Late La Tène Period in the Territory of Bukovina and Galicia

Abstract

The Late La Tene period, which includes the last two centuries BC, is a time of ethnical and cultural changes in Europe. These changes are connected, firstly, to the Celtic cultural expansion that contributed to the formation of the new “latenized” cultures, and, secondly, to the movement of the barbarian tribes from the northwest to the Black Sea and the Danube regions. Various by ethnicity and place of initial location, the barbarian tribes had a number of common features inherited from the Celtic culture. These are: a funeral rite – cremation in pits or urns, typical ceramic complexes, numerous finds of fibulae of the so-called Middle La Tene scheme Cultural “Celtic veil” were so levelling, that, in some cases, the cultural identity of such sites provokes debate. In the territories along the middle and the upper reaches of the Prut and the Dniester rivers, settlements and burial complexes of Poeneshti-Lukashev culture were discovered. Despite all the controversy of the question of tribal affiliation and ethnicity of this population, the most acceptable, though not indisputable, opinion is that its creators were Germanic tribes of the Bastarnae. In the territory of Western Ukraine there are five settlements of Poeneshti Lukashev culture near the villages Kruhlyk, Sokil, Zavallia, Burdei, Horoshova. In addition, single tombs were discovered in the villages Kruhlyk and Hrynchuk. The cemetery near the village Dolyniany belongs to the same time, but its cultural definition provokes discussion. Finally, the only unique site of the classic Celts in the territory of Eastern Europe were found in the village Bovshiv. A certain variety with the relatively small number of sites of the II-I centuries BC discovered in the region, is apparently connected to the fact that different populations were involved in the long and gradual migration of tribes on the way to the Danube and Black Sea regions along the northern side of the Carpathians, and some migrants remained on these lands.