Home	Trypillian Culture from Ukraine

The Trypillian Civilization was first discovered in in 1897 at the village of Trypillia, just south of Kiev. Archaeologists have shown that it was widespread across Ukraine and contemporary with the Cucuteni found in Romania. The Trypillians were a Neolithic culture (5,508 - 2,750 BC) of considerable sophistication and importance, that were thriving well before the oldest Sumerian tablets were inscribed with cuneiform writing. Their ceramic-ware and stone implements, as you will see below, are particularly impressive.

We were extremely privileged to have Dr. Shilov show us his private archaeological museum (below) near Komsomolsk. (Click this link for further information on Dr. Yuri Shilov's research on the Arattan history of the Indo-Europeans and Slavic Civilisation.) Beside the bronze sculpture of Dr. Shilov on the forecourt are displayed some most interesting stone burial artifacts of Indra at Stovburova mohyla. A particular feature associated with the grave is a serpent of stones leading from the grave cyst itself. In the centre photos (below) is shown the large stone called Indra's head at the head of the serpent, and the second stone, recumbant, is called Indra's thumb. Beyond the tail of the serpent is seen the security enclosure around the grave cyst. There (in the lower left photo) is shown the main cyst and a second, smaller, cyst lying just beyond it. At the opposite end of the enclosure (lower right photo) there is another stone called the 'cosmic egg'.

Inside the museum, there was considerable refurbishment activity in progress but there was still an abundance of archaeological finds and Trypillian reconstructions to view. There were impressive bones of mammoths, rhinoceros and elk; cabinets displaying axes, flint arrow heads, iron spear tips and a large variety of pottery, together with examples of Trypillian looms and embroidery.

On the following day we visited the Aratta-Ukraine Museum at Trypillia (of which Dr. Shilov is a co-founder). We had also hoped to see the State Museum of Trypillia but unfortunately that was closed. The exterior of the Aratta-Ukraine Museum is immediately impressive because the wall has been beautifully decorated with Trypillian designs. Additionally, there is a reconstruction of a typical Trypillian house. These were often two-storey dwellings. We know this because the Trypillians left ceramic models of their homes (almost like doll's houses, showing the layout of the rooms, windows and hearths). Each home had a single round window in the wall opposite to the entrance. There was also a rounded or cruciform altar, painted with red ochre and ornamented with a spiral pattern. A typical dwelling was between 60-100 to 200-300 sq. meters. Public buildings and temples have also been found.

At the rear of the Museum, overlooking the River Dnieper, is a life-size display of the Trypillian goddess figures, beautifully carved in timber and showing the typical tattoo patterns of ornamentation that have been found on ceramic models. Hundreds of small ceramic statuettes of these goddess figures have been unearthed from Trypillian territory. They are significantly armless and frequently headless - not through accident but by deliberate design. Their bodies are ornamented in designs that are also seen on their pottery-ware.

Of the six statues, the first was decorated, honoured with harvest sheaves, (shown below). Her abdomen shows the characteristic ornamentation of the lozenge symbol of four quarters that is so commonly found in Trypillian culture. It has been postulated that this symbolised the four elements, or the four seasons, or perhaps the cardinal directions? Afterall, here was Aratta, and this is the Aratta-Ukraine Museum. This lozenge is seen on two other statues (below) and the remaining three are decorated with the serpent, in a ying-yang symbolism. Also to be noted, the goddesses are significantly seated on the heads of horned bulls - the female dominant over the male.

On entering the Museum, there is a wonderful modern painting that includes many aspects of Trypillian culture.

The next two photos help to put the Trypillian culture in a wider context. Here you see its range across southern Ukraine. Almost two thousand sites have been investigated, including a very considerable number of large, highly organised cities. Some of these had up to a thousand homes, with estimated populations between 10,000 - 15,000 people. Maydanets was a gigantic city of over 200 hectares. It had an elliptical form and the citadel was 1 km long. The largest, however, was at Tallyanki. Dated near 3700 - 3500BC, it covered an area of about 450 ha and had a citadel that was 3.5 km long!

One of the significant groups of artifacts uncovered are the many stone implements containing a circular hole bored through them. At first glance the hole seems to have been made to receive a wooden handle. However, it is remarkable that the surface inside the hole is polished as smooth as glass whereas the 'working edge' of the stone blade (if that is what it was) is of a far cruder and rougher finish. Dr. Krashnoholvets explained that the smooth inside surface of the hole is astonishly accurate to 0.5 microns - this is less than the diameter of a red blood cell - and has all the precision of being laser cut rather than drilled! Indeed, the surface is devoid of any scoring that would have resulted from drilling. One can only speculate what the function of these wonderful items may have been. Many of these implements had been attractively arranged in a Trypillian design on a wall in the Museum. In the centre right photo (below) the hole in the lower right implement is seen to be smooth and shiny in stark comparision to the rough outer surfaces and 'cutting edge'.

The ceramic-ware forms the major component of the Museum's exhibits. Many of these vessels are displayed as they were found, complete, showing both the artistic symbolism and the permanance of their decoration. One particular type of utensil is the 'double beaker', a feature of Trypillian culture. It is not known what precise function they served - ritualistic, ceremonial, marital or decorative.

The designs on these vessels is most interesting. The curving lines are sometimes serpentine, developing into ying-yang symbolism. Other designs are clearly based on the swastika (a symbol of light and protection that can now be seen to be far more ancient than perhaps has previously been accepted). Other vessels are decorated with highly stylised dancers who are commonly double-waisted.

The doorways between each room of the Museum are beautifully ornamented with the Trypillian designs that feature on their pottery. Similarly, the walls and ceilings of each room have been richly decorated with these designs and with examples of the palaeolithic and neolithic figurative etchings recorded from Kamyana Mohyla (Stone Grave) at Melitopol (see previous page).

Other designs on the ceilings reflect the Trypillian interests in the heavens, zodiac and calendar.

Aspects of traditional Ukrainian handicraft is reflected in the displays of painted eggs, painted with Trypillian designs, and by the tall didukh of braided wheat.

The Museum also houses restored Trypillian looms and a wonderful display of traditional embroidery - the same designs still proudly worn by modern Ukrainians, and especially by the Cossacks, which like badges reflect and record their Arattan history.

Finally, there are three photos from National Museum of Ukraine in Kiev. That on the left is particularly interesting, showing how the hole was apparently drilled from the stone implements, as a circular groove that left behind a central 'peg' which could then be removed. Although this would seem to be the starting point in the process, the mechanism for precision polishing shown above is left to the imagination. In the centre and right photos are examples of the ceramic goddess statuettes. The two holes either side of the head (or sometimes on the shoulders) were perhaps to take a thread so that the figurine could be worn, or hung in the home?

There is a considerable amount of literature available on the Trypillian culture and we are fortunate to have been given by Dr. Shilov an English version of the DVD "Light for the World" that he produced with Mykailo Videiko. "This film is about the Trypillian civilisation which existed on the lands of modern Ukraine more than 7 thousand years ago." Two particularly good websites worth visiting are those of Dr. Shilov and Videiko's Trypillia-USA Project.

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