This volume covers the Prehistory of Ukraine from the Lower Palaeolithic through to the end of the Neolithic periods. This is the first comprehensive synthesis of Ukrainian Prehistory from earliest times through until the Neolithic Period undertaken by researchers who are currently investigating the Prehistory of Ukraine. At present there are no other English language books on this subject that provide a current synthesis for these periods. The chapters in this volume provide up-to-date overviews of all aspects of prehistoric culture development in Ukraine and present details of the key sites and finds for the periods studied. The book includes the most recent research from all areas of prehistory up to the Neolithic period, and, in addition, areas such as recent radiocarbon dating and its implications for culture chronology are considered; as is a consideration of aDNA and the new insights into culture history this area of research affords; alongside recent macrofossil studies of plant use, and anthropological and stable isotope studies of diet, which all combine to allow greater insights into the nature of human subsistence and cultural developments across the Palaeolithic to Neolithic periods in Ukraine. It is anticipated that this book will be an invaluable resource for students of prehistory throughout Europe in providing an English-language text that is written by researchers who are active in their respective fields and who possess an intimate knowledge of Ukrainian prehistory.

This volume covers the prehistory of Ukraine from the Lower Palaeolithic through to the end of the Neolithic periods. The chapters provide up-to-date overviews of all aspects of prehistoric culture development in Ukraine and present details of the key sites and finds for the periods studied.

Migrations and population dynamics are considered very problematic topics in the fields of ancient studies. Recent scholarship in (pre)historical population has generated new impulses by using scientific approaches using radiogenic and stable isotopes, and palaeogenetics, as well as computer simulation. As a result, the state of migration research has undergone rapid change. Several research groups presented papers at aconference held in Berlin in 2010, addressing specific historical aspects of population dynamics and migration, with no chronological or geographical restrictions, in the light of cutting-edge bio-archaeological research. This volume, divided into three larger thematic sections (isotope analysis, population genetics, and modelling and computer simulation), presents experiences and insights about methodological approaches, research results and prospects for future research in this area in a varied collection of papers. Scholars from widely diverse scientific disciplines present their approaches, findings and interpretations to an audience far broader than the circles of the individual disciplines.

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COLOUR EDITION What was Aratta? Why is this most ancient civilisation important to us today? The Arattan civilisation has come to signify the creation of an assembly of tribes and nations which ultimately spread across the entire span of Eurasia. Aratta itself became an epithet for "abundance" and "glory". Aratta created script, texts, writing, laws and precepts, contracts, trade, judicial systems, agriculture, spirited arts & crafts - within a peaceful, matriarchal civilisation many millennia before the founding of Sumer around 3200 BCE which had itself sprung, seemingly 'ready-formed', into archaeological consciousness according to Sumerian scholars. So why are Western historians of ancient civilisations predominantly focused on studying Rome, Greece and Egypt, almost to the exclusion of fabulous Mesopotamian Sumer and its progenitor, this Aratta? Its rich petroglyphic archives deposited by Stone Age communities of mammoth-hunters in Ukraine can no longer be ignored, accordingly, this book sets out to trace the development of this civilisation from its origin on the territory of Ukraine, the northern Black Sea Land of Aratta. From 20,000 BCE, pre-state Aratta progressed from being a well-organised society to one whose subsequent wisdom-keepers would, by 12,000 BCE, have inscribed their chronicles in sanctuary grottoes at 'Kamyana Mohyla' (southern Ukraine). In this "Stone Library", which remains virtually unknown in the Western world, lies a written agreement from c. 6,200 BCE, an appeal for mutual aid between missionaries from Çatal Höyük (Anatolia) which singularly justifies recognition of Aratta as the world's first known state and founder of the "Indo-European" community of tribes and languages. In this image-rich book, Dr. Shilov critically examines the extent to which Aratta's tendrils advanced into Asia Minor, India, Mesopotamia, Egypt and indeed, across Europe covering the most extensive timescale imaginable. This is far more than 'mere history', it is an analysis of how the apotheosis of Aratta ("Trypillian archaeological culture") came to be eclipsed by the rise of its off-shoot, the slave-holding civilisation of Sumer. This progressive trend was paralleled by a movement away from the ancient intuitive perception of their world to one which was based upon logical analysis. The author stresses the importance of understanding the balance between the material form and field essence components of 'physical space' and their interpretation by the conscious and subconscious mind. It was this fundamental distinction which drew Aratta's Brahman priests to dissociate "life-and-death" from "existence and non-existence". Dr. Shilov's lifetime experience of excavating hundreds of burial kurhans and graves across the steppes of Ukraine made it possible to "decipher" the mythological rituals associated with those mounds which closely resemble those rituals in the Indo-Aryan Rigveda, yet arose long before they appeared in India, corroborating the linguistic conception that the Aryans and their beliefs originated in the lower Dnipro area of Ukraine. Drawing upon sources rarely encountered by Western researchers Dr. Shilov describes the migrations of ancient Eurasian tribes; the spread of Vedic philosophy into India; the origins of Pelasgian and Greek legends; the rise of Cimmerian, Scythian, Slavic and western European nations; the emergence of Kyivan Rus and through Cossack traditions, an appreciation of the sustained preservation of the core tenets of Arattan culture, still maintained in the very heart of modern Ukraine. At a time when modern civilisations often exhibit uncivilised behaviour, an understanding of Aratta's precepts of peaceful, harmonious society is surely worthy of our attention. "Ancient History of Aratta-Ukraine" is sincerely recommended.

The investigation of upper palaeolithic dwellings in which mammoth bones were a constituent structural feature can illuminate many facets of the prehistoric people who built and lived in them; other finds made during their excavation assist in this task.