Maidanetske () is a village located within the

Zvenyhorodka Raion Zvenyhorodka Raion is a raion (district) of Cherkasy Oblast, in central Ukraine. Its administrative centre is the city of Zvenyhorodka. Population: On 18 July 2020, as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, the number of raions of Cherka ...

(district) of the

Cherkasy Cherkasy (, ) is a city in central Ukraine. Cherkasy serves as the administrative centre of Cherkasy Oblast as well as Cherkasy Raion within the oblast. The city has a population of Cherkasy is the cultural, educational and industrial centre ...

Oblast An oblast ( or ) is a type of administrative division in Bulgaria and several post-Soviet states, including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Historically, it was used in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. The term ''oblast'' is often translated i ...

(province), about driving distance south of

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

. It belongs to

Talne urban hromada Talne urban territorial hromada () is one of the hromadas of Ukraine, in Zvenyhorodka Raion within Cherkasy Oblast Cherkasy Oblast (, ), also referred to as Cherkashchyna (, ) is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in ce ...

, one of the

hromada In Ukraine, a hromada () is the main type of municipality and the third level Administrative divisions of Ukraine, local self-government in Ukraine. The current hromadas were established by the Cabinet of ministers of Ukraine, Government of Uk ...

s of Ukraine. It is a small farming community located primarily on a hill overlooking the Tal'ianki River. Maidanetske is home to one of the three district hospitals in the Talne Raion. A local museum was built in the 1990s that focuses on the ancient history of this place, including a panoramic reconstructed model of a large Cucuteni-Trypillian settlement located here in prehistoric times, as well as some of the artifacts uncovered from around the village. Until 18 July 2020, Maidanetske belonged to Talne Raion. The raion was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Cherkasy Oblast to four. The area of Talne Raion was merged into Zvenyhorodka Raion.

Archaeological remains

Maidanets was the location of two separate settlements of the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

Chalcolithic The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in di ...

Cucuteni-Trypillian culture. The first settlement, encompassing about , was inhabited near 5000 BC, and is located close to the outskirts of Maidanets along the road to

Talne Talne (, ) is a city in Zvenyhorodka Raion, Cherkasy Oblast (province) of Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Talne urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. It had a population of 12,649 (2024); During the nineteenth century Talne wa ...

at a location called ''Hrebeniukiv Yar'' (). This site was partially excavated by M. Shmaglij and N. Burdo between 1981 and 1989, during which time three dwellings and two '' bordei'' (earth-sheltered dwellings) were discovered and examined. The second, much larger Cucuteni-Trypillian settlement is located on the left bank of the Tal'ianki River, west of Maidanets, which was inhabited around 3700–3600 BC. The settlement encompassed about , measuring in length and wide, and was laid out in an oval pattern. This site was explored by an archaeological team led by M. Shmalij from 1971 to 1991, who employed magnetometric analysis to map out the settlement (made by V. Dudkin), revealing a total of 1575 buildings, including dwellings, fortifications, sanctuaries, and some two-storied houses (on 180 ha explored area). The excavation of the site produced almost 50 artifacts, including a unique collection of painted pottery and figurines. This settlement was one of the largest of the Cucuteni-Trypillian, making it also one of the largest settlements in the world during the time that it flourished. New research (2014) indicates a much more dense populated site with at least 2297 and up to 2968 houses existed at the same time circa 3700 BC. Thus the population are also far larger than before thought with conservative estimations at 12,000, a probable average of 29,000 inhabitants but with the possibility of 46,000 inhabitants. In addition to the two Cucuteni-Trypillian cultural sites, Maidanets is also the location two other ancient archaeological sites. Two

Yamnaya culture The Yamnaya ( ) or Yamna culture ( ), also known as the Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture, is a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age archaeological culture of the region between the Southern Bug, Dniester, and Ural rivers (the Pontic–C ...

tumuli A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...

(burial mounds) are located near the village, containing eight graves dating back to the middle of the third millennium BC. Also, in the nearby ''Geliv Stav'' location, are the remains of a small settlement dating to the fourth century AD of the

Chernyakhov culture The Chernyakhov culture, Cherniakhiv culture or Sântana de Mureș—Chernyakhov culture was an archaeological culture that flourished between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE in a wide area of Eastern Europe, specifically in what is now Ukraine, Ro ...

. In addition to the local museum in Maidanets, archaeological artifacts taken from local sites may be found in the Cherkasy Regional Museum, the Museum of Agriculture in Talne, the National Museum of History in Kyiv, and the Institute of Archaeology, also in Kyiv. There are also other nearby towns that are host to Neolithic settlements, including the village of Talianki, where the largest of all the Cucuteni-Trypillian settlements is located.

References

{{Authority control Archaeological sites in Ukraine Cucuteni–Trypillia culture Villages in Zvenyhorodka Raion

Archaeological remains

See also

References