 Yes, so, hello everybody, it's just a moment I have to close my window. My name is Johannes Müller and it's a pleasure for me today to introduce Marzena Schmidt from Poznan with her keynote talk about Baltic Pontic studies in the fourth and third millennium BC, the space of the Baltic Pontic area there. It's a pleasure for me to introduce Marzena to you and I think probably most of you know Professor Dr. Marzena Schmidt. Marzena is since, or we know as quite since, I would say a very long time and so we have been in close contact and different joint projects also. I think more or less since two decades, Marzena did her PhD in Poznan 1994 on global amphorae in Kujavia and it was a, how should I say it, this PhD was a milestone, a milestone in the sense that on the one hand, Marzena started to analyze global amphorae, especially also the decoration types of the different vessels in a statistical way, but on the other hand that Marzena also included the environment, the landscape and the spatial, the location of the different sites into the analysis and with different spatial statistics already at that time. It was possible for her to reconstruct more or less the narrative of the global amphorae in Kujavia, but from a world archeology perspective, Marzena is this specialist on global amphorae worldwide. I mean they are only distributed between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, but it was possible for Marzena to extend on the one hand the archives and on the other hand the scientific narratives about the global amphorae because she could integrate on the one hand with the research stay in Germany, also the global amphorae of the western group to her research and on the other side her innovative approach and about the eastern group of the global amphorae in Ukraine and in Romania was, how should I say it, breaking up all our knowledge which we had before and because of Marzena we are now in the perfect situation that in contrast to so many other pan-European or nearly pan-European phenomena, we are dealing with quite a good structured data set on global amphorae and on the other hand we have the different models for the interpretation of this phenomenon. So actually it's also a pleasure for me to mention that Marzena did in the year 2000 her habilitation and this habilitation was in Bosnia also and this habilitation was on the late Neolithic of the northern European plain, the concentration surely on the northern Polish areas but this is also an övre I would say or a book in which it was possible for Marzena really to link environmental data and archaeological developments and especially the question of the contemporary existence of different ceramic styles to a real fantastic picture of the world at that time. Marzena is not only working at the university but also she is director of the or she's not only professor at the university she is also director of the museum Poznan and everybody knows that the museum Poznan is playing in the how should I say it high league of European museums and she's very much also into material studies and the presentation of the resides of excavations I mean if you count if you try to count the excavated sites in Europe which are fully published I think there won't be many sites left but Marzena and Alexander Kosko they are working since years on the presentation on the results of Opatowice and I think there are now already seven different books of Opatowice five sorry one two three four five and if you have a closer look at these publications you will discover that again it was and is possible for Marzena to present on the one hand the archaeological features the context and the archaeological finds in a way that you really can work with them if you did not excavate there or if you don't have any background knowledge because of the good structuring and on the other hand a lot of different also new natural science analysis are integrated into this study to mention for example lipid analysis. So I don't maybe I don't want to go deeper now into the earth of Marzena I think she's now at the moment in Turka Rivka in Ukraine on excavation and yeah so Marzena the floor is to you thank you thank you very much I want also to thank you for inviting me to give one of the keynote lectures at this year meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists it's a honor for it I'm really grateful. In my lecture I would like to draw your attention to the problems that for many years remained on the margins of the interest of scientists who recognize successive fragments of prehistory of Europe. The area we are going to deal with today is the vast borderland between the west and east of Europe lies between two seas the Black Sea in the south and the Baltic Sea in the north and is now nowadays as central eastern Europe however if we depart from this name which is to some extent politically motivated we can call it Baltic-Pontic contact space with greater use for archaeology. A main thesis is that in this vast area a long-term structure was formed created by communities that were in interactions contacts with each other and those in the form of a network for the exchange of cultural information and movements of people. We will deal with its history many in the fourth and third millennium BC however the earlier period the sixth and fifth millennium BC will also be briefly presented. In terms of methodology the subject matter of my lecture relates to the