Dmytro Haskevych | Institute of archaeology of NUAS (original) (raw)

Papers by Dmytro Haskevych

Documenta Praehistorica, LI, 2024

Linearbandkeramik (LBK) is the most well-studied Neolithic culture in Central Europe. However, th... more Linearbandkeramik (LBK) is the most well-studied Neolithic culture in Central Europe. However, the easternmost part of its area is less known to European researchers. Addressing this gap, information on 175 reliable and 95 questionable LBK sites and six sub-Neolithic sites with LBK pottery in Ukraine has been collected, verified, and systematized. The precise mapping of these sites provided in this paper allows future analysis of their spatial distribution. Accurate contouring of the eastern boundary of the LBK area has revealed the exploitation and exchange of flint, graphite, and salt as a possible driving force of the first farmers’ mobility in the region.

Open Archaeology 8: 1138–1169, 2022

In contrast to large-scale prehistoric migrations, associated with massive population shifts and ... more In contrast to large-scale prehistoric migrations, associated with massive population shifts and changes in material culture, movements of small human groups or single individuals are barely visible but no less important. In publications of the 1960s-2000s, specificity of craniological, odontological, and metrical characteristics as well as stable isotope values of some individuals distinguishing the Late Mesolithic cemetery of Vasylivka II among other Mesolithic and Neolithic burial sites in the Dnipro River basin was explained by some gene flows. However, archaeologists could not develop these views since the original excavation report of 1953 and all grave goods from Vasylivka II were considered lost. Another old field document, where pendants of the pharyngeal teeth of fish, and the shells of spiral, probably Mediterranean, molluscs found there were mentioned, allowed the recent suggestion of the author of the current article that several individuals from the Danube Iron Gates region were interred in the cemetery. Previous arguments along with new evidence are presented here to develop this hypothesis. Re-found personal ornaments from one burial, the only available grave goods from Vasylivka II, are published here for the first time. The established regularity that most relatively young men and women from the graveyard have conditional "Danubian" δ13C values in the range from −20 to −21‰ assumes the mutual exchange of marriage partners born in the Iron Gates and the Dnipro Rapids. A waterborne route is discussed as a more probable mode of communication between these regions.

Sprawozdania Archeologiczne 73/1, 9-55, 2021

For a long time, finds of the Linear Band Pottery culture (LBK) on the Southern Buh numbered only... more 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.

Archaeology and Early History of Ukraine, 2020

Traditional ideas about the origin of the Buh-Dnister Culture (BDC) and its synchronisation with ... more Traditional ideas about the origin of the Buh-Dnister Culture (BDC) and its synchronisation with the Neolithic cultures of the Danube-Carpathian region were questioned by series of radiocarbon dates measured on bones at the Kyiv laboratory in the 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.
The set of new dates has given a wide scatter of their values within the entire period outlined by the previous BDC dates. Moreover, the two results of the second quarter of the 7th millennium BC for the Hlynske 1 and Bazkiv Ostriv site are beyond it and may potentially be the oldest dates of the culture. However, analysis of the samples in terms of carbon content, their susceptibility to the influence of the freshwater reservoir effect, correspondence to the stratigraphy of the sites and typology of materials detected only six more credible dates. Their order on the timeline coincides with generally accepted ideas about the sequence of existence of the different BDC pottery types. The youngest is the vessel of the Savran type from Shumyliv-Cherniatka has yielded two dates falling into the range of 4723—4491 cal BC, when the Trypillia culture bearers already populat the region. Two vessels of the Samchyntsi type from Bazkiv Ostriv yield three dates within the range of 5288—4847 cal BC, which corresponds to their finding next to fragments of fine «music-note» bowls of the Linear Band Pottery Culture. The Skybyntsi type vessel from Bazkiv Ostriv yield the oldest plausible date of 5621—5514 cal BC, which corresponds to the age of the Criş monuments in Moldova.
Unfortunately, the new dates did not shed light on the issues of the time and direction of the first pottery spreading in the region. Thus, this needs further research including reliably direct radiocarbon dating on pottery.

