19th century view of Trypillia, prior
to damming of Dnieper river (Regional Archeological Museum)
Trypillian pots (Regional Archeological Museum)
Trypillia ( , ,
Tripolye) is a village in Ukraine
in Kiev Oblast
with 2,800 inhabitants (as of 1 January
2005). It lies about 40 km south from Kiev
on the
Dnieper River.
The
extensive Neolithic ancient ruin located
near Trypillia was the location of the initial Ukrainian discovery
by the Czech archeologist Vicentiy Khvoika of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture that
existed between 5400-2700 BCE, which covered an area of 35,000 km2
(13,500 square miles), and encompassed present-day southern
Ukraine, Moldova
, and
Romania
. Khvoika reported his findings in 1897 to
the 11th Congress of Archaeologists, marking the official date of
the discovery of this culture. Initially named the Trypillian
culture (or Tripolie in Russian), it eventually was determined that
it and the Cucuteni culture of Romania were the same. Today the
commonly accepted term for this culture combines both names, hence
Cucuteni-Trypillian.
The name of Trypillia means "three fields" in Slavic languages. It
was first mentioned by Kievan chroniclers in connection with the
Battle of the Stugna
River in 1093. During the 12th century, Trypillia was a
fortress which defended approaches towards Kiev from the
steppe. One of its rulers was
Mstislav the Bold. During the subsequent
centuries, the town dwindled into insignificance. In 1919 it was
the venue of the
Trypillia
incident, in which Ukrainian forces under
Danylo Terpylo massacred a unit of
Bolsheviks.
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