Prehistory of Ukraine (Prehistoric Archaeology)

У статті вводяться до наукового обігу археологічні матеріали, виявлені в 2018 р. на території с. Студенець Канівського р-ну Черкаської обл. При прокопуванні траншеї водогону по вулиці Бучацькій випадково натрапили на археологічний об’єкт скіфського часу — скупчення керамічних посудин. Ця знахідка, а також поверхневі збори вказують на існування тут поселення доби раннього заліза.

The radiocarbon dating of pottery corrects traditional views on a periodization of the Bug-Dniester culture and its synchronization with some neighboring cultures. It eliminates a part of contradictions between series of the dates made earlier on bone and antler samples.
Published in: A. Mazurkevich, M. Polkovnikova,  E. Dolbunova (eds.), Archaeology of lake settlements IV–II mill. BC: Chronology of cultures, environment and palaeoclimatic rhythms. - Saint-Petersburg, 2014. - P. 50-54.

for SUMMARY and CONTENTS IN ENGLISH see PP. 345-357.

У монографії розглядається широке коло питань, пов’язаних із перебуванням давніх кельтів у Карпато-Балканському регіоні та Східній Європі. Охарактеризовано вплив соціокультурних та політико-ідеологічних настанов модерної доби на формування наукових уявлень про кельтські народи. Із застосуванням методів етнології сформульовано підходи до вивчення кельтів як етнічної групи та їхніх міграцій у східному напрямку.Реконструйовано участь кельтів у процесах етнокультурної взаємодії з племенами й народами, які у давні часи населяли Південно-Східну Європу. Особливу увагу приділено питанням перебування давніх кельтів на землях сучасної України, а також імовірним контактам кельтів зі слов’янами.

The Russian aggression against Ukraine supported by Belarus is causing a great damage to human lives, st te infrastructure and historical heritage. After long period of peace yet again we are facing war atrocities in Europe. The whole massive armed conflict was initiated by Russian dictator V. V. Putin, as part of his own imperial doctrine, which can only be labelled as war crime and attempt of genocide of Ukrainian nation. During the last thirty years of independence Ukraine has proved its peacefulness, desire for democracy and geopolitical ties with united Europe. All this was not acceptable for Putin’s primitive imperial worldview and he dragged whole region into the misery of the worst 20th Century war traditions.
Besides genocidal damage to human lives, the Ukrainian national heritage
is being damaged in an effort to enforce Russian national cultural dominance over common historical roots and to falsely rewrite the history of the entire region.
Such policy is totally inacceptable for the civilised Europe of the 21st Century and we condemn Putin’s imperial war.

Remarks on the Presence of Iranian Peoples in Europe and Their Asiatic Relations, in: J. Pstrusińska/A. T. Fear (eds.), Collectanea Celto-Asiatica Cracoviensia, Kraków 2000, 101-140.

The scope of the problems involving the history of steppe Iranian¬speaking peoples in Europe is large and continues to grow as new information becomes available. For this reason this paper is limited to the most important aspects. The very significant role that the Scythians, Sauromatians, and various so-called “Sarmatian” tribes (including the Royal Sarmatians, Iazygs, Aorsi, and Alans) played in the history of Southeastern Europe has commonly been recognized. This is, however, not the case with their role in the history of Cen¬tral and Western Europe.
In the 1st millenium B.C. and in the first centuries A.D., the native populations of Southeastern and Central Europe were faced with the expansion and movement of the Central Asian peoples pressing westwards. Some indig¬enous tribes retreated, setting in motion other peoples, others mingled with the newcomers, giving rise to new hybrid cultures. The contribution of Iranian peoples to the cultures of ancient Europe is discernible in many aspects, including Germanic religion, Celtic folk-poetry, and early Slavic civilization. The in¬flux of Iranian steppe peoples in Europe was linked with tribal movements in Central Asia. This was a consistent pattern, for we have evidence of several great migrations in the 1st millenium B.C. and the 1st millenium A.D. Already Herodotus (4.13), living in the 5th century B.C., had observed such processes: “Except the Hyperboreans, all these nations (and first the Arimaspians) ever make war upon their neighbours; the Issedones were pushed from their lands by the Arimaspians, and the Scythians by the Issedones, and the Cimmerians, dwell¬ing by the southern sea, were hard pressed by the Scythians and left their country”

Most Iranian tribes entering Europe took possession of the last outpost of the Eurasian steppe in Central Europe: the Hungarian plain. Here, they underwent a number of changes and were transformed, both ethnically (as they mingled with the indigenous substratum) and economically (denomadicization). The interaction of these Iranian groups with the local populations of Europe was largely ignored by our written sources. However, archaeology points to considerable cultural interchange. The movements of many steppe tribes to¬ward Europe introduced new ethnic elements of Asiatic origin into this large area. Iranian groupings of the pre-Scythian period, the Scythians, the Sauromatians, various Sarmatian tribes, the Roxolani, the Aorsi, and the Alans contributed to the development of culture not only in the Ponto-Caspian steppes, but also in other areas as they were driven into many countries at different points in time. The history of Southeastern and Central Europe in the ancient period can be properly understood only within the context of the relations between the sedentary tribes and the Eurasian steppe nomads. Such a relationship is clearly visible in the medieval history of Rus, the Hungarians, the Bulgars, as well as in that of Poland.

