Adam Kirkor: the Discovery and First Research of Trypillia Sites in the Ukrainian Dnister Region

Abstract

It is well known that the Trypillia culture in Ukraine was singled out by Vincenc Chvojka (Vikentii Khvoika — in Ukrainian) based on his research in the Dnipro region at the end of the 19th century. However, a little earlier, the same sites were studied in Eastern Galicia, Dnister region, by Polish researchers: Adam Kirkor, Izydor Kopernicki, Władysław Przybysławski, and Gotfryd Ossowski. The territory, where Trypillian settlements were discovered, at that time, belonged to two empires — Russian and Austro-Hungarian, so the culture had different names in the Dnipro region and the Dnister region. In Galicia, they became known under the name of the Painted Pottery culture, whereas the sites in the Dnipro valley were called the Trypillia culture by V. Chvojka. Nowadays it is a cultural and historical community of Cucuteni-Trypillia culture. The first reports of the Trypillian antiquities discovery are dated to the 1820s, but full-fledged research had began in 1876 by the Krakow archaeologist Adam Kirkor. For five seasons (1876—1878, 1881, 1882), the researcher had been studying rocky and cave sites of the Dnister region; he collected fossils and fossil remains of animals. Adam had excavated the burials of the Globular Amphora culture and initiated the excavations of the barrows of the Early Scythian period in the Middle Dnister region. During the exploration, he examined several Trypillian settlements (Vasylkivtsi, Verkhniakivtsi, Horodnytsia, Zhabyntsi, Kozachchyna, Lychkivtsi, Lanivtsi, Sukhostav, Yabluniv) and the Verteba cave near Bilche-Zolote village. The researcher managed to record the positioning of the Trypillian dwellings’ remains in circles and straight lines. A. Kirkor interpreted these settlements as a burnt Pagan burial ground. The first Trypillia sites discovered in the Dnister region were associated with the periphery of ancient civilisation and the squares were interpreted as burnt cemeteries, which was a tribute to the scientific trends of that time. Such opinions are not surprising and are explained by the fact that the researchers encountered the Trypillian antiquities for the first time, and the ideas about their dating and purpose were quite conventional. The scholar had taken the materials he excavated during the trips, to Krakow. Today, these finds are kept in the Archaeological Museum of Krakow.