The Trypilian culture was a very early matriarchal society located in central and south-western Ukraine between 3700 B.C.E and 2700B.C.E.(although even earlier dates have been cited) The Trypilian culture is sometimes also referred by its Romanian Cucuteni, also Russians have a different spelling Tripolie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucuteni_culture It’s important to note that the people of the Trypilian culture would not have referred to themselves as such some researchers believe they may have been the Aratta. The researchers who found the archeological remains in 1897 named it after a nearby village called Trypillia. http://www.trypillia.com/info/index.shtml The Trypilian culture was largely agricultural with farming of wheat, millet and raising of cattle, producing most of their food. Like most societies the Trypilian culture divided tasks by gender men took care of the domestic animals and worked with stone and bone to make tools, women farmed the land, headed the house holds, and made the pottery and the textiles. http://www.netaxs.com/~tdo/trypil.html One article cited a lack of weapons found indicating the likely hood of a peaceful society with little active warfare http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20053/36 But other sources state that the Trypilian peoples typically fortified their homes with earthen works and ditches suggesting a different story as these structures are labor intensive to construct.

The Trypilian culture is most famous for its elaborately painted pottery. Trypilian pottery was typically painted with symbols of nature usually white, black and red with a variety of spirals, lines and crosshatched patterns. http://www.trypillian.com/history.php The Trypilian culture had potters wheels and two tiered ovens although it’s believed that most of their pottery was worked by hand and not with a pottery wheel. In addition to the pots and plates the Trypillain people also made a number of different kinds of statutes when of humans these statutes tended to be highly stylized, the statues of men more so then women. Typically the legs are fused together with only an incision indicating separate structures and just a hint of hands. Although they do have noses eyes and lips. http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20053/36

This Piece of pottery is from the PLATAR collection http://www.wisc.edu/writin g/Handbook/

Volodymyr the great Volodymyr came into power after a nasty power struggle. When his half brother took power he was forced to flee the country to Scandinavia but several years latter returned with an army of Varangian (basically Viking mercenaries) and claimed the throne after defeating his brother and his army. Volodymyr added additional territory to his kingdom giving him access to the Baltic Sea and secured his borders against various nomad tribes with a series of fortified towns and earthen ramparts. Volodymyr is best known for introducing Christianity to his people. It was common that when a king converted to one of the monotheistic religions he forced his population to convert as well. Despite this in his younger days Volodymyr was a devout pagan ordering the construction of idols to honor his deities. He had idols of Perun (A Storm god the leader of the panteon), Kors (a sun god), Dazhob (another although weaker sun god), Stryboh (god of the wind), Symarhl (don’t know what he was a god of) and Mokosh (a goddess of fertility, water, and women) built overlooking his palace. http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp? AddButton=pages\V\O\VolodymyrtheGreat.htm He later decided to turn to a monotheistic religion to try and help consolidate his country. The story goes he sent for envoys of several religious nearby religious groups to determine which would be the best to take up. He rejected the Muslim religion because of its taboos against pork and alcohol. He rejected the Jewish envoys because they had lost Jerusalem they obviously didn’t have the favor of god. His envoys were unimpressed with the gloomy churches of the German Christians, but the envoys watching the Byzantine rituals were greatly impressed with the Byzantines festive rituals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianization_of_Kievan_Rus%27

Volodymyr had the pagan idols that had overlooked his palace caste into Dnieper river and built the Saint Basily Church in Their place.

This is a painting done by Ivan Eggink (1787-1867) depicting Volodymyr choosing the religion for his people he is talking to the Byzantine representative as an angry looking papal representative looks on Trypillian Civilization 5,508 - 2,750 BC. Kolos Corp. 2002- 2006http://www.trypillia.com/info/index.shtml

TRYPILLIA -- UKRAINE'S NEOLITHIC CULTURE Tania Diakiw O'Neill. 1996 < http://www.netaxs.com/~tdo/trypil.html>

Welcome to Ukraine Olena Kovalenko 2002-2006 Http://www.wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20053/36

Trypilian.com 2002-2007 < http://www.trypillian.com/history.php>

“Volodymyr the Great” Encyclopedia of Ukraine 2001 Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp? AddButton=pages\V\O\VolodymyrtheGreat.htm

“Varangians” Encyclopedia of Ukraine 2001 Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine < http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp? AddButton=pages\V\A\Varangians.htm> “Perun” Encyclopedia of Ukraine 2001 Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine < http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages\P\E\Perun.htm> “Khors” Encyclopedia of Ukraine 2001 Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine < http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages\K\H\Khors.htm> “Dazhboh” Encyclopedia of Ukraine 2001 Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine < http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages\D\A\Dazhboh.htm > “Stryboh” Encyclopedia of Ukraine 2001 Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages\S\T\Stryboh.htm

“Mokosh” Encyclopedia of Ukraine 2001 Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages\M\O\Mokosh.htm

Christianization of Kievan Rus wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianization_of_Kievan_Rus%27