ABSTRACT: This article examines the growth of Neopaganism and Native Faith in post-Soviet Ukraine. It traces the historical development of Neopagan ideas and contextualizes their emergence within the cultic milieus of alternative religion and ethnic nationalism. It surveys the main contemporary Ukrainian Neopagan and Native Faith groups and movements, assessing their future growth possibilities and comparing them with more familiar forms of Western Neopaganism. The author argues that these Ukrainian movements have become caught up within a set of ideas which are ideologically right-wing and scientifically insup- portable, but that this represents a phase of development comparable to an earlier phase of Anglo-American Neopaganism, at least in its reliance on “alternative” scholarship and on a strong form of “identity politics.” Like those Western movements, Ukrainian Native Faith might overcome its present-day limitations, but this will be difficult as long as the coun- try continues to face the economic and political struggles within which it has recently been mired.

This book presents the studies of some key problems of Upper Paleolith in the northern Black Sea steppes – the chronology of sites, the division of development of technology traditions and human adaptations (subsistence practices, lifestyles and settlement systems of hunter groups).
The main results of researches of Amvrosievka complex that came true under the direction of author during the last twenty five years are published.

Le roi lydien, Crésus, crut être assez riche pour conquérir le royaume de son voisin, le jeune Cyrus. Mal lui en prit. Peut-on dresser des analogies avec la guerre actuelle? Exercice risqué, mais comment y résister quand on est historien et que l'on vit tout près du lieu où se déroulent les hostilités ? En regardant la guerre en Ukraine, il faut admettre que Vladimir Poutine a raison sur deux points. Premièrement, l'avenir de notre monde dépend de la Russie. Deuxièmement, ce qui est en jeu dans cette guerre est sans aucun doute une sorte de « dénazification ». Sur ces deux points, cependant, Poutine a raison exactement dans le sens où Crésus, le riche roi des Lydiens, avait raison en déclenchant l'une des guerres les plus importantes de l'Antiquité, lui dont le nom, et ce n'est pas une coïncidence, est entré dans le langage courant. Demandant à l'oracle grec de Delphes s'il devait partir en guerre, il reçut cette réponse : « Si vous commencez une guerre, vous détruirez un grand pays ». Rassuré sur ses plans, il n'en demanda pas davantage. S'il l'avait fait, peut-être aurait-il compris que la Pythie de Delphes parlait de son propre royaume.

Division into periods of the Neolithic in the Buh River region is the base of the relative chronology of the whole Neolithic at Ukrainian territory. Developed by V.M. Danylenko at the end of the 1950-s, it was repeatedly criticized and reviewed. The advent its new versions, as well as ambiguous series of 14C dates makes the author to consider in a new way the sources laying in the base of division into the periods of the Neolithic at the Buh and Dnister Rivers area. Critical analysis of field documentation and publications by V.M. Danylenko evidence that the information presented there is not complete, partial in its statement and interpretation. The reason for that were the complicated conditions the rescue excavations, as well as the scholar's personal qualities and peculiarity of scientific outlook.
Consequently, during the review of division the culture into the periods one should take into consideration the drawbacks of the sources available and lean on the results of the new field works. Flooding by the reservoirs of most of the sites excavated by V.M . Danylenko makes the field check of his stratigraphic observations impossible. This fact and also slow pass of the new factual data accumulation transfers the accent of the research to the old sources consideration. Finds of vessels are the most informative of them. Usage of formalizing methods in vessels description with consequent analysis of their features combination allows the author to check V.M. Danylenko's division into periods despite the drawbacks of field documentation, lack of stratigraphic contexts and closed complexes, and loss оf part of the finds.

Šárka in Volhynia and Bavaria: On the Triangular Intarsia of the later Bandkeramik. – Towards the end of the cultural development of the Bandkeramik, the Šárka type emerged in Bohemia as an expression of social change. An element of this new style, namely glue decorated pottery, is distributed far beyond the area of the Šárka group. In this contribution, fragments of Bandkeramik decorated with triangular inlays from Rovantsi in Volhynia (Ukraine) and Tiefbrunn in Upper Palatinate (Bavaria) are presented. These far-reaching cultural ties are a cross-group element of Bandkeramik unity in a period of developing regional styles.

