Document(s) 4 of 10

THE GREAT SLAVIC Dnipro River has flowed for many centuries. The memory of its age is etched on the lands throughout which it wanders. It is documented in the research work of historians and archaeologists. It is portrayed in epics, legends, myths, fairytales, and songs of the peoples who have inhabited these lands from primordial times and which are to be found in ancient chronicles and in the reminiscences of minstrels and writers. The glaciers laid a long, meandering path in the time of antiquity (17 to 23 thousand years ago), which extended from the lands of the present day Dnipropetrovsk towards the north. This eventually was transformed into untamed streams, then into nameless rivers and, then into the Dnipro and its tributaries.

Approximately ten to twelve thousand years ago, the earth experienced significant geographic-climatic changes related to global warming. It was the beginning of a new geological epoch, the Holocene epoch, which continues till the present day. 46

Throughout the next several thousand years, the Dnipro water system developed according to the earth's natural evolution and climatic changes.

Writings by Phoenician and Ancient Greek travellers tell us that in the 7th to 6th centuries B.C. the climate was somewhat cooler. The temperature of the air was lower and the humidity was higher than it is today.

There is also evidence showing greater aridity on some parts of Ukraine's territory in the 6th century B.C. During the excavation of a barrow situated near Vasylkiv, Kyiv Oblast, evidence that indicates that the level of ground waters around the burial mound were much lower then than now was discovered.

In the 5th century B.C., Herodotus described the river network of the area which now forms part of Ukraine and Russia. The following eight major rivers existed: Istr (Danube), Tyra (Dnister), Hipanis (Southern Buh), Borysphen (Dnipro), Pantykapa (Konka), Hipakirys (Kalanchak), Herr (an unidentified river of northern regions along the Sea of Azov), and Tanais (Don). Large ships sailed these rivers entering them from the sea.

Nestor, a chronicler of the time, produced an interesting analysis of the region's hydrography in the chronicles Tales of the Bygone Years. He wrote that the rivers in those times were broad, deep, and convenient for navigation.

In the 5th to 4th centuries B.C., the territory of contemporary Ukraine experienced regular periods of drought. The water level in these rivers was very low. Small rivers that had flowed into and fed the Dnipro became very shallow. 76

In the late 4th to 3rd centuries B.C. the climate changed again and it became more humid. Frequent precipitation raised the level of waters in small rivers. Water accumulated in all parts of the river plains. Peat bogs and a fertile layer of soil, the humus, were formed.

The 2nd century B.C. was again a period of droughts. A shift from south to north occurred in physico-geographical belts. The water levels of the rivers in this period were low. At the beginning of the 1st century B.C., especially beginning from the 8th century B.C. on, periods of unusually higher water levels of rivers became noticeably longer. This was the period when Lake Nobel, Liubiaz', and others formed at the lower reaches of the Prypiat River. It was also the time when the many lakes at the lower reaches of the Siversky Donets River, which are situated in the proximity of the Dnister basin, Southern Buh basin, and southern tributaries of the Prypiat, namely the Horyn River, were created.

Between the 2nd century B.C. and the 2nd century A.D., the waterbeds of small rivers were deep. The forest-steppe belt penetrated the contemporary steppe zone of Ukraine, forming a deep wedge. River valleys were filled with the rustle of large hygrophilous forests, which in certain regions extended as far as the Black Sea and Crimea. Bones of beavers, otters, and other animals were discovered in these regions, which is characteristic for this type of fauna. 76

Journals and chronicles of various travellers, as well as other sources of information, attest to the abundance of water in what are today but small rivers. We find that many rivers, including the rivers of the steppe belt, were navigable in earlier times. Merchant and fishing vessels sailed the Samara, Vovcha, Krynka, Kalmius, and other rivers, which today are drying up. There is evidence that the rivers of the forest-steppe and mixed-forest (Ukrainian Polissya) belts in particular had abundant waters. This assertion is supported by historical facts, namely, in the summer of 1259, the Tatar hordes were unable to conquer the city of Lutsk because the water level of the Styr River had reached such heights that they could not traverse it. 76 We know from the journal of Erich Lassota von Steblau, an Austrian diplomat, that in 1594 the water volume of the Stuhna and Ros' Rivers was immense. On June 14 of that very same year, Lassota von Steblau was only able to cross the Rastavytsia River (a tributary of the Ros') with enormous difficulty. This river today is no more than a shallow creek.

We have interesting information provided by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan, a great French traveller, who had visited these regions at the beginning of the 17th century. Apparently, the Zapporizhzhian Cossacks used the Samara-Vovcha-Krynka-Mius water system to enter the Sea of Azov when the Dnipro estuary was blocked by the Turk enemy forces.

The Ingulets' also used to be a large river. Its drainage today is approximately 2.5 to 3 m3/sec. The river's name is suggestive of its nature, deriving from iyen-kul, which in Turkish means "large lake". Even today, one can make out the vestiges of a lake.

