Semitic Tribes in Eastern Europe at Prehistoric Time

I consider it my duty to express my sincere gratitude to the professor of Germanic and theoretical linguistics at the University of Munich, Theo Vennemann, who kindly agreed to read the material of this article and refrained from critical remarks, but clarified the quoted passage from one of his works. At the same time, I would like to thank Professor Peter Reijke for the opportunity to familiarize myself with the work and for providing the address of Theo Fennemann.

The question about the origin and the ethnical belonging of famous Trypilla (Tripolje) culture is dark up to this time although the concept of its autochthonous origin generally prevailed among its researchers for a long time. This Chalcolithic (Eneolithic) culture existed in the area of Right-bank Ukraine and Moldova during the V-III mill. B.C. and left numerous archaeological sites with rich archaeological material, which allows us to recreate the look of Trypillians.

Trypillian culture is closely connected with the culture of Cucuteni in Romania and therefore they are collectively called Trypilla-Cucuteni culture. One can say about the origin of these cultures in Asia Minor. In such a way, the creators of both cultures who had come from Asia Minor could be Semites.

Left: The map of the migrations of the creators of Prekukuteni – Early Tripoli culture on the territory of Ukraine
The original of the map [ZALIZNIAK L.L. (Ed). 2005: 108. Fig. 1] was colored by the author].

Legend: I – the settlements of formative phase, II – the settlements of the type Larga-Jijia – Floreşti – Bernashivka, III – settlements between the Dniester and Bug Rivers and on Bug, IV – the first stage of migration, V – the second stage of the migration.
Settlements: 1. Sfântu Gheorghe; 2 – Eresteghin; 3 – Bancu; 4- Borlești; 5 – Traian; 6 – Izvoare; 7 – Ghigoiești -Trudești; 8 – Iași; 9 – Larga-Jijia; 10 – Vlădeni; 11 – Țigănași; 12 – Chetriș; 13 – Stolniceni; 14 – Fundurii; 15 – Bernashivka; 16 – Florești; 17 – Rogojeni; 18 – Haivoron; 19 – Sabatynivka; 20 – Vishnopil; 21 – Kostyantinivka; 22 – Oleksandrivka (according V.G. Zbenovich).

Culture Trypilla-Cucuteni existed on the territory of Right-Bank Ukraine and Moldova in the VI-III millennium BC and left behind numerous archaeological sites with a rich craniological material, which allows reproducing of the appearance of the Trypillians.

At left: Appearance of the Population of the Trypilla Culture.
A Trypillian woman and man Mediterranean anthropological type from the Vykhvatyntsi tomb. The burial place 35 and 19.
Reconstruction of M. M. Gerasimov on found craniums. (From the book "The Eneolithicum of the USSR").

Considering the contacts between Indo-European and Türkic languages we supposed that a mediator in these contacts could be the language of the population of Trypilla culture, occupying an area adjacent to the settlements of the Turks and Indo-Europeans but standing on a higher level of development than these (STETSYUK VALENTYN, 1998, 59). Recent studies conducted by Ukrainian archaeologists together with British colleagues by modern precision geomagnetic methods showed that the Trypillain population was organized in communities living in large settlements populates sometimes by more than 10 thousand men (RASSMANN KNUT a.o. 2014, 97-133). If there were in Ukraine more than two thousand sites of Trypillian culture with an area from 0.5 to 400 ha (BURDO N.B., POLISHCHUK L.Yu. 2013: 45), then the total population of its territory had counted up several million The density of Trypillia settlements attracted the attention of archaeologists shortly after the start of research:

In the area of ​​Tripoli in the middle of the Dnieper, the area better explored by archaeologists, it was found that the settlements were located at a distance of about half a kilometer from each other. If you put the discovered points of the Trypillia settlements on a map and compare this archaeological map with a map of the modern population of this area, then it turns out that peculiar and completely, at first glance, the unexpected fact that there were more settlements in the 3rd millennium than now. They were located closer to each other than in our time. They were smaller than the current ones but were far more common. (PETROV V. 1947: 3).

After careful calculations, it may turn out that the current estimates may be too small. Such a mass of people could not disappear without a trace and must have had a great cultural impact on the newly arrived population.

