Ukraine is the cradle of European civilization

6,000 years ago, the eastern portion of Old Europe was a terra incognita, a far-away frontier for the European inhabitants. In the late XIX century, between the Carpathian Mountains and the Dnipro River, archeologists discovered ruins of ancient settlements, which existed between 5,400-2,700 BC. These discoveries shook the foundations of modern archeology to the core. The culture that has been unearthed is now known as Cucuteni-Trypillia.
Culture is attested from well over a thousand sites in the form of everything from small villages to vast settlements comprised of hundreds of dwellings surrounded by multiple ditches. There were cities with up to 20,000 citizens in the Tripolye culture, while famous Babylon had only 15,000 two thousand years later (!). It was centered on the middle to upper Dniester River with an extension in the northeast to as far as the Dnieper. Agriculture is attested to, as well as livestock-raising, mainly consisting of cattle, but goats/sheep and swine are also evidenced. Wild game is a regular part of the faunal remains. The pottery is connected to the Linear Pottery culture. Copper was extensively imported from the Balkans.

Extant figurines excavated at the Cucuteni sites are thought to represent the Mother goddess.
Since this discovery, more than 80 books and thousands of research articles have been published about the Trypillian culture; some 250 scientists from 12 countries have devoted their scientific careers to the study of this culture; yet the culture itself still remains largely unknown to the Western world.