In the book History of Zaporizhzhian Cossacks (1847), one finds that between the Khortytsia and the estuary on the right side, 30 tributaries flowed into the Dnipro, while along the left side, 23, and below the Konka River, 16. At present, many of those rivers have disappeared. Their names were inherited by the local settlements: Rusynova Balka, Rohachyk, Kaiiry, etc.

There are some general characteristics of various natural-climatic epochs of the present-day Dnipro basin which have been developed using different historical sources. [5, 10, 11, 33, 34, 46] In Europe, the final phases of pre-historical anthropogenesis occurred in the severe climatic conditions of periodic glaciations: Günz (one million-700 thousand years ago), Mindel (500-350 thousand years ago), Riss (250-100 thousand years ago), and Würm (70-10 thousand years ago). The last glaciation reached its maximum only 20,000 years ago. Almost one-third of the land was covered with ice. At that time, a solid ice massif reached the geographical latitude of Dnipropetrovsk. Natural zones consisted of the near-glacier cold desert, forest-steppe, and steppe. Simultaneously with the cyclic glaciations, intensive earthquakes and disastrous floods may have occurred.

Is there a connection between the biblical story about the Deluge and the melting of glaciers? The results of modern research indicate that it is possible to see the connection between legends and catastrophic events. It is worth remembering that as glaciers retreat slowly, diminishing pressure on the earth's shell, they leave behind gigantic, non-drainable water bodies. This process triggers a spike in seismic activity on the territories freed from ice. This is why earthquakes are often associated with catastrophic floods, described in the biblical myths, sagas and religious beliefs of Europe and the Americas. The most devastating flood took place around eight thousand years ago, when Agassiz Lake broke through the ice and emptied northwards into the Hudson Bay. According to the estimates of experts, the amount of water was enormous—it raised the level of the oceans 20 to 40 cm. The tales of North American Indians also tell us about the deluge.

The Black Sea is another example. It was cut off from the Marmora and the Mediterranean Seas and it was 100 meters below its current level. The prominent historian Diadorus Siculus (1st century B.C.) wrote about the formation of the Dardanelles and the Dardan flood, which was presumably caused by the water from the Black Sea as it rushed into the Mediterranean through the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. Geophysics data speak in favour of this event, 41 which was of crucial importance in the life of ancient civilisations. It is reflected in the myths and legends of various nations. In reality, the water emptied into the Black Sea, whose water level rose by 100 meters. This flood is a relatively recent event. It was a time when the first Greek and Scythian legends appeared. Those nations lived close to the coastline of the Black and Marmora Seas. The Black Sea flooded about 100-200 km of maritime coastline. This is how the Sea of Azov was formed, while many ancient settlements were buried under the sea.

Eschatological descriptions in the legends of many cultures contain amazingly similar details. It occurs as a result of engrossing fire (eruption of volcanoes) and gushing floodwater. This is exactly how the end of the world was envisioned by the ancient Slavs. During Shrovetide celebrations in March, they sang songs about the Great Flood. Flood periods in ancient times were regarded as a reminder about the Great Flood which came from Rod-SwarohPerun, who was revered as the most superior heavenly deity. Slavonic sorcerers warned people about the necessity of observing rituals or else flood periods would never cease and the deluge would return again. The ecological and philosophical message of the legends is that it is dangerous to take nature's warnings lightly. The same goes for the wisdom of customs and ancient beliefs: one disregarded them at the risk of catastrophe. Modern environmental crises are just another proof of the old wisdom. Today, Ukraine is on the verge of major crises—the inundation of large areas which may come in the wake of the completion of gigantic projects that may disturb the natural flow of Dnipro water and its ecosystem.

In the past, climatic fluctuations and changes in the landscape resulted in the disturbance of water balance, flora, and fauna. As the climate became colder, thermophilic plants and animals either disappeared or migrated to warmer lands. Tribes and nations also migrated as they adapted themselves to the changing environment. This great migration of nations was especially dynamic in the areas of the fertile soils in the Black Sea maritime area and in the Dnipro basin. History reminds us that many nations, cultures, and beliefs came and went prior to the ancestors of the Ukrainians, Russians, and Belarusians, the ancient Slavs, who settled in the Dnipro basin.

The lands along the Dnipro are saturated with the spirit of numerous civilisations that succeeded one another from the East as well as the West. The images of Artemis and the Gorgons, Demeter and Persephone, as well as Athena and Zeus, have been found to originate in the Trypillia culture. Contemporary factual research will be of primary importance in determining the spiritual identity of the Indo-European cultural settlements, as well as the mysterious relationship between the Slavonic, Hindu, and Greek cultures. It will solve the riddle of the Scythian Hellenes, the mystery of the Helons of the Dnipro lands and their Dionysian cult, as well as other manifestations of Greek myths and rituals of unknown origin.