Усе своє життя Євжен Неуступни (†14 січня
2021) прожив відповідно до безкомпромісного
значення свого прізвища. Він справді сповнив
його неймовірною чіткістю, твердістю поглядів та непересічною системністю думки. Можливо, саме тому його вплив на розвиток світової археології є таким винятковим. Науковий
внесок професора забезпечили не лише глибина його досвіду та методичність роботи, але
й надзвичайна інтуїція у розпізнаванні та вивченні найважливіших аспектів археологічного дослідження. Низку явищ та взаємозв’язків,
які він відкрив, було вивчено у його власних
студіях та численних дослідженнях археологів
з усього світу, натхненних його роботою. Професор Неуступни значно вплинув на хід археологічних досліджень з методичної та передовсім теоретичної точки зору.

Location: London UCL

More Info: 18 papers on topics regarding the Neolithization process in the Balkans

Publisher: Centralgrafica, Trieste

Publication Date: Jul 30, 2007

Publication Name: Società per la Preistoria e Protostoria della Regione Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Quaderno 12. Trieste.

Conference End Date: Jun 22, 2005

Conference Start Date: Jun 20, 2005

Archaeology of Domestication

Jan Turek -  Letní semestr 2021/2022, rozsah (2/0)
The emergence of the Neolithic introduced one of the most fundamental turning points in the history of humankind. People left this imaginary Eden of symbiosis with animal species to start their new role of stewards and destroyers of the nature. In this way humans completed their departure from nature into the world of their own culture and civilization. With a sedentary life and a newly acquired knowledge of the production and reproduction of their food sources, people set off to the path to their overpopulation and ruling over the entire planet and after more than 12,000 years to continue beyond its gravity. However, not everything was positive on this departure from the paradise, and soon people also tasted the bitter taste of the forbidden fruit that the first farmers seized. Along with the change of diet a general deterioration in the health of the Neolithic population occurred and we can even talk about the first civilisation diseases.
The course is suitable for students of archaeology, social and cultural anthropology, human ecology, history and other social sciences. It includes an outline of the current discussion on the conditions, methods and evidence of the emergence of cereal agriculture in the Western Asia. In addition to archaeological evidence of changes in the subsistence strategy, changes in the symbolic systems, cosmology and religion of the first agricultural civilizations, as well as demographic and social aspects of neolithisation, will be taken into account. The process of domestication will be investigated in various climatic-ecological contexts with emphasis on explanation of local variability in diversification of agricultural strategies. The topic also includes the spread of the Neolithic way of life outside the Neolithic epicentre, i.e. to the northwest of Asia Minor, the Balkans, Europe and North Africa. Subsequent cultural development and population cultural variability of newly domesticated areas will also be discussed. Finally, we compare the development in Western Asia and Europe to the domestication processes in other parts of the world, such as East/Southeast Asia, Indian Subcontinent, Australia and Polynesia, Americas, Sahel and South Africa. This worldwide review of early sedentary populations and variability of domestication strategies provides a basic reference of current research in the field of archaeology, anthropology and prehistoric human ecology.

The site 2 at Vita-Poshtova, the easternmost site of the Linear Band Pottery culture (LBPC), is situated 8,5 km southwest from Kyiv, capital of Ukraine. It is the northern border of the forest-steppe zone. The LBPC settlement was discovered during the rescue excavations. Pottery fragments show all characteristic features for the music note phase of the LBPC in its Central European range. A set of remains from the described site is not numerous, nevertheless it is very important. It allows us to assert a far-reaching expansion of LBPC groups of people from Volhynia to the Kyiv region, which is very distant from the core area of this culture. Therefore the problem of contacts between its population and communities of the local cultures (Bug-Dniester and Prip'at-Neman) arises.

A review of the available records on the Early Neolithic in the Dnister River basin leads one to conclude that referring the finds from several sites situated at the territory of the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine to the Buh-Dnister Culture (BDC) is disputable. Information about some of them is absent in publications. Published data about the others is fragmentary. In such a situation major attention has to be paid to the sources of primary information — field documentation and collections of finds.
Careful examination of materials from the Middle Dnister area sites, stored at the Institute of Archaeology, NASU, has confirmed that a few potsherds from the Trypillia B I settlement of Vasylivka and the multilayered site of HES-15 belong to the BDC. Drawings of these potteries have been published in the article for the first time. Today, they should be considered as the westernmost confirmed evidence of the BDC. The flint artefacts found close to the pottery typologically can be attributed to either the Neolithic and Chalcolithic or to the both periods. Such position of BDC and Trypillian finds at one depth is well established in some other sites of the Dnister River area. For example, it was testified by the author’s excavation at the well known Buh-Dnister settlement of Tsekynivka I in 2010.
Belonging of the site of Hordivtsi to the BDC can be neither proved, nor disproved on the basis of materials available in Kyiv. Among surface finds collected there by the author in 2005 and 2009, there is only one diagnostic potsherd of evident Neolithic age. It is a bottom of the vessel more typical for wares of the local variant of the Criş culture or Prut-Danube network, after Agathe Reingruber, and less common for both Buh-Dnister and the early Trypillian pottery. Consequently, a cultural attribution of Hordivtsi and a few other Neolithic sites located near the Dnister River to the west of HES-15 requires a study of finds discovered there in the 1950s and stored at the I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies, NAS of Ukraine in Lviv, as well as running a new field research.

