Cucuteni-Trypillian culture



The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, also known as Cucuteni culture (from Romanian), Trypillian culture (from Ukrainian) or Tripolie culture (from Russian), is a late Neolithic  archaeological culture that flourished between ca. 5500 BC and 2750 BC, spanning more than 35000 kmp, between Carpathian Mountains and  Dniester-Dnieper regions of modern-day Moldova,Romania, and Ukraine. The Cucuteni-Trypillians culture built the largest neolithic settlements in Europe, each of them with 10,000 or 15,000 people. The settlements would be burned every 60–80 years with the culture moving elsewhere.

Nomenclature
The culture was initially named after Cucuteni, Iaşi county, Romania, where the first objects associated with this culture were discovered. The first archeological diggings in Cucuteni site were initiated in the spring of 1885 by N. Beldiceanu and D. Butculescu. The findings made were announced to the scientific world through articles signed by N. Beldiceanu, Antichitatile de la Cucuteni (“The Antiquitites at Cucuteni”) (1885), and Gr. Butureanu, Notita asupra sapaturilor si cercetarilor facute la Cucuteni (“Note on the Diggings and Research at Cucuteni”) (1889), as well as through communications given by Gr. Butureanu at the International Congress of Anthropology and Praehistoric Archaeology in Paris on 1889, and by D. Diamandi within the Society of Anthropology in Paris (1889).

Simultaneously in around 1887, (possibly 1893 or 1896 ), the Czech archaeologist Vicenty Khvoika uncovered the first of close to one hundred Cucuteni-Trypillian settlements, and excavations started in 1909. V. Khvoika documented "this discovery to the 11th Congress of Archaeologists in 1897, which is was considered the official date of the discovery of the Trypillian culture in Ukraine (E-Museum, 2004) .In 1897, similar objects were excavated in Trypillia, Kiev Governorate, Ukraine. As a result, the culture has been known in Soviet, Russian, and Ukrainian publications as Tripolie, Tripolian or Trypillian culture. A compromise currently exists in the English name: Cucuteni-Trypillia.

Extent
As of 2003, about 3000 sites of Cucuteni-Trypillian culture have been identified in Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine. J.P. Mallory reports that the "culture is attested from well over a thousand sites in the form of everything from small villages to vast settlements consisting of hundreds of dwellings surrounded by multiple ditches "It was centered on the middle to upper Dniester River (in the present-day Republic of Moldova) with an extension in the northeast to as far as the Dnieper.

Periodization
The creators of the culture were tribes who stretched from the Balkans and Danube basin and Carpathians encompasing territories in contemporary Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. Scholars categorize the culture into three distinct periods Due to the fact that, the research of Cucuteni-Tripolie culture, was divided during time, two classifications were used, one for Tripolie and another for Cucuteni. The traditional chronology subdivisions are based on differences on technology, morphology and decorations. The Cucuteni Periodization was proposed by the German Archeologis Hubert Schmidt in 1932, the Tripolie preiodization was proposed by T.S Passek in 1949.
 * early - 5300-4600 B.C.
 * middle - 4600-3200 B.C.
 * late - 3200-2750/2600 B.C.

Early period
In the second half of the 6th millennium B.C. and in the first half of the 5th millenium the tribes settled in the basin of the Dnieper and Buh rivers and in close to the Carpahian Mountains. The roots of Cucuteni-Trypillian culture are from Starcevo-Cris culture and Bug-Dniester culture, Linear Pottery culture. etc. The settlements were located close to rivers, however a number of settlements have been discovered on the plateaus. Dwellings were made in the ground or half dug into the ground. The floors and fireplaces were made of clay, walls made of wood or reeds covered in clay. Roofing was made of straw or reeds. The inhabitants were involved with animal husbandry and agriculture, fishing and gathering. Wheat, rye and peas were grown. Tools included ploughs made of antlers, stone, bone and sharpened sticks. The harvest was collected with scythes made of flint inlaid blades. The grain was milled by stone wheels. Women were involved in pottery, clothing and played a leading role in community life. Men hunted, looked out for the cattle, made tools from flint, bone and stone. Cattle were important and pigs, sheep and goats took a secondary place. The horse was domesticated. Female statues and amulets were made of clay. Rarely one comes across copper items, primarily bracelets, rings and hooks. One settlement in Korbuni, Moldova had a large number of copper items, primarily jewelry which were dated back to the beginning of the 5th millennium BC.

