The Trypilyan 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 BC).
Re-creation of the Maidanetske Giants settlement in Tripoli, Ukraine. Image by Kenny Arne Lang Antonsen / CC BY-SA 4.0.
of Tripilian culture Neolithic European culture, Happened In the 5th millennium BC, it extended from the Seret and Bug rivers in Ukraine south to present-day Romania and Moldova, and east to the Dnieper River.
Also known as the Cucuteni-Trypillarian culture, it was characterized by advanced agriculture, advanced metallurgy, pottery making, sophisticated architecture and social organization.
Tripoli society was matrilineal, with women heading the household and working in agriculture, pottery, weaving and clothing production, while hunting, livestock rearing and tool making were the responsibilities of men.
“Around 4200-3600 BC the so-called huge site of Trypilia was established at the northern limit of the Pontic steppe,” said Dr Robert Hoffmann from the University of Kiel and his colleagues.
“With an area of up to 320 hectares and around 10,000 inhabitants, it is one of the largest prehistoric settlements in Europe.”
“These settlements were established in partly open forest-steppe areas with very fertile loess soils.”
“They were agricultural settlements inhabited all year round, with an economy based on cereal and legume cultivation and intensive, large-scale livestock farming, primarily cattle.”
Distribution of Tripilian sites surveyed by region, with sample size and Gini coefficient. Image courtesy of Hoffman. others., doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.18.
Archaeologists used variation in the size of 7,000 houses in 38 settlements to explore changing levels of inequality in three geographic regions of the Cucuteni-Trypillarian culture.
“We believe that the new social organization of the mega-institution allows residents to actively participate in the political decision-making process,” Dr. Hoffman explained.
“Such reformist nature at the time may have been the catalyst for the great attraction of these settlements, resulting in many people joining these communities.”
“We took advantage of the variation in house size in 38 settlements in Tripilia and used the Gini coefficient to calculate how the level of inequality changed in the three geographical regions over a 2000-year period,” said Dr Nils Müller-Schösel, an archaeologist at the University of Kiel.
“Our analysis shows that there was little change in the size of houses between 4300 and 3800 BC.”
“We can infer low levels of social inequality at the megalithic site of Trypillia between 4300 and 3800 BC.”
“The Tripilian community must have had effective mechanisms to prevent social inequalities,” said Professor Johannes Müller of Kiel University.
“This could have included mechanisms for balancing interests and redistributing surpluses.”
“The development of differences in house size and political institutions suggests that opportunities for participation in political decision-making processes deteriorated over time and that the original egalitarian principles of the settlement founders were gradually abandoned.”
“The result has been widening social inequalities and widening gaps in prosperity.”
“In our opinion, this was a crucial factor in the subsequent gradual disappearance of the large megasites,” Dr Hoffman said.
“The phenomenon of megasites is part of a series of historical cases that show that increasing social complexity does not necessarily go hand in hand with increasing vertical social differentiation.”
“Rather, the emergence and collapse of these large settlements was based on democratic political decisions made by the individuals and communities who lived there and ultimately decided to leave.”
Team work Published in the April 2024 issue Ancient.
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Robert Hoffman others2024. The Tripiglia megasite: a social equalizing concept? Ancient 98(398):380-400; Source: 10.15184/aqy.2024.18
Source: www.sci.news
