Usatovo culture

Usatovo culture, 3500&mdash;3000 BC, an archaeological culture facing the Black sea between the mouths of the Bug River and the Danube in present-day Romania, Moldavia, and southern Ukraine.

It is seen as a hybrid, with roots in both the Cernavodă and the Tripolye cultures, overlain by an intrusive steppe-derived element of the Indo-European-speaking Kurgan culture. Metal artefacts are connected to contacts with the distant Caucusus.

It is seen as part of the "Balkan-Danubian complex" that stretches from Troy, the Danube valley up into the Elbe. In later times, the region is linguistically Dacian and Thracian.