canonical aspects of archaeology raised in the various theoretical configurations since the 19th century concepts such as contact influences connections interactions impact and others including aspects of gift exchange mobility and migration and so on have been and are still used today along with accompanying reflections changing over time. My basic premise is a significant and multi-faceted meaning of material culture for human societies including its role as medium of social communication I follow here of course Ian Hodder and others who wrote books on this topic this medium was constantly activated was subject to permanent revitalization and was demonstratively used by specific groups of people it's the high social valorization of material culture in its value-subject areas that underlies its long-lasting and fundamental diversity which we now recognize in archaeological so material sources what is important this concerns the poetic structures of material features not the monotheistic ones and requires a broad contextualization in relation to issues presented in my lecture research is undertaken on various dimensions or aspects of interaction between human communities including studies on form of interaction recognition of the material identifies including the issue of imports and mutations reconstruction of communicable routes and channels research on biological mostly genetic effects of interactions over past 30 20 years such studies have covered the part of Europe that interests us the results justify the thesis that the Baltic contact space or sphere was formed in the early agrarian period in sixth and fifth millennium bc in the fourth millennium bc it obtained a kind of stability and in the next third and second millennium bc underwent several reorganization culminating in such phenomena as the corded work a circle in the third millennium bc and the Chinese cultural circle in the second millennium bc at the same time it should be clearly emphasized that for the community participating participating in the Baltic-Pontic contact area it has never been the only network of contacts on the contrary it coexisted or complemented other structures of connections it was also dynamic and changeable both in terms of its spatial extent and significance in broader cultural contexts some words about the area natural background of this area and climatic borders now let's look for the map the areas situated between two seas the Baltic in the northwest and the black in the southeast the distance between the shores of the seas is amount to 1200 km the territories stretching between these two bodies of water are very right in respect to their natural environment emphasizing the climatic and geobotanical division of Europe the land relief between the Baltic and Pontic areas does not create any significant barriers to human and not only to human but also plant translocations but is responsible for landscape diversity in the Baltic portion glacier accumulation formed in the Baltic portion plate formation and less reliefs dominate on the other hand one of the most important natural borders dividing Europe into the western and eastern part runs between the Vistula and the Dnieper rivers it is clear visible in vegetation climate soil hydrography and geology this is the so-called Dnieper book border line it runs from the northwest to the southeast dividing the western part of the continent where an Atlantic climate provides from its eastern territories characterized by a continental climate other physiographic and geobotanical boundaries complement the main border in the western part they divide the bed of northern lowlands plains from thousand uplands whereas in the east they mark out three fundamental geographic east european zones forest in the north forest steppe and and the steppe zone in the south they are also differences in the hydrography as the area divided into the Baltic basin and the Black Sea basin it could be concluded that the existence of of more or less recognizable soft natural borders and therefore some obstacle could hinder but not stop interactions between groups of people living in different natural landscapes however this despite the present differences between the Baltic and Pontic areas does not have significant physical so hard barriers to impede or prevent human animal or plant translocations even more inspiring is that natural roads have been identified thanks to botanic research on migration of steppe components it became clear that the convenient corridor runs between the eastern carpatians and the swampy lowlands and the prepeds drainage this was the natural rule route for plant migration as seen on the slide in the example of the genius Artemisia during the late Holocene just now we can i can add that the same route was used by human groups and due to to the volume of the topic i will limit my first consideration to the southern part of the border lands so between Vistula south east poland the nearby main so the first stage opening of the Baltic-Pontic area as a background for the processes in question the proto and agrarian settlement can be considered in two different forms and two directions the first was probably a relatively short episode when the Vistula drainage area was used as far as the Kuyava region by the mesolitic groups of the Pontic region from the Yamisławice-Ludoy-Ostrov cultural circle in the six millennium BC it was exemplified by site Dembe 29 in Kuyava mark marks