ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF CHYCHYRKOZIVKA

Abstract

The Trypillia settlement of Chychyrkozivka is located on a plateau of the right bank of the Shpolka river. Its borders are shaped by the creek from the west and Chychyrkoza river valley from the east.
 The settlement was discovered in 1904 by A. L. Dolynskyi. Small-scale excavations here were conducted by M. O. Makarenko in 1928. Widely known collection of surface materials comes from surveys of I. P. Girnyk. Air-photogrammetry of K. V. Shyshkin have shown that the structure of this settlement, which reached a size of nearly 250 ha, included ovals, semi-arcs and short parallel lines of the houses in the center. Excavations at this site directed by V. O. Kruts were conducted in 1984 by the Trypillia expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Ploschadka composed of several layers of burned daub, clay installation and pit were investigated. The house is reconstructed as wattle-and-daub dwelling with the first floor (soil surface), massive floor of the second storey (clay with organic admixture covered the wooden frame) and the floor of the ceiling.
 Pottery is represented by kitchen, storage and table vessels. Table ceramics is decorated with black monochromic painting. The main forms are the bowls, goblets, biconical vessels, pear-shaped vessels, amphorae, craters, pots and binocular-shaped vessels. The main ornamentation schemes are the comet-shaped, metopic, tangent, meandr-line, volute, scalloped and simplified-line schemes. The relatively high percentage of the meander-line scheme should be admitted.
 Analysis of the data makes possible to date this site to the second phase of Tomashivka local group of Western Trypillia culture, BIII stage.
 Along with the excavations of Trypillia objects, the kurgan of a diameter reaching c. 30 m and elevation of 0.8 m was excavated. The cenotaph-grave containing the vessel, which was broken in the remote past, and the collective burial of three people covered by the wooden construction and a layer of grass were investigated in the kurgan. The «central» and the «western» buried individuals (grave 1) were placed on their back. Legs were bent at the knees. The «eastern» buried (juvenile) was placed on his right side. Legs were pursed, and the left hand was stretched. The buried people were placed on mats. Also a layer of a brown color, the remains of ochre and chalk, as well as the fragments of charcoal near the legs, were traced. The grey-clay vessel discovered in the collective grave and the pot from cenotaph had an egg-shaped form. Their bottoms were slightly flattened, while the rims were turned outside. Flint flake and bone puncture were also found in the kurgan.
 Burials of the Middle Dnipro group of Yamna cultural complex are also known at other Trypillia mega-sites, including Maidanetske, Talianky and Dobrovody. Considering the fact that Chychyrkozivka is referred to the second phase of Tomashivka local group, the duration of a hiatus between the Trypillia settlement and Yamna burials could be estimated at c. 600—700 years.
 Yamna burials were spread between the Danube and Dnipro along with the lost of identity of Cucuteni-Trypillia population and the decline of this cultural complex.