Trypillian Mystery

By Walter Kish

I can’t remember when I was first exposed to Trypillian art, but I do know that I was quite floored with how aesthetically pleasing and modernistic those distinctive ochre, black and white designs looked.  It was hard to believe that they were from five to seven thousand years old. 

Those free-flowing geometric swirls captured my imagination, and for years after, I would attempt to recreate them each spring when it came time to make Ukrainian Easter eggs.  While the rest of my family made the more traditional patterns, I would experiment with abstract Trypillian designs.  There was something fascinating and dynamic about those shapes and lines, particularly when applied to the surface of an egg.  Although there is nothing in the archaeological  records that would indicate that the Trypillians decorated eggs in this way, it is but a short leap of the imagination when one examines their rounded pottery surfaces, of which we have numerous examples from the various excavations north of the Black Sea that mark the boundaries of Trypillian settlement and culture.

I am reminded of all this, because the last weekend in November marks the opening of a major new exhibit on Trypillian culture and history at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.  The exhibition is being mounted in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology in Ukraine and will run through until March 22, 2009.  As well as displaying numerous examples of Trypillian art and artefacts excavated over the past century in Ukraine, the exhibition will provide a comprehensive overview of Trypillian life, social organization, construction and agricultural methods, traditions and beliefs.

The Trypillians lived in central and south western Ukraine in the period from 5000 BC to approximately 2400 BC, when they mysteriously disappeared.  They did however leave behind considerable archaeological evidence, particularly in the form of pottery and the remains of surprisingly large and well organized villages and urban societies.  This evidence testifies to a well developed agricultural society with advanced tool-making and artisanal skills, including pottery, blacksmithing and weaving - amongst the most advanced of any of the Copper Age or Neolithic societies of that time.

Evidence of the Trypillians first came to light in 1897 as a result of the discovery of the remains of a Neolithic settlement south of Kyiv near the village of Trypillia by archaeologist Vikentiy Khvoika.  Since then, some two thousand additional sites have been found and excavated, leading to a veritable treasure trove of archaeological evidence.  Yet despite this, the question of why they disappeared after some three thousand years of successful habitation of the Steppe lands remains a continuing mystery. It is a vexing one, since this was a large society by the standards of that time – an estimated one million people grouped into large villages and towns.

One theory holds that they were “proto Slavs” or the ancestors of what evolved into the various Slavic tribes that would come to dominate the area some three thousand years later. Other historians claim they were simply assimilated by the Cimmerians and Scythians that pushed into the area from the east, though there is little concrete evidence to substantiate this assumption.

Whatever the case, they provide fertile ground for imagination and speculation, and exhibitions such as the one opening at the ROM this week will add further fuel to the fire.  It should be well worth seeing.