Noua culture

Noua culture. A Bronze Age archeological culture of the 13th to 11th century BC that existed in southwestern Ukraine, northern Romania, and northern Moldova. It was identified and named in the 1930s by I. Nestor, a Romanian archeologist. The people of this culture lived in surface dwellings around which ash-pits and outbuildings were located. They engaged in agriculture, animal husbandry, and bronze working. Studies of their sites revealed earthenware pottery, bone arrowheads, leaflike bronze spearheads, mirrors, and pins. Burial grounds with up to 200 graves in which the deceased were placed in a flexed position have also been uncovered. Notable Noua culture sites in Ukraine include the Mahala settlement and the Ostrivets archeological site.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]