ARCHAEOLOGY OF UKRAINE by YarosIav Pasternak, Ph. D.

formerly Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at the Ukrainian Theolo­gical Academy and the Ivan Franko-State-University of Lviv, lecturer in Central and Eastern European Archaeology at the Friedrich -Wil­helms University in Bonn, and Professor at the Ukrainian Free Uni­versity in Munich.

The aim of the “Archaeology of Ukraine” is to present, in a rigorous and objective manner, the history of development of material and spirit­ual culture of Ukraine within its ethnographic borders from pre-historic through early historic and early medieval times.

The History of Archaeological Research in Ukraine

Some archaeological research in Ukraine was started as early as 1633 by the Kievan Metropolitan Petro Mohyla in the grounds of the De- siatynna (Tithe) Church in Kiev but for many years following the Metro­politan’s initiative the only digging that was caried on was motivated by looting. Scientifically oriented excavation did not resume until the second half of the 18th century and systematic work only began at the end of that century in connection with the Greek colonies on the Black Sea coast of Ukraine.

The first archaeological museum was founded in 1809 in Mykolaiv and the first archaeological society in Odessa in 1839. After the 1917 rev­olution there was organized in Kiev the All-Ukrainian Archaeological Committee (1922-1933) which later was changed to the Institute of Hi­story of Material Culture (1934-1938) and renamed the Institute of Archaeology in 1938. Other centres of archaeological research were in Odessa, Kharkiv and Lviv.

The first research reports on the archaeology of Ukraine were published in the second decade of the 19th century, and by 1854 these appeared in almost a score of periodicals published in Kiev, Odessa, Lviv and other cities as well as in periodicals in Russia, Poland, Roumania and Hungary. About that time, too, the first larger monographs on the subject made their appearance.

The Physical Conditions of Life

Living conditions of the quaternary period differed in various parts of Europe. Of the four glacial stages, the first (Giinz) did not reach Eastern Europe. The second stage (Mindel) did not reach the northern borders of Ukraine. The run-off produced by the melting of the southern edges of the glacier cut wide river bottoms in Ukraine where the slimate was generally more temperate than it is today.

The third glacial stage (Riss) was the most extensive and the glacier moved along the Dnieper almost as far south as Dniepropetrovsk. South of the glacier there was alternate tundra and cold steppe with islands of birch forests. The climate was dry and sharply continental.

The last glaciation (Wiirm) did not reach the northern borders of Ukraine. Conditions for life improved considerably after the last glacier receded.

The Paleolithic Period

The first appearance of man in Ukraine is indentified with the Chellean period. The only habitation site of that period was discovered near the village of Luka Vrublivetska₁ half way down the Dniester river. It is very probable that the first human being, of the Heidelberg type, came from the area of present-day Turkey or Armenia along the coast between the Caucasus and the Black Sea. Habitations of Acheulian hunters of the mammoth have been in seven places along the Dnieper, the Dni­ester and in Crimea.

During the Mousterian period, which coinci^J^with the beginning of the Wiirm glaciation, the population of Ukraine grew significantly, as witnessed by more than 30 habitation sites in the basins of the Dniester, the Dnieper,, the Desna, the northern Donets, in the area of the Sea of Azov, and in Crimea. In the cave dwellings of Kiik-Koba and Starosilla m Crimea there were discovered burial places of human beings of the Neanderthal type which indicate the appereance of the first signs of religious thought and imagination among the inhabitants of Ukraine.

During the upper paleolithic period the territory of Ukraine was fairly densely settled, in terms of the conditions of those times, by people of the Cro-Magnon type who lived in durable, tent-like structures whose appearance is indicative of the beginnings of permanent settlements.

Hunting the mammoth and the bison continued to be the primary way of obtaining food. A distinct change came in the technique of making flint tools. These were now made from long splinters of flint sharpened by a retouching process.

Typical of the upper paleolithic period are first examples of the picture-making art and the appearance of cults with underlying concepts of magic. These are exemplified by plastic figurines of the female body made of soft stone or elephant tusks finished with great realistic detail. It is probably a fair inference that these portrayed woman-the-eternal- giver-of-life₁ and also served as fetish-patrons of a whole clan during magic ceremonies intended to invoke success in the hunt. There is no trace as yet of such figurines in Ukraine proper. Those that have been found came from the north eastern peripheries of Ukraine near Voronezh on the Don (Kostenki, Gagarino).

During the upper paleolithic period the settled territories of Ukra­ine increased considerably compared with the earlier paleolithic. Larger human settlements reached the line Rovno-Ovruch-Novhorod Siversky- Voronezh. During the Aurignacian-Solutrean period the most densely settled areas were the upper and middle Dniester and the basin of the up­per Prut. This has led some researchers to the opinion that the western Aurignacian is of eastern European i. e. Ukrainian origin. The author is of the opinion that during the upper paleolithic period the Ukrainian Aurignacian province, whose extreme limits of influence reached south­ern Muscovy, Bielorussia, eastern Poland, Moravia and Transylvania, was not the only one in Europe. There was certainly a French Aurignacian centre whose influence left traces in western Poland, and the third centre must have been in Asia Minor and generally in the Middle East.

The influence of the Danubian centre of Solutrean culture are characterized by separate blades in the form of a laurel leaf.

There are no traces in Ukraine of the truly Magdalenian culture as it appeared, for instance, in France.

The end of the epi-paleolithic phase of the paleolithic era is also noted for the family group burial places of southern Ukraine found near the village of Vasylivka and Voloske in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and the collection of shells, similar to the northern European “koken-mod- dinger”, excavated in the Ohrinsky peninsula in the Dnieper and in the Shan-Koba cave in Crimea.

