Ukraine/Republic of Moldavia - Cernavodă I and Usatovo culture in the northwest Black Sea

Between the East and the West

The cultural development in the northwest Black Sea area during the 4th millennium BC, with special attention on the Cernavodă I and Usatovo culture

Location

Sites of the Cernavodă I and Usatovo cultures in the northwest Black Sea area.

Usatovo. Bolšoj Kujalnik. View of the settlement hill from the east.

The northwest Pontus area, in specific the region of Odessa and southern Moldavia, represents the western fringes of the Eurasian steppe. It is bounded in the south by the Black Sea, while the Prut and Danube rivers form the border in the west, the Dniester river in the east and the Moldavian-Ukrainian forest steppe in the north.

History

	Ternovka. Tumulus 2, grave 16. Anthropomorphic figurine (Cernavodă I).

Since time immemorial the steppe belt around the northwest Black Sea area has been an important zone of communication and contact between Central Europe and the eastern steppe, which led to rapid changes in the cultural developments in this area. During the prehistoric and historical periods this zone presented a major corridor for migration, whereas in modern times it served as a buffer zone between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. The entire area came under the power of the Russian tsars in 1812 and in 1917 was joined to the Soviet Union. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, most of the area was integrated into the Ukraine with the administrative centre of Odessa. An exception is the so-called Budzak steppe in the north, the major part of which belongs to the Republic of Moldavia. This eventful history has resulted in a unique cultural and ethnic intertwining, so that today the area is populated by Ukrainians, Gagauzians, Romanians, Moldavians, Russians and Bulgarians, who live side by side.  

Objectives

	The settlement Kosari on the eastern periphery of the greater area of Odessa.
	Ogorodnoe. Tumulus 1, grave 16; Nerusaj. Tumulus 9, grave 82. Dagger of the Usatovo culture.

The subject of research concerns the early Neolithic cultures Cernavodă I and Usatovo, which introduced a significant change and left a decisive mark upon this area during the fourth millennium BC.

The aim of this project entails, firstly, a comprehensive compilation and presentation of archaeological contexts and finds, which represent the desideratum for research. This is complemented by chronological-stratigraphical analyses, in order to establish a basis for the study of important aspects such as the emergence, way of life and development of the late Neolithic cultures in the northwest Pontic area.

Further, the project aims at making an assessment of the processes that led to the demise of the classical Copper-Age cultures of Varna, Gumelniţa and Karanovo VI, as well as the emergence of the subsequent yet less developed Cernavodă I culture. Thereby, one area of research focuses upon social as well as natural factors.

A second aspect for investigation involves the cultural and chronological continuity between the Cernavodă I and Usatovo cultures, that is, the blending together of the Cucuteni and Cernavodă I traditions, which led to the appearance of the Usatovo culture and in association with that the formation of new cultures. Moreover, the far-reaching ties of the Usatovo culture, which contributed to the dissemination of the domesticated horse, to the decisive stimulation of arsenic-copper metallurgy and thus to the intensification of contacts between East and West, will be closely studied and evaluated.  

History of Research

	Taraklija. Tumulus 18, grave 18. Vessel of the Usatovo culture.
	Mayaki. Tumulus 5, grave 4. Painted vessel of the Usatovo culture.

The Cernavodă I culture is characterised foremost by a simple repertory of archaeological material. This includes pottery tempered with shell and decorated with cord impressions as well as typifying anthropomorphic figurines. The first finds of this cultural characterisation were made in 1917 in the settlement complex of Cernavodă near Constanţa in Dobrudza. They were however long viewed as a component part of the Gumelniţa culture. Only after further excavations in the 1950s and 1960s at the site of Cernavodă itself and at the tell settlements of Hărova, Căscioarele, Chirnogi, Olteniţa-Renie and Ulmeni did the cultural layers with distinctive Cernavodă-I material come to light, which supplied a sufficient material basis for defining this culture.

Sites of the Cernavodă I culture are still being investigated today, most of which are located in Romania. By contrast, peripheral sites of the culture in the northern Pontic area are still far less known, despite the appearance of the Cernavodă I culture as a result of an intrusion from the eastern steppe area.
Usatovo material had already been discovered at the end of the 19th century on the lower Dniester river. Yet, a definition of this culture could only be developed in the 1920s and 1930s, after excavations had been conducted at the eponymous settlement site of Usatovo near Odessa and the surrounding large cemeteries with flat and tumulus graves. Further investigations followed in the 1960s and 1970s, again in Usatovo cemeteries as well as in the settlement and necropolis at Mayaki. The settlement of Gradinci was discovered thereby, but it was not investigated to further extent. In the 1970s excavations were carried out on tumulus graves at Purkari in Moldavia, during which two new Usatovo settlements in Palanka and Slobodzeja were localised.

