A complex subsistence regime revealed for Cucuteni–Trypillia sites in Chalcolithic eastern Europe based on new and old macrobotanical data

Vegetation History and Archaeobotany https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-023-00936-y ORIGINAL ARTICLE A complex subsistence regime revealed for Cucuteni–Trypillia sites in Chalcolithic eastern Europe based on new and old macrobotanical data Wiebke Kirleis1,2 · Marta Dal Corso1,2,3 · Galyna Pashkevych4 · Frank Schlütz1,2 · Robert Hofmann1,2 · Andreea Terna1,2 · Stefan Dreibrodt1,2 · Vitalii Rud5 · Mykhailo Y. Videiko6 · Johannes Müller1,2 Received: 6 March 2023 / Accepted: 19 April 2023 © The Author(s) 2023 Abstract We present a comprehensive data-based characterization of the subsistence economy of Chalcolithic Cucuteni–Trypillia societies (CTS) on the Moldovian and Suceava plateaus and the Podolian and the Dnieper uplands. This study is based on a quantitative evaluation of archaeobotanical samples from 34 settlement sites, with a focus on Trypillia mega-sites and on stable isotopic analysis of ancient crop residues. The isotopic analysis allows us to identify specific cultivation strategies, which show a close relationship with animal husbandry for manure. We describe the economy of the Trypillia mega-sites as having been based on an elaborate agricultural system, in which the inhabitants knew how to grow crops that could withstand the ecological constraints of growth, especially along the forest steppe ecotone. We also argue that the agglomeration of greater population densities at these mega-sites contributed to landscape change from woodland and forest to open grassland and steppe. Following on from this, we suggest that cultivation practices of the CTS were important in the establishment of the present-day cultural steppe in this region. Keywords Archaeobotany · Stable isotopes · Population agglomeration · Chalcolithic · Eneolithic · Urbanism Introduction Communicated by F. Bittmann. * Wiebke Kirleis 1 Institute of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Archaeology, Kiel University, Johanna‑Mestorf‑Strasse 2‑6, 24118 Kiel, Germany 2 Collaborative Research Centre 1266 “Scales of Transformation”, Kiel University, Leibnizstrasse 3, 24118 Kiel, Germany 3 Department of Geosciences, University of Padua, Via Giovanni Gradenigo, 6, Padova 35131, PD, Italy 4 National Museum of Natural Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Bohdana Khmel’nyts’koho St, 15, Kyiv 01030, Ukraine 5 Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Heroyiv Stalinhrada Ave, 12, 04210 Kyiv, Ukraine 6 Research Laboratory of Archaeology, Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Bulvarno‑Kudriavska St, 18/2, Kyiv 04053, Ukraine Population agglomerations of thousands of inhabitants in Chalcolithic mega-sites of the Cucuteni–Trypillia societies (CTS) occurred across the Suceava and the Moldovian plateaus and the Podolian and the Dnieper uplands. This region is in the semi-arid forest steppe ecotone (Fig. 1) and has a humid continental climate, with wet winters and warm summers (Dfb zone; Köppen and Geiger 1939). The Trypillia settlements represented a new spatial concept of social organization which spread eastwards from the Carpathian mountains around 4800 bce, with their core area in the southern river Bug region in the late 5th and early 4th millennia bce. The chronology of CTS is divided into three archaeological phases (in which Trypillia is shortened to Tryp.), early (Tryp. A-B1), middle (divided into Tryp. B1/ B2 and Tryp. B2-C1) and late (Tryp. C2). The mega-sites were built in the middle phases (Tryp. B1/B2-C1), between ca. 4300/4100 and 3650 bce. The mega-site period was preceded and followed, for the most part, by dispersed small and mid-sized settlements. 13 Vol.:(0123456789) Vegetation History and Archaeobotany Fig. 1  Distribution of Cucuteni–Trypillia sites in the forest steppe ecotone, shown as blue dots, in sizes indicating the number of investigated features per site. Dnieper upland (1–12); 1, Grebenjukiv; 2, Chyzhivka; 3, Veselyi Kut; 4, Nebelivka; 6, Volodymyrivka; 7, Moshuriv; 8, Maidanetske*; 9, Talianky; 10, Apolianka; 11, Kosenivka; 12, Rohy. Podolian upland (5, 13–24); 5, Trostianchyk; 13, Bernashivka; 14, Hariachkivka 3; 15, Hariachkivka 7; 16, Hariachkivka 8; 17, Ternivka; 18, Vilshanka; 19, Zabolotne; 20, Bilyi Kamin; 21, Chechelnyk; 22, Viitivka; 23, Kisnytsia; 24, KrynychkyFerma. Suceava Plateau; 25, Valeni-Cetatuie. Moldavian plateau (26– 34); 26, Shcherbaky-Cuconesti Vechi; 27, Carbuna 1; 28, Brinzeni IV; 29, Ozheve; 30, Rusestii Noi; 31, Stefanesti-Hulboca; 32, Stolniceni; 33, Cunicea 1; 34, Cunicea 3, 4. Italics indicate sites from the literature, asterix (*) indicates the site with data from our own research and from the literature (from Map of the Natural Vegetation of Europe, Bohn et al. 2004; graphics by Esther Thelen, IUFG Kiel) Previous research has shown that the decline of the Trypillia mega-sites was caused by the centralization of political power (Hofmann et al. 2019) and not by environmental factors. The soils, hydrology and vegetation should have been able to sustain this society with its subsistence economy (Dal Corso et al. 2019; Dreibrodt et al. 2020). To add to our understanding of the rise and fall of the Trypillia mega-sites, we investigate economic, social and political changes during this period from a study of economically significant plants, through a statistical analysis of charred botanical macroremains from 34 sites, many of them Trypillia mega-sites, supplemented by stable isotope analyses of charred crop remains from some of these same sites. et al. 2019; Ohlrau 2020). The social organization at these sites can be reconstructed from the remains of buildings and the finds of the house inventories. Dwellings with a standard shape and standardised inventories were spatially arranged in neighbourhoods or quarters, each of which had a slightly larger “mega-structure” that according to its specific inventory is interpreted as a communal building. This indicates a society in which decision-making processes were communally negotiated. The involvement of the whole community in decision-making seems to have ended at a certain time, when political power was centralised. In the case of the site of Maidanetske, such a communal society existed for more than 150 years and then collapsed, it is assumed due to political centralization, as the archaeological record shows the decline of medium sized mega-structures and the establishment of one large megastructure there (Müller et al. 2016, 2018; Hofmann et al. 2019). The technological innovation of animal-drawn sledges facilitated agriculture by making it possible to cover long distances in and around the mega-sites. The fields within the sites, that most probably were located a relatively long way from the dwellings and storage areas, were reached in this way, as well as those at the centre of the settlement (Shatilo 2021, pp 229–234). Animal husbandry practices involved a dual pasturing system, combining extensive pasturing of sheep, goats and some cattle outside the se (...truncated)