MesoIithic Period

The Mesolithic population of Ukraine lived during the mild post­glacial period and gained its livelihood by hunting, fishing, and collection of fruit. The production of implements suited to these pursuits led to a further microlithisation of flint tools used as blades in bone and wooden harpoons and spears- Such implements were used in the older Tardenoise- an phase of the Mesolithic period. The habitations of Tardenoisean hunt­ers were almost without exception located on sand dunes. Most likely they consisted of a group of light tent-like structures which left no traces. There have been no discoveries of Mesolithic burial places on the sand dunes.

During the late mesolithic, and perhaps as late as the proto-neo­lithic culture which is called Campignian, there appear the first examples of unpolished flint axe-heads of the oval type, and later, hatchets of the Littorina type as well as chisel-like instruments (tranche). There are no signs of arrow heads.

An important find relating to the cultural history of southern Ukraine are the petroglyphs, drawings of animals in the caves of Kam- ianna Mohyla near the town of Melitopil in northern Tauria. The oldest of these go back to the mesolithic period. Many indentations on these petroglyphs, suggesting spear jabs, testify to magic rituals which took place in these caves in preparation for the hunt. Equally important is the habitation near Kamianna Mohyla with very early neolithic ceramics, which is the only one of its kind, together with the petroglyphs, discov­ered in Ukraine.

Neolithic Period

The neolithic population of Ukraine, as well as of Europe general­ly, consisted mainly of settled and relatively stable communities. In those areas that were fertile and forested the inhabitants engaged mainly in agriculture and cattle raising. In the steppe area cereal-growing and cattle-raising came considerably later than the neolithic period and even then it was not typical of steppe life. During this period the development of the craft of flint tool-making was followed by such domestic crafts as pottery-making and weaving.

The hand-moulded utensils were decorated with little holes or depressions or with carved lines which created even patterns of aesthetic or cultural significance. Each clan made these utensils only for its own use and each had its own unique forms and decorations.

In Ukraine there were essential differences between the southern steppes, the central and northern forested areas, and the western region. For anyone interested in mastering the history of the life and culture of the neolithic population of southern Ukraine, the most important source materials are the excavations of settlements on the Ohrinsky peninsula above the rapids on the Dnieper, where there are traces of tent-like structures and skeletal remains that indicate the use of red ochre- The early pottery has pointed bases and is decorated with line carvings and later types are flat-bottomed with comb-tooth markings.

North of the steppe areas of Ukraine the wide stretches between the Dniester and the western part of Podillia were densely settled by agri­cultural tribes during the neolithic period whose culture is called Try- pillian. They had a characteristic building style with fired clay floors. Preserved clay models of houses give a fairly detailed impression of what the internal arrangements were like.

The most characteristic feature of the Trypillian culture is the pottery. The richness of form, the audacity of its decorative, largely spiral, motifs, done in one or two colours (brown and white) on a red background, as well as its high technical proficiency, make it the finest example of the ceramic art of the whole of neolithic Europe.

Another example of Trypillian culture is its sculpture of female figures in clay for the cult of the godees of fertility and its ∣animal fig­ures which are found painted on certain kinds of pottery. The funeral ceremony of the Trypillians was bi-ritual, consisting of cremation and skeleton burial. Among the implements used by Trypillians we find first examples of metal tools, copper axes, awls and fish hooks. From the dens­ely populated Dniester basin the Trypillian spread out into Bessarabia (Petreny), Transylvania (Erosd) and into the Banat (Gumelnitza).

In the northern areas of Ukraine the neolithic population lived by hunting and fishing. It used pointed-bottom pottery decorated with impressions of comb teeth and rows of triangular pin-point indentations (comb-pricked ceramics).

At the beginning of the third millenium B. C. we find first signs of the advent of proto-Ugro-Finnic tribes towards the north-eastern corner of Ukraine. Their original home was the Baltic Sea shore and the northern and central part of modern Muscovy. Their places of habit­ation are identifiable by their egg-shaped pottery decorated with rows of little round depressions, comb-tooth impressions and marks made with a peg bound in string (pitted pottery).

In the western parts of Ukraine, specially Galicia and Volhynia, there was developing a neolithic culture of the Bug type of which the flint implements have been throughly studied, but little is known about its settlements and even less about burials. We only know that the neo­lithic people of western Ukraine were agricultural, lived in earthen huts and buried their dead in a crouched position. Their pottery was coarsely moulded and flat-bottomed.

The Eneolithic Period

This last phase of the neolithic era is characterized by stone, bone, and wooden implements in addition to a few, very scarce, imported ones in copper. Of the Trypillean settlements of this era the largest one was found near the village of Volodymyrivka in the valley of the southern Bug. Excavations have uncovered more than 200 dwellings, some above and some partly below the ground level, arranged in 5 concentric circles for greater safety, and occupying about one square kilometer. They had two rooms with characteristic cross-shaped sacrificial stands. The clay pottery is decorated with trough-like, monochromatic, and polychromatic ornaments. The best known Trypillian settlement — Kolomeyshchina — near the village of Khalepia in the Kiev region also had houses arrang­ed in concentric circles. In the funeral rites of the Trypillian tribes there is evidence of transition from burial to cremation.

In the southern steppe regions of Ukraine there appeared large tribal burial places (the village of Vownihy near Mariupil). On the left bank of the Dnieper near the rapids and near the Donets there have been uncovered many habitations and burial places of the period still with pointed bottom pottery. Somewhat later there are graves with crouched skeletons covered with red ochre which must have symbolized puryfying fire or was to be used for tatooing in the “next world”. Some skeletons are covered with anthropomorphic stone slabs. The pottery in these burial places is egg-shaped, decorated with impressions made by a peg covered with fine string.

In the western regions of Ukraine the technique of making flint tools was greatly developed and led to a lively trade with the Kiev area, the Baltic region and trans-Carpathia. In the trans-Carpathian area the eneolithic period is identified with cremation of the dead, and obsidian and imported copper articles.