Middle period
In the middle era the Trypillian culture spread over a wide area from Eastern Transylvania in the West to the Dniper river in he East. The population settled on the banks of the Upper and Middle Right bank of the Dniper river. The population grew consderably and they lived on plateaus near major rivers and springs. Their dwellings were built on poles in the form of circles or ovals. Dwellings were built on log floors covered in clay. Walls were woven from wood covered in clay and a clay stove was situated in the centre of the dwelling. With the growth in population, the area of agriculture also grew. Animal husbandry was popular, however hunting also continued. Tools made of flint, rock and bones were used for cultivation. Axes made of copper have been discovered mined in Volyn and in the areas around the Dniper river. Pottery making was sophisticated. Characteristics were a mono-chromal spiral ornament, painted with black paint on yellow and red base. Pottery was made by hand. Large pear-shaped pottery for the saving of grain, plates etc. Statues of female figures, figures of animals and models of houses have also been found. it is thought that the tribes were matrilineal.

Late period
The late period the territory expanded to include Volyn to the river Sluch and Horyn' and both banks of the Dnieper river near Kyiv. In the area near the Black sea the inhabitants communicated with other cultures. Animal husbandry became more important. Horses became more important. The community transformed into a patriarchal structure. Communities were established on the Don and Volga rivers. Habitats were build differently, spiral ornaments disappear from pottery with a new rope-like ornament becoming popular. Different forms of ritual burial were developed in holes with elaborate burial rituals. The fate of these tribes is tied in with the introduction of Bronze Age items.

Features



 * The largest collection of artifacts from the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture can be found in museums in Russia, Ukraine, and Romania, including the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the Museum of History & Archaeology in Piatra Neamţ.

The settlements

 * In term of overall size, some of Tripolie sites, such as Talianki, are as large, or even larger then city-states of Summer,and precede them chronologically by more then half of millennium. The reasons for that the gigantic settlements of Cucuteni Tripolie are not named "cities" or even "proto-urban formations", is that the evidence for internal social differentiation or specialization is very poor.
 * The Cucuteni-Trypillia settlements were usually located on a place where the geomorphology provided natural barrier to access the site: high river terraces or river canyon edge. The natural obstacles were supplemented with fences,earthworks and ditches, or even more elaborated wooden and clay structures. . The role of the fortification was perhaps to protect the domestic herd from wild predators., other hypotheses are that the fortifications were against marauder enemies or as measure to gather the community , still the role of Cucuteni fortifications is debate reasons among specialists.

Placing the building in an circle surrounding an isolated structure was the most common arrangement for Cucuteni sites, some examples of this arrangements were found at Tîrpeşti, Ioblona, Berezkovskaya,Onoprievka,Răşcani. The earliest villages consisted of ten to fifteen households. In their heyday, settlements expanded to include several hundred large adobe huts, sometimes with two stories. These houses were typically warmed by an oven and had round windows. The huts had furnaces used to create pottery, which the Cucuteni-Trypillians are most known for.

Largest settlements
The existence of the giant-settlements was realised in the 1960s, when the military topographer K.V. Shishkin noticed presence of peculiar spots on certain aerial pictures.
 * Talianki with up to 15,000 inhabitants and covered an area of 400 ha and 2,700 houses, 3700 BC. Talianki is the largest and best studied Tripolye settlement in Ukraine,as most of the Cucuteni-Tripolie settlements, the houses were arranged in two elliptical rows,separated by a space of 70-100 metres, of rectangular buildings.
 * Dobrovody up to 10,000 inhabitants and covered an area of 250 ha and fortified 3800 BC.
 * Maydanets up to 10,000 inhabitants, area 270 ha, 1,575 houses, 3700 BC.

"Some archaeologists (ČERNJAKOV 1993, 18-19) put the large extension of Cucuteni/Tripolye complex in connection with their agricultural system. This situation is connected lately with the climatical changes, which determined also modifications in the Black Sea level."

House Burning
The archeological finds show that a vast majority of Cucuteni-Tripolie houses were burned. Some historians claim that houses were burned on purpose on cyclic time: "Indeed the phenomenon of burned houses has been treated as a series of lucky accidents during the Neolithic, which are primarily responsible for the preservation of Neolithic sites. Contrary this view, I argue that it is unlikely that the houses were burned as a result of a series of accidents or for any structural and technological reasons but rather that they were destroyed by deliberate burning and most likely for reasons of a symbolic nature."

