Trypillia - cultural continuity

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We are accustomed to thinking that "ancient cultures" and "ancient civilizations" weread about in history books, are those that sprang up in Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Aegean, China and India from about 3,OOO to 2,OOO B.C.E. It comes as a great surprise to many people in Ukraine and elsewhere to learn that from about the sixth millennium B.C.E. to about the third millennium B.C.E., there flourished in Ukraine a Neolithic European culture which produced big settlements of the kind that can be called 'proto-cities,' which knew land tilling and which created art. This culture, now referred to as Trypillia, Cor the Cucuteni-Trypillia) was of the kind that could have led to the emergence of a powerful civilization on a par with the Egyptian or Mesopotamian ones. But something interfered and the culture's development was brutally disrupted.

 

In 1896, an amateur archeologist, a teacher by occupation, discovered ancient settlements in the land of Kyivshchyna in the vicinity of the village of Trypillia The settlements were dated to the fourth millennium В.С.Е. Later, it turned out that the settlements discovered close to Trypillia, were similar to the ones unearthed earlier, in the 1870s and 1880s, in the land of Ternopilshchyna, which were, upon their discovery, called "the culture of painted ceramics " Gradually, as archeological evidence accumulated, it became clear that the Trypillia culture, as it came to be called, extended over a vast territory of the present-day Ukraine Trypillia settlements were also dug up in Moldova and in Eastern Romania in the vicinity of the village of Cucuteni Further fieldwork, excavations, clas-sification, dating, and interpretation of the materials found, showed that this culture flourished approxima-tely between 5600 and 2600 В.С.Е., and that it pas-sed through three mam stages of development.

 

The model of a temple with symbols is made 4200 B.C.E..

A museum - S.N.Platonova's collection

 

 

 

 

 

A monument to Vikentiy Khvoyka, who discovered the first Trypillia Culture settlement, in the village of Trypillia.

Before we continue with the story of the Trypillia culture, it will be worthwhile to say a few words about thediscoverer of the Trypillia culture, Vikenty Khvoyka (or Khvoyko, 1850-1914) He was born outside Uk-raine, in what is now the Czech Republic Completing his studies, he came to Kyiv in 1876 to work as a tea-cher In the early eighteen-nmeties his interest in his-tory and archeology led him to amateur digging, and similarly to some other great amateur archeologists of the nineteenth century - of who Schhemann is the best example, Khvoyka was exceptionally lucky In 1893 he discovered a late Paleolithic settlement at Starokyivska Mount in Kyiv, in 1896, he unearthed the first settlements of what later was called the Trypillia culture, in 1899, he brought to light artifacts of the Za-rubmetska culture (3rd century В С Е ), in 1900, he dug up artifacts and settlements of the Chernyakhiv-ska culture These are his major discoveries and there was, of course, much more to them than sheer "archeo-logical" luck With the passage of time, Khvoyka gra-duated from an amateur to a professional, and the sphere of his archeological research widened to in-clude the medieval times of Kyivan Rus Khvoyka was one of the founders of the Kyiv Museum of Antiquities and Art (now - the National Museum of History), as a historian, he promoted a theory of the Eastern Slavs being the autochthons in the territory of Ukraine since the dawn of time.

 

A kitchen pot. 4th millennium B.C.E. Foundin Uman Raion. Museum of Trypillia Culture

of the National Preserve Pereyaslav.

 

 

The model of a temple with symbols is made 4000 B.C.E.. A museum - S.N.Platonova's collection

 

 

 

 

Sinсе the groundbreaking (both in literal and metaphoric sense) discoveries of the late nineteenth century, a great many arti-fact and settlements of the Trypillia culture have been unearthed. Over a thousand Trypillia settlements have been found in a vast territory of over 200,000 square kilometres stretching from the land of Kyivshchyna in the east and to the land of Chernivtsi in the west (and, in fact, still further west into Moldova and Eastern Rumania), Paradoxically, all this wealth of accumula-ted evidence has not provided answers to the crutial questions that emerged as new arti-facts and new settlements were unearthed, It anything, the number of unanswered ques-tions grew exponentially. The very basic question - Were the Trypillians autochthons or migrants who had come to Ukraine from other lands? - remains unanswered. Is there enough ground to regard the Trypillia phenomenon a civilization of the magnitude of Ancient Egypt or Crete, or should it be classified as just one of the European Neolithic cultures? No consensus on these and other questions has been rea-ched among the historians and archeologists. What we do know with a varying degree of certainty is approximately as follows. So-metime about the sixth millennium B.C.E. (in earlier history and reference books the ear-liest date was given as the fourth millennium B.C.E.; more recent archeological finds have pushed the date further into the past) there arose in what today is Ukraine a culture whose most distinctive feature was the settlements of the size and complexity that could qualify them for being called "proto-cities." Some of these settlements, Maydanetske, for example, covered an area of 450 hectares (and thus in size were much larger that the Greek or Roman cities of much later times). For comparison, the medieval city of Kyiv spread over only 380 hectares.
According to some historians, the proto-Trypillians must have migrated from sou-thern Anatolia in Asia Minor, then through the Balkans and Transylvania to Ukraine. Some other original starting points from which the proto-Trypillians could have migrated are also cited. Others are of the opinion that the Trypillians were the autochthonous popula-tion of Ukraine, and thus can be regarded as proto-Ukrainians (Khvoyka, the discoverer of the Trypillia culture, believed the Trypil-lyans to be the ancestors of Eastern Slavs). The available evidence points to certain si-milarities in the ethnographic features of the Trypillians and later Slavs who were the di-rect ancestors of the Ukrainians.
Three stages in the development of the Trypillia culture are clearly discernable, and they have been designated as Stage A, Stage В and Stage C. Each stage, in its turn, is sub-divided into several successive phases. Some
differences are also observed between the Trypillia settlements and artifacts of different geographical areas.
At Stage A, the settlements were small in size, with mud huts, dugouts as housing. At the same time, the Stage A Trypillians al-ready practised animal husbandry, they cul-tivated some crops, they knew some crafts-manship, they made earthenware and tools (mostly made of flint), they knew weaving and spinning.
At Stage B, land cultivation improved con-siderably; draft animals began to be used, earthenware became more elaborate, new crafts developed. There was even trade going on with various tribes, mostly from the Da-nube and Balkan areas. And the settlements grew in size to become, as we have said, "proto-cities."
At Stage C, the settlements and the houses in them began to shrink in size; they were built mostly on the high river banks or on the tops of hills, and provided with earthworks.

