Piotr Włodarczak

Changes in past subsistence strategies reflect the adaptation of human societies to climatic, environmental, and cultural settings. Despite being a resistant, flexible, and nutritive crop, millet only sporadically became a staple crop in Europe and is nearly forgotten today. This raises the question of the cultural dimensions associated with the adoption or rejection of millet. We use a multi-isotope dataset from Bronze Age Poland (2200 to 1000 BCE) coupled with radiocarbon dates to identify dietary practices and associate them with cultural and environmental conditions. We (i) revise the earliest evidence for millet consumption in Europe to 1590 ± 50 calibrated years (cal) BCE instead of 1460 ± 40 cal BCE, (ii) reconstruct dietary shifts at the group and individual level, (iii) suggest environmental instead of cultural mechanisms behind millet adoption, and (iv) reveal land-use shifts associated with millet cultivation, showing no strong evidence for a demic diffusion model. The gained insights into crop integration processes can help in discussing coping strategies for present-day challenges.

The Vojvodina area is one of the least explored expansion zones of steppe barrow communities of Eastern European origin. New data on this issue was obtained by implementing the Polish–Serbian project “Danubian Route of the Yamnaya Culture”. As part of the project, two burial mounds located in Bačka, in the Šajkaška region, were examined (Šajkaš, Ciganska Humka, and Žabalj, Medisova Humka). These studies collected comprehensive data on the stratigraphy of the burial mounds and details of the funeral rites and mortuary practices. Materials for bioarchaeological and chronometric analyses were also obtained. The newly discovered graves, along with those from previously examined burial mounds in the territory of Vojvodina, exhibit features typical of the funeral rites of steppe communities from the first half of the third millennium BC, associated with the Yamna culture throughout the Pannonian plain. It is also a rite analogous to the entire Danube–Tisza zone of expansion of this culture. In light of the research, the Pre-Yamna horizon (fourth millennium BC) is poorly visible, including the phase of barrow graves with cremation burials, connected with the Baden–Coţofeni circle. A series of radiocarbon dates were obtained for barrow graves from Bačka and Banat. The results place the dated finds in two time horizons: early Yamna (3000–2900 BC) and late Yamna (2900/2800–2600 BC).

In the late 19th century, German researchers Friedrich Klopfleisch and, later, Alfred Götze identified a set of archaeological sources they called “schnurkeramische Kultur” (Corded Ware culture). By the turn of the 20th century, this concept had become widespread in many European countries, effectively defining the phenomenon of cultural unification across a vast area in the 3rd millennium BC. In the first decades of the 20th century, Corded Ware finds inspired the development of studies on European prehistory, transcending local geographical and cultural boundaries. They played a key role in the ethnicising concepts of Gustaf Kossinna’s “Siedlugsarchäologie”, as well as in the formulation of the first ideas of interregional scope, presented by Vere Gordon Childe, concerning the key role of steppe migrations in the cultural and demographic changes in European prehistory. It was probably the methods of “Siedlugsarchäologie” that decisively influenced Corded Ware researchers’ commitment to in-depth typological studies characterising individual regions.

The article reports the results of research focused on Barrow 3 in Ivanivtsi-Antonivka, Vinnitsia oblast, Ukraine, which was carried out by a Polish-Ukrainian team in 2019. This small and badly damaged barrow contained just seven features, including only two graves. The results of the multifaceted analyses indicated that despite the small number of sites, the history of the barrow can be divided into three phases – all resulting from the activity of communities associated with the Chornolis culture. Two phases were related to the placement of graves and the enlargement of the mound: Phase 2 (820–770 BC) and Phase 3 (750–685 BC). In contrast, the earliest Phase 1 (960–930 BC) probably covers the demarcation of the ceremonial/ritual space through the placement of a central post, the digging of a ditch, the rising of a mound (?) and the holding of a ceremonial feast. Remarkably, this stage did not end at all with the placement of a grave in the designated space or at least no traces of this have been found. The two excavated graves were intended for women. In both cases, the deceased were accompanied by a similar set of artefacts: a clay cup and a clay spindle whorl probably representing a spindle. It seems that this recurrent set was meant to stress one of the major tasks of women namely the manufacture of textiles. At present, the barrow discussed here does not find any full analogies, as sites concealing modest female burials associated with the Chornolis culture have not been studied in much detail.

