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Settlements
Trypillians created their first cities
in Europe between 5,400-4,000 BC. Their large settlements,
so called Trypillian proto-cities, had emerged around 4,200BC
and existed until 2,750BC. The largest cities presently known
to archeologists were located near towns Talianky (area close
to 450ga), Maidanetske (200ga), Dobrovody (250ga) and Nebelivka
(300ga) village in Cherkassy region. Some settlement areas
were originally determined and mapped from the air by magnetic
photography.
The largest Trypillian cities existed over
six thousand years ago. Their sizes amaze: they covered area
of hundreds hectares, they had thousands dwellings, the number
of inhabitants was over 10,000 or even 15,000 people, which
is much larger than ancient Babylon or Rome. Hard work and
continuous traditional relocations to new places required
strong organization of a community, collective efforts of
all its members. The cities were built with structural fortification
created by hundreds two- and even three-story buildings densely
attached one to another and formed as a ring surrounding the
city for protection of their inhabitants, probably more from
wild animals than human enemies. The population of cities
was engaged mainly in agricultural activity, but they had
specialized craftsmen like potters, black-smiths and weavers.
One of the most unique way-of-life of people
from Trypillian culture was their tradition to burn their
cities and relocate to new places. This tradition helped archaeologists
to discover Trypillian cities, because burned ceramic changes
its magnetic properties and can be detected with the help
of present day technology. Inside of this burned cities were
found hundreds of vessels, statuettes of people and animals,
tools, bones of animals and, sometimes, even burned people
among ruins. The discoverer of the Trypillian culture, V.
Khvoika considered these remains to be a "home of the
dead". Later, archaeologists tried to prove that it was
normal agricultural necessity to burn cities and move-on to
another land. But they could not answer the question - why
trypillians had to burn all good tools and animals? The secret
was not completely uncovered. The modern researches think
that we have to combine both points of view and they offer
the following explanation.
Trypillians lived at one place for some
time. The surrounding structures served them as houses, barns
or temples. But at a certain moment of time (we do not know
how this moment was determined) all structures were considered
to become a "habitation for dead" and they had to
be given as shelters to the souls of the ancestors. At this
moment trypillians burned everything to the ground. They burned
all their wonderful vessels, tools and even animals. Everything
was sacrificed to the spirits of their ancestors. Why trypillians
believed that it was necessary to burn all houses, complete
settlements, and move-on to another place, to new fields and
lands, to a new beginning, having left old fields to the ancestors
we may never know? But we know that for more than two thousands
years, during the existence of Trypillian civilization, from
the Carpathian Mountains to the Dnipro River, people kept
this tradition, this way-of-life.
Some researches consider that this custom
existed even before Trypillian culture, close to one thousand
years before, in the old pre-civilization of Balkan, the first
farmers of Europe. Maybe Trypillians brought this custom from
the Balkans to the territory of present day Ukraine and kept
it for thousands of years longer. One "cycle of life",
that starts with coming to a new place until complete burning
of the settlement and moving to another place, had approximately
60-80 years span.
For more info about specific Trypillian
settlements in Ukraine you can download PDF
file here to view with Acrobat
Reader.
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