Dnieper (Dnipro) River is one of most important waterways of ancient European trade and travel. Since the early Stone Age, from the sedge bogs of the Valdai Hills to the Black Sea deltas, the Dnieper river valley is part of a Neolithic trade network.
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Important cultural groups begin to emerge in the early Neolithic at the Black Sea and its nourishing rivers. Water and overland routes for trade and travel form by c. 7000 BCE. In the Dnieper region are prominent Neolithic / Chalcolithic societies including
Dnieper-Donets culture - c. 5000 - 4200 BCE
Sredny Stog culture - c. 4300 - 3300 BCE
... and regional interactive settlements.
The Dnieper-Donets culture succeeds the Kunda and Butovo. It marks the emergence of Neolithic foragers and the end of the Mesolithic period in the region.
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Human remains from graves of the Dnieper-Donets culture are classified as "Proto-Europoid". They are characterized as late Cro-Magnons with more massive features than the Mediterranean people of the Balkan Neolithic.
The average male is 172 cm (5 ft 6-7 in) in height, much taller than men of contemporary Neolithic groups. Rugged physical traits are thought to genetically influence later Indo-European peoples. The Balts for example are described as large with strong features.
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"Massive broad-faced proto-Europoid type is a trait of post-Mariupol cultures, Sredniy Stog, as well as the Pit-grave culture of the Dnieper’s left bank, the Donets, and Don. The features of this type are somewhat moderated in the western part of the steppe...
All the anthropological types of the Pit-grave culture population have indigenous roots... The heir of the Neolithic Dnieper–Donets and Sredniy Stog cultures was the Pit-grave culture.
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Its population possessed distinct Europoid features, was tall, with massive skulls. The second component were the descendants of those buried in the Eneolithic cemetery of Khvalynsk. They are less robust."
Kuzmina, Elena E. (2007). Mallory, J. P. (ed.). The Origin of the Indo-Iranians
From the Black Sea the Dnieper is navigable for about 2000 km (1200 mi). In ancient times several sets of rapids must be portaged by traders and travelers. Moving boats and cargo over land creates a target as roving bandits await the opportunity to strike.
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Like many proto-Neolithic and Stone Age groups, Dnieper-Donets is a hunter-gatherer culture. In early stages of coalescence they live from hunting, fishing and foraging. The people hunt aurochs, elk, deer, boar, fox, wildcat, hare, bear and onager.
More than 200 sites attest to the Dnieper–Donets culture, a Mesolithic and later Neolithic group north of the Black Sea. Signs of the Dnieper-Donets (Dnieper Don) date to c. 5000 - 4200 BCE.
They settle into agricultural lifestyles c. 4200 BCE. Signs of millet, wheat and pulses such as peas are found. Evidence of local production of goods is lacking, and finds of exotic grave wares suggest trade with the Caucasus.
Sredny Stog is a pre-kurgan (pre-mound burial) archaeological culture from the 5th - 4th millennium BCE. It's named for the Dnieper river islet of today's Serednii Stih, romanized Sredny Stog in Ukraine, where the culture first appears.
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A Chalcolithic or Copper Age society, the people settle by the banks of the Dnieper. Using the river they trade with the agricultural Cucuteni–Trypillian advanced pottery culture in the west, in today's Romania and Ukraine.
Serednii Stih and related groups are part of the circum-Pontic trade network c. 4700 - 4200 BCE. Copper, salt and other items travel through sites on the west Pontic coast, northeast Anatolia, North Caucasus, and the Samara region on the middle Volga.
Fish are plentiful including perch, pike, zander, bream, carp and sturgeon. European beaver, river otter, turtles, grass snakes, frogs, freshwater mussels and clams populate the shallow waters and shorelines. Regional predators include the brown bear and Eurasian lion.
Early trade includes furs, hides, skins and pelts; flint; bone or flint utensils such as needles, fishhooks and hand axes. River plants can yield fibers, food and reeds for woven bags. Spices, amber, animals, grains, obsidian and salt are also traded.