Iron Age Celts in the Territory of Ukraine and Their Influence on the Cultures of Local Populations During Third Century BC – First Century AD: Where Gauls and Scythians Met and Mingled / Kazakevich G. Foreword by I. Patryliak. – Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2015. – 168 p.

http://mellenpress.com/book/Iron-Age-Celts-In-The-Territory-Of-Ukraine-And-Their-Influence-On-The-Cultures-Of-Local-Population-During-Third-Century-Bc-First-Century-Ad-Where-Gauls-And-Scythians-Met-And-Mingled/9233/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1495504328/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_t2_SQhYxb5SWZ19Q


CONTENTS and ABSTRACTS in PDF

Archaeologists so far have connected appearance of ware with pointed and rounded bottoms and comb decoration on the northern part of the Black Sea area with spread of inhabitants of northern and northeast regions to the south. Large series of absolute dates of Neolithic sites of Eastern Europe have been received in the Kiev radiocarbon laboratory recently. They have shown that such pottery appeared in the northern part of the Black Sea area earlier than on the Upper Dnieper region, the Volga river region, the Kama river basin and the Trans-Ural area. These data suggest incorrectness of existing hypotheses. Alternatively to these, the author proposes to regard North-Pontic Neolithic with comb decorated pottery as a part of the area of Mediterranean Neolithic cultures with Impresso ware. The possible Mediterranean prototype of the North-Pontic pottery with comb decoration could be ware of the North Africa Neolithic known as the «Saharan Sudanese Complex» or the «Khartoum Mesolithic». Formed in 9—8 thousand сal BC, in the middle 7 thousand сal BC it could diff use to the Near East, and further — to the Northern Black Sea coast. Radiocarbon dates show high speed of this process. It corresponds to concept of «leapfrog colonization» founded on a coasting (model of «maritime pioneers» by J. Zilhᾶo). Occurrence of the Neolithic pottery in the region only aſt er formation of the Bosporus Strait which has united the Black Sea with the Mediterranean supports possible maritime colonization of the Northern coast of the Black Sea too. Sites leſt by the Mediterranean migrants with full «Neolithic package» have not been found in the northern part of the Black Sea area so far. It can result from their position on nowadays flooded fertile lowlands along the coast of the sea, the level of which rose more than 10 m over the last 8.5 thousand years. On the other hand, one fragment of the vessel with Cardium decoration was found on the Savran’ site of the Bug-Dniester culture. It suggests settlement here of some Mediterranean makers of Cardium ware in the northern part of the Black Sea area, or of their contacts with local population. Availability of ware with comb and linear decoration, all attributes of which are met in ceramics of Impresso-ware zone, and also specific «Neolithic» flint implements, bones of domestic animals, polished stone artifacts, found on Neolithic settlements of the North-Pontic area, also can be evidence of contacts of the local population with Mediterranean migrants who lived on the Black Sea coast.

Potsherds from a few vessels with Cardium decoration were recently found in old collections of some Neolithic sites of the Northern Black Sea area. A good samples of the valves of brackish water ostracods were discovered in the raw material in most of these vessels. This could indirectly indicate the presence of Neolithic settlements with Cardium pottery on what is now a flooded region of the northern Black Sea coast. Some data show that its inhabitants could have been the initial source of the Neolithisation of neighbouring inland territories. Thus, the whole local Neolithic in the region is interpreted as a northeastern branch of the Mediterranean Neolithic with Impresso and Cardium pottery.

Until recently, only 7 inhumations in crouched on side position, found in Ak-Mechetka, Konstantynivka, Savran’, Tsekynivka I and Hyrzhove have been published as attributed to the Bug-Dniester culture (BDC). An inhumation stretched on the back was excavated on Dobryanka 3 site in 2006. It disproved entrenched views and made the researchers have a closer look at available data. A study of field survey reports showed that 4 other inhumations stretched on the back, unearthed on the territory of the Bug-Dniester settlements Samchyntsi I, Haivoron-Polizhok and Sokiltsi VI in 1956—1961, have not been published.
Analysis of arguments in favor of the Neolithic age of the twelve mentioned burials showed that 1 cenotaph and 3 inhumations with crouched skeletons and grave goods from Ak-Mechetka and Konstantynivka, in fact, belong to the Early Bronze Age. The Bug-Dniester attribution of the remaining burials without grave goods was neither proved nor disproved. The only way to determine their reliable age is to obtain radio-carbon dating of the bones. So far, the only date pointing to the turn of the Mesolithic and Neolithic has been obtained for a human bone from Dobryanka 3. The Neolithic age of the crouched skeleton from Tsekynivka I is indirectly proved by its position under a fragmented Neolithic vessel.
Thus, for the moment, connection of inhumations stretched on the back with the BDC is better justified. However, there are some grounds to suppose that the funerary rite of its bearers also included inhumations in crouched on side position.

