Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T07:48:06.768Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Settlement and economy in Neolithic Ukraine: a new chronology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

D. Ya. Telegin
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Geroiev Stalingrada street., 12, Kyiv, Ukraine (Email: ira@iarh.Kiev.ua)
M. Lillie
Affiliation:
Wetland Archaeology & Environments Research Centre, Department of Geography, University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX UK (Email: M.C.Lillie@hull.ac.uk)
I. D. Potekhina
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Geroiev Stalingrada street., 12, Kyiv, Ukraine (Email: ira@iarh.Kiev.ua)
M. M. Kovaliukh
Affiliation:
State Scientific Center of Environmental Radiogeochemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Palladin av., 34a, Kyiv, Ukraine (Email: kyiv14c@radgeo.freenet.kiev.ua)

Abstract

The authors use their revised chronology for the Mariupol-type cemeteries (presented in Antiquity 76: 356-63 (2002)) to offer a new sequence for Neolithic settlement and economy in Ukraine. They find that the transition to the Neolithic began about 6500 cal BC, but co-existed with Mesolithic communities for a further millennium. In about 4500 cal BC early copper age cultures appeared, which in turn coexisted with the Neolithic in neighbouring areas. Co-existent cultures are defined in terms of their artefacts, subsistence strategies, burial practice and physical types. The Mariupol-type cemeteries seem to have had their origins in the late Mesolithic and endured into the Copper Age, a period of more than two thousand years (c. 6500–4000 cal BC).

