Cucuteni-Trypillia: Eastern Europe's lost civilisation

Excavated megasites in Moldova, Romania and Ukraine reveal ancient cities shaped by advanced construction techniques and large populations.

"You know there is a book by Jules Verne called the Mysterious Island, where people find themselves on an island and begin to build a civilisation?" asked Mykhailo Videiko, an archaeologist at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University in Ukraine. "But here it is not a fictional story," he paused. "This is a real story." Silenced twice, once by time and again by politics, the ancient civilisation of Cucuteni-Trypillia is once again finding voices to share its story. 

The story of Trypillia, as it is commonly known, started 7,000 years ago in what is now Eastern Europe, primarily Moldova, Romania and Ukraine. Excavated settlements offer modern archaeologists one of the earliest known examples of urbanisation and suggest a population that exceeded one million people.

The people of Trypillia "managed to implement almost all technological innovations of their time," said Videiko. Advanced kilns supported sophisticated pottery decorated with patterns and colour. Construction techniques allowed for buildings as large as 700sq m. Found objects indicate a culture that worshipped goddesses.

Trypillia research was initially embraced by the Soviet Union, which funded archaeological projects. Communist officials seized on parallels between the impressive ancient civilisation and Marxist ideology that promoted a classless society with no private ownership. It was thought that "Trypillia was a wonderful illustration of a pre-class, classless society or primitive communism," said Videiko. But when indications that Trypillia may not have been the classless utopia it first appeared, things quickly changed.

"As archaeologists are digging more, they start discovering megasites of Trypillia civilisation. They start finding all these huge buildings. And the question arises: Could this all be done by a classless society?" said Videiko.

In the years that followed, researchers who challenged the official propaganda were deemed enemies of the state. Archaeologists fled, and some were convicted as members of a terrorist spy organisation. Books that furthered the study of Trypillia were published outside the country, but, said Videiko, "Those books never reached Ukraine. They were researching something but almost no one here knew about it. Those who knew, remained silent."

Today, Trypillia's legacy is being revived through fashion. Ukrainian designer Svitlana Bevza has found inspiration in the female-centred art of the ancient civilisation and uses her line of Trypillia-influenced clothing and jewellery as a way of celebrating the culture, its reverence toward women and its connection to nature. She said it's unjust that "this great culture is not that well-known in the world – as Egyptian, for instance. There was no voice to the world who could talk about this culture".

An advanced civilisation built from nothing is not just the stuff of fantasy novels, it's also the true story, being told once again, of Cucuteni-Trypillia.

(Video by Valeria Kovtun; text by Christine Sarkis)

This video is part of BBC Reel’s Forgotten Places playlist.

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