here on the map with the red dot however the question of its continuation or discontinuation is still a matter of debate hence the real beginning of process of formation of the Baltic-Pontic contact area started at the beginning of the neolithic and is related to the activities of the oldest farmers of the linear pottery cultures of Bandkarak in taxonomic terms it coincided with the beginning of phase two music note phase in the second half of the six millennium BC its group from the upper Vistula drainage bases so from lesser poland poland maupolska moved east and southeast as a result the linear colonization covered the borderline between the forest steppe and forest zone in the Wołynia upland and to some extent encompassed the lands on the upper Dniester and even further on the middle Dniester in today's Moldova such distant connections are confirmed by the results of archometric analysis of pottery which show a strong affinity of linear pottery from Moldova with lesser poland poland while there is considerable difference from the pottery of neolithic groups from the northwestern Romania two main translocation routes can be assumed from the looping upland into Wołynia so the northern one and from lesser poland maupolska into the upper and middle Dniester basin along the eastern slopes of the Carpathias the appearance of linear population Wołynia took place during the first wave of migration but permanent settlement took place in the music note phase and was concentrated in the western part of the area however scattered site also appeared far east in ukrainian policia the eastern most site so far is the Vita postova marked on the map with a yellow star located on the outskirts of today kiv only 25 kilometer from the Dnieper river course it seems that the linear cluster on the middle Dniester was a starting point for the eastward translocations until now there are final reasons in the form of few sites including Camiana Zavalia marked with a red star on the map where identified the southern book valley in the north of the region it is situated more than 100 kilometers to the east of any other linear port micro region previously now and was and was and is investigated by our colleague kiosk the cluster is dated from the 10 of 6 and 5th millennium bc up to the beginning of the 5th millennium bc a few isolated linear portal finds were collected in context of other units um it is important to remember that the linear portal communities here were not the first neolithic populations not the first agrarian populations in the territory of Moldova and western ukraine because they they are all the sites of the krish culture in the region another issue introduces sites of local cultures equipped with potter and acquainted with domestic crops uh with the book Dniester culture being the most debatable the linear pottery appear in the region appears in the region as a foreign and already shaped uh phenomenon with little connections to the local mesolithic or neolithic background uh best recognized settlement Camiana Zavalia is similar to central european sites and at the same time is different from any local site of the um local Buddhist culture it is not easy answer uh a question why the linear portal groups appeared in the east one uh of reasons could be the recognition and exploitation of local raw material especially the boenian flint deposits artifacts made of this excellent raw material were identified in some linear portal sites in southeast Poland isolated sites in far east regions may be evidence of an attempt to recognize uh remote uh lands the settlement process originating from the Vistula area was continued by subsequent denubian post-linear societies of the malice culture uh after 4800 bc and the lubin boenia culture after 4200 bc relics of their settlements were found in the western part of uh of boenia up to the river holin and the upper nester drainage basin both it was limited to only a part of a former land occupied by the linear portal settlers and this two post-linear post-linear phenomena so malice and lubin boenia the boenian flint was extracted and exchanged with groups from other areas for example thanks to the malice culture artifacts made of boenian flint reached even the polish lorland uh including the kujawa region where they were identified in the bzześć kujawski group or culture in turn via the lubin boenia culture the flint reached analysis communities in the carpathian basin special attention should be focused on this last uh culture so lubin boenia dated to the period from uh the latest uh 4200 4000 bc until 3600 3600 3400 bc it was the first unit uh to fully form on the borderland more precisely between the stir and hollin leaders and the areas um market with a red star on the map from there it extended its range west and southwest to the less uplands above the upper vistula and the upper nester it is now mainly from richly equipped burlas the artifacts deposited in graves are clay vessels blades made of uh excellent types of flint mainly boenia but also uh others as for example chocolate the flint as well as copper for example axes or ornaments uh the links of the lubin boenia culture with the analysis communities of the carpathian basin are clear it is believed that the lubin boenia culture was or people connected to this material culture was a supply supply of high quality flint to the carpathian basin very probably is they also extracted pure boenian copper uh