BERLIN, Germany: A team of archaeologists has discovered Europe's oldest civilization across the continent.

British newspaper The Independent reported that over 150 large temples, constructed between 4800 BCE and 4600 BCE, have been unearthed in fields and cities in Germany, Austria and Slovakia, predating the pyramids in Egypt by about 2000 years.

The network of temples, made of earth and wood, were constructed by a religious people, whose economy appears to have been based on livestock farming, The Independent reported.

Excavations have taken place over the past three years, but the discovery is so new that the civilization has not yet been named.

The most complex centre discovered so far, beneath the city of Dresden in Saxony, eastern Germany, comprises a temple surrounded by four ditches, three earthen banks and two palisades.

According to the report the temples, up to 150m (164 yards) in diameter, were made by a people who lived in long houses and villages. Stone, bone and wooden tools have been unearthed, along with ceramic figures of people and animals.