Cucuteni-Trypillia Culture | Ancient European Civilization

The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture (or Tripolye culture) spanned the Neolithic the Copper Age and the early Bronze Age.

They are one the of most impressive civilisations of Neolithic Europe.

The culture extended from the Danube river basin to the Black Sea and the Dnieper. It encompassed the central Carpathian Mountains as well as the plains, steppe and forest steppe on either side of the range. Its historical core lay around the middle to upper Dniester, in modern Ukraine.

More than 3,000 cultural sites have been identified, ranging from small villages to the largest settlements in the world.

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Gene-flow from steppe individuals into Cucuteni-Trypillia associated populations:
Houses in the Archaeology of the Tripillia–Cucuteni Groups:

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*People of the Bronze Age series*

*Video Chapters*

00:00 The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
02:30 Foundation and Growth of the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
06:33 Cucuteni–Trypillia pottery
09:27 Neolithic Female Figurines
12:03 Expansion throughout Ukraine to the Black Sea
13:48 Decline and Fall of the Cucuteni-Trypillia Culture
17:00 Europe's First Cities - Super Towns and Proto-Cities

[Deeplycloseted]

This is the stuff I like to see. So many “Bronze Age” videos only discuss the wars, the kings, and the assassinations. We never learn what the lives of the people were like.

[tudorbordeianu]

Imagine the quality of the pots they made, after 7000-5000 years, some were found intact and the colours are still very much visible.

[wallabumba]

"Their hearts truly lay in peace and quiet and good, tilled earth." Excellent Tolkien quote. I approve.

[damnhitsuzen]

History geek from Ukraine here, thanks for an interesting video!
I had a pleasure once to work at archeological site, digging up a Trypillia hut and uncovering its upper layer. It was a summer high school gig, so I just did a lot of digging and even more of careful dust brushing for the real experts. But damn it was a thrill to find some pottery shards and know you might be the first person to see them in thousands years.

[JustMe-oblu]

I was born in Suceava, North East Romania.. I still can find little things associated with these people.
My town was built in a kind of circle, quite different to the other parts of Romania. Dancing in a circle, different to west Romania.
The pattern of the pottery is still present on the folkloric dresses. And so on.
This is so fascinating how we all evolved. Thanks for all your videos

[huskytail]

We still dance in circles on the Balkans, it's so primal and natural. You get into a sort of a trance-like state. You feel the bodies of the others, their movements. On a side note, I think many archeologists don't know much about the symbolism of the old pagan-like rituals to look into them for the meaning of the figurines. I don't say that I know what they were, but it's a little bit simplistic to always think about a mother earth goddess, while reality could be a much more complex affair.

[svenzebs]

I was shocked when I saw 6000+ years old artefacts in Piatra Neamt museum.. they looked amazing

[olmaned]

There's a Cucuteni festival in Iasi - Romania, where craftsmen come and bring traditional Romanian potery, clothing etc, and it's really striking how similar the decorative styles are to those of the people from the Bronze age.

[derrickbonsell]

This is the sort of culture that would be a great influence for anyone interested in writing a Bronze Age style society for their epic fiction.

[helendietrich]

Wow! What a great lecture! Very thorough and with lots of great examples. In Ukraine, we learn about Trypillian culture in school. Plus, there is usually at least one school trip to a local museum that usually has some ceramics or at least mentions the culture (if you are from the area, of course). But I was surprised to discover that almost no one knows about it in the west! Later I understood that it was because of the separation of Soviet and Western archeology that you've mentioned. An interesting fact is that Vikentiy Khvoika, an archaeologist who discovered and studied Trypillina culture, actually was a teacher who lived in Kyiv. When he accidentally discovered the remains of an old home at some construction site near his house, he was so impressed that he decided to dedicate his life to studying these remains and eventually became an archeologist.

[bc]

I had no clue that such an urbanised group existed in that part of the world that long ago. I had always thought, based on Greco-Roman histories, that the steppes of the Ukraine and the Danube frontier were home to nothing but isolated and primitive nomadic tribes of horse warriors like the Scythians. To think that such an advanced urban culture existed in the same territory thousands of years earlier is amazing. Thank you for such an interesting, eye-opening, and informative video.

[tudorbordeianu]

It's worth mentioning that the "Ying Yang" symbol was found on pots made by the Cucuteni-Tryplilla people, over 6000 years ago. Check out the similarity between the Yangshao and Cucuteni- Trypillia pots, it's mindblowing. They might have traded commercially and culturally.

[seaxofbeleg]

They loved `peace and quiet and good tilled earth'. In other words, they were hobbits. :P

[Kaiba]

I am from the Republic of Moldova and I affirm all this, indeed not far from my home or found many old artifacts from the time cucuteni-tripoli, thank you

[andersschmich]

I also first heard of them in David Anthony's book, its really amazing that at around 4000 BCE their settlements were bigger than those in Mesopotamia and the Levant.

[hugodesrosiers-plaisance]

When you mentionned their possible textiles works, I let out an audible cry of sadness. Imagine all the absolutely stunning things this ONE culture could have made - then imagine all the other cultures we'll never know about. We haven't the faintest idea how much beauty our species might have produced since the dawn of our minds - and so much of it is lost. It's a strange kind of sadness.

[arecestravi]

I grew up in the Wild Fields near the north of the Black Sea, and in Bessarabia where Ukraine, Moldova and Romania meet. So I am always happy to see that more and more people learn about Trypilla-Cucuteni. Let us not be called their direct descendants, but they are special for us. Even at school, in history lessons (when you think more about lunch than education), you understand that this is a very cool civilization.
Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the heritage of Trypilla-Cucuteni culture in Romania and Moldova, but I am going to catch up on this while traveling there.

* As a Ukrainian, I can advise you one more ancient place associated with many civilizations of our territory - Kamyana Mohyla.
Unfortunately, few translations about this place reach the English speaking world, but it's super cool.
A magical, special, controversial place. A place of worship, rest and meeting for hundreds of generations of all who passed the Great Steppe.


* By the way, the entrance to the territory of the museum and the reserve with a guided tour is very cheap even for Ukraine. we invite everyone.
It was so difficult for me not to buy all the souvenirs and books of their museum at the same time. They have wonderful mini-figurines of kurgan stelae\ stone babas.

[MagnusItland]

Fascinating! The Neolithic and Chalcolithic had so much variation in culture, both across time and space. And yet it is almost entirely forgotten today, only a few thousand years later.

[gopoGPC]

As Romania develops its highways, in the last 10 years were unburied a lot of burial sites, including one of the largest neolitic in the world.

[heeroyuy]

It's neat to find a popular channel before it's popular. Great video, loved it, really opened my eyes to an under-appreciated portion of history. As a person of european descent, it always struck me as odd that my ancestors were just doing nothing for so long, but it appears that wasn't the case.