Ukrainian
Pre-History:Trypillia
6,000 years ago, the eastern portion
of Old Europe was a terra incognita,
a far-away frontier for the
European inhabitants. In the late XIX century, between the Carpathian
Mountains and the Dnipro River, archeologists discovered ruins of
ancient settlements, which existed between 5,400-2,700 BC. These
discoveries shook the foundations of modern archeology to the core. The
culture that has been unearthed is now known as Cucuteni-Trypillia.
Since this discovery, more than 80 books and thousands of research
articles have been published about the Trypillian culture; some 250
scientists from 12 countries have devoted their scientific careers to
the study of this culture; yet the culture itself still remains largely
unknown to the Western world.
Why Study Trypillian
Civilization?
The eras of proto-historical hunter societies and the
epoch of the first civilizations (such as those in Egypt and
Mesopotamia) are separated by a long period of time. This time period
is associated with the
formation of the economic and social foundations of these
civilizations, such as the appearance
of agriculture, trades, road and bridge building, and a written
language, developed through the interaction between humans and their
immediate living environment (ethnogenesis) and evolved as both the
environment and the human beings changed with time. These
historical-cultural periods of the earliest human development are
called "proto-civilizations". Among the agricultural
proto-civilizations of ancient Europe, the Trypillian
proto-civilization existed from the 6th until the end of the 4th
millennium
BC. This culture complex was a contemporary to proto-civilizations of
Egypt,
Mesopotamia, the Hindus valley, and China. During this period these
proto-civilizations were at approximately the same level of
development. During the 5th millennium BC, when agricultural
proto-civilizations in the Balkans and Central Europe were gradually
disappearing, the Trypillian culture, situated on the boundaries of the
European "civilized world" of that time, continued to flourish for
another millennium. Proto-cities, monumental architecture, industry
(metallurgy, weaving, ceramics), denotation systems, all continued to
develop, making Trypillia one of the most developed proto-civilizations.
Verteba Cave
Who were Trypillians and where did
they come from? These are not easy questions to answer. One thing is
certain; Trypillians had advanced knowledge of agriculture and other
advanced for that time technologies which would have been difficult to
develop in situ. The variety of cultural artifacts from the Trypillian
period points at cultural and economic exchanges between Trypillians
and the neighboring agricultural societies. While these exchanges do
not provide a direct answer about the question of Trypillian origins,
they present a culture of diverse traditions, and, perhaps, diverse
origins. There is a site in western Ukraine, called Verteba Cave, that
highlights the mystery that is Trypillia.
At about 8 km in lengh, Verteba is labyrinth of darkness and
dampness.
It's hard to believe that in the 1940s there were people acually living
in that cave while hiding from the Nazis, for over 6 months (check out this
link to read their remarkable story). The cave has been used for
ceremonial purposes in Trypillian times and, likely, beyond, as
material culture artifacts and human remains suggest. You can still see
some of those artifacts on display if you
take a tour down one of the cave's excavated corridors. Please click here for some
pictures from the cave and Trypillian pottery shards found
during the excavation of a nearby Trypillian settlement (excavations
by M. Sokhatsky, Borschiv Regional Ethnographic Museum).