Documenta Praehistorica 46: 216—245, 2019

Ideas about the origin of the Buh-Dnister Culture under the influence of the Danube Early Neolith... more 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.

The study of impressions of plants in ancient pottery is one of the traditional methods of archae... more The study of impressions of plants in ancient pottery is one of the traditional methods of archaeobotanical research. Twenty years ago, Halina Pashkevych identified traces of a few cultivated species on the potsherds of the Buh-Dnister culture (BDC) from the Southern Buh River basin based on naked-eye observations (Pashkevich 2000; Kotova 2002). In particular, impressions of grains of Triticum monococcum and Triticum dicoccum were found on the surface of some vessels from the Bazkiv Ostriv site, excavated by Valentyn Danylenko in 1959 (fig. 1).
The use of silicone rubber resin to obtain replicas — positive copies of impressions (fig. 2), as well as the use of a scanning electron microscope significantly improved the reliability of specific identifications of traces of plants in recent decades (Ushino, Tagawa 1991; Hisa, Katada 2005). This allows drawing conclusions based on not only grain size and shape but also its anatomically detailed fresh surface, which gets a more reliable result than even the study of charred remains from flotation. Re-identification of impressions on Neolithic vessels from Ukraine using the improved methodology was the goal of a joint Japan-Ukrainian archaeobotanical project, implemented in 2016—2019 (Endo et al. 2017; 2019). Among others, the materials of the Bazkiv Ostriv site were studied.
All ceramic finds from the site (701 fragments from 90 vessels including 668 potsherds from 81 BDC vessels and nine fragments from two vessels of the Linear Pottery Culture) were examined. In total, 24 traces identified now or were identified earlier as possible impressions of seeds of plants have been found. The research of them using Replica-SEM method (fig. 3) allowed making only two reliable species definitions. These are impressions of elderberry cf. Sambucus seeds (Bzk-003, Bzk-004) on the surface of vessel 22 of the Skybyntsi type (fig. 4). Another trace was interpreted as a possible impression of the chaff of probable cereal plant doesn’t indefinite for species (Bzk-006). It was recorded on the surface of vessel 1 of the Samchyntsi type (fig. 5). The majority of the rest samples could not be identified even for plants.
As a result, none of the observed potsherds from the site, including already published ones as having cereal impressions, contains traces of cultivated plants at present. This conclusion applies to other archaeobotanicaly examined pottery from the BDC monuments too. The absence of farming activity is indirectly evidenced by the complete lack of flint blades sections with characteristic gloss (so-called «sickle inserts») in the flint assemblages of the culture (Haskevych 2003). The absence of changes in the location of the sites in comparison with the previous Mesolithic ones in the region may indicate the preservation of a traditional hunter-fisher-gatherer way of life. So, the influence of neighbour farmer groups there can be traced only in sporadic exchange of prestigious goods, as well as in attempts to imitate the decoration and forms of pottery of the Kriş, Vinča, Szakálhát cultures. That is why it would be more correct to call the BDC not Neolithic but Para-Neolithic, or Sub-Neolithic.

Potsherds from a few vessels with Cardium decoration were recently found in old collections of so... more 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.

The site 2 at Vita-Poshtova, the easternmost site of the Linear Band Pottery culture (LBPC), is s... more 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.