Until now field work has concerned foremost with the investigation of graves of the Usatovo culture, whereas settlements as the second basic source of information have mostly remained unstudied. Contrarily, investigations on the Cernavodă I culture have mostly excluded graves. This incomplete material basis together with the lack of a comprehensive analytical study of the Cernavodă I and Usatovo cultures are indeed illustrative of a deficit in the current state of research on the Copper Age in Europe.  

Previous Activities

	Orlovka. Excavation season of 2007.
	Orlovka. A hearth found in the layer of the Cernavodă I culture.

During the field survey at Tilgulskij Liman, a thus far unknown settlement site was discovered. In view of the surface finds, it is a settlement of the Cernavodă I culture, which is located on the eastern periphery of this project's sphere of work.

Excavations in Orlovka in 2007 concentrated on the area directly before the fortified settlement. There further typological and stratigraphic evidence was gained of the uninterrupted cultural development from the time of the Gumelniţa, Cernavodă I to Usatovo cultures. Samples were also taken for archaeobotanical and radiocarbon dating.

Further, the archaeological material that stems from past excavations at settlements and graves in Mayaki, Usatovo and Lower Michailovka and is now preserved in the Archaeological Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev was documented, drawn and photographed. A large amount of finds of the Cernavodă I and Usatovo cultures culture in Moldavia was documented in the Archaeological Museum in Chişinău as well.  

Current Work

	Orlovka. Graves of the Cernavodă I culture (excavation in 2006).

Since the start of research work in April 2007, field surveys have been conducted in the area of the Dniester river in southern Moldavia and in the Tilgulskij Liman on the eastern periphery of the greater area of Odessa. The documentation of pertinent material located in different archaeological institutions in Kiev and Chisinau as well as the initial excavation season in Orlovka have been completed.  

Methods

The research program foresees work in the terrain as well as in museums. Work in the terrain will entail geophysical and archaeological prospection of selected sites in order to determine their structure. Furthermore, the excavation at the settlement site of Orlovka near Reni (Ukraine) will be continued, where a stratigraphic succession of the Gumelniţa, Cernavodă I and Usatovo cultures could be determined for the first time. Within this framework, in addition to the archaeological material, samples will be taken for archaeobotanical and archaeozoological examination and for radiocarbon dating. Work in museums will include the collection of material in archaeological institutions in Romania, the Ukraine and the Republic of Moldavia.

In general, the research project should concentrate above all on geophysical and archaeological prospection and the compilation of material that is already available but mostly not published. Thereby, new large-scaled excavations are purposely not planned, a decision which is intended to safeguard all potential information - of financial nature as well as the actual prehistoric substance itself - from extant sites.  

Cooperation

The project represents the joint undertaking of the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology of the Free University in Berlin (Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hänsel) and the Eurasia Department of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin (Prof. Dr. Svend Hansen).

Partner institutions:
Anthropological High School Chisinau, Republic of Moldavia
Archaeological Museum of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Odessa, Ukraine
Archaeological Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences in Kiev, Ukraine



Ansprechpartner:

Prof. Dr. Blagoje Govedarica

Ur- und Frühgeschichte
Telefon: 030-83008-305
Telefax: 030-83008-313
Email: bgo@eurasien.dainst.de

 

Sponsors

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft  

Bibliography

B. Govedarica, On the Oscillations of the Black Sea Level in the Holocene Period from an Archaeological Viewpoint. In: G. A. Wagner/E. Pernicka/H. P. Uerpmann (Hrsg.), Troia and Troad. Scientific Approaches (Heidelberg 2003) 95-104.

B. Govedarica, Zepterträger - Herrscher der Steppen. Die frühen Ockergräber des älteren Äneolithikums im karpatenbalkanischen Gebiet und in Steppenraum Südost- und Osteuropas (Mainz 2004).

И. В. Манзура, O генезисе памятников усатовского типа. Раннеземле-дельческие поселения-гиганты трипольской культури (Талыанки 1990) 183-187.

I. V. Manzura, Cernavodă I culture. In: L. Nikolova, The Balkans in Later Prehistory. BAR International Series 791 (Oxford 1999) 95-174.