In ancient times, the Dnipro was known as a transportation route connecting the peoples of the Baltic, Black, and the Mediterranean Seas. The famous route from the Varangians to the Greeks played an important role in the history of Kyivan Rus. Another not so well-known route was from Bulgar to Kyiv, which went down the Dnipro and further by land to foreign lands. Some one thousand years ago this route connected the peoples in the Volga area (the Volga Bulgaria) with those living in the Dnipro basin. In their monograph Bulgar-Kyiv (1997), historians A. Motsya (Ukraine) and A. Khalikov (Tatarstan) do not rule out the claim that the surface-river route from Bulgar to Kyiv was part of the Great Silk Road to Europe. 51

Below is a general chronology of the millennial history of ethnic cultures and civilisations in the Dnipro basin, compiled by authors who relied on available research. 10, 11, 24, 74 There is a certain difficulty in completing a systemic work of this sort due to the temporal and geographical overlap of many cultures and their historical stratification.

According to Ukrainian historians P. P. Tolochka, D. N. Kozak, O. P. Mots', and others, the flora and fauna that existed during the time of the late Indo-Europeans enables us to identify the location of their ancestral land. It was located in the moderate zone between the Rhine and the Volga. Modern historians are unable to explain the appearance and then the disappearance of the fifteen hundred-year-old Trypillian culture (4000 - 2500 B.C.) from the country between the Dnister and Dnipro Rivers, nor are they able to explain the disappearance of those ancient cities with Indo-European features.

Beginning in the 19th century new hypotheses about the origin of the Indo-Europeans and Aryans were suggested. 10 A German geographer, K. Ritter, pointed out the similarity between the words India and Indika, the name of the Kuban lowlands and the Taman' Peninsula in the times of the ancient Scythians. Based on this observation, Ritter assumed that Aryans migrated to India from precisely these lands. This assumption fully agrees with the myth about the migration of Veddoid people from the Black Sea coast to India, led by the Great Blessed Rama. He was the commander and spiritual leader by virtue of his spiritual force, ingenuity, and kindness. Edward Schure narrates the following legend in his essay The Great Initiates: "All these legends, like radii of one and the same circle, point to a single common centre... the first Creator of the Aryan religion, who rises from the woodlands of ancient Scythia in a tiara of both the Conqueror and the Blessed, and holds a mystical fire in his hand, a consecrated fire, which will enlighten all Aryan peoples." 83

During World War II, an Austrian linguist, P. Kremer, arrived at the same conclusion and compared the "New Syndic" of ancient authors with the "Old Syndic", which was located in the lower reaches of the Dnipro. Were it not from here, then, that the Aryans migrated, long before the appearance of the Scythians or the Greeks? O. Schreider, a German linguist, as well as H. Child and K. Sulimyrsky, English and Polish archaeologists of the pre-war years, believed that the ancestral land of the Indo-Europeans and the Aryans was located in the steppes of the Black and the Caspian Seas. Until recently, M. Chymbutas, an American researcher, has supported a similar theory.

It is important to note that in the 1950s V. Heorhieva, a Bulgarian philolo-gist, and Danylenko narrowed down the location of the ancestral fatherland of the Aryans and the Indo-Europeans to the lower reaches of the Dnipro. 24

Later on, the issue of the Indo-European community became significantly more complex, since it intertwined with the Arat and Sumer question. Fundamental research by Ukrainian and Russian philologists and archaeologists has confirmed that the original ancestral land of the Aryans was located in the lower reaches of the Dnipro. A link has been established between their culture and the Trypillian culture. The study of burial mounds located along the lower regions of the Dnipro have provided the following three categories of data that support the given hypothesis: belongings, tombs, and embankments. The barrow near Velyka Oleksandrivka and the adjacent Starosillya (the country between the Ingulets' and the Dnipro Rivers) indicates more distinctly than other barrows the presence of an Aryan tribal community due to the contact between Arat and Sumer, the wandering priests (a contemporary geographical map of Poltava Oblast shows that there is still a small river and locality, by the name of Artopolot). 24

Yet the most impressive evidence is the archaeological findings in the Kamiana Mohyla (Stone Barrow) on the river Molochna (left-bank, the Dnipro lowlands) dated from the 7th century B.C. The clay tablets with pre-Sumerian characters that were discovered there point to a historical connection between epochs and peoples. They also provide evidence of the great ancient civilisations in what is today Ukraine. They convincingly confirm that the Dnipro basin is a cradle of three Slavonic nations whose roots extend ten to twelve thousand years into the past.

