Who Burned Trypillian Settlements — Herdsmen of the Steppe or Farmers of the Forest-Steppe?

Abstract

In 2023, Ukraine will celebrate the 130th anniversary of Trypillian culture discovery by Vikentii Khvoika. What has changed in the understanding of the heritage left by such a mysterious and unique Ukrainian archaeological cultures as Trypillia? One of the problems stating that the “sites” in terrestrial housings were not cult burial structures but the remnants of residential buildings was solved. However, in the 1970s, Soviet archaeologists had a bizarre fantasy offered by K. Zinkovskyi that Trypillian settlements had been burned not by conquerors – steppe herders – but by Trypillians themselves. This fantasy was confidently denied by such authoritative archaeologists as V. Petrov, V. Zbenovych, I. Sveshnikov, H. Todorova, M. Gimbutas, V. Dergachev. At the beginning of the 21st century, due to the creation of the state reserve “Trypillian Culture” in Cherkasy region, holding of more than ten “Trypillian Circle” festivals in Kyiv region, and introduction of a tourist route from Kyiv to Lviv, the Ukrainian interest in Trypillian culture as an Eneolithic civilization of farmers grew significantly. During this period, some archaeologists (N. Burdo, M. Videiko, V. Kruts, O. Korvin-Piotrovskyi) extracted from the archives the forgotten imagination of K. Zinkovskyi, gradually and methodically began to prove to their colleagues-archaeologists and Ukrainians that Trypillia farmers ritually burned their settlements. Archaeological sites, unfortunately, keep silent about rituals, but they can testify about those who conquered Trypillia and burned their settlements. In addition, M. Videiko believes that the melee weapons of the people of Trypillia are better than the bows and arrows of the steppe horsemen, while Trypillians also fought among themselves. D. Telegin and V. Dergachev refuted such versions in their research of Middle Stog herdsmen. But on the other hand, the situation is confused by Yu.Rassamakin, who unjustifiably replaces the well-known Middle Stog people with Skelians, Kvitiants, and Derevites, who did not seem to be at war, but traded with European farmers.Thus, in the Eneolithic history of independent Ukraine, artificial problems arose. The author, systematizing the interpretations of famous archaeologists and the experience of the post-Eneolithic epochs, tried to solve them in his article.