The ethnic chart of western Ukrainian lands changed profoundly during the eneolithic period as a result of the migration of different tribes from the less fertile areas of central and northern Europe. The first of these came from the w^,est and brought with them a primitive spherical form of pottery decorated with linear-band ornaments. These were soon followed by stock-breeding Nordic tribes with funnel-shaped pottery and the first examples of stone battle axes. This was the begin­ning of “Drang nach Osten” which has continued to this day.

A subsequent wave of Nordic immigrants, related to the first, had the custom of burying their dead in stone cist-graves. These came from the sandy Baltic coastal areas and went as far as Bukovina. Later still another group of settlers came by the same route from central Europe with pottery decorated with cord impressions (Corded Ware). These settlers moved as far as the Dnieper area.

The first three groups did not leave any impressions upon the culture of the Western Ukraine population but the last one with the Corded Ware contributed to the development of two local cultural vari­ants in the early part of the subsequent bronze period.

Bronze Period

The basic ethnic component of Ukraine continued to be the agri­cultural Trypillian tribes, although their culture began to wane. The archeological finds of Trypillian remains appear in four separated areas, in eastern Volhynia, in Kiev, the Black Sea coast and the basin of the Dniester. The Volhynian group is represented by the habitations of the type found at Horodske in the Zhytomir area. The left bank of the Dnie­per apparently had settlements which practiced group cremation and one settlement was uncovered near Sofiyivka in the Borispil region. The Black Sea group is best represented by a settlement with remains of stone buildings and burial grounds surrounded by cromlechs of the Usa- tovo type near Odessa. One type of pottery pertaining to this era was mono-chromatic painted and another had cord impression decorations of the western type. In addition, there are examples of clay female fugurines of the Trypillian type as well as articles made of copper. The Dniester basin group of Trypillian remains of the bronze period is best represented by a settlement of potters in Koshylivtsi near the town of Zalishchyky and by skeletal remains of a subterranean burial ground in a cave at Zolote Bilche near Borshchiv.

With time the TrypilIian culture and its characteristic ceramics began to disappear. The reason apparently was that after 3000 years of existence it lost its life-force, and the fantasy of the creative, artistic, spirit began to die off, degenerate and come under foreign influence. 'Γhe material expression of culture underwent a change, particularly decorated pottery and complicated construction of wooden houses passed away; but the population remained essentially the same. The Trypillian tribes were agriculturists who do not leave their land easily, especially the black earth region which began to form in Ukraine during the height of the Trypillian culture. The people remained, but now under the foreign Scythian occupation of the subsequent period.

In the early bronze period representatives of western Ukrainian tribes with their Corded Ware began to penetrate into the areas of the central Dnieper and of the southern Bug. Some of them continued to preserve their own culture (the Stretivka group) and others fell under the cultural influence of the Steppe tribes who practiced grave burials (Hatne group). After crossing the Dnieper one section of these Corded Ware people turned northward, blended with the local tribes, and to­gether formed in the upper reaches of the Volga a culture of the Fatia- novo type. Another section moved along the left bank of the Dnieper in the direction of Crimea, the Kuban, and the northern Caucasian area, as is indicated by the discovery of corded pottery of the western type along these routes.

Generally speaking the Central-European wave of migratory corded pottery people spread among the autochtonous Trypillian population of Ukraine during the bronze period. The native population assimilated the new colonists and their culture, which is proof enough of the high level of development of the agricultural Trypillian tribes compared with migr­atory cattle-breading Corded Ware people.

The early bronze period in the lower Dnieper and the Kuban area reveals a whole series of settlements and grave-burial grounds as typ­ified by one in Michailivka in the Kherson. The buildings had stone foundations and the whole settlement was surrounded by two stone walls. The ceramics were decorated with impressions made by thin string wound around a peg and were moulded with round bottoms. In the two burial grounds in the Dniepropetrovsk area there were found remains of wooden wheels from two wheel-carts which are the best evidence of the use of animals for draft purposes in Ukraine as early as the 3rd millenium before Christ.

The most valuable remains that the steppe tribes have left behind were the'great burial grounds of tribal chiefs near the city of Maikop in the Kuban. These graves were equipped with gold and silver utensils. Similar graves were found along the whole of the upper reaches of the Kuban River.

In the early bronze era a change of population was taking place in the Steppe area of Ukraine- The broad stretch of territory between the Dnieper and the Volga was settled by new tribes which came from the eastern Mediterranean region by way of the Caucasus, and brought with them the custom of burying their dead in graves with catacombs. Res­earchers have differentiated a number of types of this kind of burial on the basis of the pottery finds. Typical of this group are bronze and bone hammer-headed pins for clothing.

Towards the end of the existence of the catacomb culture there appeared in Ukraine new cattle breeding tribes who buried their un­cremated dead in wooden hut-graves. They came from the area of the Volga and eventually occupied the whole steppe area on the left bank of the Dnieper. Their domestic practices were quite primitive, as indic­ated by the ceramics which consisted of only one simple type-

Toward the end of the bronze era (1200 to 800 B. C.) the first historical tribes, the Cimmerians, moved into southern Ukraine. They were most likely descendants of the catacomb-culture tribes. They left remains of habitations with houses partly below and partly above the surface of the ground, constructed on stone foundations, and cist-graves and more than 30 bronze treasures.

In the upper reaches of the Dniester and in western Volhynia remnants of the corded pottery tribes continued into the early bronze period. In the middle bronze period (1500 — 1200 B. C.) the Thracians began to expand across the Carpathians into the upper Dniester region, which led to the formation of the mixed culture of the Komariv type (village of Komariv near Halych) with skeletal and cremation burials.

In the trans-Carpathian region the local Dacian population atta­ined a high level of development in bronze manufacturing which was destined mainly for export into the Dniester basin area.