The discovered stone tablets—pre-Sumerian writings—attest to the historical connection between the cultures of the lands between the Danube and the Dnipro and the Tigris and Euphrates basins. (The mystery of the names of the Samara River, a tributary of the Dnipro, and the city Samarra on the Euphrates is certainly worthwhile mentioning.) A connection has also been established between the cultures of the Kamiana Mohyla territory and the contemporary Turkish settlement of Chatal-Huyuka. The English archaeologist J. Melart had excavated a priests' quarters of the earliest Indo-European settlement near Chatal-Huyuka. The Indo-Europeans had developed exceptional farming skills, social structures, and myths and rituals. The priests of Chatal-Huyuka paid periodic visits to Kamiana Mohyla to conduct mythical rituals. Each time, they read the writings of the clay tablets in order to enrich their knowledge with the wisdom of their ancestors. (Today it would also benefit our spiritual forces to visit the burial sites of our ancestors in the Dnipro basin.) Danylenko was the first to decipher the mythical rituals of the earliest Indo-European cultures of the 8th to 3rd centuries B.C., beginning with the Chatal-Huyuka and Starchev to the Kukuten and Trypillia. He demonstrated the existence of a similarity between theirs and the Sumerian, as well as the Greek (more precisely Pelasgian) mythical rituals.

From approximately 12,000 to 10,000 B.C., a new historical epoch began in the lands along the lower reaches of the Dnipro—the Mesolithic period. Archaeologists and historians have concluded the presence of three anthropological types in the area above the Dnipro rapids during the Mesolithic period—Early Mediterranean, Proto-European, and Mixed, which evolved due to the assimilation of the former two. The process of anthropological formation of the Mesolithic community of the Dnipro regions went on for several thousand years—thrusts and waves of migration occurred from the north, south, east and west.

As stated in the book The Ancient History of Ukraine, 10 complex mythical concepts of the Mesolithic settlements were embodied in Churingas (stone plates with engraved or painted characters), which were found in Kamiana Mohyla, and the Crimea. The burial mounds above the Dnipro rapids (Voloske, Vasylkiv I and III), as well as the archaeological findings along the Molochna River with the cultural centre in Kamiana Mohyla (7th millennium B.C.), were traced to this period. Subsequent tribes left their magical artistic 'autographs' on the sandstone of Kamiana Mohyla, which were transformed into a unique stone chronicle of travelling priests of the Circumpontic zone and are believed to have a relation to Sumerian cuneiform.

The area of the Dnipro valley near Kyiv supposedly played a major role in establishing inter-ethnic contacts. From the 3rd millennium B.C., it was well known for its advantageous location. The extensive river system of the upper-Dnipro, Desna, and Seim Rivers took travellers to the Don and Oka Rivers. In the north, one could travel down the watercourse as far as the Volga (which the ancient Aryans called Ra or Ras). The tributaries on the right bank led to Daugava. In the west, the Prypiat and its tributaries reached as far as the Western Buh and the Neman. All these waterways joined together at the Dnipro's main watercourse (also known as Slavuta, Danapras, and Borysphen) near the hills of the city of Kyiv. It is through here that the important trans-European land route ran. The route's western segment connected Kyiv to the Hungarian flatlands via mountain passes in the Carpathian Mountains. Its eastern part led to Kazan, the Volga lands, and the territories in the area of the Ural Mountains. This is why the Dnipro basin near Kyiv had a special appeal to ethnic groups with such varied practices.

In the 11th century B.C., the earliest monuments of the Catacomb culture (the manner of burial in vault-tombs underneath barrows) appeared in the regions along the Sea of Azov, which belonged mostly to the Aryan tribes. It is presumed that local Yamna tribes, as well as North Caucasian tribal groups, were part of its formation. In the 10th to 9th centuries B.C., the 'catacomb people', who consisted largely of the Indo-Aryans, had spread to the left bank, then into the many steppe and forest-steppe regions of the right bank. In the 17th to 16th centuries B.C., Indo-Iranian tribes of a multi-roller culture, the name of which is connected with the tradition of decorating ceramics with braided rollers, had settled in the steppe and the forest-steppe zones between the Don and Prut Rivers.

In the 11th to 10th centuries B.C., the forest-steppe region in right-bank Ukraine was inhabited by the agricultural tribes of the Bilohrudy culture. The Bondarokhyn culture existed in the mixed-forest and the forest-steppe belts of the left bank (13th to the 8th centuries B.C.) and is connected to the FinnoUgrians.

In the 10th to 7th centuries B.C., the Chornolissya culture grew strong, giving rise to our ancestors of eastern Slavonic origin. They lived in the area from the mid-Dnister to the mid-Vorskla (a Dnipro tributary). A noted linguist, A. Trubachov, concluded that the majority of archaic Slavic hydronemes are associated with territories which are located in the forest-steppe Dnipro valley and the Vorskla basin, whence the Chornolissya archaeological culture had originated. At the beginning of the 8th century B.C., the Chornolissya ethnic group began to migrate northward. It partially assimilated with the local Bondarokhyny population, which later gave rise to the community of Budyny. The contacts between Baltic tribes and communities of ancient Slavs, who were related to Scythian farmers, grew strong.

