Testing scale-dependent temporal and spatial biases in relative chronology using AMS 14C dating: A case study of Early–Middle Cucuteni-Tripolye sites in Southeastern Europe

Abstract

Aiming at developing a syncretic chronology for Eneolithic sites in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine, this paper tests the hypothesis that relative material culture sequences will be preserved within lower-order taxonomic units and collapse within higher-order units. We examine relative sequences for sub-groups of the Cucuteni-Tripolye cultural complex (ca. 5050–2950 BCE) using Bayesian sequencing of extant and newly obtained radiocarbon dates. The traditional archaeological perspective holds that the space-time expansion of this cultural complex occurred in rapidly disseminated horizons, with little cross-regional variability in dating. Absolute dating efforts from the 1960s–2000s did little to clarify the situation, especially in the upper section of the Dniester river valley in Ukraine, where numerous older radiometric 14C dates present an improbably early chronology for sites of the Early and early Middle Tripolye periods (Tripolye A and BI). Here we present 21 new AMS 14C dates from early settlements in Southwestern Ukraine and Moldova, with results dating to the latter half of the fifth millennium and the beginning of the fourth millennium BCE. Eschewing the concept of monolithic horizons, we compile both old and new data into regionally distinct sequences, enabling a more nuanced examination of material synchronization and cross-regional settlement dynamics.