Towards the end of the bronze period new cultural forces reached Ukraine from the west. Under their influence the local agricultural population, the descendants of the Trypillian tribes with a small addit­ion of the corded pottery people, created in the basin of the southern Bug a culture of the Bilohrudivka type (named after a forest in the Uman area) with typical ash heaps and black smoothed ceramics.

In the rapids area of the Dnieper there are discoveries of labyr­inths in the form of rows of stone arranged in fantastic forms, connected with the sun worshipping cult. In the Crimea the only reminders of the forefathers of the Taurians are burial places using stone crypts and habitations described in archeology by the common name Kizil-Koba culture (the Kizil-Koba cave near Simferopol).

Scytho-Sarmatian Period (The Iron Age)

The western and central European division of the iron age into the Hallstatt (800 — 500 B. C.) and the La Tene (500 — 0 B. C.) periods is completely unsuitable for eastern Europe, especially for the Ukrainian territories, except perhaps for the western region which were closer to the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures. As far as the central and eastern areas of Ukraine are concerned it is better to divide the iron age into the pre-Scythian, the Scythian and the Sarmatian periods- Even so, the influences of the Hallstatt culture, which was dominant in Europe at that time, reached far into the eastern territories in the form of black smoothed pottery, metallic decorations and certain types of armaments. These influences are obvious in the basin of the middle Dnieper along its right shore, and go as far as the Sea of Azov and the northern areas of the Caucasus.

The best known and the most investigated pre-Scythian remains of the right bank Ukraine (along the right bank of the Dnieper) are the fortified settlements of the so-called Chornolisky type (named after the river Chornoliska), which dates to the 8th and the beginning of the 7th century B. C. There are examples of black smoothed pottery but no signs of articles made of iron. In the basin of the Dniester the pre-Scythian remains are exemplified by unfortified villages and burial grounds like the one at Luka Vrublivetska, still without any traces of the use of iron for domestic purposes.

The agricultural and stock-raising population of the left bank Ukr­aine, menaced by the Asiatic nomads, built their first fortified settlements in the pre-Scythian period. Among their cultural remains we also find imported black pottery of the Hallstatt type. At the same time, the stock- raising population of northern Caucasia created a separate bronze centre, and in the later bronze and the early iron period used artifacts which are typical of the so-called Koban type (Koban in northern Osetia).

The southern steppe regions of Ukraine were occupied by the Cim­merians during the pre-Scythian period. Their material culture has not been studied adequately so far and it is only by inference that the settlements and the burial grounds of the lower Dnieper and of the Sea of Azov are ascribed to them at the moment.

At the end of the 7th century B. C. there came into Ukraine from Iran, across the Don, a new nomadic horde known as the Scythians, who drove the former Cimmerian nomads into Asia Minor, subdued the east­ern group of the Thracian tribes, and forced one group of them, the Agathyrsi, to cross the Carpathians into Transylvania-

Of the habitations of the nomadic Scythians the most investigated one is a fortified settlement near the town of Kamianske on the lower Dnieper, which was their manufacturing centre and an important trading point. The most important information about the life and the spiritual and material culture of the Scythians comes from the excavation of the very rich burial barrows of the Royal Scythians at Solokha, Chortomlyk, Melitopil, Karagodevash, Kul-Oba and many others. The richest examples come from the lower Dnieper in the area of Nikopol and it is possible that this was the area of the Gerros tribe where, according to Herodotus, the Scythian tzars were buried.

Under the pressure of the new Iranian hordes of Sarmatians to­wards the end of the 3rd century B. C., the Scythians transferred their organized centre from the Kamianske fortification to Neapol near to­day’s Simferopol in Crimea- An important relic of that time is the fort­ified settlement called Scythian Neapol with its monumental mausoleum and the settlement of Kermen-Kyr. A seperate political creation known as little Scythia existed at that time in Dobrudja between the lower Da­nube and the Black Sea.

The local agricultural population, the “Boresthenists” of Herodo­tus, left for archeological investigation fortified and unfortified settl­ements dating from the 6th to the 3rd century B. C. in the lower areas of the Dnieper between the Dnieper and the Dniester, and generally along the shores of the Black Sea. The broad territories between the Dnieper and Dniester from the northern borders of the Steppe to the line Zhytomir-Kiev, were settled during the Scythian period by local pre-slavonic agricultural tribes whom Herodotus described as “scythians- plowmen”. They left many relics behind, especially large foritified settle­ments which date back to the 7th century B. C. and which were estab­lished because of the danger to the population presented by the real Scythian nomads.

The left shore part of the middle Dnieper area of the early Scytho- Sarmatian period (7th to 6th century B. C.) was also densely settled by agricultural tribes who left behind various fortified settlements, villages and burial places w^,ith mounds. They differed from contemporary right bank tribes by certain local examples of material culture and burial rites. Their connection with Olvia is evident from fragmentary remains of im­ported Greek pottery. Numerous fortified settlements in the basin of the river Vorsklo show a complete similarity in material culture with the tribes of the right bank of the Dnieper, which indicates that the coloni­zation of the left shores of the Dnieper was carried on by the inhabitants of the right shore. In contrast with the unfortified settlements of the 7th century, there appear fortified settlements at the beginning of the 6th century B. C. in view of the danger of Scythian attacks.

In the Pripiat area of Polessia there is a separate group of remains consisting of small fortifications and burial grounds dating from the 6th to the 3rd century B. C∙, with cremation as a burial rite. They are known in archeology by the name of Milohrad culture. The population was oc­cupied with agriculture and the making of iron and bronze artifacts for home use. East of them in the Chernyhiv Polessia along the middle of the Desna river lived tribes of fishermen related to the Ugro-Finnic tribes of Muscovy. The name Meliankhliayny of Herodotus has been applied to them. They had small fortified settlements of the Yukhnove type which existed from the 5th century B. C. to the 2nd or 3rd century

A. D.

Further to the south, along the lower reaches of the Desna and in the region of Kiev and Kaniv, other pre-slavonic tribes lived in the 5th to the 3rd century B. C. who occupied themselves with stock-breeding and the working of metals.

