The Cucuteni-Trypillia cultural complex and its neighbours: essays in memory of Volodymyr Kruts

Abstract

This book is dedicated to the memory of Dr Volodymyr Kruts, whose studies on the Cucuteni-Trypillia cultural complex made a major contribution to world archaeology.

The volume includes chapters in English, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian, which chronologically span from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in Central and South-eastern Europe, focusing in particular on the Eneolithic/Chalcolithic period. The various papers discuss the general development of the Cucuteni-Trypillia cultural complex, including the giant-settlements (mega-sites), their different aspects of population identity, subsistence in relation to environment, and their archaeological data interpretation. There are also in-depth accounts on the relationship between the Cucuteni-Trypillians (and their settlements) and the neighbouring contemporaneous populations of Central and Southeastern Europe, with a special emphasis placed on the settlement structure, the house construction, the ritual destruction of dwellings, and the different mortuary practices. What makes the volume even more interesting is the combination of recent research, with old data from earlier excavations