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Trypillian Civilization in the prehistory of
Europe
© Mykhailo Videiko
The ancient Symerians used to answer
the question "When was the World created ?" in the following way -
"When people began to eat bread and melt metall in the houses of our
country...". Of course, they meant their own Country. But what was
happening in Europe and Ukraine when "everything was just beginning
in Sumer?" Is it really true that here people were living in caves and
kurens, as they did in the Stone Age?
Archaeologists have discovered in Europe many
bright civilizations dating back to the period between 6000-3000 BC.
for the last hundred years. Among them you can find the following:
Vinca, Gumelnica, Cucuteni - Trypillia. Scientists have explored many
old settlements, some of them have got fortifications. Scientists have
found some traces of very old metallurgy, which flourished between
5000-4500 BC on the Balkans, graves with golden treasures, and clay
tables with inscriptions. These investigations have given an
opportunity to make the reconstruction of "Civilization of Old
Europe". The borders of this civilization ranged from Eastern Italy
to the Dnipro river, from the Carpathians to the Aegean and Black
Seas. But it seems, that 6000 years ago the East of Old Europe was
an unknown land, a far away frontier for the inhabitants of the Danube
river. The modern name of this far away land of Old Europe is
Ukraine. We can translate this name into English, as "purlieu", an
"outlying districts ". It was an enigmatic, rich and boundless
territory.
On the East, between the Carpathians and the
Dnipro, at the second part of the XIX-th century archaeologists also
discovered some ruins of the settlements, which existed between 5400
- 2700 BC. But who has left these ruins to us as heritage ? Today
archaeologists call them "Trypillians".
In the autumn of 1996, Vikenty Khvoika, an
archaeologist from Kiev, discovered some traces of this forgotten
civilization: hundreds of burnt houses with strange pottery and clay
figurines on the hills near the small town of Trypillia and nearby
villages: Veremia, Scherbanivka, Khalepia Staiky and others.
After one hundred years of intensive
investigations we know about thousands of Trypillia culture villages,
from the Chernivtsi domain (region) in the West to the Kiev domain
(region) in the East. More than 80 books and thousands of articles
have been written and published about "Trypillia archaeological
culture"/ Five generations of archaeologists (about 250 scientists
from 12 countries!) have explored Trypillia antiquities for more than
130 years. Many opinions and theories have been changed for this
period of time.
For example, according to V.Khvoika
Trypillians lived in earth-houses and kurens . Now archaeologists
have proved, that ancient people built comfortable houses (among them
- two-storied), monumental temples and fortifications. Among
Trypillia culture settlements scientists have discovered ... cities! .
Historical memory, impressed in Indo-European
languages, gives trustworthy evidences of the fact that the ancestors
of Europeans had a notion about cities between 4000-3000 BC It had
been long before the palaces on Crete and Golden Mycenaes were
built. But where are they, the ruins of the first European cities? If
they have not been discovered for hundred years of archaeological
investigations, may be it is only an old myth of Europe?
But it still possible at the end of the XX th
century to discover on the European continent gigantic cities, more
ancient, than the Egyptian pyramids. Discovering of proto-cities has
become one of the greatest explorations in the history of the Old
Europe civilization .
They were found only 30 years ago in the
Country, which is now called Ukraine. In the place, where the
Siniukha river separates the boundless Eurasian Steppes, cruelly
scorched by the Sun, from the green dales of the Forest- steppe, a
military topographer Konstantyn Shyshkinon discovered some traces of
large ancient settlements on the pictures made with the help of aerial
photography. They have an area from one to four square km. The first
reaction of archaeologists was somewhat sceptical, sometimes negative:
"it can not be so, because it is simply impossible".
But the first field investigations confirmed
this discovery. Carbon dates of these settlements were between 4200 -
2750 DC. So, more than one millennium of European urban civilization
history was opened.
Archaeological and archaeometry investigations
step by step half-opened this page of Prehistory. It was a large
problem to make the plans of such large settlements, buried under
the ground. It was impossible to dig them on such large territory.
Doing it demanded more than one hundred years of excavations of only
one settlement!
This problem was solved by Valerii Dudkin. In
1971-1974 he carried out magnetic survey at Maydanetske, on the area
about 180 hectares. It took him four seasons to make the plan on which
there were 1575 anomalies from burnt houses. All buildings were
detected to within 1 m. He continued this work in other places More
than 40 plans of Trypillian villages in Ukraine and Moldova, dated
before 5000-2750 BC. have been made for 20 years of investigations.
Among them there were seven proto-cities, by the way, Talianki, which
had an area of about 450 ha, was the largest in Europe (dated near
3700 - 3500BC). To receive such information by digging, archaeologists
would require about a millennium... Using these plans, Ukrainian
archaeologists explored more than 200 different objects and collected
much information about the Trypillia civilization and Trypillians.
The houses of Trypillia proto-cities were
built closely one to another, like terraced houses, making up at least
two lines of fortification. The first line occupied the center, and
the second one was at the distance equivalent to the flight of an
arrow from the first line. The scale is extremely impressive : the
elliptical form of the citadel of Maydanetz was 1 km long and that of
Tallyanki- 3,5 km long!