The North Pontic Region was the meeting point of the farmers of Old Europe and the foragers and pastoralists of the Eurasian steppe^1,2, and the source of migrations deep into Europe^3,4,5. Here we report genome-wide data from 81 prehistoric North Pontic individuals to understand the genetic makeup of its people. North Pontic foragers had ancestry from Balkan and Eastern hunter-gatherers⁶ as well as European farmers and, occasionally, Caucasus hunter-gatherers. During the Eneolithic period, a wave of migrants from the Caucasus–Lower Volga area⁷ bypassed local foragers to mix in equal parts with Trypillian farmers, forming the people of the Usatove culture around 4500 bce. A temporally overlapping wave of migrants from the Caucasus–Lower Volga blended with foragers instead of farmers to form Serednii Stih people⁷. The third wave was the Yamna—descendants of the Serednii Stih who formed by mixture around 4000 bce and expanded during the Early Bronze Age (3300 bce). The temporal gap between Serednii Stih and the Yamna is bridged by a genetically Yamna individual from Mykhailivka, Ukraine (3635–3383 bce), a site of archaeological continuity across the Eneolithic–Bronze Age transition and a likely epicentre of Yamna formation. Each of these three waves of migration propagated distinctive ancestries while also incorporating outsiders, a flexible strategy that may explain the success of the peoples of the North Pontic in spreading their genes and culture across Eurasia^3,4,5,8,9,10.

At site 12 in Kazimierza Wielka, two kiln features (Features 25 and 99) were identified. Both features exhibit layouts similar to those of kilns documented at numerous Late Eneolithic cemeteries in western Lesser Poland, including nearby sites in Kazimierza Wielka (sites 5 and 13) and Słonowice. These features are most likely associated with an as-yet-undiscovered cemetery of the Corded Ware culture. The distinctive form of these features suggests a specific function. Based on interpretations proposed for analogous structures in Central Germany, it can be hypothesised that they served as smoking pits, potentially used for fumigation – a rudimentary mummification method for preserving the bodies of the deceased. The identification of such features at site 12 in Kazimierza Wielka strongly implies the existence of a Corded Ware culture cemetery in close proximity to the investigated area.

At an archaeological site in Kazimierza Wielka, the remains of the late phase of Funnel Beaker culture with Baden influences have been discovered. This period is sometimes referred to as the Funnel Beaker-Baden phase. Archaeological material associated with this phase has been recorded in the fills of 15 pits with trapezoidal or basin-shaped cross-sections. Almost all artefacts found in their fills are pottery fragments. The excavated features yielded a total of 746 pottery sherds and only single spindle whorls, as well as several bone and flint tools. The reconstructed vessel forms include mugs, vases, amphorae, pots, jugs, and beakers. These vessels are not abundantly decorated with engraved ornaments, in the form of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal grooves. Other types of decoration, like circular impressions and small, hemispherical knobs are also uncommon. Fragments of conical salt-making beakers have also been discovered at the site, probably confirming local salt production. Similar finds come from most of the large settlements of the Funnel Beaker-Baden phase. The radiocarbon dating has been made for Feature 102, and the date obtained was 4370±35 BP, i.e. 3016–2919 cal BC (68.3% probability range). This is the youngest result obtained among the AMS dated materials of the Funnel Beaker-Baden phase in Małopolska. One can synchronize it with the Br V phase of the settlement site in Bronocice. The settlement of the Funnel Beaker-Baden phase discovered in Kazimierza Wielka is one of only a few sites of this group developing in the Nidzica river basin. Most currently known sites of this cultural phenomenon are large defensive settlements. They are located in Bronocice, Gniazdowice, Miechów, Marchocice, and Muniaczkowice. Open settlements are known from Książnice Wielkie, Kępa, Szarbia Zwierzyniecka, and Smroków.