Sarmatian Remains

The Sarmatians, who were another Iranian tribe and came after the Scythians, apparently moved in as a result of the pressure of the other Iranian hordes from the east. From the end of the 2nd century

B. C. they took over domination of the southern Ukrainian steppe territory from the Scythians and held it for over a hundred years. The best known tribes among the Sarmatians were the Yazigs, Roxolians and the Alans. There are few archaeological remains of Sarmatian settlements and therefore little is known about them. Some of their burial grounds were discovered mainly in the Dniepropetrovsk area.

Greek Colonies in Southern Ukraine

The most thoroughly investigated group of archaeological remain in Ukraine are the ones of the ancient Greek colonial cities on the northern Black Sea coast and in Crimea- They were established between the 6th and 5th century B. C. by emigres from Greek colonies in Asia Minor, mainly from Miletus. The biggest among them were Olbia, Tyras, Tanais, Theodosia, Chersonesus and Panticapaeum. They were engaged mainly in trade and their trade articles followed ancient routes and reached as far as the Baltic Sea, Central Asia and India.

The Greek colonists brought with them their own language, reli­gion, and forms of community organization. Their autonomous city states ruled by the Archon undoubtedly played an important role in the history of the cultural development of the local population. The oldest Greek colony in southern Ukraine was created on the small island of Berezan near what is today the city of Ochakov. One of most important and largest colonies was Olbia (“Fortunate”) near the mouth of the southern Bug. It owes its reputation to numerous epigraphic materials and an unusually luxurious arrangement in its necropol and its market place (Agora), the first of such antique remains found in southern Ukraine.

On the southern shores of the Dnieper estuary there existed the colony of Tyras and in the Crimea the most important Greek colony was Chersonesus. Many colonies were started in the eastern part of Crimea (Panticapaeum, Theodosia, Nymphaeum and others) and on the opposite shores of the Bosporus in the Taman peninsula there were such towns as Phanagoria and Hermonassa. These were organized into a Bosporus king­dom about 480 B. C. They were famous for their manufacture of jewel­lery (Panticapaeum), the production of wine, cereal grains and fish (Ti- ritaka near Mirmekion) and ceramics (Panticapaeum, Nymphaeum and Phanagoria). There was also a separate settlement of Greco-Sarmatian peoples in the lower reaches of the Don.

During the Scythian times the mountain regions of Crimea were occupied by the Tauri, very likely a part of the Cimmerian group who, after the advance of the Scythians into the Ukrainian steppe, hid in the Crimean mountains. To them are assigned many settlement and burial grounds of the aforementioned Kizil-Koba culture.

The northern part of eastern Galicia and the adjoining parts of Volhynia were occupied by agricultural tribes known as the Neuri by He­rodotus and their Vysotske culture (the village of Vysotske near Brody) was influenced significantly by the Hallstatt and La Tene culture. Their burial practices were not quite clear but a predominant part was played by skeletal burial, without grave marks, rather than cremation. The settlement of the tribes with the Vysotske culture is hardly investigated at all. The Vysotske culture lasted from 800 B. C. ta O A. D.

During the Hallstatt period the territories occupied by the Vysots- ke tribes were being slowly infiltrated by Western pre-Slavonic tribes from across the northern Bug with the so-called Lausitz culture. They initially ocupied a narrow strip of the eastern shore line of the Bug river. Their expansion did not go beyond that point but their bronze implements penetrated far into eastern Volhynia of the Dnieper area. This does not provide a basis for supporting the contention that the Dnieper area was settled by western Slavs.

In the area of the upper Dniester local tribes with the Komariv culture lived during the Hallstatt period. The only thing known about them today is that they practiced cremation with barrow graves. The latest ones appear to date from the 6th century B. C.

A separate group of ⅛rchaeological remains of the early iron age was in Western Podillia. These are skeletal and cremation graves of the 6th to 2nd century B. C., which might be ascribed to the. Agathyrsi mentioned by Herodotus who were descendants of the Trypillian tribes in the central Ukrainian territories, whom Herodotus described as the Scythians-plowmen.

In the last century before Christ the upper Dniester area was occu­pied by well armed migrants belonging to the West-Slavic tribes of Ve- nedi whose culture was called the Perevorsk culture. Their presence in this area is deduced mainly from cremation burials without any grave barrows. Another group of western Slav migrants, or perhaps merchants, left behind them on the western Ukraine territories several cremation burials with stone cists of the Pomorzhe type- Simultaneously, Celtic migrants moved in from Silesia and Thracian merchants from trans- Carpathia. The latter left behind many bronze treasures.

The Trans-Carpathian region was settled in the last millenium before Christ by agricultural tribes with a culture named after the village of Kushtanovychi near the town of Berehiv. During the La Tene period there was an influx of Celtic tribes who came here through Slov­akia in a military-commercial expansion.

In general, archaeological research has shown that during the last millenium of the pre-Christian era, the life of the local agricul­tural population of all Ukrainian lands was always disturbed by in­vasions of Asiatic nomads (Scythians, Sarmatians) and western Euro­pean Celts, Venedi and Pomorzians, or by the coming of numerous Greek settlers from Asia Minor with their armed, merchant caravans. With the exception of the Greeks none of them had any significant influence on the development of the spiritual and material culture of the local popula­tion.