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Belanovskaia, T.D. 1995. From the oldest periods of the Lower Don River. Saint-Petersburg. (In Russian). p.378.Google Scholar
Bibikova, V.I. 1963. From the history of Holocene fauna of the past. Kiev: Naukova Dumka. (In Russian).Google Scholar
Burdo, I.B. & Kovaliukh, M.M.. 1998. New data on absolute dating of Tripolie. Archaeological discoveries in Ukraine. 60–1. (In Ukrainian)Google Scholar
Burdo, N.B. & Videiko, M.Ju.. 1998. Fundamentals of Trypillia Kukuteni chronology. Archaeology 2: 1729.Google Scholar
Chernysh, E.K. 1982. Eneolith of Right Bank Ukraine and Moldavia, in Eneolith of USSR pp. 177212 Google Scholar
Dolukhanov, P.M. 1979. Ecology and Economy in Neolithic Eastern Europe. london: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Dolukhanov, P.M. & Khotinskiy, N.A.. 1984. Human cultures and the Natural Environment in the uSSR during the Mesolithic and Neolithic. In Velichko, A.A. (ed.) Late Quaternary Environments of the Soviet Union. Minneapolis: university of Minnesota Press. pp. 319–27.Google Scholar
Formozov, A.A. 1972. On the history of the most ancient cattle-breeders in the South of the USSR. Proceedings of Moscow Society of Researchers of Nature. Moscow. pp. 1925. (In Russian)Google Scholar
Gardawski, F. 1958. Zagadnienie kultury ceramiki grzebykowej w Polsxe. Wiadomsti archeologizni 25: 41–7.Google Scholar
Gorsdorf, J. & Bajadzier, J.. Zur absoluten chronologie der Bulgarischen urgeschichbe. Eurasia antique 2: 105–73Google Scholar
Jacobs, K. 1993. Human Postcranial Variation in the ukrainian Mesolithic-Neolithic. Current Anthropology 34: 311–24.Google Scholar
Gorsdorf, J. 1994. Human Dento-Gnathic Metric Variation in Mesolithic/Neolithic ukraine: Possible Evidence of Demic Diffusion in the Dnieper Rapids Region. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 95: 126.Google Scholar
Jacobs, K. Wyman, J.M. & Meiklejohn, C.. 1996. Pitfalls in the Search for Ethnic Origins: a cautionary tale regarding the construction of “anthropological types” in pre-Indo-European Northeast Europe. In Jones-Bley, K. and Huld, M.E. (eds.) The Indo-Europeanization of Northern Europe. washington: Institute for the study of Man. pp. 285305.Google Scholar
Konduktorova, T.S. 1978. Anthropological type of the Global amphore culture in ukraine. Problems in Anthropology 60: 5269.Google Scholar
Kovaliukh, M.M. & Tuboltsev, O.V.. 1998. First radiocarbon dates for the surska culture. Archaeological discoveries in Ukraine: 8081 (in ukrainian)Google Scholar
Krainov, D.A. 1957. On the question of the origin of cattle-breeding in the Crimea in post-Paleolithic period. Soviet Archaeology 2: 325, (in Russian)Google Scholar
Krizheskaya, L. 1998. The Rise of Farming in the Northern Steppe Zone of the Black Sea. In Zvelebil, M., Domanska, L. and Dennell, R. (eds.) Harvesting the Sea, Farming the Forest: The Emergence of Neolithic Societies in the Baltic Region. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. pp. 245–52.Google Scholar
Kruts, S.I. 1972. Population of the Ukrainian territory in the Copper-Bronze Ages. Kiev: Naukova Dumka. p.139.Google Scholar
Kulczycka-Leciejewiczowa, A. 1979. Pierwsze spoleczenstwa rolnicze na ziemiach polskich kultur kregu naddunajskiego. In Prahistoria Ziem Polskich (vol. 2): Neolit. wroclaw-Warszawa-Kraków-Gdansk. pp19164, esp. pp. 44–95.Google Scholar
Lillie, M.C. 1998a. The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in ukraine: new radiocarbon determinations for the cemeteries of the Dnieper Rapids region. Antiquity 72: 184–88.Google Scholar
Lillie, M.C. 1998b. Cranial surgery dates back to Mesolithic. Nature 391: 854.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lillie, M.C. 1998c. The Dnieper Rapids Region of Ukraine: A Consideration of Chronology, Dental Pathology and Diet at the Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition. Sheffield university: unpublished PhD Thesis.Google Scholar
Markevich, V.I. 1974. Bugo-Dnestrovskaya kultura na territorii Moldavii. Kishinev.Google Scholar
Movsha, T.G. 1984. Chronology of Tripolie-Kukuten and steppe cultures of the Early Metal Age in its system. In Problems of Archaeology of Podnieprovie region. Dniepropetrovsk. pp. 6083, (in Russian).Google Scholar
Okhrimenko, G.V. 1993. Neolithic period in Volyn’ region. Lutsk. pp. 4779 (in ukrainian).Google Scholar
Peleshchishyn, M.A. 1998. Excavations in Vynnyky near Lviv in 1997–1998. Archaeological discoveries in Ukraine 1997–1998. pp. 124125.Google Scholar
Potekhina, I.D. (n.d.). Neolithic and Early Eneolithic Populations of Ukraine According to the Anthropological Data (the end of the V-the beginning of the III millennia BC). Manuscript.Google Scholar
Potekhina, I.D. 1998. Ancient North Europeans in the Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition of southeast Europe. in Zvelebil, M., Domanska, L. and Dennell, R. (eds.) Harvesting the Sea, Farming the Forest: The Emergence of Neolithic Societies in the Baltic Region. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. pp. 65–9.Google Scholar
Potekhina, I.D. 1999. Population of Ukraine in the Neolithic and Early Neolithic Stage by anthropological data, Kiev: Naukova Dumka. pp. 68, 159, 160.Google Scholar
Sveshnikov, I.K. 1974. History of the population of Peredkarpattia, Podillia and Volyn regions in the end of the IIIrd – begin of the Ilnd millennia BC. Kiev: Naukova Dumka, p.158.Google Scholar
Telegin, D.YA. 1973. Serednestogivska Kultura Epokhi Midi. Kiev.Google Scholar
Telegin, D.YA. 1977. On formation of cattle-breeding and agriculture in the south-west of the European part of the USSR. Archaeology 21: 1726. (in ukrainian).Google Scholar
Telegin, D.YA. 1985. Seredniostogivska culture of Copper stage. Kiev: Naukova Dumka. pp. 118130.Google Scholar
Telegin, D.YA. & Titova, E.N.. 1998. Settlements of Neolithic stage Dnipro-Donetz etnocultural community. Kiev: Naukova Dumka, pp. 521.Google Scholar
Telegin, D.YA., Potekhina, I.D., Lillie, M.C. & Kovaliukh, M.M.. 2002. The chronology of the Mariupol-Type Cemeteries of ukraine re-visited. Antiquity 76: 356–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tringham, R. 1969. Animal domestication in the Neolithic cultures of the south-west part of the European USSR. In Ucko, J. & Dimbleby, G.W. (eds.) 1969. The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals. London: Duchworth. pp. 381–92.Google Scholar
Tringham, R. 1971. Hunters, Fishers and Farmers of Eastern Europe, 6000–3000 BC. London: Hutchinson university Library.Google Scholar
Tsalkin, V.I. 1970. The Oldest Domestic Animals of Eastern Europe. Moscow: Nauka Press.Google Scholar
Tsvek, O.V. 1985. Specific features of formation of the Eastern region of Trypillia-kukuteni community. Archaeology 51.Google Scholar
Videiko, M.Yu. & Kovaliukh, M.M.. 1998. Isotopic dating of Bug-Dniester culture monuments. Archaeological discoveries in Ukraine. pp. 6566. (in Ukrainian).Google Scholar
Yanushevich, Z.V. & Markevich, V.I.. 1970. Archaeological finds of cultured crops in ancient settlements of the Prut-Dniester Interfluve. In Introduction of cultured plants. Kishinev. pp. 2933. (in Russian).Google Scholar
Zahkarchuk, Ju.M. 1959. On question of correlation and relations between funnel beaker and Trypilla culture. In Materials and studies of archaeological monuments in Volyn, Kiev: Naukova Dumka. vol. 2: 5491.Google Scholar
Zvelebil, M. 1995. Hunting, Gathering, or Husbandry? Management of food resources by the late Mesolithic communities of temperate Europe. MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology 12: 79104 (supplement).Google Scholar
Zvelebil, M. & Dolukhanov, P.. 1991. The Transition to Farming in Eastern and Northern Europe. Journal of World Prehistory 5: 233–78.Google Scholar