Sabatynivka culture

Sabatynivka culture. A late Bronze Age culture that existed in southern Ukraine and the Crimea in the late 14th to 12th century BC. It was researched in the 1930s and 1940s and named after a site in Kirovohrad oblast. The culture is notable for its indigenous bronze industry and trading activity. The people lived in surface and semi-pit dwellings, often with stone walls. Burial practices included both kurhans and ground burials. Their pottery was rounded, often with a characteristic band of applied ornamentation near the crown. Some scholars regard the Sabatynivka culture as a local variant of the late Timber-Grave culture, while others maintain that it is distinctive. There is evidence of Multicylindrical-Pottery culture influence on this grouping and of its ties with Noua culture tribes. Notable examples of Sabatynivka settlements include Voloske, the site of a major bronze workshop, Ushkalka, Peresadivka, and Chykalivka.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]