The Sarmato-Roman Period (I — IV A. D∙)

During the first centuries of the Christian era Ukraine established some contact with the provincial Roman culture through trade with the newly established Roman provinces of Dacia and lower Mezia as well as with Olbia and Tauria (Charax) which were occupied by the Roman legions. Greek historical sources, now reinforced by the Romans and their records, complemented by archaeological research evidence, help us to better explain the early historical period in Ukraine. At this point we can first speak concretely about proto-slavonic tribes.

The central Ukrainian territories continued to be settled by the descendants of the autochtonous agricultural tribes with Kiev as their centre. Of their archaeological remains the best researched are the broad cemeteries without high heaps, the so called urn fields. Their funeral rites were mixed; at first mainly cremation (Zarubyntsi type of 200 B. C. to 200 A. D.) and later, under the influence of the Sarmatians, more often skeletal (Cherniakhiv type 200 — 400 A. D.). Those of the latter type are usually ascribed to the Anti, a large group of proto-Ukrainian tribes well known to the historians (Jordanis, Prokopius from Caesarea).

In southern Ukraine the remnants of Scythian nomadic tribes were slowly disappearing during the first few hundred years of the Christian era. By then they had completely adopted a settled form of life and safe­guarded their settlements with stone walls against the attacks of the Sarmatians.

The great migrations of the nomadic Sarmatian tribes coincided with the first centuries of the Christian era. The Yazyhy had already moved into the basin of Tysa river, the Roxolians ocupied the land between the Dnieper and the Danube and in the middle of the first century A. D. the Alans came into the steppe region of Ukraine- The Sarmatian settlements have not been studied systematically as yet. Their burial practices, however, are known to have been skeletal, sometimes with artificially deformed skulls, in pits, sometimes with niches, under high mounds.

At the beginning of the 3rd century A. D. the Goths moved into Ukraine from northern Europe. They first destroyed several Greek col­onies and then under the leadership of Ermanaric organized a large tribal union as a defensive alliance against the Huns.

The Bosporus kingdom was a Roman protectorate and was ruled by the Rescuporis dynasty. Its general husbandry, industry and trade had a period of revival with centres in Panticapaeum, Phanagoria and Tanais. in the Azov-Don area there appeared a series of Greco-barbarian settlements with a centre at Nyzhnie-Hnylivske. Tanais was the centre of the Sarmatian tribes in the lower Don.

The most important Greek city in southern Ukraine during the first few centuries of the Christian era was the city of Olbia but after its destruction by the Geths only part of the city was rebuilt. A close rival of Olbia was Chersonesus in Crimea.

Almost a thousand years of the existence of Greek colonies on the northern shores of the Black Sea had a great influence upon the historical development of southern Ukraine, and as a result of its com­mercial connections it played an important role in the economic life of the whole of the eastern Mediterranean. Hybrid cultures of Greco-Scythian and Greco-Sarmatian origin developed in this part of Ukraine. These left behind outstanding examples of craftsmanship in the artistic field and production of articles and implements of daily use.

The Roman legions never had direct connections with the western Ukrainian territories and only Roman traders frequently went up the Dniester river, and migratory tribes moved through carrying with them a Romanized native culture. Most important among them were the Venedi, the forebearers of the western Slavs. Their burial grounds reveal examp­les of the ritual bending and distortion of weapons which indicate that they must have been war-like people-

At the beginning of the Christian era new immigrants from the southern proto-Slavonic tribes came up the Dniester. Their culture is known in archaeology as the Lypytsian. Ancient historians called them Geths, related to the Dacians, but the Byzantine historian Theophilactus Simokatta called them Slavs.

The first century following the Christian era may be regarded as historical times in Trans-Carpathia. In the first century A. D. this area very likely belonged to the great Dacian state of Burebistas and to his successor Decebalus but it did not become part of the later Roman province of Dacia- The local autochtonous population was Gethic. In the Marmarosh area many traces have been uncovered of old salt mines which were presumably developed by the Romans.

An important group of archaeological remains of the first century A. D. consists of articles imported from the Roman provinces. Most numerous among these are Roman dinars. These treasures tend to identify the principal routes of those days and are an important source of evidence that many entered into trade in Ukraine even in those early times.

The Early Slavonic Era (375 — 800 A. D.)

The early Slavonic period in the Ukraine coincided with the great migrations of peoples. This was initiated by the Turko-Mongolian horde of the Huns who, in 375 A. D., defeated the tribal union of the Goths and under the leadership of Atilla moved into the Danubian region- There is no evidence of their settlements and burial practices anywhere in Ukraine up to this moment.

The Alan remains of fortified settlements along the Caucasus and the Alan practice of burying in catacombs (Verkhny-Saltiv) and in stone crypts (Kerch) have been fairly thoroughly investigated.

At the beginning of the 6th century the Avars came into Ukraine and towards the end of that century crossed into the Trans-Danubian area and settled in Panonia. They too have left no archaeological remains in Ukraine. Finally, at the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th century came the Magyars. Each of these hordes spread devastation over the countryside, more so on the left bank of the Dnieper in the northern part of Ukraine than on the right side of the Dnieper.

This was the historical background against which the early Slav­onic agricultural tribes of Anty in Ukraine developed their socio-political organization and culture. Their settlements were unfortified and their graves were formed as urn fields. Some indication of their cults and rituals is given by three stone idols which have been uncovered in eastern Podillia (Ivankivtsi).

East of the Dnieper another group of early Slavonic relics was found in fortified settlements of the Romny type. Typical of these is pot­tery with somewhat primitive wavy ornamentation dating from the 8th to the IOth century.

The ancient Black Sea colonies of the Greeks were almost complet­ely destroyed and only Olbia is mentioned as late as the 6th century. Only Chersonesus in the Crimea escaped complete ruin and it represented an important commercial post for the Byzantine Empire. Several stone churches dating between the 4th and 9th century have been uncovered at this site. A separate group of remnants that go back to the migration of nations are the remains in Crimea of “cave cities” and monasteries, which indicate the great vitality of the new Christian faith in southern Ukraine over 100 years before it Officially become Christian.