ores and and basalt this activity as sapleer lasted until the communities of tripartipilia culture of the stage b2 c1 appeared in boenia about uh 3600 3400 bc then the lubin boenia culture disappeared under the pressure of two important players who will dominate the next centuries the tripinia and uh fanelbica culture summing up some consequences of the first stage of formation of the bolting pointy contact area were initiation of population movements from the basis of the upper vistula and western book to the east and southeast identification and exploitation of local raw materials such as very good quality flint so-called boenian flint and probably basalt rocks and copper pores introducing of these raw materials into wider spatial circulation including the central european lauland and carpathian basin and very limited or even absent traces of contacts with older local groups all that was related to two distinct spatial structures of settlement the first one typical only exclusively for the linear portrait culture consisted of the stable use of territories of western boenia podolia and transnistria and episodic far penetrations eastwards until the middle of nipa the second one typical for the post linear units was limited to the western boenia podolia and transnistria areas rich in important raw materials that were extracted and included into a neolithic exchange networks similar types of spatial structures were created the next centuries but this time activities of communities rooted in western and eastern cultural news was balanced so the phase of of a stage of stabilization of contact networks from 3650 3600 BC the bolting pointy zone became activated thanks to the levy circulation of cultural patterns ideas and peoples in archaeological terminology this can be linked to the expansion of two cultural complexes the funnel beaker culture in the southeast direction and the tripulia culture in the northwest direction both processes have been generally synchrons their material representations are identified to fault as the extension of the spatial range of settlement thanks to movements of human groups and the markers of cultural impact in the form of direct and indirect contacts of k importance was the gradual extension of such communities as the southeastern group of the funnel beaker culture therapy as well as the western and northwestern branches of the tripulia culture located in western boenia and on the upper diesta and in part the middle diesta the area in which they were in direct neighborhood lay between the upper sections of the river's western book and diesta in respect to boenia there has been recorded remains of two types of funnel beaker settlements of k importance are the large settlements or upland settlements on the western book river in grudek nad buzhne and gine for example from both sides we have rich materials in front of carbon dating service in light of these data the area on the western book was settled by a funeral a funeral beaker cultural societies mainly from the vestula less upland about 3650 bc and the settlement structures functions here until 2600 bc apart from these sides other forms much more meager or even poor small have also been identified for example buzhne there are also also settlements where a kind of funnel beaker tripulia synthesis were identified małgorzata debitska from reshup from reshup university recently introduced such terms as bicarization of tripulia pottery making and tripulization of funnel beaker pottery making best cases are novomalin podobanka on the whole in the river and vineyard lycee if can hear if if thanks to radiocarbon evidence this type of settlements can be dated to three more more or less 3500 3350 bc what is extremely important and interesting inspiring in some sites along with these patterns so tripulia and funnel beaker features of the badden culture emerged the area of podoya was settled by funnel beaker communities mainly on the Dniester so far the sites were identified chiefly in the upper Dniester drainage for example in Kotlin an upland large settlement of of the funnel beaker culture have been excavated and some imports of tripulia pottery were found they also know known reverse situation namely funnel beaker pottery with tripulia settlements far less clear can be said to be the manifestations of funnel beaker communities penetration of this upper southern book basin and there are an area marked with a green circle on the map and an area that is admittedly poorly explored funnel beaker culture imports within tripulia settlements however are identified also in areas located east of of the vineyard on the middle Dniester some references to the funnel beaker culture are identified in the pottery and forms of battle axis of the soviet group so tripulia culture this could be dated to the first quarter of the third millennium bc if the radiocarbon dating is proper and the tripulian communities appeared sporadically on the upper Dniester and in western bovina and stage b2 a related site is ostrich salmon a settlement and cemetery however a stable settlement on that Dniester is connected only to the late tripulia stages c1 and c2 and can be dated from 2900 BC onwards uh importantly sites of the tripulia covered the eastern part of the upper Dniester basin while the western part uh in the western part after uh 3650 BC settlements of the funnel beaker have been located on the other hand in western bovina on the whole and still