From the 7th century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D., the Dnipro estuary region (Berezan Island) was colonised by the Greeks originating from Ionia. The Ionian State, Olvia, had existed at the same time as Great Scythia and had lasted one thousand years. A new Helleno-Scythian stage in Dnipro lowlands history evolved. On the territory of Belske, in an ancient town (Poltava Oblast), which was the location of the legendary capital of the forest-steppe Scythian Helon tribes depicted by Herodotus, some relics have been found—an antique ring made by an Ionian craftsman, as well as Phoenician perfumes phials. The ancient Greeks had contact with the Finno-Ugric and Irano-lingual population during the Scythian era.

In the 6th century B.C., the Iranian-speaking tribes of the Zrub (in Ukrainian it means "log") culture had spread from the east to left-bank Ukraine. They are known to have buried the dead underneath barrows in hewn wooden coffins, stone sarcophagi, and rectangular pits covered with wood. Throughout the next centuries, the Zrub peoples occupied huge territories, from the Dnister in the west to the Urals in the east, and from the Kama, the middle of the Oka, and the Desna up to the steppes along the Caspian Sea coast and the Crimea.

Researchers consider the great period between the 6th and early 4th centuries B.C. to be the Neolithic epoch. The transition from domestication to crop growing is characteristic of this period. Relics from the Neolithic period are found mainly in the regions above the Dnipro rapids, along the coastline of the Sea of Azov, and in the Siversky Donets region. They belong to a southern group of Dnipro-Donetsk tribes, amongst which several archaeological cultures are recognised, including the Proto-European and Early Oriental anthropologic types.

There are close to 60 archaeological cultural sites from the Neolithic age in the Dnipro basin belonging to the following groups: Kyiv-Cherkasy (Dnipro shoreline, Psel, Sula), Lyzohub (Desna), Azov-Dnipro (Nadporozhzhia—above the Dnipro rapids), Verovkin (Sula, Psel), and Sursk (Nadporozhzhia). In the Kyiv area the sites are located in Nikolska Slobidka, Vyshenky, Vita Lytovska, and Bortnychi; in Zaporizhzhia on Surskyi and Kodachok Islands. This is the epoch of origin of the Trypillia culture and its ancient cities, perhaps the earliest in Europe. 16 The Seredniostohiv culture (Dereiivka, Oleksandiya) originated at about the same time and was possibly the earliest culture in Europe to perform burials of domestic animals, specifically, the horse. The concept of life, death, and birth of the ancient peoples is reflected in their burial customs. Death was conceived as a transition into another form of existence. The graves in the Neolithic period did not have barrows, which is characteristic of the epoch. Today, the burial rites of the ancient settlements in the Cherkasy and Nadporozhzhia (above the Dnipro rapids) regions have been well studied.

The late 5th to the 3rd centuries B.C. are known as the Eneolithic Period. Tribes of the Trypillia culture inhabited the right bank of the Dnipro, as well as parts of the left bank along the middle of the river. They were involved in agriculture and animal husbandry. The forest-steppe and the steppe zones of the left bank were inhabited by tribes of the Seredniostohiv culture and the steppe zone along the Black Sea coast was inhabited by the Kemiobin culture. The Trypillia culture, which existed for 1,500 years in the lands between the Dnipro and the Dnister Rivers, mysteriously disappeared. In the middle of the 4th century B.C., the animal-raising tribes of the Seredniostohiv culture intensively settled on the left bank of the Dnipro and along the Siversky Donets basin. Some historians regard this settlement as the first appearance of Indo-Europeans on the territory of contemporary Ukraine. Anthropological research supports the theory of close contact between the Seredniostohiv and Trypillia cultures.

A significant number of landmarks in the Dnipro basin originate from the early stages of the Eneolithic Period (4th century B.C.). They represent the mid Trypillia culture (Trypillia, Shkarovka, Kolomyishchyna, Verem'ya, Hrebni, Myropillia, and others), the Lendel culture (Prypiat basin), the Stohiv culture (Khortytsia, Seredniy Stih, Zolota Balka), the Yamna-Hrebni culture (the Desna basin, Psla, Sula), and others. From the end of the 4th to the first half of the 3rd centuries B.C., intensive settlement along the lower reaches of the Dnipro occurred. Altogether, 160 cultural sites in the Dnipro basin come from this period, represented by the late Trypillia (Kyiv-Cherkasy region), Dereiiv, and Nyzhniomykhaylivska cultures.

In the 3rd century B.C. the lower central regions along the Dnipro witness settlement of the peoples of the Yamna and the Kemiobin cultures. This period also marked the end of Scythian domination. The Sarmatic tribes, which earlier wandered along the Ural Mountains and the Volga River, approached from the east. During the first centuries A.D., some Sarmatian peoples penetrated deep into the north (Tyasmyn basin), where they soon assimilated with the local agricultural community.

In the middle of the 3rd century B.C., the tribes of the Kemiobin culture settled along the lower reaches of the Dnipro, Southern Buh, and Crimea. They are believed to have originated in the Northern Caucasus.

