Explaining Ukraine Cities without kings: humanity's prehistory on Ukrainian soil — with David Wengrow
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Jan 28, 2026 
David Wengrow, Professor of Comparative Archaeology and co-author of The Dawn of Everything, explores Ukraine’s six-thousand-year-old Cucuteni-Trypillia megasites. He discusses how massive, circular settlements functioned without central rulers. He questions standard tales of inevitable hierarchy and highlights participatory assemblies, ritual practices, and how these finds reshape ideas about early urban life.
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Origins Of The Standard Counter-Narrative
- The book's counter-narrative stems partly from indigenous critiques of European civilization during colonization.
- Wengrow recounts how European thinkers reacted by promoting the 'fall from primitive innocence' story.
Large Cities Without Kings
- Nebelivka, Maidanetska and others formed vast settlements without clear signs of kings, palaces, or elite burials.
- Wengrow suggests large-scale urban life can exist without centralized hierarchy or state apparatus.
Ringed Neighbourhoods And Urban Self-Governance
- Megasites were organized as ringed neighbourhoods with equal-sized houses and assembly halls serving local decision-making.
- The economy combined garden cultivation, livestock, orchards, hunting and long-distance exchange, supporting urban scale sustainably.
