GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XXITH CENTURY: «REDISCOVERY» OF THE CULTURAL COMPLEX PRECUCUTENI-CUCUTENI-TRYPILLIA

Abstract

Heading for a long time the department of archeology of the Eneolithic-Bronze Age, Vitalii Otroshchenko joined the issues related to the study of Trypillia culture. He has repeatedly participated in specialized scientific conferences, at which he repeatedly touched upon the study of Trypillia culture, criticizing myth-making and myth-makers who speculate on the basis of archaeology in general and Trypillia culture in particular. During this time, the staff of the department conducted a significant amount of archaeological research, published a large number of articles and monographs on the study of Trypillia culture.
 Application in the first decades of the XXI century, modern geophysical equipment and satellite imagery have led to another «rediscovery» of the world of ancient farmers with previously unknown to archaeologists details. New types of buildings, public buildings, traces of handicrafts, fortifications, planning and structure of settlements, histories of their construction — this is an approximate list of discoveries that not only changed the perception of ancient farmers, but also open new, exciting research horizons for decades to come. This review is devoted to the results of almost a decade of geophysical mapping of Cucuteni-Trypillia settlements in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine and consideration of their consequences.
 Archaeologists have not only expanded and refined their understanding of settlement planning, the number of buildings, and their size. A number of objects have been discovered that were previously little known or unknown to researchers. These are large public buildings and pottery kilns of previously unknown design. Also new was the fact that there were fortifications around large settlements, as well as the spread of fortifications in most small settlements.
 Due to the wide geography of research, which covered the territories of Romania, Moldova, Ukraine (including regions where magnetic imaging had not been conducted before), as well as a significant chronological range of monuments on which work was carried out, it became possible to compare settlement structures as in time and space. More accurate information on the number of buildings in the settlements made it possible to increase the probability of the results of paleodemographic and paleoeconomic calculations, in particular, to offer a new vision of the probable population of Trypillia protocities.
 Due to the opening of fortifications, a large number of large public buildings and craft complexes, new grounds for conclusions about the early processes of urbanization based on the settlements of the cultural complex Cucuteni-Trypillia, as part of the world of farmers of ancient Europe in V—IV millennium BC.