On the other hand, weapons and tools became to be more sophistica-ted ted and in addition to flint, other kinds of stone were used as well. It was also the time when copper made its appearance. It is not clear what led to the demise of the Trypillia culture in the middle of the third millennium B.C.E., but the ever increa-sing pressure of the steppe nomads plus the lack of the state structure and low level of the material production are most often cited as the contri-buting causes.
At the height of its develop-ment, the Trypillia culture must have been close to becoming -
what is traditionally - though somewhat loosely - called "a civilization." A large Trypillia settle-ment was inhabited by as many as 10,000 or even 15, 000 people who lived in hundreds of houses, some of which were two- or even three-story high. The houses were placed in concentric circles, contiguously to each other, so that they formed de-fensive lines, not dissimilar to much later castles. The houses did not have any windows or entrances on the outer sides, and could be accessed only from the inner side. Some evidence suggest that the exteriors of the houses were painted and one wonders whether it is this tradition that has survived so many centuries in Ukraine, with pea-sant houses still decorated in a similar way. The interiors of the Trypillia houses must have been decorated with murals or copious ornaments as well.

The colour schemes were rather bright and somewhat unusual - yellows, browns, reddish hues, pink in combination with black.
The Trypillians left behind a great many cera-mic pieces, a lot of which are of unclear use. Some of the discovered earthenware pieces were defi-nitely used in every day as household items; others must have been used in some sort of rituals, but all of them were lavishly covered with ornaments and symbols.
Among Trypillia artifacts we find statuettes of women, animals and what looks like models of hou-ses Statuettes of women suggest that Trypillia women wore embroidered, smart dresses, deco-rations and rather fancy hairdos or headwear in the form of nets and close fitting skullcaps There is enough evidence to suggest the Trypillians knew various cults, worshiped the Mother Earth and totems (mostly bulls), and fire Among the de-ciphered symbols are those of eternity and fertility.
One of the most challenging mysteries of the Trypillia culture lies in the remains of houses which look as thoughthey were burned down by the Trypillians themselves rather than by invaders In these burned-down houses - or rather in what was left of them - archeologists find shards of plates and vases, statuettes of humans and ani-mals, tools and pieces of them, animal and hu-man bones One of the theories has it that they were once ordinary houses, later abandoned by the living, or barns or maybe even temples With the passage of time, as the older generations died out, their souls came to inhabit these houses demanding sacrifices - richly decorated earthen-ware, agricultural implements, animals or even humans .

 

 

 

A binoculars-shaped ritual objectused in the rain-making "watering the earth" ritual. Found in the Klishchiv settlement. Vinnytsya Museum of Local History and Lore.

 

 

 

A ritual objectwith a representation
of Purusha,the first man and
titan in Trypillia
mythology, who
created the Universe.
Odesa Archeological
Museum of
the National
Academy of Sciences
of Ukraine.

 

Reconstructions of Trypillia ceramics made by Lyodmyla Smolyakova.

 

 

Then came a time, when it was considered to be a better option to abandon the settlement altogether and move on to a new place to start life anew. From what we know, old settlements were abandoned and new ones founded every sixty to eigh-ty years. Before leaving, the Trypillians burned their houses down.
Other theories propose that the Trypillians were almost constantly at war with each other and with the nomads whose incursions were becoming ever more persistent. However, none of the big Trypillia settlements show any signs of having been stormed and destroyed by violence. The earthworks and houses like fortified walls must have been intimidating enough for any foe, argue some of the historians. Scholars suggest several basic features that a culture should possess to be elevated to the status of a civilization; among such features are ci-ties, alphabet and writing, and the potter's wheel. The Trypillia cul- ture definitely had settlements which could be easily called "pro-to-cities." It is uncertain whether many mysterious signs found on the Trypillia pottery and earthenware and statuettes can be interpreted as evidence of incipient writing; the potter's wheel the Trypillians most certainly knew the use of. В Whatever happened to the Trypillia culture, it had not sunk without a trace for the future generations of people who inha-bited Ukraine in later times - the traditional Ukrainian culture most surely has preserved some of the features of the Trypillia cul-ture - the type of housing in the steppe regions; ornaments; decoration of the houses and of thepottery; patterns and symbols used in embroidery and in decorating pysanky (Easter eggs).
There are a lot of historical mysteries and puzzles that are yet to be sol-ved but one thing stands out vivid and clear - cultural continuity spanning the past six thousand years has not been broken.

 

Based on the materials provided by Lesya HRYHORYIVA
Photos by Yury TYMOCHKO

A clay model of a Trypillia house,
3rd or 4th millennium B.C.E.,
found in the Land of Cherkashchyna.
Umansky Museum of Local History and Lore.

 

A clay model of a sled found
in the Maydanetske settlement in the Landof Cherkashchyna, 4th millennium B.C.E.Cherkasy Museum of Local History and Lore.

 

 

 

A bowel from a Trypillia settlement in the Land of Cherkashchyna. Museum of Trypillia Culture of the National Preserve Pereyaslav.