The village of Maidanetske in Cherkasy Region.
Reconstruction of the Trypillian site in the Maidanetske local museum from 1998.
The houses are placed in a forested environment.
Photo: Johannes Müller, Kiel. (RASSMANN KNUT a.o. 2014, 118)

Reconstruction of the Aleksandrovka settlement according to excavation data
v. Kyrylivka, Kodyma district of Odesa Region.
(BRUYAKO I.V., SAMOYLOVA T.L. (Ed.). 2013, Table 1).

According to many experts, just as our research, the Trypillians were not Indo-Europeans, nor the Turks, and at the same time their ancestors came from Asia Minor (see the section "The First Neolithic Tribes in Eastern Europe "), so the assumption was made possible linguistic identity Trypillians to the Afro-Asiatic family. The existence of Tripoli culture coincides in time with Seredniy and Pit (Yamna) Culture, which occupies an area between the lower Dnieper and Don Rivers. Their creators were ancient Turkic (more on this in the section "Ethnicity of the Neolithic and Eneolithic cultures of Eastern Europe".) Since the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. some tribes of Turks (mainly ancient Bulgars) have become a massive shift to the right bank of the Dnieper, as it is evidenced by archaeological finds from the obvious signs of Pit culture.

Trypillians: An elderly man of Caucasoid type and a girl of Mediterranean anthropological type.
Burials in the settlement of Nezvisko III and from the Vykhvatyntsi tomb 5 respectively. Graphic reconstruction by M.M. Gerasimov on found craniums. (From the book "The Eneolithicum of the USSR").

At the same time, the crossing of the Turks on the Right Bank is evidenced by also found among Trypillian burials skulls of people of a completely different physical type (cf. Illustration above). In the situation when a Tripillian population could have contact with ancient Bulgars, that if the ancestors of the Chuvash, the assumption about the Semitic ethnicity of Trypillians can be confirmed by the presence of Afro-Asiatic roots in the Chuvash language. In addition to the Turks, Trypillians had neighbors also some Indo-European tribes, which could also be reflected in their languages. Purposeful searches of Semitic lexical correspondences between, on the one hand, Semitic and Indo-European and Turkic, on the other hand, gave some material to talk more confidently about the Semitic origin of Trypillians. This idea is not new and has previously been expressed by some researchers, with the works of which the author is unfamiliar, but only knows about them from newspaper articles.

A fantastic idea of the Sumerian roots of the Chuvash people is widespread among them now. It was formed largely by G. Yegorov. There are in his book (YEGOROV GENADIY, 1993) many dubious and far-fetched facts, but clearly, he had grounds for such assumption in some parallels between the Chuvash and Middle Eastern languages and myths, which actually displayed the Bulgarish-Trypillya cultural connections.

Some of the Turkic words, including Chuvash having correspondences in the Semitic languages can be attributed to the common stock of the Nostratic languages. For example, the Turkic word adam “a man” ot Tat., Uzb., Kytg., etc arča “pine-tree” corresponding Ar. erze, Hebr. arez “cedar” a.o. Significantly more words of Semitic origin were borrowed in the Turkic languages out of Arabic in the process of Islamization. There are some in the Chuvash. For example, Ar maskara “mockery” – Chuv myskara “amusement”, Ar miškin “miserable” – Chuv měskěn “lamentable”, Ar šabaka “net” – Chuv sapaka “cluster”.

However, the Islamization of the population of the Middle Volga, which began with 922, did not cover the Chuvash in the mass. According to Ibn Fadlan, only the top of the Chuvash people passed to Islam – feudal nobility, merchants, and townspeople (SKVORTSOV M.I., 1995: 14). Therefore, many Arabic words could penetrate the Chuvash language via Tatar. At the same time, some borrowings from Arabic are very old and belong to the sphere of pagan beliefs. For example, the Chuvash mythology has a god of abundance Pereket tour (out of Ar. baraka "grace"). The question arises why the pagans have borrowed the name of one of their gods from the Arabs, Muslims, alien to the masses. And there is a lot of such borrowings. R.G. Akhmetiyanov writes:

… the Chuvash language has a lot of Arab-Persian words which do not occur or are not active in the modern Tatar dialects or differ sharply from the Tatar-sounding parallels. Chuvash researchers believe their own words, borrowed in the ancient Bulgars period, ie not directly connected to the influence of Tartar (AKHMETIYANOV R.G., 1978: 121).