There are theories that states that the houses were accidentally burned due to the high risk of primitive ovens, or due to tribal rivalry, and considering that a large quantity of stored food was found in some burned sites. The stored food in some of burned sites excludes the ritual burning.

There are some hipothesis that the every house was burned at the end of lifespan. "Whether the houses were set on fire in a ritualistic way all together before abandoning the settlement, or each house was destroyed at the end of its life (e.g. before building a new one) it is still a matter of debate."

Houses
There were identified two type of house structure, one with fork shape beam sunk in the soil and the another one with beams over the ground plates fixed on the soil.The verticals beams were distributed at even distances, the round beams used having around 15-20 cm in diameter, but also bigger timber were used. Usually the walls were from woven branches covered with clay, and finished with plastic motifs or with pictures. The clay layer was usually under 5 cm. Sometimes the walls were from horizontally timber beams covered with clay. Sometimes over the walls of timber beams was applied a woven branches. The was no "neolithic standards", even in the same house some walls sere realized with timber beams covered with finished lumber and other walls were realized with woven branches.Cuuteni houses were roofed with turf or reeds.

Bordei dwellings
Some of the houses found by archeologists were dugout type.

Agriculture

 * Agriculture is attested to, as well as livestock-raising, mainly consisting of cattle, but goats/sheep and swine are also evidenced. Based on fauna remains from archaeological discoveries the hunting was also a secondary practice.

Plants Used
Common wheat (Triticum Compactum), Wheat (Triticum Vulgare), Oat (Avena Sativa),Rye(Secale cereale),Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) and also technical plants Hemp (Canabis sativa), also the Apricot (Armeniaca Vulgaris) and Cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera) were known, and also Common Grape Vine andForrest Grape Vine.

Livestock
Considering some zoomorphing representations, the Ox was use as a draft animal. For meat production there was use sheep, and goat also pigsand dogs were also known as a domesticated animals. There is no proof about using horses during eneolitic even if there are some representations on pottery, no one know if there are representations of wild horses or domesticated horses, even if some historians argue that the horse was domesticated(V.V Gromova V.I Tolkin). , the most probable the archeological evidences of horse-head maces found in Cucuteni sites, which support the theory of domesticated horse, are imports from Suvorovo culture imigrants.

Hunting
Even if the main occupation was the plant cultivation, afeter livestock the hunting was also a secondary occupation. The archeological proof show that during Cucuteni culture, there was hunted: Red Deer, Roe Deer, Wild boar, Aurochs, fox and Brown Bear. For hunting purpose the following methods were used: Archery, spear, Mace (club), traps were also used, and also hunters were using disguise as pray.

Salt Exploatation
The Salt was having a very important role for the neo-eneolithic economy ncluding cucuteni Culture. At Poiana Slatinei-Lunca a salt water spring exploitation, used during Precucuteni stages, was discovered. Recent studie show a direct link between the salt spring exploitation and Cucuteni population growth.

Rites
Based on the fact that some figures discovered in Gherlaiesti were arranged in cardinal position, considering the cross shape of the altars, and some simbols like gamma cross, some historians caracterize the Cucuteni rituals as Chthonic and Uranians stil others historians deny the uranic character of Tripolie rituals. ,

Funerary Rites
One of the unanswered questions regarding the Cucuteni Culture is the lack of artifacts regarding the funerary rites. While the evidence for settlements is strong the mortuary activity is almost invisible. "There are no Cucuteni cemeteries and the Tripolye one's which have been dicovered are very late" The discovery of skulls is more frequent then other parts of the body, still no statistic study was carried out.
 * Bolomey and Marinescu-Bîlcu suggest that the common practice was the abandonment of the body to the "good mercy" of Mother Nature.
 * Pasek and Movșa have an hypothesis that some bones were considered to have magic powers and were scattered on purpose across the settlement.
 * Other suggest the antrophagy or at least excarnation."It is the merit of Alexandra Bolomey (BOLOMEY 1982) that, in an ample paper published in the ninth decade of the last century, made a review of a series of these human remains, found within the respective culture, reaching, among others to the conclusion that, at least partly, they have a cultic character and maybe even there was an antropophagy of cultic type."


