THE ETHNIC AND CULTURAL SITUATION IN THE SEIM RIVER BASIN AT PUTIVL REGION IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE FIRST MILLENNIUM BC

Abstract

The Seim River basin at Putivl region is located in the borderland between the Forest and the Forest-Steppe zones in the Dnieper Left-Bank area of Ukraine. Forest communities are almost not prone to external influence, while in the Forest-Steppe area ethnic and cultural changes were much more frequent. In the 6th century BC tribes of Scythian-looking culture of non local origin appeared on the territory of the Seim River basin. There 28 hillforts and more than 40 unfortified settlements are known. In the early Sarmatian period people with other traditions of ceramic production entered the Seim River basin. Sites of the Kharivka type are known mainly in the floodplain. There is reason to believe that some of the earlier settlements were repopulated in the Zarubyntsi culture period. There are up to three dozen settlements of this period in the region. The contact between the two different population groups can be ascertained by the study of a ceramic complex. Despite the fundamental difference in the admixtures and methods of decorating pots of the two population groups, a small group of products can be distinguished that absorbed and intertwined two pottery traditions. Thus, the survival of the «Scythian» population in the Seim River basin at Putivl region until the late 3rd century — at least the early 2nd century BC seems to be quite logical. At that time the not numerous local population was absorbed by groups of newcomers who made up the majority. The migrants had a similar cultural and economic background, occupied the territory of the previous inhabitants, settling in their settlements and creating their own ones. Sites of the Kharivka type have appeared already fully formed and their main components of the material complex have no basis in the culture of the previous time. The local population dissolves without a trace into the new one. Small groups of Celto-Germanic origin penetrated the Seim River basin at Putivl region since the late 3rd and during the 2nd centuries BC. Their appearance is recorded by fragments of pottery having direct parallels in the cultures of Central Europe. Their presence has been confirmed by research at the Mutyn warrior burial ground. The nature of the western migration process remains to be determined.