The paper discusses the 2010-2015 studies of the radiocarbon chronology of Podolia 'barrow cultures' on the left bank of the middle dniester . The studies have relied on series of 14 C dates for the Klembivka 1, Pidlisivka 1, Porohy 3a and Prydnistryanske 1 sites determined in Kyiv and Poznań laboratories . They are the first attempt to construct a regional ('Yampil') radiocarbon scale for 'Early Bronze' funerary rites (4th/3rd-2nd millennium BC) as practised by barrow builders -the communities of the Tripolye and Yamnaya culturesand the secondary barrow users -the designers of necropolises located on barrows -belonging to the Catacomb, Babyno and Noua cultures .

From around 4,000 to 2,000 BC the forest-steppe north-western Pontic region was occupied by people who shared a nomadic lifestyle, pastoral economy and barrow burial rituals. It has been shown that these groups, especially those associated with the Yamnaya culture, played an important role in shaping the gene pool of Bronze Age Europeans, which extends into present-day patterns of genetic variation in Europe. Although the genetic impact of these migrations from the forest-steppe Pontic region into central Europe have previously been addressed in several studies, the contribution of mitochondrial lineages to the people associated with the Corded Ware culture in the eastern part of the North European Plain remains contentious. In this study, we present mitochondrial genomes from 23 Late Eneolithic and Bronze Age individuals, including representatives of the north-western Pontic region and the Corded Ware culture from the eastern part of the North European Plain. We identified, for the first time in ancient populations, the rare mitochondrial haplogroup X4 in two Bronze Age Catacomb culture-associated individuals. Genetic similarity analyses show close maternal genetic affinities between populations associated with both eastern and Baltic Corded Ware culture, and the Yamnaya horizon, in contrast to larger genetic differentiation between populations associated with western Corded Ware culture and the Yamnaya horizon. This indicates that females with steppe ancestry contributed to the formation of populations associated with the eastern Corded Ware culture while more local people, likely of Neolithic farmer ancestry, contributed to the formation of populations associated with western Corded Ware culture.

The paper presents excavation results and analytical studies concerning the taxonomic classification of a funerary site identified with the communities of the early 'barrow cultures' settling the north-western Black Sea Coast in the 4th/3rd-2nd millennium BC . The study focuses on the ceremonial centres of the Eneolithic, Yamnaya, Catacomb and Babyno cultures . Key words: 'barrow cultures', Eneolithic, Early Bronze age, late Bronze age, middle dniester areaThe investigations of barrow 1, Pidlisivka, Yampil region, Vinnitsa Oblast, were carried out in 2010 as part of the Polish-Ukrainian research project to investigate the north-western frontier of settlement by 'Early Bronze' culture communi-

The article presents the present state of research on the general issue of the dniester region of cultural contacts between communities settling the Baltic and Pontic drainage basins . Some five domains of research shall be brought to discussion in which it is possible to see fresh opportunities for archaeological study, on the basis of 'Yampil studies' on dniester-Podolia (forest-steppe) barrow-culture ceremonial centres from the latter half of the 4th millennium and first half of the 3rd millennium BC . This relates to the peoples of the Eneolithic and the Early Bronze age . in terms of topogenesis, embracing the

The article presents a study of copper ore from western Ukraine aimed at explanation of possibilities of their exploitation for the color metallurgy development during the period of Tripolye culture. It gives a short characteristics of lithological, mineralogical, and geochemical composition of copper ores from the Dneper area, Volhynia, and the Carpathians plateau. It further presents results of chemical and spectral analysis of ore-bearing rocks, evaluation of its current state and potential possibilities of their use in the past. Based upon a statement that metal objects produced during the existence of the Tripolye culture were made of pure copper two methods of its procurement were considered: (a) from a virgin copper, and (b) from oxygenated copper ore of sedimentary origin in which a small number of admixtures was noticed. The paper shows the potential of studies aimed at explanation of the correlation between contemporary and past copper ores and some copper goods from archaeological sites of the Tarnopol region.