Arheologia 4, pp. 105-119, 2022

Valerii Manko and Guram Chkhatarashvili published their article in the “Arheologia”, No. 2, 2022.... more Valerii Manko and Guram Chkhatarashvili published their article in the “Arheologia”, No. 2, 2022. In the paper, they discussed the migration of bearers of four Neolithic flint industries from Southwest Asia through the Caucasus to the south of Eastern Europe from the final Pleistocene to the early Atlantic. According to the authors, stable connections between these remote areas led to the emergence of four “information networks”, which they called “Cultural-Historical Regions” (CHR). The authors believe that the first region of such type in human history was the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) in the Near East. Therefore, they call the “theoretical basis” of their study “the idea of understanding the Neolithic as an epoch of the formation of global information networks, within which innovations created in the Near and Middle East were disseminated.”
V. Manko began to develop the described theoretical views in 2010 when he wrote that the reason for the emergence of the CHR is the ability to communicate, formed due to the mental changes of inhabitants of the PPNA large settlements. The statement about specific psyche and worldview as the basis of Neolithic has been expressed as an idea of Post-Processual archaeology long before V. Manko announced it. In particular, Trevor Watkins developed this concept in detail. However, V. Manko does not mention works by any post-processualists in his publications.
The statement about the formation of the ability to communicate only in the Neolithic is V. Manko’s novelty. He based it on one reference to a publication of Alexey N. Sorokin, who allegedly claimed that the bearers of different flint industries did not contact each other in the central part of European Russia in the Mesolithic. V. Manko misinterpreted this particular subjective observation and gave it the meaning of a global pattern. Thus, his definition of the Neolithic is controversial, because of using this erroneous premise. Generally, V. Manko’s theoretical reasoning is full of contradictions, logical errors, terminological chaos, and rhetoric in the postmodernism style. It is noteworthy that V. Manko himself does not fully adhere to his previous theoretical views in his later works.

Archaeologists so far have connected appearance of ware with pointed and rounded bottoms and comb... more 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.

Stratum plus, 2020

Vasilyevka II cemetery dated to the late 8th—7th millennium cal BC was excavated by Abram Stolyar... more Vasilyevka II cemetery dated to the late 8th—7th millennium cal BC was excavated by Abram Stolyar in 1953. Its anthropological materials are among the most studied in the Dnieper Rapids region. On the basis of their analysis, ideas were put forward about two craniological groups of the Meso-Neolithic population in the area, the significant role of plant food (including cereals) in the nutrition of some inhabitants, the possible presence of migrants among the latter. The development of these ideas is hindered by the extreme scarcity of data about the cemetery and inventory due to the lack of field reports and publication, as well as the loss of the finds.
Generalization of all available information and searching for analogues has enabled to suggest that several bearers of the Middle Danube Lepenski Vir culture were buried in the cemetery. This is indicated by mentions of numerous perforated cyprinid pharyngeal teeth and spiral shells of mollusks of possibly Mediterranean origin. Such beads of fish teeth are also found nearby in the cemetery of Skelya-Kamenolomnya. The proposed hypothesis is indirectly confirmed by similar funerary rites and craniological characteristics of the buried from Vasilyevka II and the Mesolithic settlements in the Iron Gates, the presence of carriers of the same DNA groups there, the frequent records of torus mandibularis and common δ13C values which are not typical for the buried in other Dnieper Rapids cemeteries.

Until recently, only 7 inhumations in crouched on side position, found in Ak-Mechetka, Konstantyn... more 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.

Division into periods of the Neolithic in the Buh River region is the base of the relative chrono... more 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.

The concept of the early Neolithisation of the Azov Sea area was founded in the 1950s. It is base... more The concept of the early Neolithisation of the Azov Sea area was founded in the 1950s. It is based on some nowadays lost finds of the Kamiana Mogyla-1 site. The author infers that the published identification of its fauna is total for layers of the 8—6th ka cal BC. V. Danilenko’s data about livestock bones in the Mesolithic layers has no documentary proof. I. Pidoplichko’s fauna identification is called into question because the antiglacial theory and “Michurinist Biology” influenced his views.

It is known V. Danilenko's concept of the autochthonous origin of stockbreeding in the Azov Sea a... more 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.

A review of the available records on the Early Neolithic in the Dnister River basin leads one to ... more 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.

The site of Bazkiv Ostriv was investigated by Valentyn Danylenko on the same name island in the m... more 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.

