The unique size and development of prehistoric megasites of the north Pontic Cucuteni-Tripolye Chalcolithic groups (4100–3600 BCE) challenge modern archeology and paleoecology. The extremely large number of houses (approximately 3000, mostly burned) necessitates the development of multidisciplinary technologies to gain a holistic understanding of such sites. In this contribution, we introduce a novel geophysical methodology and a detailed analysis of magnetic data – including evolved modeling techniques – to provide critical information about the setup of findings, enabling a thorough understanding of the settlement dynamics, apart from invasive excavation techniques. The case study is based on data from magnetic field maps and distribution maps of the daub and pottery find categories. This information is used to infer magnetic models for each find category to numerically calculate their magnetic fields for comparison with the archeological data. The comparison quantifies the sensitivity of the magnetic measurements with respect to the distribution of the different find categories. Next, via inversion computation, the characteristic depth functions of soil magnetization are used to generate maps of magnetization from the measured magnetic field maps. To validate the inverted soil magnetization maps, the magnetic excavation models are used, providing an interpretational frame for the application to magnetic anomalies outside excavated areas. This joint magnetic and archeological methodology allows estimating the find density and testing hypotheses about the burning processes of the houses. In this paper, we show internal patterns of burned houses, comparable to archeological house models, and their calculated masses as examples of the methodology. An application of the new approach to complete megasites has the potential to enable a better understanding of the settlement structure and its evolution, improve the quality of population estimations, and thus calculate the human impact on the forest steppe environment and address questions of resilience and carrying capacity.

Recently, high-resolution magnetometry surveys have led to the discovery of a special category of buildings–so-called ‘mega-structures’–situated in highly visible positions in the public space of Tripolye giant-settlements of the late 5th and first half of the 4th millennium BCE. In this paper we explore what these buildings actually are and how they can contribute to the understanding of the development of social space in Tripolye giant-settlements. For this investigation, we linked newly obtained excavation data from the giant-settlement Maidanetske, Ukraine, with a much larger sample of such buildings from magnetic plans obtained in the region between the Carpathian foothills and the Dnieper River. Accordingly, Tripolye mega-structures represent a particular kind of integrative building documented in many non-ranked ethnographic contexts. Based on our results we are interpreting that these buildings were used for various ritual and non-ritual activities, joint decision-making, and the storage and consumption of surplus. In Tripolye giant-settlements at least three different categories of mega-structures could be identified which most likely represent different levels of socio-political integration and decision-making. The emergence of this hierarchical system of high-level integrative buildings for the whole community and different low-level integrative architectures for certain segments of local communities was related to the rise of Tripolye mega-sites. The presence of different integrative levels most likely reflects the fusion of different previously independent communities in the giant-settlements. Later in the mega-site development, we observe how low-level integrative buildings increasingly lose their importance indicated by shrinking size and, finally, their disappearance. This observation might indicate that the power which was previously distributed across the community was transferred to a central institution. It is argued that the non-acceptance of this concentration of power and the decline of lower decision-making levels might be a crucial factor for the disintegration of Tripolye giant-settlements around 3600 BCE.

Wood was a crucial resource for prehistoric societies, for instance, as timber for house construction and as fuel. In the case of the exceptionally large Chalcolithic Tripolye ‘mega-sites’ in central Ukraine, thousands of burnt buildings, indicating huge population agglomerations, hint at such a massive use of wood that it raises questions about the carrying capacity of the sensitive forest-steppe environment. In this contribution, we investigate the wood demand for the mega-site of Maidanetske (3990–3640 BCE), as reconstructed based on wood charcoal data, wood imprints on daub and the archaeo-magnetometry-based settlement plan. We developed a regional-scale model with a fuzzy approach and applied it in order to simulate the potential distribution and extent of woodlands before and after Chalcolithic occupation. The model is based upon the reconstructed ancient land surface, soil information derived from cores and the potential natural woodland cover reconstructed based on the requirements of the prevailing ancient tree species. Landscape scenarios derived from the model are contrasted and cross-checked with the archaeological empirical data. We aim to understand whether the demand for wood triggered the site development. Did deforestation and consequent soil degradation and lack of resources initiate the site’s abandonment? Or, alternatively, did the inhabitants develop sustainable woodland management strategies? Starting from the case study of Maidanetske, this study provides estimates of the extent of human impact on both carrying capacity and landscape transformations in the sensitive transitional forest-steppe environment. Overall, the results indicate that the inhabitants of the Chalcolithic site did not suffer from a significant shortage in the wood resource at any time of inhabitation in the contexts of the different scenarios provided by the model. An exception is given by the phase of maximum house construction and population within a scenario of dry climatic conditions.

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