Thus, in the attempt made to find in the Chuvash language possible borrowing from the Semitic, which retained analogs in both Arabic and ancient Hebrew, attention was drawn to the presence of these same roots in Indo-European. In particular, there is reason to talk about cultural and linguistic relations between the Semites and the Germans:

Ancient Germania shows a number of striking similarities to the old Semitic world in language and culture.

Words such as Proto-Germanic *fulka "division of an army", *sibjo “extended family”, *aþal-l/aþili “noble (noun/adjective)”, *maguz/*magaþ(i)z “boy/girl”, which only occur in Germanic or at best in some neighboring languages and posses no generally accepted Indo-European derivation, have intriguing Semitic etymologies (VENNEMANN DOOR THEO, gen. NIERFELD, 2012, vıı-vııı)

Let us consider these words

1. Theo Vennemann compares Old Germanic *fulka (Eng folk, Ger. Volk) and also Eng. ploug, Germ. Pflug a.o. with Hebr plC, a family of related roots including plg, all meaning "to divide, separate" (VENNEMANN THEO, 2005, 27). The Semitic root has good matches in Chuvash: Pülĕkh "a distributor", "providence", Chuvash ancient deity and pulkkǎ "flock", "crowd"

2. Old Germanic *sibjō (Goth sibja, OE sibb, Ger Sippe "family", "kin", "clan" have a match in Chuv syp “generation”, sypă “knee” (as "generation" too)

3. Old Germanic *magaþi (Goth magaþ-s, OE mæged, Ger Magd "young woman", "girl" – cf. Chuv “măkka “endearment, usually to children”.

4. Old Germanic *aþal-l/aþili (OE æđel “noble”, Ger Adel "nobility") – cf. Chuv “atalan “to develop, grow”.

Thus, Semitic loan words in the Chuvash language gain weight when they have matches not only in Arabic and/or Hebrew but also in modern European languages. The search for such matches was done and by the way, a few words were found in the Ukrainian, Hungarian, and Romanian languages without proper etymology and having no matches in Chuvash, but they can be associated with the Semitic words. They were taken into consideration too. In such a way, a list of hypothetical Trypillian words was put. Of course, some parallels can look more or less doubtful but chance words can be thrown out always. It is better to consider a doubtful fact than to lose an interesting matter.

Tryp *afuna “pea, berry” [Hebr אֲפוּנָה (afuna) “pea”, Ar. حفنة (hafna) "bunch"] – Rom afîna “bilberries”, Ukr dial. afyny “bilberries”, Lat aveva “oat”, Tur, Uygur evin “seed”.

Tryp *arb “barley” [Hebr בָּר (bar) “corn”)] – Chuv urpa, common Turkic arpa “barley”, Alb. elb “barley” (Thrak *alb “barley”), Gr. αλφι “barley”.

Tryp *areh “spider” [Hebr ארוג (arug) “woven”, אֶרֶג (areg) “fabric, cloth”] – Chuv erešmen “spider”, Gr αραχνη “spider”, Lat araneus “spider”.

Tryp *aruz “rye” [Hebr אוֹרֶז (orez) “rice”, Ar. أرز arz “rice”] – Chuv. yraš, Kaz. arys and other similar Turkic “rye”, Rus. rož' and other similar Slavic "rye", Lit. rugys “rye”, OE. ryge, Ger. Roggen “rye”.

Tryp. *bayer “source” [Hebr. בְּאֵר (beer) “well, pit”), Ar. مدح (ma') "water", jura "pit" ? (RAJKI ANDRÁS. 2005)] – Ukr. bayura "deep puddle", "pit".

Tryp *balta “axe, hammer” [Ar. بلطة (balta) "axe", بلوط (balut) “oak”, Hebr פְּלָדָה (pelada) “steel”, בַּלוּט (balut) “acorn”] – complete similarity of the name of ax in the Turkic languages to Arabic one may imply a borrowing from Turkic to Arabic, but the etymology of the Turkic word has not been established and there is an assumption about the Assyro-Babylonian origin of this word (LEVITSKAYA L.S. et al. 2003: 108). In this regard, its Semitic origin should be recognized as well. Obviously, first hammers could be made out of oak block with bough used as a holder therefore the name of the hammer was similar to the name of oak. Later the name of the hammer was transferred to a stone or metal axe. The names of hammer, axe, and other tools or arms are based on similar roots in many languages of several language families: balt, bolt, molt, bart, palt, purt etc (wide-spread Turkic balta “axe, beetle, hammer”, Het malatti “weapon”, Gr παλτρον “lance”, Toch peret “axe”, Lat. martellum “large hammer”, bardicum “lance, small axe”, common Slavic moltъ “hammer”, Eng bolt, Germ Barte “small axe”, Bolzen “bolt”, Port balde “spade”, Osset färät “axe”, Chuv purtă 'an axe", Udm, Komi purt “a knife”, Hung bárd “axe” etc). It should be supposed that all these words descended from some Nostratic root, but they were abundant therefore they, permanently transferring from one language to another, became different forms and meanings.