rivers settlements of the tripulia uh began only in the stage c2 the very end of the tripulia in bovina and on the Dniester is dated to the first century of the third millennium bc important research in the yamplu region on the middle Dniester showed that analogic funeral rituals uh linked to the godinastic group uh were performed in the period uh 3350-3200 bc then in the period 3000-2800 BC a young uh a younger aneurysm graves have affinities with the pre-yamlaya step stage to sum up from 3700s 3600s until 3000-2900 BC in the area located between the upper curses of the western bokeh and Dniester uh there arose a dire proximity of settlement of two great prehistoric cultural structures namely the tripulia and the funnel beaker culture material evidence of uh mutual contacts between the community the two communities has a significantly wider territorial radius the set of markers comes from uh sources interpreted as inputs and imitations they both document the mutual cultural impact and its consequences above all exception of selected foreign cultural traits in the long island bm moreover structures interpreted as syncretic have been identified those linking the traits of the funnel beaker and tripulia culture in the third instance it is difficult to exclude the presence of a given community arising from partner groups imports refer to mostly clay vessels but also stone hammer axes or raw materials mainly the so-called boinian flint but also basalt and perhaps pure copper from boinia ores which originated in the partnering here convincing example are vessels of the funnel beaker uh culture found inside houses of the late tripulia settlement by Gennady Shilpo on the prove the the site is located on the prove tree and then stone hammer axes typical for the funnel beaker but found uh also a tripulia site on the probe as well as near vinica on the southern book river of particular importance is the widespread presence of boinian flint identified not only in the southeastern group of the funnel beaker culture but also further from the deposits of the strong material mainly in the two other groups of the funnel beaker eastern and mont of exceptional significance are still rare metal artifacts of tripulia types such as daggers of arsenic copper found in caudals and gai both sites uh located in the polish lab land similar to the usatovo type and found in the funnel beaker context of course in turn the second category uh includes imitation of the style of or manner of performing specific objects form of ornamentation uh of pottery components of ceramic mass way of flint processing and so on uh record of these finds and arguments for proposed interpretations have been presented many studies uh of late these have been presented in summer form which has moved the necessity to discuss the above in detail espogorzata ribicka stated merging of both cultures started probably on the peripheries a good example is syncretic uh of syncretic complexes is the november in podobanka site on the holiday river a set of pottery uh was found here uh uh one linking the stylistic and technological traits of the funnel beaker and tripulia uh a symbol of this situation is a typical uh form of the so-called collared flask of the funnel beaker made according to technology appropriate for the kitchenware of the tripulia so with crushed shells added to the pottery mass the presence of the above mentioned types of sources which are interpreted as material evidence of mutual contacts between communities of the funnel beaker and tripulia allows to delineate the range of Baltic-Pontic territorial contact in the false millennium BC the presence of tripulia artifacts and their derivates as well as variety of references to tripulia patterns uh all this was detected not only in the southeastern uh funnel beaker group but also in the vast eastern group on the polish laudland and in the local month group in kuyabu in turn the funnel beaker artifacts they their derivates and references to funnel beaker patterns in the tripulia were identified in the areas on the upper western book and as well as from uh as on the steep river from the steep river up to the middle in the east and uh the middle curves of the probe in the south to sum up the material evidence of mutual contacts is funnel beaker tripulia and tripulia is not limited to the zone of dire proximity of both great cultural complexes but also covers territories at some distance away reaching as far as the northwest and then the middle part of the Vistula basin so kuyabu helna land to the west along the other to the east along the middle and reaching the river proved in the south as a result distant communities living in the deep and the Baltic and Pontic lands were involved in the network of contacts the so the stage of extension of contact areas the term of uh of the force millennium BC introduces a new quality into the processes of people and ideas circulating between the Baltic and Pontic areas during this period it is possible to observe the effects of smaller and larger groups of people migrating in various directions those towards the south east people connected to the global and for culture and the corded work culture and the west north the west groups connected to the stepper cultures and the middle neighbor culture uh the so-called group in this context far reaching processes of idea formation were disseminated social political religious as well as related technological