In the 3rd to 2nd centuries B.C. the nomadic tribes of the Sarmatians, Yazygy, and Roksolany ousted the Scythians. The Slavonic ethnos took shape mostly in the area between the Vistula and the Oder. The Zarubinets culture played a major role in shifting the centre of Slavic history to the area between the Vistula and the Dnipro. The rule of the Sarmatians ceased with the invasion of the Goths.

In the last quarter of the 3rd to the first half of the 2nd centuries B.C., the left bank and certain parts of the right bank of the Dnipro were inhabited by the crop-growing and animal-raising tribes of the Yamna culture (the name derives from the burial rite, in Ukrainian yama means 'pit'). Afterwards, the Yamna peoples settled along the Black Sea coast and spread to the Balkans. At that time they inhabited a great portion of land between the Volga and the Danube. These enormous migrations marked the end of the 'Indo-Europeanisation' of Ukraine's territory. The greatest concentrations of Yamna settlements are known to have existed north of the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea, and between the Don and Danube Rivers. From here on, along the Dnipro and the Prypiat Rivers, towards the Neman, Vistula, and Oder Rivers another culture settled, the Pre-Germano-Balto-Slavs. The Pre-Celto-Illiro-Italics moved from Podillia westward through the Carpathian mountain passes. The Pre-Greek-Armeno-Thracians progressed from the western regions along the Black Sea coastline, southward past the Danube. The people who remained on the territory between the Dnipro and Volga Rivers were the forebears of the Pre-Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-Europeans.

Danylenko wrote that the greatest significance of the Eneolithic Period as a historical epoch is the fact that, at its conclusion, humanity had crossed over into a new era of development. New nations appeared, which until then had formed an indistinct conglomerate of Indo-Europeans. 24

During this period, the first grave mounds were built near what is now Kyiv. From the time of the Eneolithic epoch, the Kyiv heights began to attract the mightiest of cultures (Trypillia, Yamna). The hydronemy of the Kyivshchyna (Kyiv regions) attests to this fact by preserving a Slavic, Iranian, Illirian, Baltic, and Germanic ethnic mix.

Only the Dnipro basin preserves the Pre-Scythian, Iranian (Aryan) names of rivers: Apazha, Apaka, Artapolot, Asman', Vorskla, Domotkan', Esman', Rat', Reut, Samotkan', Svapa, Syev, Seim, Sula, Sura, Udai, Khox, and others.

The 2nd century B.C. marked the beginning of the Bronze Age in the southern part of Western Europe, which lasted almost one thousand years. During this time, four cultures superseded one another throughout the regions of Ukraine. Ukraine's population increased ten-fold during the Bronze Age, which was an epoch of active interaction among various ethnic groups, namely eastern groups of Indo-Europeans, Indo-Aryans, Pre-Thracians, Finno-Ugrians, and Pre-Slavs, who developed throughout subsequent historical epochs.

In the first quarter of the 2nd century B.C., the northwest region of Ukraine was inhabited by tribes of the 'rope ceramic' culture. Many scholars believe that the peoples of this culture belonged to a group of Indo-European tribes, which also included the ancestors of the Germans, Balts, and Slavs. The direct descendants of the 'rope' peoples are thought to have been the 'TschynetsKomarov' cultures, who were spread over the northern regions of right-bank Ukraine, in the near-Carpathians, along the upper- and mid-Dnister, and in the southern part of Belarus. Many historians associate the 'Tschynets-Komarov' cultures with the beginning of the Pre-Slavic period.

The beginning of the 1st century B.C. marked the rise of new cultures along the Black Sea coast and the lower reaches of the Dnipro, especially the birth of Great Scythia. Cimmerian, Scythian, and Sarmatic nomadic cultures superseded one another over the course of millennia, leaving behind archaeological landmarks and genetic vestiges in the future pre-Slavic ethnicities.

In the early 1st century B.C., nomadic Iranian ethnicities, who engaged in livestock-breeding, formed distinct cultures which superseded one another: Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alazonians, Budins, Helons, and others. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Great Scythia flourished during the 4th century B.C. The grandiose barrows of Scythian Tsars (Chortomlyk, Ohuz, Aleksandropolskyi, Kozel, and others) in Dnipro's lowlands are dated from this period.

In the 1st century A.D., the peoples of the Dnipro valley were driven out by the Sarmatian tribes into the forested areas of the upper reaches of the Dnipro and Desna Rivers. The Slavs assimilated with the local Baltic ethnos. Only in the 5th century A.D. did the original Kyiv culture, with a noticeable influence coming from the Baltic region, begin to form in the regions of mid- and upper-Dnipro and Desna Rivers. Jordan concluded that this group of Slavonic ethnos was previously referred to as the Wends. Historians divide the ethno-history of ancient Slavs into two epochs—the Wend and the Slavonic.

In the 3rd to 4th centuries A.D. the Chernyahiv culture, composed of various ethnic groups (Slavs, Sarmatians, Goths) took root in the area between the Dnipro and the lower reaches of the Danube. Goths played an important role in the establishment of the Chernyahiv culture.