Tryp *burg “cylinder, tower” [Ar برج (burǰ) “tower”, Hebr בֹּרֶג (borag) “a screw, bolt”] – Gr πυργοσ “tower”, Lat burgus “castle, tower”, Chuv purak “bast, bast-basket (cylindrical)”, Karach buruu “fence”, Germanic *burg (German Burg “castle”).

Tryp *fahar “white” [Hebr פַּחַר (fahar) “white clay”, בָּהִיר (bahir) "white", Ar. فخار (fahar)„pottery, porcelain”] – Hung feher “white”. The origin of the Hungarian word is undefined, but the possible connection with the Semitic languages is also unclear. Obviously, we should consider its connection with the Kab. faghue "pale".

Tryp. *faida “benefit” [Hebr. פדיון (pidyon) "proceeds", "redemption", Ar. فائدة (faida)„benefit”] – Chuv. payta “benefit, gift”, Tel, Shor. payda "benefit". Many Turkic languages have this word, but it could be borrowed together with Islam. But the Chuvash, Teleuts, Shors, and other small peoples of Altai are not Muslims.

Tryp *farah “to fly” [Hebr. פֶּרַח (farah) “to flutter, fly about”, Ar. فراشة faraša "butterfly"] – Chuv părakh “to throw”.

Tryp *gaba, gabal “great body” [Hebr. גַב (gav) “hinter part of, spine”, Ar. كفل (kafal) “croupe”, جمل j’amal “camel”, Phoen gebal “mountain”]. – Wild horses inhabited the steppe of Ukraine in Herodotus’ time, but they were domesticated by Trypillians and Old Türks got horse together with the name from them (common Türkic jaby “horse”). Although Türks have other, the own name of horse at. The word jaby was borrowed by Old Greeks (Gr ιπποσ “horse”) and by Finno-Ugrians (Veps hebo, Fin hepo, Est. hobu, Hung lova “horse”). Trypillian root gaval also gave the name of the horse which Indo-European borrowed from Trypillians without Türkic mediation (Lat caballus “horse”, Gr καβαλλησ “working horse”, Lit kumele “mare”, Sl kobyla “mare”, Pers kaval “swift-footed horse”). Evidently, Chuv haval “force” can be referred to here.

Tryp *gavr, kaur “embers” [Ar جمر (ǰamr) “embers”, Hebr. כּוּר (kur) “furnace, melting pot, forge”] – Chuv kăvar “embers”.

Tryp *gaz “goose” [Ar وظ (vaz) "gooses", Hebr אַוָזָה (avaza) “goose”] – Tur, Turk gaz, Chuv hur , other Turkic “goose”.

Tryp *habak “some kind of grass-plant” [Ar حبق (habaq) bot. “basil”] – Chuv hupah “burdock”.

Tryp. *haman “faithful, reliable” [Hebr. אָמוֹן (amun), Ar. أمين‎ (amin) “faithful”] – Chuv.haman “faithfulniss, solidity”.

Tryp *hom “father-in-law” [Hebr חָם (xham) “father-in-law”, Ar. حمو (хаму) "father-in-law"] – Chuv hun’ “father-in-law”.

Tryp *hota “to seek in marriage” [Ar xatan, Hebr חוֹתֵן (khoten) “father-in-law”] – Chuv xăta “father of son-, daughter-in-law”.

Tryp *huša “hut” (ар. huša “hut”)- Chuv xüšĕ “hut, cabin, light house” – Ger Haus, Eng house.

Tryp *kad “pot, barrel” [Ar kadah “goblet”, Hebr כַּד (kad) “pitcher”] – Ukr kad’ and other similar Slavic words “barrel”, Gr καδοσ “pitcher, jug, pail”, Alb kade “barrel”, Hung kád “barrel”.