innovations this time the creation of this scenario is related to a multifaceted and wide ranging activities by global and for our populations engulfing the vast expanse of eastern Europe with the black sea plate being especially strongly affected they had two possible partners just on the beginning the late Tripulia communities for example Gordynesti group and then the stepper communities both pre-Yamnaya and Yamnaya according to our knowledge the chronological scheme could be presented as as follows uh three thousand one hundred three thousand BC global and for our populations from the Lublin upland must have arrived into Bohemia they started to spread all across Bohemia Podolia and to the south to the Moldavian upland forming uh agglomeration of agglomerations of the eastern group of the global and for our culture and extending east as far as the middle near section of the neighbor influences radiating from these lands traveled far reaching the steppe zone as well their movements towards Podolia and Moldavian upland was rather quick the basic evidence uh for all this story comes from graves for example in Bohemia in Podolia and Moldavian upland domestic sites are very weak uh weakly investigated similar situation uh is on the middle Tniepe however here global and for our sites are located as far as today and even on the east side of the Tniepe the global and for our eastern group existed until possible two thousand four hundreds BC the so-called mixed zone between the central and eastern global and for our groups as well as presence of the traces of eastern group deep inside the territory of the central group uh mark a permanent contact network uh between both global and for our units it could be either a symptom of a back transmission of traits or even evidence of the back migration of the uh individuals of the eastern group to the Vistula drainage especially uh it is marked in the north and mazovia and in Kujave of K importance is the material evidence of contacts of the global and for uh communities with steppe communities in form of clear global and for our vessels and steppe graves single finds uh come from the Preyamnaya graves for example Boguslav or Baratowka but um Boguslav is marked with the uh blue line on the map but more numerals are in the Yamnaya graves on the steppe and forest steppe border and even from steppe area what is important genetic analysis confirm the so-called ancient farmer ancestor in the global of our individuals from the central and eastern group uh both groups so this ancient farmer ancestor is very uh good identified in the all global and for our investigative individuals investigated so far until now any steppe ancestor has been recorded however the farmer ancestor and steppe individuals near Caucasus could be transferred via the global and for our individuals perhaps um at the beginning of the third millennium pc clear steppe patterns in the Malopolska upland appeared this is the period when niche or catacombe in fact grave constructions were built and used in this water culture the origins of such forms in the water would seem to to be related to the influences of the Preyamnaya groups even while also the of the late Tripoli groups Zvota culture niche catacombe graves constructors used also ochre and had the custom of deforming scars also in this case a small series of genetically analyzed individuals revealed only the so-called ancient farmer ancestry however perhaps this is question of of time in next centuries in this spectacular in this period two thousand nine hundreds two thousand five hundreds pc spectacular confirmation of steppe impact appeared on the Polish lawland so deep in the um the Baltic basin there are now as assemblages of Borzejewice Kursza-Zamkowa type located in Kujawa barrels corgans with graves that contained steppe features the chronology of these far-reached contacts and possibly translocations in essence can be placed at the first half of the set millenium bc and both are dated radiocarbon from according to studies completed so far the origins of the corded well culture in Bowenia and on the upper nester should be linked to the groups that represented the early phase of the corded well complex or circle which moved across the vast outlets of central Europe it should be noted however in respect to the nester tributary were various cultural traditions agrarian and quasi pastoral med that it could play an important role in the formation of the corded well complex or precisely uh information of its southern part according to Piotr Wodalczak next from uh two thousand seven hundreds bc on the Mawopolska upland lesser poland a regional community was formed the crack of Sandomir group with clearly distinctive traits in the whole corded well circle communities present around the nester river can also be assigned to to this group the maximum range of corded well settlement was attained at the same time with the reduction of the eastern globular amphora group in this regional variant of the corded well culture catacombe grave construction called niche construction were built until the decline of this group the crack of Sandomir group um two thousand three hundreds two thousand two hundreds bc the ties between the call the crack of Sandomir group uh of the corded well culture and the step cultures are also being investigated in far greater detail it is possible to find step analogies in some graves for example paucnica you can see on the on