Our knowledge of dating and periodisation of the Neolithic Buh-Dniester Culture in whole is based... more Our knowledge of dating and periodisation of the Neolithic Buh-Dniester Culture in whole is based mainly on the results obtained from a few sequences from the Middle part of the South Buh river basin, excavated by Valentine Danylenko in 1949—1961. The author has begun to re-analyse and re-publish their collections and field documentation. This paper therefore describes and discusses the Hlynske I Neolithic settlement from this region.
Neolithic finds were collected by P. Khavlyuk and V. Danylenko on the surface of a more than 100-meter part of the right lower terrace of the Buh River, to the south of the Hlynske village (Nemyriv district, Vinnitsa area) in 1955 and 1957. Additionally, a section of 35 meters in length was cleaned by them in 1957 and two small excavations (complex no. 1 and 2) were investigated at its opposite ends. The site today is flooded by waters of the Ladyzhin reservoir.
The collection of finds from the site, stored in the Institute of Archaeology, NASU, consists of 160 fragments of 16 Neolithic vessels, seven fragments of seven vessels of later times, 82 flint artefacts, one bone tool and six animal bones. The Neolithic pottery is subdivided into three types: a) the Samchyntsi type with notched stamp impressions, made from a paste with an abundant coarse-grained mineral admixture — gruss of quartz and feldspar; b) the Pechera type with incised and channelled lines, impressions and pinches from finger nails, made from a paste tempered with a crushed cockleshell; c) a grey high quality pottery with knobs, the surface covered in a self-slip and burnished, similar to fine ware from the late sites of the Criş-Körös Culture. The stratigraphic sequence of pottery of these different types has not been recorded and the location of the pottery fragments, discovered in the surface collections, was described very roughly. However, the location of vessels of both the Pechera and Criş-like type were strictly ascertained around the stone fireplaces in the excavated homogeneous complex no. 1. This indicates these were synchronous and dates them approximately to the middle of the 6th millennium cal BC. Specific to the flint collection from this site, there is a lack of artefacts from the Kukrek Mesolithic culture, which has been recorded in the vast majority of sites with the pottery of Pechera type in the South Buh River area.

Finds of the Bug-Dniester painted ceramics are very rare. So far, only four fragments of dark pai... more 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.

Documenta Praehistorica, LI, 2024

Linearbandkeramik (LBK) is the most well-studied Neolithic culture in Central Europe. However, th... more Linearbandkeramik (LBK) is the most well-studied Neolithic culture in Central Europe. However, the easternmost part of its area is less known to European researchers. Addressing this gap, information on 175 reliable and 95 questionable LBK sites and six sub-Neolithic sites with LBK pottery in Ukraine has been collected, verified, and systematized. The precise mapping of these sites provided in this paper allows future analysis of their spatial distribution. Accurate contouring of the eastern boundary of the LBK area has revealed the exploitation and exchange of flint, graphite, and salt as a possible driving force of the first farmers’ mobility in the region.

Open Archaeology 8: 1138–1169, 2022

In contrast to large-scale prehistoric migrations, associated with massive population shifts and ... more In contrast to large-scale prehistoric migrations, associated with massive population shifts and changes in material culture, movements of small human groups or single individuals are barely visible but no less important. In publications of the 1960s-2000s, specificity of craniological, odontological, and metrical characteristics as well as stable isotope values of some individuals distinguishing the Late Mesolithic cemetery of Vasylivka II among other Mesolithic and Neolithic burial sites in the Dnipro River basin was explained by some gene flows. However, archaeologists could not develop these views since the original excavation report of 1953 and all grave goods from Vasylivka II were considered lost. Another old field document, where pendants of the pharyngeal teeth of fish, and the shells of spiral, probably Mediterranean, molluscs found there were mentioned, allowed the recent suggestion of the author of the current article that several individuals from the Danube Iron Gates region were interred in the cemetery. Previous arguments along with new evidence are presented here to develop this hypothesis. Re-found personal ornaments from one burial, the only available grave goods from Vasylivka II, are published here for the first time. The established regularity that most relatively young men and women from the graveyard have conditional "Danubian" δ13C values in the range from −20 to −21‰ assumes the mutual exchange of marriage partners born in the Iron Gates and the Dnipro Rapids. A waterborne route is discussed as a more probable mode of communication between these regions.

Sprawozdania Archeologiczne 73/1, 9-55, 2021

For a long time, finds of the Linear Band Pottery culture (LBK) on the Southern Buh numbered only... more 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.

