Chapman John, Gaydarska Bisserka. The Pilgrimage Model for Trypillia Mega-Sites: The Case of Nebelivka, Ukraine

In: V. Sîrbu, A. Comşa, and D. Hortopan (eds), Digging in the Past of Old Europe: Studies in Honor of Cristian Schuster at his 60th Anniversary. — Târgu Jiu: Editura Istros a Muzeului Brăilei ‘Carol I’, 2015. — pp. 73–102.Trypillia megasites are currently the largest sites in 4th millennium Europe - both larger and earlier than the earliest urban sites in the Near East. Our research into the Trypillia Phase BII megasite of Nebelivka (3970-3770 BC) has revealed a contradiction between the massive number of houses, with a seemingly regular planned layout, and the modest human impacts found in the nearby pollen core. The attempt to resolve this contradiction led to three models for the occupation of the Nebelivka megasite - the distributed governance model, the assembly model and the pilgrimage model. In this chapter, after a survey of recent literature on pilgrimage in general and prehistoric pilgrimage centres in particular, we present the pilgrimage model for the Nebelivka megasite, together with an assessment of its strengths and weaknesses.