The area of the upper Dniester (Bukovina and Bessarabia) has given us many examples of burial by cremation and of settlements from the 3rd to the 5th century. These are attributed to the descendants of the Geths who were the forebears of the Tivertsian tribe mentioned in the Chronicles. Another eastern Slavonic group left behind it in western Podillia examples of skeletal burials with pottery of the Cherniakhiv type. Archeological materials do not support the charge of the Chronicles that the Volhynian Duliby were “tortured” by the Avars. The concern must be here with the Czech Duliby-

There are few traces of the early Slavonic period uncovered to this date in the Trans-Carpathian region. Separate discoveries of items of jewellry, decorated with semi-precious stones, indicate commercial contacts with the Dnieper area.

An examination of the archaeological remains of the early Slavonic period raises a problem of the ethno-genesis of the Slavs generally and of the Ukrainian people in particular. When all the evidence is taken into consideration, as well as the research fidings of eastern and western Slavonic researchers, we come to these conclusions:

1. Both the eastern and western Slavs are truly autochtonous people on their historic territories.

2. Each developed on its own separate, yet culturally related, bases going back to very early times.

3. For the western Slavs this ethnic base was the agricultural tribes with the so-called spiral meander pottery.

The eastern or Ukrainian Slavs also developed on an ethnic base of agricultural tribes with the Trypillian culture, while the Muscovites rest on a base of namadic pre Ugro-Finnic tribes who were finally Slavicized under the influence of Kievan-Rus as well as the Sloviny tribe in the area of Lake Ilmen referred to in the Chronicles.

According to archaeological data, the boundary between these two eastern Slavonic peoples was established as far back as the neolithic period, and specifically follows the boundary between the black earth belt of Ukraine and the forest region of north-eastern Europe with few deviations. It separated the Ukrainian and the Muscovite people during the prehistoric and the early historic times and with minor deviation continues to separate the two peoples to this day. This separation is exemplified also in the anthropological type, in folk culture, in folk-lore, as well as in art.

Kievan-Rus (800 — 1340 A. D.)

The end of the first and the beginning of the second millenium of the Christian era is a purely Slavic era in Ukraine. Certain historical data about those times is already provided by the Kievan Chronicles of the Ilth century. On the basis of the tribes mentioned in the Chronicles it is possible to form a tentative ethnographic map of the medieval state of Kiev. This territory, during the height of its development, reached from the Carpathian mountains, the Black Sea and the Caucasus in the south, to the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in the north, from the rivers Vislok and Vistula in the west to the Volga and Caspian Sea in the east. Both in terms of territory and military power, this was the largest medieval state in Europe-

The core of Ukraine or the Kievan state was the middle Dnieper area, both geographically and economically centered at Kiev, and it has remained so to this day. The Dnieper area was the centre of political organization of the Ukrainian state until the time of its destruction by the Tartars in the middle of the 13th century, when, for another 100 years, the centre of state organization moved into the Halych-Volhynia kingdom.

The Kievan state was feudal in its organization, as were all the other European states of that time, the population consisting of privil­eged boyars, free inhabitants of the cities and villages, and the half free and half servile population that came under the authority of the boyars. Γhe Duke, who was the head of the State, maintained his authority by the stout arm of his household-guards (Druzhina); byt he was not an autocrat. At his side was the boyar Council in consultation with which he issued directives and made laws. The first codified law of Kievan-Rus was the ’’Ruska Fravda” which later was incorporated as an exemplary piece of law into the Lithuanian statutes of the Lithuanian-Rus state that followed the Tartar devastation. In exceptional cases, such as the election of a new Duke or a military expedition, the decisiive voice rested with a meeting of the whole population.

The most important archaeological remains of the time of Kievan- Rus are fortified settlements of which about 1300 have been uncovered in Ukraine. It is perhaps for this reason that the Scandinavians referred to Ukraine in their ancient nordic sagas as the “land of fortified settle­ments” (Gardariki). The fortified settlements were surrounded by vill­ages whose population occupied itself mainly with agriculture. The second most important pursuit was stock raising, but hunting, fishing and bee­keeping also played important roles. Various trades were highly develop­ed, especially in the cities, and through the combined efforts of these craftsmen the material culture of the Kievan-Kus period was raised to such a high level that it brought praise from contemporary foreign observers and attracted merchants and travellers from many countries of Europe and Asia. The trading centre of Ukraine was Kiev because it lay at the intersection of a number of international trade routes. Similar centres in western Ukraine were Volodymyr-Volynsky, Peremyshl and later Lviv.

The cultural development of Kievan-Rus, or Ukraine, proceeded in close contact with the cultures of the various European peoples of that time. It made its contribution to other cultures, and whatever it received from the cultural achievements of other peoples was creatively adapted to the local spirit and local needs to become an inseparable part of the cultural whole.

The pagan religion of Kievan-Rus was polytheistic with the God of Thunder — Perun — at the head of the pantheon. Statues and temples (Kapyshche) mainly made of wood, were dedicated to the various gods. After the official acceptance of Christianity in 988 the pagan temples were destroyed and replaced by churches (for example Tithe Church in Kiev) and the statues of the idols were cast into the rivers. It was because of this that the stone statue of the four-faced god Sviatovyt was recovered from the river Zbruch-

The introduction of Christianity had a great effect on the spiritual and material culture of Ukraine. The ancient outlooks and philosophies of life were slowly modified by Christian philosophy and by newer ethic­al values and concepts. In the hands of the Dukes, Christianity become a powerful force for the implementation of state plans and reforms, and the new religion tended to bind the Ukrainian tribes more closely into a single nation, raised in the popular mind the position of the Kievan Duke as the apostle of a new faith, lifted the spiritual level of the nation, and through the introduction of educational institutions made available for Ukraine all the cultural treasures of the classical and the western world.

