New Materials on the Migration of the Steppe Population to the Upper Dniester in the Early Bronze Age

A hypothesis about mass migrations of the steppe population during the Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age into the territory of Southern and Central Europe was formed in the first half of the 20th century. The Dniester basin was considered to be one of the main routes of such migrations. Barrows with megalithic structures on the Upper Dniester, which were attributed as sites of the Usatovo culture, were considered as important evidences. The article publishes and analyzes the materials from an Early Bronze Age barrow near Katerinovka village in the Middle Dniester region. A stone "dome", an annular lining, and anthropomorphic steles associated with the main burial of the Pit Graves cultural-historical community testify to the special status of the buried woman. The Katerinovka barrow, along with other sites of the Pit Graves cultural-historical community of the Prut-Dniester forest-steppe, covers the chronological and territorial lacuna between the Early Bronze Age megalithic structures of the Northern Black Sea steppes and the barrows of the late period of the Corded Ware ceramic culture in the Upper Dniester region. Analysis of the sources does not confirm the presence of large-scale migrations of the steppe population to the Upper Dniester region. Contacts between the population of the Pit Graves cultural-historical community and the Corded Ware ceramic culture in the second half of the 3rd millennium BC contributed to the emergence of the megalithic structures of the Upper Dniester population.