This book is a publication of the Danish-Dutch-Ukrainian survey project carried out in 2007 and 2008 on both sides of Lake Dzarylgac - that is, in the hinterland of the ancient Greek settlement of Panskoe I on the Tarchankut Peninsula (Northwestern Crimea). The project was the first systematic, intensive survey in the region, and its aim was to investigate the landscape from prehistory until early modern times. The publication concludes that the region was most intensively settled in the Late Classical and Early Hellenistic period. The results were spectacular: a large number of undisturbed Greek and indigenous sites were identified, which have completely changed our understanding of ancient settlement patterns in the region.

This paper deals with the Late Bronze Age complexes (deposits) of molds made of stone which were found near Tokivske village, Apostolivskyi region, Dnipropetrovsk oblast, at the eastern bank of the Kamianka River, Dnipro basin. Complexes included, respectively, three and seven matrixes mainly made of shale. Molds were used for production of bronze sickles, daggers, flat adzes, sleeve chisels, celts, round disc (mirror), pins, round plaques-buttons. Most of types are typical for the Middle Dnipro region. However, some of those have analogies in wide territories of Eurasia, from the Carpathians to Central Asia.

The complexes of finds are contemporaneous to each other. It is confirmed by their dating and the presence of similar matrixes for the production of daggers in both complexes. Metal finds produced in Tokivske forms have analogies in complexes of Loboikivka (Middle Dnipro region, Donets region) and mainly the Ingul — Krasnyi Maiak (Lower Dnipro region, North-Western Pontic region) centers of metal production. Tokivske itself was located in the contact area of two large cultural complexes dated by the Middle Bronze Age, i.e. Zrubna (Berezhnivsko-Maivska Zrubna culture — BMZC) and Sabatynivka–Noua, to which those centers of metal production related. Similarities to the metal tools can be also found among the materials typical for the Central European deposits of Ópályi-Uriu-Domǎneşti. To a certain extent, analogies to the described finds are known in Kardashynka center of metal production belonging to Bilozerka culture. Therefore, the time of functioning of the workshop at the Tokivske site can be dated to the transition from Late Sabatynivka (BMZC-II after V. V. Otroshchenko) to Early Bilozerka time, BzD — HaA1 period according to P. Reineke or 13th—12th century BC. This was a time of the beginning of the so-called “The Bronze Age collapse”. In South-Eastern Europe the latter is marked by the decline of Noua–Sabatynivka and Zrubna (also known as Timber-Grave) cultural complexes and the formation of new cultures of the Final Bronze Age, from which Bilozerka and Bilohrudivka cultures were developed in the eastern bank of the Dnipro.

In search for the date, use and origin of the rivetted neck-rings from Scandinavia from the Migration Period. The rivetted rings is a very special phenomenon only known from the Scandinavian peninsula. Their diameters make it difficult to use them as neck rings unless they were rivetted at the neck of the person or object they were meant for. The wide front piece make the author look for possible sources of inspiration for the rings among a group of "diadems" known from Lithuania and Ukraine dated to the Late Roman period.

The Upper Palaeolithic site Radomyshl’ I has been known since the 1950s. I.G. Shovkoplyas classified Radomyshl’ I as the earliest Upper Palaeolithic site in the Eastern Europe, i.e. transitional from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic. His conclusion was based on the presence of so-called Mousterian elements (radial cores, side-scrapers) within a general Upper Palaeolithic collection. In the 1980s Y. Demidenko and V. Usik have analyzed cores and proved the absence of Mousterian technology in primary flaking and blank production. The blade reduction strategy is clearly Upper Palaeolithic, which based on crest preparation and soft hammer. The absence of Mousterian technology suggests it is unlikely to represent a transitional assemblage, i. e. the oldest Upper Palaeolithic site in the region. Here, I present a new assessment of the typological character of the assemblage.
Attribution of the Radomyshl’ I lithic assemblage to the Aurignacian technocomplex, as done often in the past, cannot be confirmed too. Our detailed typological analysis demonstrates there are practically no carinated types in tool-kit. Only three burins out of 800 examples can be classified as carinated burins. Tools with so-called Aurignacian retouch are not numerous too. The tool-kit is dominated by burins (45 %), of which dihedral ones are most frequent. Points on blades with bilateral dorsal retouch and borers represent a quite a significant proportion of the tool kit. Apart of retouched blades / flakes other types such as end-scrapers,  combined tools (burin / end-scrapers), denticulates / notches, are represented in small numbers only. At the same time no backed tools were found in the collection. From the observation of common technical and typological characteristics the Radomysl’ I assemblage is more close to the Gravettian techno-complex than any other known in Ukraine. Therefore, we propose to consider Radomyshl’ I as a version of the Eastern European Gravettian. This assessment is supported by 14C dates (OxA-697: 19000 ± 300 BP and Ki-6210: 19600 ± 350 BP), based on which Radomysl’ I cannot belong to the early period of the Upper Paleolithic. At the same time Radomysl’ I has original features and can represent a local variant of the Gravettian cultural tradition. The specific typological structure of the lithic tool kit can be explained by narrow economic specialization. The faunal and lithic remains together suggest that the main activity of inhabitants the Radomyshl’ I was storage, sorting and cutting of mammoth bones.

