The planning of the earliest European proto-towns : a new geophysical plan of the Trypillia mega-site of Nebelivka, Kirovograd Domain, Ukraine.

The Trypillia (Russian Tripolye) mega-sites in the Kirovograd and Cherkassy regions of Ukraine constitute the largest sites in fourth millennium BC Europe (Videiko 2004). Discovered in the 1970s, aerial photography and geophysical prospection were used to produce plans of these sites in what has been termed 'the first mega-site methodological revolution' (Videiko 2012). The five largest mega-sites are Taljanky (340ha), Nebelivka (260ha), Dobrovody (250ha), Tomashivka (220ha) and Maydanetskoe (200ha) (Videiko 2012). At Taljanky, over 2000 structures have been documented by geophysical prospection and excavation (Burdo et al. 2012). The resulting population estimates, together with an apparent three-level settlement hierarchy (Ellis 1984), imply the possibility of state-level societies contemporary with Uruk developments in Iraq. The rationale, origins and collapse of these large sites, however, has remained unclear, as has their impact on the local environment and their place in local and regional settlement structures