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

NoThis 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 excavation

A multiproxy approach to studying a large prehistoric enclosure in Ojców, Kraków Upland, Poland

Due to the presence of multiple caves and rock shelters as well as flint outcrops, Ojców Upland is a region with an exceptionally high concentration of prehistoric human settlement traces. It has attracted archaeologists for over 150 years, leading to what was considered to have been a proper prospection of the area. Nonetheless, the analysis of airborne laser scanning has recently brought surprising results. In the very centre of the upland, on the densely forested hill ‘Złota Góra’ (Golden Hill), the remains of an exceptionally large defensive structure in the form of several rows of embankments were found. The use of magnetic methods made it possible to confirm their anthropogenic origin and the likely type of embankment construction. In turn, the layout of embankments combined with the results of a surface survey and the analyses of the acquired artefacts and the settlement context speak in favour of linking this defensive structure with a high degree of probability with the Neolithic or Eneolithic, most likely the Lengyel-Polgár cycle or Baden culture. The presence of such a large fortification in the immediate vicinity of flint mines could shed new light on the image of the Late Neolithic-Early/Middle Eneolithic period in this part of Europe