The multi-ethnic Kyiv culture evolved in the second quarter of the first millennium. It was represented by the ancestors of the Slavic tribes that lived in the southern part of the mid- and upper-Dnipro basin and on the adjacent Belarusian territories. The historic relics of Kyiv culture are represented by three major territorial groups: mid-Dnipro, upper-Dnipro, and Desna.

The earliest written sources (Greek and Roman) about Slavs date from the first centuries A.D. The term 'Slav' emerges for the first time in the 6th century A.D. in the works of a 6th century Gothic historian, Jordan. Philologists have determined that the Slavonic languages belong to an ancient group of languages and that the ancestors of the Slavs had emerged in the northern zone of Indo-European settlements. Historians have divided the prehistoric period of the Slavic peoples into the following four stages: lingual ancestors of Slavs (Neolithic and Eneolithic Periods); Proto-Slavs (3rd to the beginning of 2nd centuries B.C.); Pre-Slavs (Bronze Age, second half of 2nd century B.C.); and Pre-Slavs who were influenced by the Thracians, Illirians, Germans, Scythians, and others (end of 2nd to the beginning of 1st centuries B.C.). The Bulgarian philologist V. Heorhiev identifies three stages, namely: Balto-Slavonic (3rd century B.C.); transitional (3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.); and the age of separation of Slavs (mid-2nd century B.C.). Philologists presume the Germano-Balto-Slavonic community to have preceded the Balto-Slavs. The Dnipro and its tributaries are believed to have played a significant role in this process in terms of communication and transportation.

The victory over the Goths gave impetus to the development of distinct forms of early Slavonic culture which were imbued with elements of statehood. These new ethnic centres were located across the entire Dnipro basin (Polochany in the Smolensk area, Drevlyany, Polyany, and Siveryany around Kyiv).

In the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, the community of free Cossacks in the lower part of the Dnipro gradually acquired features of a distinct ethnoscenic formation. Its democratic political system had preserved the traditions of Kyivan Rus—"...a perfect combination of democratic settlements (kosh) and monarchic (hetman) principles." The powerful impact of the Zaporizhzhian Cossacks was significant in restoring the Kyivan Rus state-hood which had been destroyed by the Tatar -Mongol invasion. The Kyivan Rus state was resurrected like the mythical phoenix to become a Ukrainian state. Long before the appearance of democratic constitutions in Europe and the USA, the life of Zaporizhzhian Cossacks was governed by the democratic constitution issued by Hetman Pylyp Orlyk.

Let us take a look at the results of some place-name comparisons. An amazing connection between times and peoples is detected in the names of rivers, towns, and lakes. It is the ethnographical flow of the Dnipro and its tributaries that gave names to many rivers and cities outside modern Ukraine. For example, the Dnipro's tributary Samara spawned other similar names in Russia—a Volga tributary is called Samara; there is a city Samara on the Volga; Samara is the name of a tributary of the Ural River; the town Sammara stands on the Euphrates (Iraq); there is the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan; Sarkand was the name of the water artery in the ancient Seven Rivers area in Asia (Kazakhstan); there is the Sarasphati river in India; and an ancient province Samaria exists in Palestine. We cannot but mention the Good Samaritan from the Bible.

One of the Dnipro's tributaries, the Bazavluk River, is associated with many names: Buzuluk is a tributary of the Khoper River which empties into the Don River. The same name is attributed to a Urals' tributary; there is a town of Buzuluk in Orenburg Oblast. The Dnipro tributary Trubizh has a namesake that empties into Plescheevo Lake in the vicinity of Pereyaslav-Zalesski. The urban-type of settlement, Schatzk, in the Volyn Oblast, is encircled by the Schatsk lakes. Its namesake in Russia is the town of Schatsk. Especially amazing is the Eurasian list of names which take their origin from the river Samara in the centre of the Indo-European arc in the Dnipro basin. This calls for serious ethnoscenic geographical research, the foundations of which were laid by the Russian scholar Lev N. Gumilyov. He places a significant emphasis on natural forces and their capacity to shape vital powers and the spiritual energy of various ethnos entities. He stresses: "We have reasons to consider ethnos as a system, composed of specific social and environmental constituents." The historian's task is "to be of use to 'The Fair Lady of History' and her 'Wise Sister Geography' which connect humanity with their Ancient Mother—the Biosphere of the planet Earth." His historical, geographical, and environmental research was geared towards understanding the interdependence between "the laws of nature and movement of social substance" that may reveal "the points of contact between Nature and Society." He asserts that Ethnos, being a natural phenomenon, is a reconnecting point in which humankind belongs to the social medium and Ethnos concurrently. Ethnogenesis is the mechanism of a dynamic fluctuation of the ethnic field, as it moves through phases of ethnoscenic balance to ensure harmony between humans and the environment. The concept of Ethnos was introduced to represent the fusion between the long-lasting formation of individuals and natural phenomenon.

