Cucuteny Trypillia - Builders of Mega Cities

Early history generally focuses on the civilizations close to the cradles of civilization, like the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East or the Yangtze Valley in China. But civilization quickly spread out of these regions and saw the rise of many interesting cultures that evolved in their own ways. One such great example is the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture in Eastern Europe.

The Cucuteni lived mostly in the region of western Ukraine, first emerging from the eastern side of the Carpathian Mountains. Like most other early civilizations, these people started as nomadic tribes adopting a semi-sedentary lifestyle, building temporary houses to stay in for a prolonged period of time before moving on. Around 5500 BC, the first permanent settlements appeared close to rivers to have a source of both drinkable water and clay, a major resource in Cucuteni culture. This would be when farming and herding took off, cultivating wheat, rye, and peas while domesticating cattle for the most part, with swine and sheep being a side bonus. Tools of this time were primitive, composed of stone and bone, and predominantly used for food gathering. It was also in these early days when the primary trait of these people emerged: pottery, which was handled by women.

Cucuteni pottery was one of the most advanced of the time, showing not only a high level of refinement but also advanced decoration and engravings. Another thing is that they may or may not have developed the potter’s wheel in their later years, which would make them among the oldest users of this technology and on par with Sumer, China, and the Indus Valley. However, there is no definitive evidence that they did use such a tool. What we are sure of is that they used an older form of pottery, hand-coiling, which consists of rolling ropes of clay into the shape you want. The Cucuteni people would then decorate their work with engravings and dyes, sourced from minerals collected from the soil and riverbeds, or even from organic sources. These potteries were used at all levels of Cucuteni society, from storage to eating and, most importantly, spiritual practices. Kilns used to bake the clay, while starting off as simple, would be refined into a highly efficient system. The furnace was separated into two chambers, one for combustion and one containing the raw pots. Why the Cucuteni put this much effort into pottery isn’t fully known, although the main theory might be religious practices, as trade during these days wasn’t prevalent enough to explain such a level of artwork.

Speaking of religious practices, the Cucuteni seemed to revere many spiritual beings, with a female figure standing at the top. Since we have no written records, as writing would appear in the closing days of the culture and never reached them, we are left guessing what these people were thinking. The most dominant theory is that they represented some sort of “earth mother,” representing the forces of nature on which the Cucuteni were highly dependent. But considering the rather fragmented nature of the Cucuteni, the idea that they all worshiped a single, clear figure is highly unlikely, and most regions or even settlements probably had their own ideas of their “earth mother.” Smaller reconstructions of their houses have also been found, greatly helping us in better understanding what their habitations looked like. And while, like the aforementioned figures, their purpose was most likely religious, it is also fun to imagine people of the time playing some primitive version of Dungeons and Dragons. 

Cucuteni society stood at the crossroads between tribal cultures and a fully fledged civilization like we would see in Sumer. While showing some form of early hierarchy, it is widely accepted that the Cucuteni lived in a relatively egalitarian society with no definite social classes. Instead, large settlements seem to have been broken down into smaller subgroups, each led by a central figure. Each of these figures would then regroup to manage the large settlement, although this is more speculative than anything else. Speaking of which, while these settlements were generally small, around a few hectares, others could reach dozens of hectares in size, which was more unusual for the time. However, the most impressive sites are Talianki, Dobrovody, Maidanetske, and Nebelivka, which stood between 300 and 450 hectares in area. These, for the record, made them the largest urban centers in the world up until the Classical Age.

The Cucuteni culture was relatively peaceful, which would explain its unusually large population, as people weren’t trying to kill each other. This aspect of their culture is very easy to verify, as weaponry remained primitive throughout their history while their settlements had no real defensive structures, showing little need for protection. This, unfortunately, would cause their downfall during the 3rd millennium BC, as they would be one of the earliest victims of the Yamnaya migration into Europe.

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