Dnieper-Donets Culture

a Neolithic culture of tribes of hunters and fishermen widespread in the Middle Dnieper Region, in the forest-steppe left bank of the Ukrainian SSR, and in Poles’e of the Byelorussian SSR from the second half of the fifth millennium B.C. to the third millennium B.C. The culture is represented by settlements and burial grounds. The remains of dwellings set deep within the ground, household pits, and traces of open fires have been discovered in the settlements. Implements made of flint and stone have been found, among them, axes, arrowheads, spearheads, knives, and scrapers. Pots, usually with pointed bases, decorated with designs consisting of little pits and comb impressions, are the characteristic pottery of the culture. The burials were in a group, often with dozens of people buried in a single pit. Implements and ornaments made of stone, bone, shell, and sometimes metal (bronze or gold) were placed in the burials, which were covered with red ocher.