![[库库特尼陶碗陶罐.jpg]] *Three ceramic Cucuteni vessels from Romania, about 6,300 years old.* In addition to these cultures that developed some of the world's first cities, there were several other noteworthy early cultures that do not always get the attention they deserve. For example, the Cucuteni–Trypillia Culture lived in the region that is now Romania and Ukraine from about 7,000 to 5,000 years ago. Although they had settlements of over ten thousand, where people lived in uniformly-designed houses built in concentric circles around an open common area, there is little evidence of palaces or elite burials, and they may have abandoned and burned their settlements every sixty to eighty years; possibly to prevent disease buildup, soil exhaustion, or inequality. The Cucuteni seem to have some of the very first potters wheels and wheeled carts, causing some historians to speculate this culture may have originated the technology that helped the Yamnaya to spread across Europe. Later populations (after about 5,500 years ago) show Yamnaya ancestry, suggesting the Cucuteni mixed with the Yamnaya and may have shared their technology. ----- Next: [[3.12 - Minoans]] Back: [[3.10 - Longshan]]