People, who created this ancient civilization,
mastered the leading technologies of the Copper Age : farming,
cattle-breeding, metallurgy. They had a great amount of good soils,
which gave them the possibility to change places of settling every
50-80 years. They had good knowledge of agriculture and adapted it to
the local conditions. It is interesting, that some of this husbandry
models outlasted Trypillians, were used in the Bronze and Early Iron
Ages , and survived till the Middle Ages in Ukraine.
Trypillian achievements at crafts really
impress and surprise, especially in metallurgy and pottery
producing. The level of skills in copper casting and forging in most
parameters are equal to the contemporary knowledge. Trypillians used
potters wheel and two-tiered furnaces. Their painted pottery have
fresh colours after 6000 years staying underground.
The beauty of Trypillia culture lies in its
pottery and clay sculpture perfection of which cannot but impress
you. The pottery used to be fired in two-tiered furnaces, then the
things were painted, carved and encrusted. The whole world outlook of
the prehistoric farmers was expressed in the ornament : the Land and
Underground World, the Sky, the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, the Plants,
Animals and People. The ancient paintings speak to us from the depth
of the centuries in the forgotten language many of their creators
once adressed gods, now forgotten. Only they, old gods of Europeans
understood this language of symbols and signs. Observant people can
see complete "texts" composed in ornaments: it is raining, the grain
is falling on the ground, it is sprouting...
The Trypillia plastic arts, namely portraits,
are unique masrerpieces. Through 55 centuries we are looked at by
women - old and young, with narrow or broad faces and sophisticated
haircuts; by solemn men, with beards and shaven heads, big noses and
wide-spread eyes.
Trypillians built comfortable two-storied
houses. They lived on the upper floor, the ground floor was used in
household aims.
Several clay models of Trypillian houses and
temples have been found, which help to reconstruct (reproduce)
ancient architecture. An interesting collection of clay temples has
been collected by Sergej Platonov of late. Literally, these finds
corrected our notion about prehistoric architecture of Old Europe
between 4200-3500 BC.
One of them represented rectangular in plan
building on platform, based on six strong pillars. The roof of the
temple is semicircular, frontons are decorated with a crescent, which
is similar to bull (or cow?) horns. The entrance to the temple is
represented as an arc, decorated with five images of crescents. The
walls are decorated with antropomorphous pillars and spiral snake
symbols. The model was covered by red paint, and an incised ornament
was enchased with white paint. On other models roofs were painted, it
looks like they were covered by rush floor-mates
An attempt to find analogies to such temples
has given unexpected data. At the times of Trypillia culture the
nearest region with similar rush-temples was located at Southern
Mesopotamia. The remains of such houses were explored at El'Ubaid and
have been known on the seals since the Uruk period (3900-3100BC). This
temples are related with Nintur, incarnation of Ninkhursag, one of the
most powerful goddesses of Sumer. In Southern Iraq such houses exist
at present time. It is an interesting question, how and where
Trypillians acquainted with the traditions of Sumer, their temples
and deities...
Some other features of the civilization are
the appearance and using of writing. Developed sign system, created by
Trypillians, was the step to the creation of writing. Some from more
than 300 signs (adout 12%), according to Taras Tkachuk, are similar to
Sumerian: "star", "plant", "house". Trypillians used clay tokens -
the same, as in Mesopotamia. But since 3500-3300 BC Trypillian World
fell into decay, and the process of writing invention was interrupted.
Only a step had to be taken by Old Europe to create their own system
of a written language.
Not only these inventions, but proto-cities,
technological "know-how", religious and cultural heritage were
abandoned after 3300- 3200 BC. The crisis of the economic system,
caused by the global ecological changes on the urge of the IY - III
th Mills BC led to collapse of the last great civilization of European
Eneolithe. The potential of Trypillia civilization ( and Old Europe on
the whole)) were not realized at this time.
The Trypillians reached their achievements
due to their own hard work, mind and the resources of a very rich
and plentiful country, now called Ukraine. They were the first to
prove that people could build high civilization and good life here by
their own hands.
Now Trypilian heritage is being explored by
scientists from many countries. Rich archaeological collections have
been exhibited now at museums and exist at universities, research
institutes and private collections. The greatest treasures have been
collected in Kiev, at National Historical museum and Archaeological
museum of the Institute of Archaeology (the National Academy of
Sciences of Ukraine). Here we can see beautiful Trypillian pottery,
clay figurines, clay models of houses and temples. More than in 30
museums at Ukraine - in Lviv, Odessa, Vinnytsya, Cherkassy and other
places the finds from Trypillya culture are exhibited. Trypillian
collections are now in museums of Poland (Krakow, Warsaw, Poznan ),
Russia (St. Petersburg, Moscow), Great Britain (London), Austria
(Vienna).
In Ukraine museums and places of ancient
settlements and archaeological excavations on the Dnipro, Southern
Bug, Dnister rivers attract many tourists. A museum and a monument to
Vikentij Khvoika were opened in the village of Trypillia, on the
Dnipro river. Some years ago it became possible to visit Verteba cave
(the Ternopil region), in which Trypillians lived for more than 1000
years. Archaeological excavations, which started here in the XIX
century, were continued by Mykhailo Sokhatsky, director of the
Borschiv museum. Hundreds of painted vessels and clay figurines have
been found in the cave labyrinth .
The more you discover about the Trypillia
civilization the more it fascinates and attracts your attention . It
still holds many secrets, but one thing is clear enough - the history
of civilization here began at the time, when people learned to bake
bread and melt metall on the land, now called Ukraine.
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