The Trypillians

The first homo sapiens on Ukrainian territory appeared about 40-12 thousand years ago. Their life was rather primitive and their major occupations were hunting and gathering, since they did not know how to grow food. The first communities that could grow food appeared on our land about 4000 BC. The best known of the early agrarian peoples on Ukrainian territory belonged to the so-called Trypillian culture, which originated along the Dnister, Dnieper, Buh, and Prut rivers. The name is derived from a small Ukrainian village (Trypillia) where the remnants of this culture were first discovered by archeologists.[1] Trypillians lived in large villages with as many as 600-700 inhabitants. Some settlements even had as many as 15,000-20,000 (Maidanetske in Cherkasy region). Many buildings had two floors and were decorated with pictures on the walls inside and outside. The windows were round. Each building had a sacrificial altar, oven, and stove bench. The buildings were built according to a plan. A typical Trypillian settlement had a huge square in the center and streets radiating from that square in all directions. The settlements did not have fortifications. Periodically Trypillians burnt their settlements and moved to other areas. Archeologists have found numerous artifacts of this culture: figures of women with enlarged genitals (apparently symbolizing fertility),[2] various tools, and remains of pottery with ornamentation.

Since Trypillians did not have a written language scholars cannot tell much about that culture. It remains mysterious. Trypillians lived not only on the territory of present-day Ukraine but also on the territory of present-day Moldova and Romania. Trypillians disappeared enigmatically about 2000 BC. They may have been assimilated by newcomers, pushed into other lands or killed. Some Ukrainian patriotic writers want to see Trypillians as proto-Ukrainians, but anthropologists say that Trypillians belonged to Semitic group, while Ukrainians are Slavs.[3]

Дата добавления: 2015-07-11