Ancient site · Settlement
Talianki mega-site
Also known as Talianky
Near the village of Talianky in central Ukraine lies the largest known settlement of Neolithic Europe, built by the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture. Rings of joined houses, many with two storeys and painted walls, spread over 3 to 4.5 square kilometres of plateau.
Estimates of its population range from about 6,000 to more than 15,000 people, which would make it as big as early cities in Mesopotamia. Trypillian settlements usually lasted only 60 to 80 years before their houses were burned, for reasons scholars still debate.
- Dates
- c. 3850–3700 BCE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 48.81° N, 30.55° E
How we know
No writing existed; the town was found from the air in the 1970s and dated by excavation, and its population is only an estimate that scholars disagree about.
Nearby sites
- Sarmizegetusa Regia 1st century BCE – 106 CE
- Varna Necropolis c. 4570–4340 BCE
- Lepenski Vir c. 9500/7200–5500 BCE (trapezoid houses c. 6300–6000 BCE)
- Maykop kurgan built within c. 3700–3100 BCE
- Starčevo culture dated c. 6200–4500 BCE
- Theodosian Walls of Constantinople c. 405–413 CE; defended the city until 1453
Related
- Cucuteni–Trypillia culture archaeological culture