Finds of the Bug-Dniester painted ceramics are very rare. So far, only four fragments of dark painted vessels of the Bug-Dniester culture have been published. Two of them are from the sites of Sokiltsi VI and Bazkiv Ostriv in the Southern Bug area. Loss of one fragment and scanty information about the other led to contradictory interpretation of these finds, and even negation of existence of Neolithic painted pottery in the region.
Shards of seven vessels with previously undetected traces of brown colouring have been discovered by the author in the materials of the Bazkiv Ostriv. Preservation of the painting is very bad. But difference in elemental composition of painted and unpainted surfaces, fixed by X-ray fluorescence analysis, has eliminated all doubt. Uncertain stratigraphy of the site and occurrence of large fragments of the painted vessels at different depths do not allow relating them with 14C dated samples of bones. However, incised decoration on five vessels from Bazkiv Ostriv and the one from Sokiltsi VI points to the influence of the Middle Neolithic ceramic traditions from eastern part of the Carpathian Basin 5300—5000 cal BC, particularly of the Szakálhát culture. This agrees with age of two “music note” decorated bowls of the Linear Pottery culture from the Bazkiv Ostriv. Characteristic composition of the ceramic paste, imperfection of the painting, its combination with comb impressions on the one of the vessels testify to their production by local potters, that tried to reproduce some wares made in the Tisza Basin.

For a long time, finds of the Linear Band Pottery culture (LBK) on the Southern Buh numbered only two bowls from the Buh-Dnister culture site of Bazkiv Ostriv. After the recent discovery of a few more vessels and four stationary LBK settlements, some scholars have assumed the Neolithic incomers regularly inhabited the most of the region. However new direct AMS dates on the Buh-Dnister pottery have shown the existence of the indigenous hunter-gatherers here from 5300 to 5000 BC. Therefore, today, the cluster of four sites is the only verified area that was settled by the early farmers near the town of Zavallia. The occurrence of the settlements at very this place is explained by the fertile local soil and the desire of the inhabitants to control the huge deposit of graphite, which was a centre of an extensive exchange network for the North-Pontic indigenous groups. This could have given the local LBK community significant social prestige through the active production and exchange of valuable goods.

Ideas about the origin of the Buh-Dnister Culture under the influence of the Danube Early Neolithic were questioned by series of radiocarbon dates falling into the second half of the 7th millennium BC measured on bones at the Kyiv laboratory in 1998-2004. To start addressing this problem, 11 AMS dates on organic inclusions in the ceramic paste and charred residues on the surface of vessels were obtained at the Tokyo University laboratory. Apart from two heavily overestimated values, measured on samples with very low carbon content, they fall into the range of the 60th-46th century BC that correspond better to the primary views of this chronology. However, the issues of the time and direction of spreading of the first pottery in the region need further research.

"RIASSUNTO – Il Mesolitico recente dell’Ucraina sud-occidentale. Il presente lavoro costituisce una prima sintesi delle informazioni disponibili sugli insediamenti del Mesolitico recente dell’Ucraina sud-occidentale. Vengono descritte le stazioni più importanti rinvenute, e in parte scavate, nella regione e le caratteristiche salienti delle industrie litiche. I siti sono stati suddivisi in tre gruppi: quelli attribuiti alla Cultura di Grebeniki, a quella di Anetivka (“Kukrek”) ed i siti “sincretici”, con caratteristiche di entrambe le precedenti entità culturali. Gli autori discutono
l’origine, la distribuzione, la cronologia relative ed assoluta degli stanziamenti
Summary – The Late Mesolithic settlement of south-western Ukraine. This paper is a synthesis of the available evidence for the Late Mesolithiс of south-western Ukraine. It describes the most important sites of this period discovered and partly excavated in the region, and the main characteristics of their chipped stone assemblages. They have been subdivided into three groups: Grebenyky, Anetivka (“Kukrek”) Culture and “syncretic” sites, the latter with elements of both Grebenyky and Anetivka Cultures. The authors discuss their origin, distribution, and relative and absolute chronology.
Keywords: Ukraine, Late Mesolithic, Grebenyky and Anetivka Cultures, chipped stones, microliths."

Starting from two socketed axes of the Armorican type, which were so far mistakenly attributed as chisels of local production to the hoard from Şpălnaca, Romania, the author discusses finds of Armorican axes from eastern and southeastern Europe. A number of pieces published as authentic finds can be suspected to be modern imports. Armorican axes circulated widely as gifts between researchers or through the art market especially in the late 19th and early 20th century following the big discoveries in France. Until now, this fact has not been taken into consideration in several important publications of finds. Only for Poland and Bohemia there are finds which could be the result of Early Iron Age contacts. But even their authenticity remains doubtful to some degree, as there are no finds which were discovered after 1950.

