In European prehistory, population agglomerations of more than 10,000 inhabitants per site are an infrequent phenomenon. The unexpected discovery of the Trypillia mega-sites, excavated nearly 50 years aga by Soviet, Ukrainian and Moldavian archaeologists using a multidisciplinary approach, uncovered the remains of more than 2000 houses spread over 250 hectares. These extraordinary mega-sites developed at the border of the North Pontic Forest Steppe zone ca. 4100-3400 BCE. One of the key mega-sites is Maidanetske in the Uman Region, Central Ukraine. In 2013, an interdisciplinary European team of researchers started new excavations at the site, which were analysed under the frame of the Collaborative Research Centre SFB 1266 “Scales of Transformation”: The excavation provoked many questions: why, how and under what environmental conditions did Trypillia mega-sites develop? How long did they last? Were social reasons responsible for transformation processes?weiterlesen