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).