The Trypillia culture flourished in western/central Ukraine, Moldova and eastern Romania for over two millennia from the end of the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age (5400-2700 BCE).
The Trypillia culture is a Neolithic European culture that arose in Ukraine between the Seret and Bug rivers, with extensions south into modern-day Romania and Moldova and east to the Dnieper River, in the 5th millennium BCE.
Also known as the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, it is characterized by advanced agriculture, developed metallurgy, pottery-making, sophisticated architecture and social organization.
Trypillian society was matriarchal, with women heading the household, doing agricultural work, and manufacturing pottery, textiles and clothing. Hunting, keeping domestic animals and making tools were the responsibilities of the men.
“Between c. 4200 and 3600 BCE, the so-called Trypillia mega-sites were established on the northern limits of the Pontic Steppe,” said Dr. Robert Hofmann and his colleagues from the University of Kiel.
“With sizes of up to 320 ha and around 10,000 inhabitants, they are among the largest prehistoric communities in Europe.”
“These settlements were built in a partially open forest-steppe landscape with very fertile loess-based soils.”
“They were agricultural settlements inhabited all year round, with an economy based on the cultivation of cereals and pulses and on intensive and extensive animal husbandry centred on cattle.”
To explore changing levels of inequality across the three geographical regions of the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, the archaeologists used variability in the sizes of 7,000 houses at 38 settlements.
“We assume that the new social organisation of the mega-sites enabled the population to actively participate in political decision-making processes,” Dr. Hofmann explained.
“Such a reformist character at the time could have been the trigger for the enormous appeal of these settlements, as a result of which a large…
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