the screen a catacombe typical catacombe grave and connection to the step milie are so confirmed there is some spectacular finds that come from the subcarpathia from rzeszów court hills for example a copper axe of possible caucasian origin in schzytna or copper plates from also from schzytna as well as milochi a step vessel in święte on the sand rivers provides evidence of shifts of small step of forest step groups into the east blood drainage about two thousand four hundreds bc genetic analysis confirmed these ties because few individuals from subcarpathia graves have step ancestry especially especially individuals from schzytna and święte with this haplogroup r1 b1a the contact route uh leading across podolia along the dniester and to a lesser extent to the southern book has of late in research terms grown in importance a reverse phenomenon is also recorded the corded well patterns are identified in the step butchak group or culture the northwestern part of the jambnaja complex and also on the southern book the butchak corded well affinities well discussed in detail by my colleagues svitwana ivanova and piotl of water halkchak and the publication are well now next about two thousand five hundreds bc in vovenia and the region covered by the book sun and yes the rivers communities appeared that represented the middle deeper culture located far far east the presence became a catalyst for a transformation uh in the cultures in for the colder colder well coded were peoples in this area which led to the formation of particular cultural group linked to the dnieper river traditions known as the so-called group the byways of these infiltrations traversed the deeper basin almost probably through vovenia this is the third group with the niche or catacombs graves also here individuals with the step ancestry has been revealed for example in whoop whoop check a decline of the so-called group that was identified by yamachnik took place in in the 24th century bc and a kind of uh summer for the third millennium bc as you can see the body podic area saw very dynamic changes during the third millennium bc despite many essential differences the territory the territory is between the vistula and the dnieper rivers were covered by a network of multi-directional situation of people ideas and innovations we can identify the transmission of cultural patterns from the northwest to the southeast from the southeast to the northwest from the east to the west and from the west to the east it was really a melting pot were also alien non-local people were incorporated into local communities all this was rooted in earlier networks of contacts but a decisive step was opened by the distant migration of the global and afra communities that extended the area and made contacts with the step people it became the beginning of active contacts into which other groups were gradually included one of the effects of the interaction was the adaptation of step patterns by communities from the vistula basin both in the economic life and social structure as well in the funeral rituals this particular set of movements and interactions gradually commanded an increasingly greater area where agrarian societies as well as quasi pastoral pastoral ones functioned in this context it is possible to identify thanks to their presence direct and indirect cultural markers that indicate the rise of cultural and social transformation as well as changes that hitherto stable cultural boundaries underwent no doubt this proved to be one of the significant foundation stones the close of the third and second millennium c for the great organization of the Baltic contact area probably the background to the step intrusions on on the vistula was the circulation of people and ideas thanks to activity of the global and afra communities and a consequence of repeated systematically renewal of direct contacts by these groups from the eastern reaches of europe with a set of ancestral areas on the vistula this is a result so the opening of the vistula drainage basin and its neighboring areas to step people migrating from the southeast in some it could create conducive conditions for the formation of the corded web as beautiful darchak stated in some publications in the next stage the vast area of the Baltic quantic lands was unified into a large contact network that shinskomarov cultural site located between the valta rivers in the west desna and same in the east lower vistula and neman in the north and the dniestot approach in the south all what i presented today based on the research and studies of many archaeologists including my colleagues from poland ukraine and bialarsia and moldathia some day results you can find in our two international publications so a journal journal Baltic quantic studies and says archaeology archaeology bimaris archaeology bimaris with subsurface discussions and photographs i am grateful to all my colleagues and to our uh master alexander koschko for the constant inspiration of course they are not responsible for my possible mistakes and simplification this is the end sorry for exceeding the time and thank you for your attention yeah thank you margena for this wonderful presentation of the interconnections in the Baltic pontic area i think it's really a very very dense but on the other hand also very structured information of the interconnections which took place there so maybe maybe i just ask first question i mean what what i by myself