The name 'Dnipro' deserves special attention. The ancient Greeks, called the Dnipro Borysphen or Borysthen (one may sometimes even see Borusthen), which means "one that flows from the north." The earliest reference to the 'Dnipro' occurs in the written sources of the 4th century A.D. The Don, Siversky Donets, Dnipro, Desna, Dvina, Dnister, and Danube Rivers have an interesting hydronemic relation. Historians suggest that there may exist a hidden historical property between them, related perhaps to the ancient IndoEuropean hydronemy.

The German historian and philologist H. Schramm conducted research into ancient Pontic hydronemy and reached an interesting conclusion. Apparently, during the pre-Scythian period, the Dnipro had three names simultaneously: Varos (Borysphen in Greek translation) in the steppe zone; Danopros in the forest-steppe zone; and Slavuta in the forest zone north of the Kyiv heights. Schramm suggests that the first name derives from Iranian, meaning "the Wide", the second from Thracian (from Donawipzos), and the third from the ethnic name of Slavic people. It may, indeed, be that these are only hypotheses. On the other hand, all of our history is to some extent a collection of reliable hypotheses.

What conclusions can one reach following a thorough examination of this rather general chronological sequence? The number of ethnic centres and the scope of ethnic diversity in the Dnipro basin are truly astounding. There are few rivers on the face of the earth with such an abundance of ancient culture, centres, and civilisations. This may well explain the rise of the Kyiv State on the Eurasian continent in the last quarter of the first century and at the beginning of the second century. 25 Shortly afterwards, Kyiv became an important trade centre and a link between the Byzantine, Asian, and Arab countries and Western Europe. An American historian, Francis Dvornyk, once said "The Rus peoples mastered these skills and reached an extraordinarily high level of civilization." He continued: "The residents of Kyiv established their own political system—a wonderful combination of democratic towns and monarchic principles." It is assumed that ethnic diversity in the centre of civilisations in the Dnipro basin was historically determined by the cultural, informational, and genetic legacy of thousands of years of ethnogenesis. All this played a decisive role in attaining such a high level of cultural development.

It was not by chance that the historic community of independent Zaporizhzhian Cossacks (literally, free men from below the rapids) began to settle and grow in the area below the Dnipro rapids. Their genetic roots may be traced down to the ancient Indo-European, Scythian, and ancient Slavonic periods. In 1900, the Ukrainian historian Dmytro Yavornytsky wrote in his History of Zaporizhzhian Cossacks: "Obviously, the community of Cossacks, living in the lower reaches of Dnipro, was not formed immediately, but rather incrementally. It grew steadily, accepting numbers of all kind of people, who were not happy about government regulations and were searching for freedom...." 86

The general ethnic and ecological history of the great Slavic rivers hasn't been written yet. Incidentally, the same holds true for other great rivers of the planet earth that gave rise to civilisations and witnessed their rise and fall (the Nile in Egypt, the territory between the Tigris and Euphrates in Iraq, the Indus and Ganges Rivers, the Seven Rivers area in Central Asia, the Yangtze and Huang Ho Rivers in China). The writing of such a history is both our task and the task of our descendants.

The methodology of systemic research developed by Gumilyov is based on the theoretical assumption of the energy of 'living substance' of noosphere genesis, introduced by Vernadsky, and Bertalanffi's general theory of systems.21 Gumilyov's research indicates that Ethnos is a form of energy and ethnogenesis is a natural phenomenon which left long-lasting traces of the presence of vital powers in the ethno-scenic environment. Gumilyov's systemic research, coupled with the ecological (biosphere) methodology of Vernadsky and the systemic approach of L. Bertalanffi, were supported by extensive historical, geographical, and ethnographical data. From the author's point of view, these elements constitute a universal symbiotic theory of the harmonious development of human society and nature.

In 2002, scholars from the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences prepared and published a fundamental work, Ethnic History of Ancient Ukraine. The group of authors worked under the guidance of academician P. Tolochko. The chronological framework of this research 74 scales historic rises and falls of civilisations not only on the territory of modern Ukraine, but also of Russia, Belarus, and other countries. This publication contains original interpretations of written and archaeological findings pertaining to the early stages of IndoEuropean cultures and civilisations on the territory of Ukraine (the Trypillia, Seredniostohiv, and Chornolissya cultures, written documents of ancient Sumerian culture from the Stone Grave on the Molochna River).

In our view, the comparative systemic analyses of historic, geological, and climatic epochs in Eurasia (the Alps and the Carpathians, the Dnipro, Volga, and Ural Rivers) would significantly contribute to the development of an historically sound environmental concept of harmony between humanity and its environment. Such a methodology may be applied to stand-alone natural entities, namely, to the Dnipro basin. This approach would enable us to understand better the ecological and ethnical sources of spiritual wealth and historical justice, and define the place and role of the Dnipro's spiritual powers in the history of the spiritual and cultural origins of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.

The quality of life is genuine not in the build-up
of material welfare, but in the enlightened
creativity of life, in the harmonisation of life.

Nikolai K. Rerikh

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