The Bug–Dniester culture was 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 ...

that developed in and around the

Central Black Earth Region The Central Black Earth Region or the Central-Chernozem Region; is a segment of the Eurasian Black Earth belt that lies within Central Russia and comprises Voronezh Oblast, Lipetsk Oblast, Belgorod Oblast, Tambov Oblast, Oryol Oblast and K ...

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, around the

Dniester The Dniester ( ) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and then through Moldova (from which it more or less separates the breakaway territory of Transnistria), finally discharging into the Black Sea on Uk ...

and

Southern Bug The Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh (; ; ; or just ), and sometimes Boh River (; ),

rivers, during the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

era. Over the course of approximately 1,300 years (from the years 6300–5000 BC), the Bug–Dniester culture went through different cultural phases; during this period of time the population remained about the same. The Neolithic phase in this region developed out of the local

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

, through contact with the

Chalcolithic The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...

cultures in the west and Neolithic hunter-gatherer cultures in the East (adhering to Soviet terminology, Neolithic is defined here as pottery-bearing, not agricultural). The people in this region relied predominantly on hunting

aurochs The aurochs (''Bos primigenius''; or ; pl.: aurochs or aurochsen) is an extinct species of Bovini, bovine, considered to be the wild ancestor of modern domestic cattle. With a shoulder height of up to in bulls and in cows, it was one of t ...

red deer The red deer (''Cervus elaphus'') is one of the largest deer species. A male red deer is called a stag or Hart (deer), hart, and a female is called a doe or hind. The red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Ir ...

, roe deer, and

boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a Suidae, suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The speci ...

, and fishing for

rutilus ''Rutilus'', commonly known as roaches, is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This genus is a widely distributed lineage of leuciscids and r ...

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 20 families, 164 genera, and about 1000 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

, and pike. They made pottery from approximately 6200 BC of a sort derived from the

Elshanka culture The Elshanka culture (Russian: Елшанская культура) was a Subneolithic or very early Neolithic culture that flourished in the middle Volga region in the 7th millennium BC. The sites are mostly individual graves scattered along the ...

of the middle

Volga The Volga (, ) is the longest river in Europe and the longest endorheic basin river in the world. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Caspian Sea. The Volga has a length of , and a catchment ...

. Much of this pottery had pointed bottoms, designed for cooking over a fire; they were often decorated in patterns of wavy lines. This local culture was influenced by the neighboring

Körös culture The Körös culture/Criș culture is a Neolithic archaeological culture in Central Europe that was named after the river Körös in eastern Hungary. The same river has the name Criș in Romania, hence the name ''Criş culture''. The 2 variants ...

, whose origins lay in the

Carpathian basin The Pannonian Basin, with the term Carpathian Basin being sometimes preferred in Hungarian literature, is a large sedimentary basin situated in southeastern Central Europe. After the Treaty of Trianon following World War I, the geomorphologic ...

. The Körös farmers had arrived in the upper valleys of the Seret and

Prut The Prut (also spelled in English as Pruth; , ) is a river in Eastern Europe. It is a left tributary of the Danube, and is long. Part of its course forms Romania's border with Moldova and Ukraine. Characteristics The Prut originates on the eas ...

in around 5800–5700 BC. Körös pottery forms were copied by the Bug–Dniester people. Wild grasses were abandoned in favor of

einkorn Einkorn wheat (from German ''Einkorn'', literally "single grain") can refer to either a wild species of wheat (''Triticum'') or a domesticated form of wheat. The wild form is ''T. boeoticum'' (syn. ''T. m.'' subsp. ''boeoticum''), and the domes ...

emmer Emmer is a hybrid species of wheat, producing edible seeds that have been used as food since ancient times. The domesticated types are ''Triticum turgidum'' subsp. ''dicoccum'' and ''T. t. ''conv.'' durum''. The wild plant is called ''T. t.'' s ...

, and

spelt Spelt (''Triticum spelta''), also known as dinkel wheat is a species of wheat. It is a relict crop, eaten in Central Europe and northern Spain. It is high in protein and may be considered a health food. Spelt was cultivated from the Neolit ...

, and cattle-breeding was adopted. Some of the earliest known evidence for domesticated plants and animals during the Neolithic are the porcine and cattle bones and

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

and emmer found in the Ponto-Caspian Steppe at Bug–Dniester sites.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bug-Dniester culture Archaeological cultures in Moldova Archaeological cultures in Romania Archaeological cultures in Ukraine Archaeological cultures of Europe

See also

References

Sources