Archaeology and Early History of Ukraine, 2020

Traditional ideas about the origin of the Buh-Dnister Culture (BDC) and its synchronisation with ... more Traditional ideas about the origin of the Buh-Dnister Culture (BDC) and its synchronisation with the Neolithic cultures of the Danube-Carpathian region were questioned by series of radiocarbon dates measured on bones at the Kyiv laboratory in the 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.
The set of new dates has given a wide scatter of their values within the entire period outlined by the previous BDC dates. Moreover, the two results of the second quarter of the 7th millennium BC for the Hlynske 1 and Bazkiv Ostriv site are beyond it and may potentially be the oldest dates of the culture. However, analysis of the samples in terms of carbon content, their susceptibility to the influence of the freshwater reservoir effect, correspondence to the stratigraphy of the sites and typology of materials detected only six more credible dates. Their order on the timeline coincides with generally accepted ideas about the sequence of existence of the different BDC pottery types. The youngest is the vessel of the Savran type from Shumyliv-Cherniatka has yielded two dates falling into the range of 4723—4491 cal BC, when the Trypillia culture bearers already populat the region. Two vessels of the Samchyntsi type from Bazkiv Ostriv yield three dates within the range of 5288—4847 cal BC, which corresponds to their finding next to fragments of fine «music-note» bowls of the Linear Band Pottery Culture. The Skybyntsi type vessel from Bazkiv Ostriv yield the oldest plausible date of 5621—5514 cal BC, which corresponds to the age of the Criş monuments in Moldova.
Unfortunately, the new dates did not shed light on the issues of the time and direction of the first pottery spreading in the region. Thus, this needs further research including reliably direct radiocarbon dating on pottery.

Documenta Praehistorica 46: 216—245, 2019

Ideas about the origin of the Buh-Dnister Culture under the influence of the Danube Early Neolith... more 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.

The study of impressions of plants in ancient pottery is one of the traditional methods of archae... more The study of impressions of plants in ancient pottery is one of the traditional methods of archaeobotanical research. Twenty years ago, Halina Pashkevych identified traces of a few cultivated species on the potsherds of the Buh-Dnister culture (BDC) from the Southern Buh River basin based on naked-eye observations (Pashkevich 2000; Kotova 2002). In particular, impressions of grains of Triticum monococcum and Triticum dicoccum were found on the surface of some vessels from the Bazkiv Ostriv site, excavated by Valentyn Danylenko in 1959 (fig. 1).
The use of silicone rubber resin to obtain replicas — positive copies of impressions (fig. 2), as well as the use of a scanning electron microscope significantly improved the reliability of specific identifications of traces of plants in recent decades (Ushino, Tagawa 1991; Hisa, Katada 2005). This allows drawing conclusions based on not only grain size and shape but also its anatomically detailed fresh surface, which gets a more reliable result than even the study of charred remains from flotation. Re-identification of impressions on Neolithic vessels from Ukraine using the improved methodology was the goal of a joint Japan-Ukrainian archaeobotanical project, implemented in 2016—2019 (Endo et al. 2017; 2019). Among others, the materials of the Bazkiv Ostriv site were studied.
All ceramic finds from the site (701 fragments from 90 vessels including 668 potsherds from 81 BDC vessels and nine fragments from two vessels of the Linear Pottery Culture) were examined. In total, 24 traces identified now or were identified earlier as possible impressions of seeds of plants have been found. The research of them using Replica-SEM method (fig. 3) allowed making only two reliable species definitions. These are impressions of elderberry cf. Sambucus seeds (Bzk-003, Bzk-004) on the surface of vessel 22 of the Skybyntsi type (fig. 4). Another trace was interpreted as a possible impression of the chaff of probable cereal plant doesn’t indefinite for species (Bzk-006). It was recorded on the surface of vessel 1 of the Samchyntsi type (fig. 5). The majority of the rest samples could not be identified even for plants.
As a result, none of the observed potsherds from the site, including already published ones as having cereal impressions, contains traces of cultivated plants at present. This conclusion applies to other archaeobotanicaly examined pottery from the BDC monuments too. The absence of farming activity is indirectly evidenced by the complete lack of flint blades sections with characteristic gloss (so-called «sickle inserts») in the flint assemblages of the culture (Haskevych 2003). The absence of changes in the location of the sites in comparison with the previous Mesolithic ones in the region may indicate the preservation of a traditional hunter-fisher-gatherer way of life. So, the influence of neighbour farmer groups there can be traced only in sporadic exchange of prestigious goods, as well as in attempts to imitate the decoration and forms of pottery of the Kriş, Vinča, Szakálhát cultures. That is why it would be more correct to call the BDC not Neolithic but Para-Neolithic, or Sub-Neolithic.