found very impressive uh is okay you showed on showed us on the one hand the inter linkage of of different areas or different groups here by i would call them prestige items so for example by the distribution of certain copper objects or also maybe on the distribution of olinium flint and on the other hand you showed us that there seems to be quite a lot of evidence that how should i say it whole packages or whole cultural groups were involved in the in this inter linkage of of the different areas and also in the inter interconnection which took place then in other areas which were not settled before so what you see from the from the process because you had this diachronic approach from the process of uh interaction happening here any situation that for example you could observe first a kind of of distribution of uh this status or price prestige items and then in general change or was it hand in hand or is it until now because of the chronological problems not possible really too deep into this question so if i can answer the question so this spectacular and the spectacular items they are only for me they are only markers of wider and deeper changing deeper communication so they are relatively easy to identify but for example please look at the the question of niche graves or catacombs graves they they were not only for um for um special individuals in krakow in the krakow sandwich group uh they they are dispersed in many areas and uh were used for different uh peoples not only for these individuals with with uh with the haplogroup r1 b1a for example so this is the answer we maybe maybe next next comment uh we have uh much more maybe not so spectacular traits but for for example visible in the potter style this uh mixed of um of uh clay mass uh of admixtures of um potter making uh at all between uh t rb and tripilia um what is interesting there's not so many such affinities in later times they are in quite different aspects so uh mostly in real life we have this globular amphora vessels in yamnaya graves we have um step forms of graves in the core that were on the krakow sandwich and reshuf airplanes so it was changed uh through time mute sorry ah thank you very much for the answer and i don't know maybe there are some other questions from the the audience ah there is one from from folka height uh yeah you can see it great lecture but how about t rb step population uh direfka arrived relations already in the fourth millennium bc as seen in core decorated t rb potteries so he's getting into the topology yes yes the question of core core decoration this is really um not easy to answer because we have steel not a proper base for for for this um analysis um in fact we have core decoration pots in the final because culture in po in the polish lawland very early in the third phase of t rb so earlier than the shift of the southeastern group uh to the south and to the east um i mean we need more uh investigation on this very interesting topic i'm also uh included in in the group which try to find a proper answer for this question folka thank you for for the question not easy mute no i don't see another question at the moment but i i would have another question perhaps so i mean i i found it very uh inspiring and uh so the the how should i say the division of the landscape into or this baltic pontic area on the one hand into this book niesta borderland with the continental and the atlantic climate on the on the one end on the other side uh and then i got the impression that okay you got the the um cross step and the forest step and the forest area uh and i personally or it is also published for example partly by folka um so uh i think at the background there was all the time also the idea that for example global amphorae or corded were uh phenomena are firstly restricted to the areas which are uh north of the grass step or west of the grass step why for example yamnaya is a cross step uh phenomenon and that this kind of cultural whatever or different human behavior in this different ecological zones is not only a kind of of situation let's say around 3000 uh bc or between 3300 and 2500 bc but uh that it's uh also a kind of diachronic pattern so this division is not any longer visible am i right so uh in fact in this uh vast area between baltic and pontic seas we have any hard natural barrier you know this is this is clear we have only soft barriers so uh they uh there was really easy for different people to move across and and that's right that the the yamnaya communities are connected to the grass step but but there are also uh sites and many car cargans in the forested step so this is not so clear strong uh border between uh as as today borders political borders it's i i think this was this was quite different and people found solution even for uh for a new landscape to to how to live in new landscapes um and we can see this for example in the the map published by um by professor jan machnik about this connections in the corridor to a culture in different regions now this is very inspiring yeah yeah thank you i don't know another question from the audience i if not magena thank you very much for this really delightful presentation and the keynote and we wish you all the best for the excavation thank you thank you very much yes so see you soon again see you soon again thank you very much uh uh for all for for your patience for for my my talk thank you for for your audience if you're for you are here