Tryp *kart “village” [Phoen kirjat, Hebr קֶרֶת (keret) “town, city”] – Chuv karta “palisade”, Germanic *garda, gardon (Got gards “house”, Old Eng geard “yard”, German Garten “garden”). Similar words are present in Slavic, Celtic, Greek, Latin, and other Indo-European languages, but consonantism of these words contradicts the rules of Indo-European languages, therefore one can think that this word has been borrowed from some other language.

Tryp. *kemel “reward” [Hebr. גְמוּל (gemul) “reward”, Ar. كمال (kamal) “perfection”] – Chuv. kěměl “silver”, silver is called in other Turkic languages called kümüš in full compliance with the phonology of these languages. More detailed about a change of the meaning in the section Sketch on the Development of Merchandise in Eastern Europe at Prehistoric Times.

Tryp *keser “carrot” [Ar جزر (ǰazar), Hebr גֶזֶר (gezer) “carrot”]. This word was borrowed only by Western Türkic tribes which had more close contact with Trypillians: Chuv, Tat kišer, Turkm kešer “carrot”.

Tryp *kors “scone, bread” [Ar qursa “scone”] – Ukr, Blr korž “scone”, Fin kyrsä “bread”, Veps kürz “fritter, cake”, maybe Afg kulča “pastry, cookie, biscuit”. The words of this root are widrly-disseninated among various languages and have meanings “bread”, “corn”, “sheaf”, “millet”, “besom” etc: Arm xurdz, Kurd gurz, Osset kyris “sheaf”, Chuv kurăs “cluster of bast”, xuraç “food”, Komi korös’, Mansi kuras’ “besom”, Germ Hirse “millet”, Let garsa “gout-weed , Aegopodium podagraria ” (umbrella eatable plant), Rus (dialect) koros, korost “stack of flax sheafs”, Gr koros “satiation”, Let cers “bush”, Old Eng kors “reed, rush” (from Celtic). With the change r in l: Gr κολλιχ “round bread”, Hung köles “millet”, Let kulis “sheaf”, Slav kolsъ (Ukr, Rus kolos “ear”, Cz, Slov klas etc). Some names of gods can also be added here: Latin goddess of vegetation Ceres, East-Slavic god Khors. Maybe, Ukr koryst’ “use”, Osset xorz “good”, Rus khoroshy “good”, Germ Horst “bush-wood” are belonged to this root.

Tryp *lavh “board, plank” [Ar لوح (lavh) “board”, Hebr לוּחַ (luxa) “board, table”] – Slav lava, lavka “bench” (Ukr, Blr lavka, Pol ławka, Rus lava, Cz lava etc). Chuv lapka “shelf”, lav “cart”, (first carts were ordinary board on wheels).

Tryp *lis “thief” [Ar لص (lis) “thief”] – Slav lis, lisa “fox” (Ukr, Serb lys, Rus lisa, Pol lis, Sloven lis etc). The fox has by-name “thief” in Slavic folklore.

Tryp *masa “to feel by touch” [Ar massa “to touch”, Hebr מישש (mišaš) “fingered”] – Chuv masa “exterior”, Ukr matsaty, Slovak macat “to feel by touch”.

Tryp *nur „light, fire, red” [Ar. نور (nur) „light”, Hebr. נור (nur "fire"] – Chuv. nar “ruddiness, roses”, "nice".

Tryp *peruti “fur, fell” [Hebr. פַּרוָתִי (peruti) “fur, fell”] – Chuv. pětrě “leathern sack”, Gmc. *fodra “fur, fell” (Ger. Futter “fur, fell”).

Tryp *rešet “net” [Ar, رشفة (rashfa) "sip, strain", Hebr רשת (rešet) “network”] – Slav rešeto (Ukr, Rus, Bulg, Serb, Slov rešeto etc “sieve, riddle”).

Tryp *sabon “soap” [Ar. صابون (sabun), Herb סַבּוֹן (sabon) "soap"] – Chuv. supăn, Lat sapo, sapōne, Eng soap, Ger Seife a.o. – all “soap”.

Tryp *sak “sack” [Ar. saki "wineskin", Hebr שַׂק (šak) “sack”] – Chuv šak “a fishing net, coop”, Lat saccus “sack”, Gr σακκοσ “sack”, Ukr, Rus sak “fishing-tackle in the form of sack” and other similar Slavic and Germanic words.