Potsherds from a few vessels with Cardium decoration were recently found in old collections of so... more 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.

The site 2 at Vita-Poshtova, the easternmost site of the Linear Band Pottery culture (LBPC), is s... more 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.

Arheologia 4, pp. 105-119, 2022

Valerii Manko and Guram Chkhatarashvili published their article in the “Arheologia”, No. 2, 2022.... more Valerii Manko and Guram Chkhatarashvili published their article in the “Arheologia”, No. 2, 2022. In the paper, they discussed the migration of bearers of four Neolithic flint industries from Southwest Asia through the Caucasus to the south of Eastern Europe from the final Pleistocene to the early Atlantic. According to the authors, stable connections between these remote areas led to the emergence of four “information networks”, which they called “Cultural-Historical Regions” (CHR). The authors believe that the first region of such type in human history was the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) in the Near East. Therefore, they call the “theoretical basis” of their study “the idea of understanding the Neolithic as an epoch of the formation of global information networks, within which innovations created in the Near and Middle East were disseminated.”
V. Manko began to develop the described theoretical views in 2010 when he wrote that the reason for the emergence of the CHR is the ability to communicate, formed due to the mental changes of inhabitants of the PPNA large settlements. The statement about specific psyche and worldview as the basis of Neolithic has been expressed as an idea of Post-Processual archaeology long before V. Manko announced it. In particular, Trevor Watkins developed this concept in detail. However, V. Manko does not mention works by any post-processualists in his publications.
The statement about the formation of the ability to communicate only in the Neolithic is V. Manko’s novelty. He based it on one reference to a publication of Alexey N. Sorokin, who allegedly claimed that the bearers of different flint industries did not contact each other in the central part of European Russia in the Mesolithic. V. Manko misinterpreted this particular subjective observation and gave it the meaning of a global pattern. Thus, his definition of the Neolithic is controversial, because of using this erroneous premise. Generally, V. Manko’s theoretical reasoning is full of contradictions, logical errors, terminological chaos, and rhetoric in the postmodernism style. It is noteworthy that V. Manko himself does not fully adhere to his previous theoretical views in his later works.

Archaeologists so far have connected appearance of ware with pointed and rounded bottoms and comb... more 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.

Stratum plus, 2020

Vasilyevka II cemetery dated to the late 8th—7th millennium cal BC was excavated by Abram Stolyar... more Vasilyevka II cemetery dated to the late 8th—7th millennium cal BC was excavated by Abram Stolyar in 1953. Its anthropological materials are among the most studied in the Dnieper Rapids region. On the basis of their analysis, ideas were put forward about two craniological groups of the Meso-Neolithic population in the area, the significant role of plant food (including cereals) in the nutrition of some inhabitants, the possible presence of migrants among the latter. The development of these ideas is hindered by the extreme scarcity of data about the cemetery and inventory due to the lack of field reports and publication, as well as the loss of the finds.
Generalization of all available information and searching for analogues has enabled to suggest that several bearers of the Middle Danube Lepenski Vir culture were buried in the cemetery. This is indicated by mentions of numerous perforated cyprinid pharyngeal teeth and spiral shells of mollusks of possibly Mediterranean origin. Such beads of fish teeth are also found nearby in the cemetery of Skelya-Kamenolomnya. The proposed hypothesis is indirectly confirmed by similar funerary rites and craniological characteristics of the buried from Vasilyevka II and the Mesolithic settlements in the Iron Gates, the presence of carriers of the same DNA groups there, the frequent records of torus mandibularis and common δ13C values which are not typical for the buried in other Dnieper Rapids cemeteries.