The article considers the materials from the famous monument of the Bronze Age, most
of which are first introduced into scientific circulation. It gives the general characteristics of the
settlement and of the materials found in it, and outlines the cultural and chronological stages of
its existence within the early bronze period

The author of this article proposes periodization of Western-Podolian group of Scythian cultural circle. There 32 complexes of finds were identified. The artifacts, which contribute “something” into periodization of Western-Podolian group, were described severally. Thereafter, all the antiquities had been founded in determined complex were collated. There from absolute chronology was compiled. Thereafter, all the complexes were collated, from which three-way division was distinguished. The charter representing co-occurrence of determined artifacts seems not to contradict to author’s three-way division. The distinguished phases are characterized by complex of features, which are typical to particular phase.

The site of Bazkiv Ostriv was investigated by Valentyn Danylenko on the same name island in the middle of the Southern Buh River in 1959. The next year it was submerged by water of the Hlybochek hydropower plant reservoir. The author of the excavation considered it as one of the most important stratified sites of the Buh-Dnister Culture (BDC), because he discerned three Neolithic layers there. Now Nadia Kotova regards it as the best Neolithic site in the region through its clear stratigraphy and abundance of finds. She has reconstructed there two Neolithic layers with finds considering as collections of “reference-class” materials for the early and late periods of the culture respectively. Thus, the settlement plays a key role in periodization and chronological schemes by the both researchers. Their common trait is dating of formation phase of the BDC to the second half of the 7th millennium calBC. It makes the Neolithic of the South Buh River area one of the oldest in Europe. They use stratigraphy and typology of finds from the Bazkiv Ostriv as arguments for these views. However, they had not given enough detailed information about the site and methodology of their investigations. It incites to more well-grounded review of relevant characteristics of the site.
New study of all available sources has shown that over 300 m2 was investigated on the site at large. Excavations of total area of 247 m2 were drawn on the plan with marks of 3381 finds, including 1353 fragments of pottery, 487 flint artifacts, 1509 bones and bone tools, 32 shaped and not-shaped stones of not-flint rock. But today collection No 433 of materials from the settlement, stored in the Institute of archaeology NASU, consists of only 1403 items, including 701 fragments of pottery, 665 flint and 3 not-flint stone artifacts, 34 animal bones, bone and antler tools. The rest of the materials were lost. Thus, inferences about cultural stratigraphy of the site, based on quantitative analysis of only available ceramic finds from different depths, can not be true.
Comparison of nine stratigraphic sections of the site allows two important conclusions. The first — a slight declivity of ancient surface is recorded on the settlement. Accordingly, in its northeastern part artifacts of the one episode of occupation should lay at slightly less absolute depth than in southwestern part. The second — because of absence of precise topographical instruments all depths on the site were measured from datum line, drawn on different walls of the excavation at different absolute depths. So, nominally identical depth of finds from different parts of the tranches, in fact — along absolute calculation, may also be different. Thus, vertical sequence of finds from depths, measured from only the same drawn datum line, is correct.
Taking into account these imperfect sources, verification of the site stratigraphy have been based on the analysis of the number of finds marked on the field drawings, separately for each of several small agreed zones. A small area of each zone allows disregard the natural declivity of ancient surface, and use of the same datum lines allows compare depth of finds more or less reliably. As a result of the counting of pottery, flint artifacts and animal bones from different depths the possible presence of three horizons — two ceramic and one aceramic in cultural layer have been concluded. No “sterile” layers between these horizons with high concentration of finds have been recorded.
Different estimated age of the two reconstructed Neolithic layers in the Bazkiv Ostriv supposes typological difference of their pottery. A depth of only large available fragments has been taken as criterion for linking vessels to excavation levels. This approach is based on two well-known postulates. First — larger potsherds have more stable position in sediments. Second — impacts of the forces which move fragments in sediments break them at the same time. 93 potsherds larger 20 cm2 have been analyzed. They represent 31 vessels of the BDC, 1 vessel of the Linear Band Ceramic and 4 vessels of the Trypillia culture.
Analysis of position of large potsherds from some zones has showed the relationship between a way of excavation and discerning of the two ceramic horizons. In other zones differences in the nature of pottery from the horizons are absent or not recorded due to the loss of most finds. Thus, the comparison of data, derived from the field drawings, and available part of the finds collection has not confirm presence on the site of evident layers with Neolithic vessels which would exactly fit description published by Danylenko and Kotova. Instead, it has been established considerable mixing of materials, attributed by them to different periods of the culture. A recorded vertical sequence of compact location of shards of several vessels contradicts traditional views on a relative age of corresponding types of the BDC pottery. This observation is in concordance with the fact that some vessels organically combining technological and decorative traits, traditionally attributing to the different periods. Therefore, views on successive existence of different styles pottery in the local Neolithic may be changed to recognition of its diversity owing to inhabiting and interaction of peoples with different pottery traditions in the same area.
Comparison of cultural stratigraphy of the site with localization of the five bone samples dated by 14C contradicts to synchronization of some BDC and “import” vessels discovered side by side. Moreover, vertical location of three samples dated to the end of the 7th millennium calBC contradicts both the traditional and published by Kotova more deep absolute chronology of pottery found near them. It indirectly confirms the presence of the Mesolithic layer in the site. Therefore, the main way for estimation of the absolute age of different BDC pottery styles should be direct dating on organic matter in ceramic paste of vessels, but not bones from mixed cultural layers as was done for the Bazkiv Ostriv.