Tryp *sameh “glad, joyous” (Hebr שַׂמֵחַ (sameakh “happy, glad, joyous”) – Chuv savăk “joyful, gladness”.

Tryp *šap- “to strew” [Hebr שְׁפּוֹך (šofekh) “to spill, pour”] – Chuv sap “to strew, pour”, Slavik sypati (Ukr sypaty, Rus sypat’ , Cz sypati etc “to strew, pour”).

Tryp *šart “condition” [Ar. شرط (šart “condition”, Hebr שָרָת (sharat) "server"] – Chuv šǎrt “oath”.

Tryp *seret “strip, strap” [Ar شريط (šarit), סֶרֶט (seret) "ribbon, strip, belt"] – Chuv serete “plank”, Kurd sirat “way”, Rom., Ukr “Seret” (names of several rivers in Ukraine and Romania).

Tryp *tahal “spleen” [Ar طحال (taal), Hebr טְחוֹל (tehol) "spleen"] – Chuv, Tat and other talak, Yak taal, Khak tölön, tileen, “spleen”. The oldest Türkic form is presented in the Yakut language.

Tryp *taham “taste” [Hebr טַעַם (taam) “taste”, Ar ta’am “taste”] – Chuv těhěm “taste”.

Tryp *tavar “thing, the object of exchange” (Hebr דָבָר (davar) “word”, “thing”, “something”) – Chuv tăvar "salt", Ukr, Rus tovar “goods” and “cattle”, Arm tavar “sheep”, “flock”, Kum tuuar “flock”, Tur tavar “property”, “cattle”, Balk, Crim-Tat tu’ar “cattle” etc. Salt was the main export product for Old Bulgarians therefore it became sense “goods” (STETSYUK VALENTYN, 1998: 57). Many Iranian languages have the words tabar-teber-tevir “axe”, but Finno-Ugrian words of this root have sense “textile” (Saam tavjar, Mar tuvyr, Chant tegar). All these things are objects of barter and trade, that is to say, goods.

Tryp *tiše “grass” [Hebr דֶשֶׁא (deše) “grass, sward, herbage”] – Chuv těšě “grain”, Mord tiše “grass, hay”.

Tryp *tora “unwritten law, customary” [Hebr תּוֹרָה‎ (tora) “law”] – Chuv türe “judge”, Tat türä “law”, “judge”, Tur töre “customs” etc.

Tryp *vaita “cabin, house” [Ar بيت (beyt), Hebr בַּיִת (bait) “house”] – Chuv vite “cow-house”, Lat *baita “cabin, house”. Restored Latin word is present in some nowadays Italian dialects (MEYER-LÜBKE, 1992: 70).

Tryp *vakar “bull” or “cow” [Ar بقرة (bakara) “cow”, Hebr בָּקָר (bakar) “cattle”] – Chuv văkăr, Tur öküz, Tat ögüz etc “bull”, Lat vacca “cow”. Ukr dial. vakar “herdsman of cattle” – out of Romanian. The name of copper baqyr in the Turkic languages comes from the same Trypillian word.

Tryp *verah “flower” [Ar firh „branch”, Hebr פֶּרַח (perakh) “flower”] – Hung virág “flower”. This parallel entails a whole chain of thoughts. There is in Latin the word virga “twig, rod” having no correspondences in Indo-European but refers to Old Turkic bergä, “twig, birch, whip”, Xak, Uyg berge “whip”. Sir Gerard Clauson writes: “berge – a whip an old word ending in –ge. It is suggested.., that it is a loan-word from Latin virga ‘a rod, a stock’ obtained through Middle Persian but there does not seen to be any trace of the word in Persian, and the theory is importable.” The Hungarian virgácz “twig, birch” which borrowing from Latin is doubtful can be referred to them. In this case, Hung virgone “agile, nimble, lively” and Chuv virkěn “to race, rush” also correspond to these words. Obviously, it is a wandering word which traces are present in many languages having different but similar meaning (e.g. Erzya verka “quick”, Rus birka and other similar Slavic words “small twig”, “catkin”, Ger Birke “birch”, Kurd wurg “lively”). If the creators of the Tripilla culture were Semites, the all these words can have an origin word similar to the Ar firh and Heb. perax "flower". Then Lat virgō "virgin" of unknown origin (W.) should be referred here (cf. "deflowering").