Until recently, only 7 inhumations in crouched on side position, found in Ak-Mechetka, Konstantyn... more 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.

Division into periods of the Neolithic in the Buh River region is the base of the relative chrono... more 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.

The concept of the early Neolithisation of the Azov Sea area was founded in the 1950s. It is base... more The concept of the early Neolithisation of the Azov Sea area was founded in the 1950s. It is based on some nowadays lost finds of the Kamiana Mogyla-1 site. The author infers that the published identification of its fauna is total for layers of the 8—6th ka cal BC. V. Danilenko’s data about livestock bones in the Mesolithic layers has no documentary proof. I. Pidoplichko’s fauna identification is called into question because the antiglacial theory and “Michurinist Biology” influenced his views.

It is known V. Danilenko's concept of the autochthonous origin of stockbreeding in the Azov Sea a... more 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.

A review of the available records on the Early Neolithic in the Dnister River basin leads one to ... more 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.

The site of Bazkiv Ostriv was investigated by Valentyn Danylenko on the same name island in the m... more 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.

Our knowledge of dating and periodisation of the Neolithic Buh-Dniester Culture in whole is based... more Our knowledge of dating and periodisation of the Neolithic Buh-Dniester Culture in whole is based mainly on the results obtained from a few sequences from the Middle part of the South Buh river basin, excavated by Valentine Danylenko in 1949—1961. The author has begun to re-analyse and re-publish their collections and field documentation. This paper therefore describes and discusses the Hlynske I Neolithic settlement from this region.
Neolithic finds were collected by P. Khavlyuk and V. Danylenko on the surface of a more than 100-meter part of the right lower terrace of the Buh River, to the south of the Hlynske village (Nemyriv district, Vinnitsa area) in 1955 and 1957. Additionally, a section of 35 meters in length was cleaned by them in 1957 and two small excavations (complex no. 1 and 2) were investigated at its opposite ends. The site today is flooded by waters of the Ladyzhin reservoir.
The collection of finds from the site, stored in the Institute of Archaeology, NASU, consists of 160 fragments of 16 Neolithic vessels, seven fragments of seven vessels of later times, 82 flint artefacts, one bone tool and six animal bones. The Neolithic pottery is subdivided into three types: a) the Samchyntsi type with notched stamp impressions, made from a paste with an abundant coarse-grained mineral admixture — gruss of quartz and feldspar; b) the Pechera type with incised and channelled lines, impressions and pinches from finger nails, made from a paste tempered with a crushed cockleshell; c) a grey high quality pottery with knobs, the surface covered in a self-slip and burnished, similar to fine ware from the late sites of the Criş-Körös Culture. The stratigraphic sequence of pottery of these different types has not been recorded and the location of the pottery fragments, discovered in the surface collections, was described very roughly. However, the location of vessels of both the Pechera and Criş-like type were strictly ascertained around the stone fireplaces in the excavated homogeneous complex no. 1. This indicates these were synchronous and dates them approximately to the middle of the 6th millennium cal BC. Specific to the flint collection from this site, there is a lack of artefacts from the Kukrek Mesolithic culture, which has been recorded in the vast majority of sites with the pottery of Pechera type in the South Buh River area.

Finds of the Bug-Dniester painted ceramics are very rare. So far, only four fragments of dark pai... more 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.

18th Conference of the International Workgroup for Palaeoethnobotany (Lecce, 3rd - 8th June 2019)

Інтерпретація археологічних джерел: здобутки та виклики. Матеріали наукової конференції молодих вчених / редактор-упорядник А.В. Корохіна. Київ: Стародавній світ, 2017.

Wetland Archaeology and Prehistoric Networks in Europe / NEENAWA International Scientific Conference, September 15th-18th, 2017 / eds. Y. Morozova, P. Shydlovskyi. — Kyiv – Kaniv, 2017.

International Scientific Conference "HUMAN & LANDSCAPE: Geographical approach іn the Prehistoric Archaeology" (February 3 - 5, 2016, Kyiv, Ukraine): Abstracts. - Kyiv: 2016.