 * The only conclusion which can be draw from archeological evidence is that the in Cucuteni culture in vast majority of cases the bodies were not formally deposited within the settlement area.



Pottery
The pottery is connected to the Linear Pottery culture


 * Frumusica Dance, a ceramic anthropomorphic support, was discovered in 1942 on Cetatuia Hill near Bodestii de Sus (Neamt county, Romania), it was considered a symbol of Cucuteni Culture.

It is considered that the neollitic artist has represented an ritualic dance, similar artefacts were founds in Berești and Dragușini.


 * In early stages of the Cucuteni culture, the polychromy was poor, the ceramics was decorated with incisions, sometimes the incisions were filled with white or red, in order to emphasize the model.
 * As time progressed the Cucuteni-Trypillians began creating better weapons using stronger metals, and the effort put into pottery became less noticeable.

Figurines
Extant figurines excavated at the Cucuteni sites are thought to represent religious artefacts, but their meaning or use is still unknown.

Interaction with others cultures
The Cucuteni culture was based on Balkan-Anatolian tradition, who grew on a Carpatian-Danubian fond, Cucuteni-Tripolye communities took new elements from the neighbouring communities, at the same level of evolution or from other neolithic ones, which led in the end to an eneolithic evolution. Copper was extensively imported from the Balkans.Other productssubject of exchange or trade were: elegant painted pottery of Cucuteni/Tripolye,the raw material for making tools (silex or other kind of stones) and not ultimately salt. "Most of the new customs that defined the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture (house styles, pottery styles, and domestic rituals centered on female figurines) were copied from the Boian culture of the Lower Danube Valley, and indicate a strong new connection with that region."

Gimbutist Kurgan Theory
Indo-Europeans.The Kurgan hypothesis (also theory or model),proposed by Marija Gimbutas in 1956, is one of the proposals about early Indo-European origins,theory combining archaeology with linguistics ,which postulates that the people of an archaeological "Kurgan culture" (a term grouping the Pit Grave culture and its predecessors) in the Pontic steppe were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language.

It is believed that the expansions of the Kurgan culture were a series of essentially hostile, military incursions where a new warrior culture imposed itself on the peaceful, matriarchal cultures of "Old Europe", replacing it with a patriarchal warrior society, a process visible in the appearance of fortified settlements and hillforts and the graves of warrior-chieftains:
 * "The process of Indo-Europeanization was a cultural, not a physical, transformation. It must be understood as a military victory in terms of successfully imposing a new administrative system, language, and religion upon the indigenous groups. "
 * The extinction of Cucuteni culture is synchronized with the 3rd Wave of Kurgan expansion, 3000–2800 BC, expansion of the Pit Grave culture beyond the steppes, with the appearance of the characteristic pit graves as far as the areas of modern Romania, Bulgaria and eastern Hungary, coincident with the end of the Cucuteni culture (c.2750 BC)

Still regarding the Kurgan Theory there are some voices,such is J. P. Mallory, who pledges for a non-violent culture assimilation, a diffusion scenario.

Archaeogenetics
The current interpretation of genetic data suggests a strong genetic continuity in Europe; specifically, studies of mtDNA by Bryan Sykes show that about 80% of the genetic stock of Europeans originated in the Paleolithic.


 * The sudden disappearance of many Cucuteni-Trypillian villages lead archaeologists to believe they were conquered and assimilated into another culture. These people, likely I2a1 in Haplogroup I and kurganized by the horse riding Indo-European tribes are still living there today.

Deforestation, Ecological Degradation, and Climatic change theories.

 * The sudden disappearance of the gigantic Cucuteni Tripolie Sites is seen as a switch from extensive agricultural and mixed economy to one placing more emphasis on herding the livestock particularly cattle.


 * Also ecological degradation from millennia of farming and deforestation, also are cited as causal factors for the decline of Old Europe

The climatic change was also a important factor of Old Europe (including Cucuteni culture): ''According to The American Geographical Union, "The transition to today's arid climate was not gradual, but occurred in two specific episodes. The first, which was less severe, occurred between 6,700 and 5,500 years ago. The second, which was brutal, lasted from 4,000 to 3,600 years ago. Summer temperatures increased sharply, and precipitation decreased, according to carbon-14 dating. This event devastated ancient civilizations and their socio-economic systems." ''