The Novodanilovka (''Novodanylivka'' in Ukrainian) group, also called the Novodanilovka culture, was a Copper Age culture which flourished along the lower

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and ...

and the steppes of

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

from c. 4400 BC to 3800 BC. The Novodanilovka group is primarily defined by its small cemeteries and individual burials. These burials are characterized as flexed supine burials with orientation to east or northeast. The burials are similar to those of the

Sredny Stog culture The Sredny Stog culture (, romanized: ''Serednʹostohivsʹka kulʹtura'') is a pre-Kurgan archaeological culture from the 5th millennium BC. It is named after the Russian term for the Dnieper river islet of today's Seredny Stih, Ukraine, where ...

, but the burials are more elaborate with chambers of stone coverings. They are also distinguished by rich grave goods of flint, copper and stone weapons, and copper bracelets. It has been suggested that this is a reflection of an aristocratic element of the Sredny Stog culture, rather than a separate cultural group. In the

Kurgan hypothesis The Kurgan hypothesis (also known as the Kurgan theory, Kurgan model, or steppe theory) is the most widely accepted proposal to identify the Proto-Indo-European homeland from which the Indo-European languages spread out throughout Europe and par ...

, the Novodanilovka group is often presented as the archetypical warlike patriarchal

society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...

of the early Indo-Europeans.

Source

* {{cite book , last1=Mallory , first1=J. P. , author-link1=J. P. Mallory , last2=Adams , first2=Douglas Q. , author-link2=Douglas Q. Adams , year=1997 , chapter=Novodanilovka group , editor-last= , editor-first= , editor-link= , title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC , series= , language= , volume= , edition= , location= , publisher=

Taylor & Francis Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 (publisher), F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa ...

, page=395 , isbn=1884964982 , archive-url= , archive-date= , access-date= , via= , quote=
Telegin, D. Y.
Nechitaylo, A. L.
Potekhina, I. D
, Panchenko, Y. V. (2001). ''The Sredny Stog and the Novodanilovka Eneolithic Cultures of the Asov-Black Sea Regions'' (Srednestogovskaya i novodanilovskaya kultury eneolita Asovo-Chernomorskogo regiona). Lugansk: Shlyakh. In Russian. Archaeological cultures in Ukraine Chalcolithic cultures of Europe Indo-European archaeological cultures

See also

Source