Tryp *xarta "a piece of textile" [Hebr. חָרוֹת (kharut) "cutting"] – Chuv khărta "patch, clout", Gr χαρτησ, Lat carta "a paper, leaf".

Tryp *zivit “resin” [Hebr זֶפֶת (zefet) “tar, pitch, resin”, Ar zift, Syr zifta “resin”] – Arm jivt “resin”, Ukr zhyvyts’a and other similar Slavic words “galipot”, Ger. Saft "sap", Gift “poison”.

The Semitic origin of the Trypillians can be confirmed by the explanation of "dark" place names of Right-Bank Ukraine by means of Hebrew. As settlements of Trypillians numbered several thousand inhabitants, at least some of them must have existed for a long time and kept their original names. If it will be found a sufficient number of names interpreted in Hebrew, it would show not only the Semitic origin of the Trypillians but also mean that given by them names existed at least six thousand years.

At right: Place names of possible Semitic origin on the area of Trypillian culture.

To decipher the name of the village of Bakota now flooded by waters of the Dniester reservoir and the village of Bakoty of Kremenets district in Ternopil Region, Hebr. בִּקתָה (bikta, bekata) "hut, shack, shanty, shed" suits well.

Maybe Herb. בַּר (bar) "son, boy" and שֵׁד (shed) 1. "demon, the devil", 2. "imp" is hidden in the name of the town of Bershad of Vinnytsia Region. It is unlikely that the devil could be present in the name of the settlement, but the combination of "imp-boy" is very possible.

Deciphering the similar name of the Romanian city of Bârlad is more complicated. It is difficult to find an acceptable pair to the second part of the word that can be associated with Hebr. לָעַד (lada) "forever, eternally" despite the fact that the choice is great. Hebr. בִּירָה (bira) "sout" suits best by meaning.

The name of the village of Dokhno and flowing here the Dokhna River well corresponds Hebr. דוֹחַן (dokhan) "millet" according to agricultural economy of Trypillians. The name of the grain, which was a commodity in the barter trade, could give names to other commodities in some languages, such as cattle and the like – Chech. daьkhny "property, cattle" (aь – a front vowel).

Convincing explanation of the origin of the name of the capital of Moldova Chisinau is absent. Phonetically and situational Hebr קָשֶׁה (kashe) "hard, harsh, tough" and עַנָב (anav) "grape"

A large Trypillian settlement was found on the bank of the Dniester River in the Chernivtsi Region on the outskirts of the village Moshanets. The name of the village can have Semitic origin: cf. Hebr. מוֹשָׁבָה (moshava) "colony, settlement, village, dominion".

The settlement of the early Trypillian culture is also located in the outskirts of the village of Sabatinovka in the Blagovischensk district of Kirovograd Region. The name is well understood with the help of Heb. שׁבּת (shabat) "saturday".

Hebr. סֶרֶט – (seret) "ribbon, strip, belt" suits well for explanation the name the Seret River, the left tributary of the Dniester and the left tributary of the Danube.

Less likely is the Semitic origin of the name of the village Talianki of Cherkasy Region, near which found traces of a large Trypillian, numbering 2,100 housing units in the area studied by the geomagnetic method of 170 hectares (RASSMANN KNUT. 2014: 110). If you cannot find a more reliable interpretation, the name may be connected with Hebr. תִליוֹן (talion) "something hanging, a pendant, medallion".

There was a city of Tyras at the mouth of the Dniester River in ancient times. The city of Tira (טִירָה) exists in Israel. In Hebrew, the word טירה‎ (Tira) means "castle". Of course, the Trypillians had no castles, but a fortified settlement could have such a name.

At that time, as linguists are not engaged in the matter of ethnicity of the Trypillians, the question of their autochthonity is now finally resolved by archaeologists:

… It can be argued that the old autochthonous concept of searching "local" components of Trypillian culture has exhausted its potential and needs to stay in the historiography of the twentieth century. Now we believe that the territory of Ukraine, which was held by Trypillian culture in the Copper Age, was a part of the ecumene of agricultural civilizations of ancient Europe (BURDO N.B. 2003: 15).

If linguists will agree with the opinion of archaeologists, anyway, they did not find any linguistic clue for the enigma about the ethnicity of the Trypillians, until they will agree to the fact that the ancient homeland of Turks was in Europe.