The Carpathian Tumuli culture (or "Carpathian Kurgan culture") is the name given to an

archaeological culture An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...

which evolved in the parts of the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

between the end of the 2nd and end of the 4th century AD. It was less vast than the area occupied by the

Lipiţa culture Lipitsa culture (Romanian ''Lipița'', Polish ''Lipica'', German: ''Lipitza'') is the archaeological material culture supposedly representative of a Dacian tribe.The enhtholihgiustic associaltion of both the culture and the supposedly connecte ...

, encompassing today's

Pokuttya Pokuttia, also known as Pokuttya or Pokutia ( uk, Покуття, Pokuttya; pl, Pokucie; german: Pokutien; ro, Pocuția), is a historical area of East-Central Europe, situated between the Dniester and Cheremosh rivers and the Carpathian Mounta ...

, Maramureş, Bucovina and to a lesser extent, Northwest

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...

. The arrival of

East Germanic tribes The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and ear ...

in the Upper

Dniester The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and th ...

region forced the

Costoboci The Costoboci (; lat, Costoboci, Costobocae, Castabocae, Coisstoboci, grc, Κοστωβῶκοι, Κοστουβῶκοι or Κοιστοβῶκοι) were a Dacian tribe located, during the Roman imperial era, between the Carpathian Mountains an ...

to withdraw or crowd into the Carpathians at the end of the 2nd century AD and the beginning of the 3rd, where a part of them were already living. Other groups migrated to the area of the Carpi people (Moldova) or remained to live together with the newly arrived peoples of the

Przeworsk culture The Przeworsk culture () was an Iron Age material culture in the region of what is now Poland, that dates from the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD. It takes its name from the town Przeworsk, near the village where the first artifacts wer ...

. Most of the material evidence of the culture suggests it was Dacian. Tumuli tomb building disappeared from

Roman Dacia Roman Dacia ( ; also known as Dacia Traiana, ; or Dacia Felix, 'Fertile/Happy Dacia') was a province of the Roman Empire from 106 to 271–275 AD. Its territory consisted of what are now the regions of Oltenia, Transylvania and Banat (today ...

with the coming of Imperial administration, but it continued to exist in the unconquered north of Dacia, a sign that the local population kept its ancestral traditions. The demarcation line is fairly clear, since the neighbour Przeworsk peoples did not have tumular tombs. As in the Lipiţa culture, the dead were cremated and their ashes were put in urns which were buried in the tumuli. The difference with the Carpathian Tumuli culture is that plane tombs are no longer found, but only (or almost only) tumular tombs. After Roman emperor

Theodosius I Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...

defeated the neighbouring Carpi people in 381 AD, the people of the Carpathian Tumuli culture lost an important ally and this archaeological culture dissipates soon after, its place being taken by another one, the Sântana de Mureș–Chernyakhov culture, which also replaces the Poieneşti – Lucaşevca culture in the Northwestern Moldavian Subcarpathians, formed by the Bastarnae between the Costoboci and the Carpi. We can follow the Costoboci even after the beginning of the 5th century, the newly formed

Prague-Korchak culture The Prague-Korchak culture was an archaeological culture attributed to the Early Slavs. The other contemporary main Early Slavic culture was the Penkovka culture, Prague-Penkovka culture situated further south, with which it makes up the "Prague-t ...

being linked to the Carpathian Tumuli. There was no chronological break between the two cultures; the Costoboci remained on their territories, but now start to receive not only Slavic-type material culture elements, but also some Slavic population.

References

* Gheorghe Bichir, ''Dacii liberi din nordul Daciei'' in ''Spaţiul nord-est carpatic în mileniul întunecat'', Historica, Iaşi, 1997 * Mircea Ignat, ''Spaţiul nord-est carpatic în secolele I - III d. Chr.'' in ''Spaţiul nord-est carpatic în mileniul întunecat'', Historica, Iaşi, 1997 * Constantin C. Petolescu, ''Carpii în lumina izvoarelor narative şi epigrafice'' in ''Spaţiul nord-est carpatic în mileniul întunecat'', Historica, Iaşi, 1997 * Victor Spinei, ''Bucovina în mileniul întunecat'' in ''Spaţiul nord-est carpatic în mileniul întunecat'', Historica, Iaşi, 1997 Archaeological cultures of Southeastern Europe Archaeological cultures in Romania Archaeological cultures in Ukraine Dacia Tumuli Thracian archaeological cultures {{Ukraine-stub