It is known V. Danilenko's concept of the autochthonous origin of stockbreeding in the Azov Sea area was founded upon the basis of identification of nowadays lost livestock bones from the Mesolithic layers of the Kamjana Mohyla-1 site in the 1950s. The author infers that most likely this identification was done under the influence of Karl Marx theory paradigms combined with soviet “Michurinist Biology” dogmas and a misinterpretation of some petroglyphs from the neighbor famous Stone Age sanctuary.

The most numerous category of artifacts in the collection of the Upper Paleolithic site Radomyshl’ I are those of primary reduction. However, the full cycle of both primary and secondary stage of lithic production, from raw materials to chips and burin spalls, is represented. Two sorts of raw materials — the local dark gray flint (two thirds of the artifacts) and the black «like Desnanian» flint (more one quarter of them) are common.
The flint knapping technique used is percussion with both hard and soft hammer. The presence of a strong bulb of applied force on 4 % of the blanks shows the use of hard hammer. At the same time, presence of a «lip» on almost 35 % of the blanks shows the use of a hammer of soft material.
The knapping technology is clearly Upper Palaeolithic. The parallel technique of knapping dominates the assemblage. Uni- and bidirectional sub-cylindrical cores with a flat striking platform are dominant. The majority of blanks have similar negatives on their dorsal surface. Blades were the main blanks and the goal of knapping. The occurrence of core-tablets, crested blades (10 %) and blanks with «lip» also indicate Upper Palaeolithic technology.
Analysis of the area below the platform shows that preparation and reduction was often applied in this location. This was intended for the removal of defects on the line between the platform and working surface, thus enabling further production of high-quality elongated blanks. Rough percussion was used to reduce overhang more often than abrasion grinding.
The proportion of primary chips covered with a crust on 75—100 % of their dorsal side is approximately 7 % of the blanks.
A number of characteristics, such as parallel, uni- / bidirectional prismatic and end cores, a “lip” on blanks show that the Radomysl’ I assemblage is closer to the Gravettian techno-complex than to any other known in Ukraine. At the same time, in accordance with a typological analysis, the major Gravettian tools, such as Gravette point, Kostenki knife and backed bladelet are absent.

Based on the research of all available for the study stone artefacts of the Bronze Age, found on the territory of Kryvyi
Rih region, the history of production and use of the stone input of this region during the period under the study has been
supplemented with new facts. The list of local and imported rocks has been widened correspondingly from 13 to 46 and
from 2 to 16 items. It has been determined, that for some articles (half-hatchets, grain-grinders, casting forms, etc.) the
material was chosen not randomly. Besides, not just rocks, but often their certain sorts with the peculiar quantitative mineral
composition, granules size of the rockforming minerals, etc. were chosen. Taking into account significant imports of stone
work materials from various regions, it was concluded that during the existence of Catacomb culture Kryvyi Rih region was
a part of a wide mining province where the work materials for production of stone half-hatchers and other tools were mined.
The region under study specialized in rocks with porphyritic inclusions (metabasites and dolerites (diabases)). In the Late
Bronze Age, as it was supposed before, a role of Kryvyi Rih region increased to a separate centre of extraction of talc shists.

На основе исследования всех доступных для изучения каменных артефактов эпохи бронзы, найденных на территории
Криворожья, дополнена новыми фактами история добычи и применения каменного сырья данного района на протя-
жении исследуемого периода. Расширен перечень используемых местных и привозных горных пород соответственно
с 13 до 46 и с 2 до 16 позиций. Установлено, что для ряда изделий (топоры-молоты, зернотерки, литейные формы и др.)
материал выбирался не случайно. При этом избирались не просто определенные породы, а часто их специфические
разновидности с особым количественным минеральным составом, размером зерен породообразующих минералов и
пр. Исходя из наличия значительного импорта каменного сырья из различных районов, сделан вывод о том, что во
времена существования катакомбной культуры Криворожье было частью обширной горной провинции по добыче
сырья для изготовления каменных топоров-молотов и других орудий. Исследуемый район специализировался на по-
родах, имеющих порфировые включения: метабазитах и долеритах (диабазах). В эпоху поздней бронзы, как и счита-
лось ранее, роль Криворожья возросла до отдельного центра по добыче тальковых сланцев.