Chernoles culture

It was located in the forest-steppe between the Dniester and Dnieper Rivers, in the Black Forest (Чорний ліс) of Kirovohrad Oblast in central Ukraine.

From 200 BC, the culture was overrun by the arrival of Germanic and Celtic settlers to the region.

Inhabitants practised biritual burials: inhumation under barrows and cremation in urnfields (the latter predominated in later periods).

Classical Chernoles period finished c. 500 BC, corresponding to a simplification in the material culture, interpreted to represent a pauperization due to the political domination of the forest-steppe communities by Scythians.

In these latter stages, we see an increase in fortified settlements, perhaps representing a defensive measure against the nomads (with earthen ramparts, ditches and timber walls).