ENEOLITHISATION FROM THE STEPPES. A CASE STUDY ON VOLHYNIA

Abstract

The aim of the article is to formulate a hypothesis explaining the chronology and genesis of the Lublin-Volhynian Culture, with particular emphasis on such important elements of this culture as the white painting of pottery, the use of trough retouch, and the deposition of flint daggers retouched in this way in the graves of some men. At the same time, two different Eneolithisation processes are reconstructed: from the east (with flint daggers) and from the south-west (with copper metallurgy). It has been pointed out that adaptation of the cultural elements mentioned above must have taken place no later than 4100 BC. The most likely place where this happened was the basin of the upper Styr and Horyn in Volhynia. From about 4400 BC, the area was inhabited by representatives of the late phase of the Malice Culture. This community exploited local deposits of excellent-quality Volhynian flint and supplied it to the population of the Tiszapolgár Culture on the upper Tisza and Bodrog rivers. Processes fuelling cultural heterogeneity were taking place in Volhynia. In some grave complexes, there are elements of the Malice, Trypillia, and Polgar cultures. Heterogenisation and cultural hybridisation fostered the emergence of new cultural units. The emergence of the Lublin-Volhynian Culture was impacted decisively by the Skelya Culture, which instilled among the late-Malice people the ideas of hierarchisation of local communities and the rise of the elites (a group of male warriors, distinguished by the possession of blade-daggers).