The First Farmers of Ukraine: an Archaeobotanical Investigation and AMS Dating of Wheat Grains from the Ratniv-2 Site

Matuzevičiūtė, Giedrė Motuzaitė; Telizhenko, Sergey

doi:10.15388/archlit.2016.17.10685

Cited by 16 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…1 and data S1). Furthermore, archaeological finds show that LBK reached western Ukraine around 5300 BCE ( 52 ), and the Yamnaya complex (burial mounds) arrived in southeastern Europe around 3000 BCE and spread further as far as Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary ( 53 ). This is in accordance with our genetic results as the two populations that proved to be plausible mixture sources for Fatyanovo, with the other source being either of the two Russian Yamnaya groups (Kalmykia or Samara), were Globular Amphora that includes individuals from Ukraine and Poland, and Trypillia that is composed of individuals from Ukraine.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic ancestry changes in Stone to Bronze Age transition in the East European plain

et al. 2021

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The transition from Stone to Bronze Age in Central and Western Europe was a period of major population movements originating from the Ponto-Caspian Steppe. Here, we report new genome-wide sequence data from 30 individuals north of this area, from the understudied western part of present-day Russia, including 3 Stone Age hunter-gatherers (10,800 to 4250 cal BCE) and 26 Bronze Age farmers from the Corded Ware complex Fatyanovo Culture (2900 to 2050 cal BCE). We show that Eastern hunter-gatherer ancestry was present in northwestern Russia already from around 10,000 BCE. Furthermore, we see a change in ancestry with the arrival of farming—Fatyanovo Culture individuals were genetically similar to other Corded Ware cultures, carrying a mixture of Steppe and European early farmer ancestry. Thus, they likely originate from a fast migration toward the northeast from somewhere near modern-day Ukraine—the closest area where these ancestries coexisted from around 3000 BCE.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic ancestry changes in Stone to Bronze Age transition in the East European plain

et al. 2021

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“…First farming communities connected to sites of the Volynskaya Neolithic culture and Linear Pottery Culture (LBK) established in the second part of the sixth millennium bc in the region (Kotova 2003 ). Earliest archaeological findings of LBK from southeastern Poland and northwestern Ukraine have been dated to 5300–4800 bc or 7,300–6,800 cal bp , indicating a rapid eastward spread of the LBK (Kotova 2003 ; Motuzaité Matuzevičiūtė and Telizhenko 2016 ; Czekaj-Zastawny et al 2020 ). In the northwestern Pontic region of the Ukrainian steppe, there is even earlier evidence for plant and animal domestication that has been attributed to the Bug-Dniestr culture, dated to the second half of the seventh millennium bc (ca.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holocene vegetation, fire and land use dynamics at Lake Svityaz, an agriculturally marginal site in northwestern Ukraine

Schwörer

Gobet

Leeuwen

et al. 2021

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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Observing natural vegetation dynamics over the entire Holocene is difficult in Central Europe, due to pervasive and increasing human disturbance since the Neolithic. One strategy to minimize this limitation is to select a study site in an area that is marginal for agricultural activity. Here, we present a new sediment record from Lake Svityaz in northwestern Ukraine. We have reconstructed regional and local vegetation and fire dynamics since the Late Glacial using pollen, spores, macrofossils and charcoal. Boreal forest composed of Pinus sylvestris and Betula with continental Larix decidua and Pinus cembra established in the region around 13,450 cal bp, replacing an open, steppic landscape. The first temperate tree to expand was Ulmus at 11,800 cal bp, followed by Quercus, Fraxinus excelsior, Tilia and Corylus ca. 1,000 years later. Fire activity was highest during the Early Holocene, when summer solar insolation reached its maximum. Carpinus betulus and Fagus sylvatica established at ca. 6,000 cal bp, coinciding with the first indicators of agricultural activity in the region and a transient climatic shift to cooler and moister conditions. Human impact on the vegetation remained initially very low, only increasing during the Bronze Age, at ca. 3,400 cal bp. Large-scale forest openings and the establishment of the present-day cultural landscape occurred only during the past 500 years. The persistence of highly diverse mixed forest under absent or low anthropogenic disturbance until the Early Middle Ages corroborates the role of human impact in the impoverishment of temperate forests elsewhere in Central Europe. The preservation or reestablishment of such diverse forests may mitigate future climate change impacts, specifically by lowering fire risk under warmer and drier conditions.

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“…Notably, the glume base of glume wheat recovered from Chap II does not resemble that of typical glume wheat belonging to T. dicoccum found in Europe. Comparing the glume wheat internode bases from Chap II with those previously reported at the Linearbandkeramik site of Ratniv-2 site located in western Ukraine [51], the curve between glume and glume base at Chap II is straighter and ca 25% larger. Therefore, glume wheat at Chap II could represent local Central Asian morphotypes or subspecies, such as currently known from Chinese (see above).…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 52%

Southwest Asian cereal crops facilitated high-elevation agriculture in the central Tien Shan during the mid-third millennium BCE

et al. 2020

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We report the earliest and the most abundant archaeobotanical assemblage of southwest Asian grain crops from Early Bronze Age Central Asia, recovered from the Chap II site in Kyrgyzstan. The archaeobotanical remains consist of thousands of cultivated grains dating to the mid-late third millennium BCE. The recovery of cereal chaff and weeds suggest local cultivation at 2000 m.a.s.l., as crops first spread to the mountains of Central Asia. The site's inhabitants possibly cultivated two types of free-threshing wheats, glume wheats, and hulled and naked barleys. Highly compact caryopses of wheat and barley grains represent distinct morphotypes of cereals adapted to highland environments. While additional macrobotanical evidence is needed to confirm the presence of glume wheats at Chap II, the possible identification of glume wheats at Chap II may represent their most eastern distribution in Central Asia. Based on the presence of weed species, we argue that the past environment of Chap II was characterized by an open mountain landscape, where animal grazing likely took place, which may have been further modified by people irrigating agricultural fields. This research suggests that early farmers in the mountains of Central Asia cultivated compact morphotypes of southwest Asian crops during the initial eastward dispersal of agricultural technologies, which likely played a critical role in shaping montane adaptations and dynamic interaction networks between farming societies across highland and lowland cultivation zones.

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The First Farmers of Ukraine: an Archaeobotanical Investigation and AMS Dating of Wheat Grains from the Ratniv-2 Site

Cited by 16 publications

References 14 publications

Genetic ancestry changes in Stone to Bronze Age transition in the East European plain

Genetic ancestry changes in Stone to Bronze Age transition in the East European plain

Holocene vegetation, fire and land use dynamics at Lake Svityaz, an agriculturally marginal site in northwestern Ukraine

Southwest Asian cereal crops facilitated high-elevation agriculture in the central Tien Shan during the mid-third millennium BCE

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