Қара теңіздің солтүстігіндегі Днепр-Донец мәдениеті (б.з.д. 5000-4200 жж.)

Prehistoric culture north of the Black Sea c. 5000–4200 BCE

The Dnieper–Donets culture complex (DDCC) (ca. 5th—4th millennium BC) is a Mesolithic and later Neolithic archaeological culture found north of the Black Sea and dating to ca. 5000 4200 BC. It has many parallels with the Samara culture, and was succeeded by the Sredny Stog culture.

The Dnieper–Donets culture complex was defined by the Soviet archaeologist Dmytro Telehin (Dmitriy Telegin) on proposition of another archaeologist Valentyn Danylenko in 1956. At that time Dmytro Telehin worked at the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1952 – 1990). In 1967 Telehin defended his doctorate dissertation "Dnieper–Donets Neolithic culture". Evidence from skeletal remains suggest that plants were consumed. At the same time, systematic evidence of producing economy in DDCC is currently lacking. The presence of exotic goods in Dnieper Donets graves indicates exchange relationships with the Caucasus.

The Dnieper–Donets culture produced no female figurines.

The Dnieper–Donets culture is well known for about thirty of its cemeteries that have been discovered. This includes several large collective cemeteries of the Mariupol type. These contain around 800 individuals. It is evident that funerals were complex events that had several phases. Burials are mostly in large pits where the deceased were periodically placed and covered with ocher. In some cases, the deceased may have been exposed for a time before their bones were collected and buried. In most cases, however, the deceased were buried in the flesh without exposure. Deceased Dnieper Donets people sometimes had only their skulls buried, but most often the entire bodies. The variants of Dnieper Donets burial often appear in the same pits. Animal bones has also been found in the graves. Certain Dnieper Donets burials are accompanied with copper, crystal or porphyry ornaments, shell beads, bird stone tubes, polished stone maces or ornamental plaques made of boar's tusk. The items, along with the presence of animal bones and sophisticated burial methods, appear to have been a symbol of power. Certain deceased children were buried with such items, which indicates that wealth was inherited in Dnieper Donets society. Very similar boar tusk plaques and copper ornaments have been found at contemporary graves of the Samara culture in the middle Volga area. Maces of a different type than those of Dnieper Donets have also been found. The wide adoption of such a status symbol attests to the existence of the institute of power in DDCC. Individual, double and triple burials have also been found at DDCC cemeteries. These have been attributed to the earlier period of DDCC. Radiocarbon dates confirm the earlier chronology of individual DDCC burials compared to collective graves in large pits. Dnieper–Donets burials have been found near the settlement of Deriivka, which is associated with the Sredny Stog culture.

The Dnieper–Donets culture continued using Mesolothic technology, but later phases see the appearance of polished stone axes, later flint and the disappearance of microliths. These tools were sometimes deposited in graves.

Dnieper Donets pottery was initially pointed based, but in later phases flat based wares emerge. Their pottery is completely different from those made by the nearby Cucuteni–Trypillia culture. The importance of pottery appears to have increased throughout the existence of the Dnieper–Donets culture, which implies a more sedentary lifestyle. The early use of typical point base pottery interrelates with other Mesolithic cultures that are peripheral to the expanse of the Neolithic farmer cultures. The special shape of this pottery has been related to transport by logboat in wetland areas. Especially related are Swifterbant in the Netherlands, Ellerbek and Ertebølle in Northern Germany and Scandinavia, "Ceramic Mesolithic" pottery of Belgium and Northern France (including non Linear pottery such as La Hoguette, Bliquy, Villeneuve Saint Germain), the Roucadour culture in Southwest France and the river and lake areas of Northern Poland and Russia.

In accordance with the original Kurgan hypothesis, J. Mallory (1997) suggested that the Dnieper Donets people were Pre–Indo European speakers who were absorbed by Proto Indo Europeans expanding westwards from steppe lands further east. According to David W. Anthony, the Indo European languages were initially spoken by EHGs living in Eastern Europe, such as the Dnieper Donets people. He (2007) also argues that the Dnieper Donets people almost certainly spoke a different language from the people of the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture. The areas of the upper Dniester in which the Dnieper–Donets culture was situated have mostly Baltic river names. That and the close relationship between the Dnieper–Donets culture and contemporary cultures of northeast Europe have caused the Dnieper–Donets culture to be identified with the later Balts. The precise role of the culture and its language to the derivation of the Pontic Caspian cultures, such as Sredny Stog and Yamnaya culture, is open to debate, but the display of recurrent traits points to longstanding mutual contacts or to underlying genetic relations.

The physical remains recovered from graves of the Dnieper–Donets culture have been classified as "Proto Europoid". They are predominantly characterized as late Cro Magnons with large and more massive features than the gracile Mediterranean peoples of the Balkan Neolithic. Males averaged 172 cm in height, which is much taller than contemporary Neolithic populations. Its rugged physical traits are thought to have genetically influenced later Indo European peoples. Physical anthropologists have pointed out similarities in the physical type of the Dnieper Donets people with the Mesolithic peoples of Northern Europe. The peoples of the neighboring Sredny Stog culture, which eventually succeeded the Dnieper–Donets culture, were of a more gracile appearance.

The Dnieper–Donets culture was succeeded by the Sredny Stog culture, its eastern neighbor, with whom it co existed for a time before being finally absorbed. The Dnieper–Donets culture and the Sredny Stog culture were in turn succeeded by the Yamnaya culture. The Mikhaylovka culture, the Novodanilovka group and the Kemi Oba culture displays evidence of continuity from the Dnieper–Donets culture.