The beginnings of education in Ukraine go back to the Greek colonists as well as the Roman legionaries and colonists, but it was only through the establishment of the Christian religion that the first solid foundations for popular education were established. The first Christian Dukes, Volodymyr the Great and Yaroslav the Wise, did a great deal to spread literacy among the people, and most of the schools were established under the control of the church authorities. Apart from language and religion the programme of instruction included history, geography and the theoretical concepts of natural sciences.

Literature had a significant part in the spiritual life of medieval Ukraine and it began in the form of translations from the Greek- The oldest known documents include the treaty between the Kievan Dukes Oleh and lhor, and Byzantium (907, 944 A. D.). The oldest preserved manuscript is the Ostromirov bible (1056 — 1057), two collections of. the writing of Sviatoslav Yaroslavich (1073 — 1076), a collection of the statutes of the “Ruska Pravda” in the form of a copy from the 13th cen­tury, the Kievan Chronicle in the form of a copy from the 14th century, and the heroic epic “Slovo î Polku Ihorya” a copy from the 18th century. Many texts of brilliant sermons have also been preserved, the best known of which are the works of Metropolitan Illarion “A Word About the Law and Grace” dating from the Ilth century.

In the field of art the Ducal period is specially noted for its architecture of a Byzantine-Ukrainian type with some Roman influences (Kiev, Chernyhiv and Halych). The best remains of the monumental type of architecture were to be found in Kiev and Chernyhiv, but after the destructive work of the Soviet Government few of them remain today. More notable among them are the St. Sophia Cathedral (Sophian Sobor) in Kiev and the Cathedral of the Saviour in Chernyhiv. The larg­est place of worship in the western territory of Ukraine was the Cathedral of the Assumption (Uspensky) dating from the middle of the 12th cent­ury in the royal city of Halych.

The most common forms of painting in medieval Ukraine were mosaics, frescos and icons, and miniatures as illuminations to hand­written books. The mosaics of St. Sophia in Kiev are of world renown and date back to the Ilth century. The most outstanding representation among these mosaics is the Virgin Mother (Oranta). By far the largest part of the walls of the Sobor is covered with frescos, and frescos and mosaics decorate the churches of all the other larger Ducal seats. Among the icons of the medieval period, of which about 400 have been preserved to this day, the oldest one is the icon of the Vyshhorod Mother of God with the Child which is today located in Moscow.

The Belz icon of the Mother of God, which is historically associa­ted with miracles, is now in Czestochowa in Poland. Of special signific­ance to the history of life, of architecture and of clothing, are 700 miniatures of the Konigsberg Chronicles which exists in copies of the 12th and 13th century originals. Examples of exceptional artistic achiev­ement have been preserved in metal craft decorated with different tech­niques (“skan”, “chern”, “zem”, filigree, enamel) in styles depicting plant life, animal life, and geometric patterns. A separate group con­sists of carvings in stone and bone and still others are pendant seals (Molibdobula), the metalic moulds for which were prepared by highly skilled craftsmen of miniature carving.

Burial Rites

Up to the advent of Christianity all the dead of the medieval period were cremated on a funeral pyre. They were equipped for their journey into “the other world” and above their remains a large barrow was heaped up. A dramatic description of this cremation funeral was given by the Arab historian, Ibn-Fadlan, who Witnissed such a funeral in 922 A. D. somewhere in the middle reaches of the Volga.

Perhaps the most elaborate cremation funeral in Ukraine, presum­ably that of a Duke of the IOth century, was discovered at the Chorna Mohyla in Chernihiv. After the official acceptance of Christianity the church forbade cremation in view of the concept of resurrection, and from then on the dead were buried in a Streched position with their heads to the west. At first they were covered by mounds of earth but soon there appeared flat graves without mounds where the dead lay side by side as in modern graveyards.

A third and most recent group of burials of the Ducal period con­sists of graves covered first by stone plates and then with earth. These existed in the upper reaches of the Dniester and in western Podillia. as far as is known, and the latest of these date from the 15th century.

The Capital Seats of The Dukes

Administrative, commercial and cultural centres of the various parts of Ukraine were at the same time the seats of the various auto­nomous Dukedoms that owed allegiance to the Grand Duke in Kiev. There were seven such centres at that time, the central one in Kiev, one in Chernyhiv, one in Pereyaslav on the left bank of the Dnieper, in Tmuto- rokan in the Sea of Azov area, one in Halych, one in Volhynia and one in Turovopinsk in the region of the Pripiat basin.

Archaeological excavations in these capital seats revealed monum­ental buildings, ducal burial places and the remains of ducal palaces, habitations of the local population and the workshops of the different tradesmen- Numerous treasures representing the work of goldsmiths, of which 51 were discovered in Kiev alone, indicate the wealth of the population and the high local development of the crafts, as well as com­mercial contacts with other countries. These commercial contacts seem to be most ancient in Kiev. From the very beginning of the Christian era it was an important commercial link on the Dnieper route, and between the 6th and 7th centuries it became the seat of Duke Kay who gave the city his name. The Kievan state was in the forefront of the development of spiritual culture of contemporary Europe. In spite of constant pressure from outside sources it was able for a long time to come out victorious, but in the end the one enemy, the Steppe hordes, that kept moving in wave after wave across the Asian “gateway of nations” finally destroyed the state. In spite of the fact that for several centuries Ukraine kept these hordes at bay and prevented their penetration into western Europe, it finally fell at the hands of the Mongols. Today it is only the discoveries of archaeology and the few remaining buildings of that period that bear witnees to its gloAous past. And thus we come to the end of the prehistoric and the early historic investigations in Ukraine and from here historical archaeology takes over.