient town where they sliced their dead in half and buried them from the pelvis up

PART.2

The nearby town of Provadia remains an important salt centre to this day, with much foreign investment in the area devoted to extracting the stuff.

But in ancient times Provadia-Solnitsata would have needed little in the way of outside money since, as the only place in the Balkans where salt was produced at the time, it was the 'mint' of the region.

To protect their wealth, their town was surrounded by stone walls three metres high and a phenomenal two metres thick, which researchers believe are the earliest and most massive fortifications of Europe's pre-history.

'Bun-shaped hairstyles': Discoveries of spiral-shaped copper needles have even given archaeologists clues as to the hairstyles of the town's ancient residents

Skeletons: British, Japanese and German scientists have so far confirmed the Bulgarian team's findings, which were made during a two-month dig over the summer

This map shows the town's location near Provadia, just 25 miles inland from the major coastal city of Provadia

Other findings suggested that even 7,000 years ago the residents of the town had already developed a class system.

Archaeologist Margarita Lyuncheva, a member of Professor Nikolov's team, told CNN that finds of spiral copper needles for hairdressing in some graves showed 'there are two grades of people, [one] probably with higher social status'.

She added: 'We think that women had a sort of bun-shaped hairstyle.'

British, Japanese and German scientists have so far confirmed the Bulgarian team's findings, which were made during a two-month dig over the summer.

VIDEO = http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2012/10/27/bulgaria-oldest-town.cnn?iref=allsearch