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Honey and honey mead come from domestic hives and home brewing. Honeybees are domesticated c. 7000 BCE. Honey mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage, naturally made of fermented honey and water and perhaps first discovered by foragers of abandoned hives.
The earliest boats are dugout style vessels among cultures with plenty of wood, rafts, and reed canoe type watercraft. The oldest boat known is the Pesse canoe in the Netherlands.
It's a dugout made from the trunk of a Pinus sylvestris, the Scots or Scotch pine, Baltic pine, or European red pine. Small boats like these develop for marshes, rivers and seacoasts. They're paddle-powered or poled. The mast and sail are early Bronze Age innovations.
Serednii Stih sometimes inter the dead in burial complexes or necropoli. Cremation is also practiced. Burial goods include flint blades and personal items. In some graves are anthropomorphic ‘scepters’ of unknown function.
Rivers, lakes and natural springs are seen as sacred places. Rituals and sacrifice might take place near a water source, especially in a natural rock formation or cave. The Corycian Caves in Greece have similar purpose. Burial sites are often near water.
The Dnieper is the fourth-longest river in Europe after the Volga, Danube and Ural. It has up to 32,000 tributaries and is fed by 89 full-sized rivers.
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Apart from the perils of the rapids, the river is broad, slow and gentle as it curves toward the northwest coast of the Black Sea. It's abundant in fish and water life and cultivates a diverse ecosystem.
While early religion centers on nature, the namesake god of the river comes into being with later Greco-Roman travelers. They call the river Borysthenes, and also apply the name to a river deity of their own.
The name Borysthenes comes from a Scythian name meaning either
Baurastāna or "yellow place,"
Baurustāna or "place of beavers."
The second version refers to mantles of beaver skins worn by the Iranic water goddess Arəduuī Sūrā Anāhitā or Anahita. A divinity of the waters, she's associated with fertility, healing and wisdom. Her symbol is the lotus flower.
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The Greeks see Anahita as a daughter of the river god Borysthenēs (their name for the Dnieper) in Scythian mythology. It's also the alternate name for the site later to become Odessa, not far from the Dnieper river mouth.
Its mouth, called Dnieper Liman, is a swampy delta on a long inlet of the Black Sea. A liman, a type of lagoon, forms when river outlets back up due to sediment or other blockage at the mouth, restricting water outflow.
The broad river valley is up to 18 km (11 mi) in width. The river itself is 200 - 1200 m (656 - 3400 ft) wide. Below Cherkasy the Dnipro splits into smaller streams, forming island and shoals. Depth varies from 1.5 - 12 m (5 - 40 ft).
Cool and dry climate conditions c. 4200 - 3900 BCE causes a scattered migration. In the 4th millennium BCE, Serednii Stih society splits into local steppe and forest-steppe people.
In the forest steppes of the Dnipro River Valley, the people turn to a more sedentary life, settling into agriculture and animal husbandry. Steppe groups for the most part remain nomadic traders. By c. 3500 BCE use of wagons increases trade and travel.
Progressive agrarian influences on the steppe from the Trypillia and Maikop cultures lead to the evolution the Zhyvotylivka-Vovchansk cultural group. About the same time, the Yamnaya culture begins to emerge.
Dnieper Vital Statistics
The Dnipro River is between 2145 km (1333 mi) and 2201 km (1368 mi) long. 485 km (301 mi) are in Russia. 700 km (430 mi) are in Belarus. 1,095 km (680 mi) are in Ukraine.
Its basin covers 504,000 sq km (195,000 sq mi), with 289,000 km2 (112,000 sq mi) in Ukraine, and 118,360 km2 (45,700 sq mi) in Belarus.
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The source of the Dnieper River are the sedge bogs (Akseninsky Mokh) of the Valdai Hills in central Russia, at an elevation of 220 m (720 ft). For 115 km (71 mi) of its length, the Dnieper is the border between Belarus and Ukraine.
The Valdai Hills are the source of many rivers including Volga, Daugava, Lovat, Msta, Dnieper and Syas. The rivers flow into drainage basins of the Caspian Sea (Volga), Black Sea (Dnieper), and Baltic Sea.