Talk:Cucuteni–Trypillia culture/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Jezhotwells (talk) 23:30, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I shall be reviewing this article against the Good Article criteria, following its nomination for Good Article status.

Disambiguations: None found. Jezhotwells (talk) 23:49, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Linkrot: repaired three and tagged five dead links.[1] Jezhotwells (talk) 23:49, 25 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Checking against GA criteria

GA review (see here for criteria)

It is reasonably well written.
a (prose): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):
By this time there had already been large amounts of written material that gave this culture with one of these two names. poor prose.

This term is used here in this article self referential to Wikipedia, not needed.

As of 2003, about 3000 sites of Cucuteni-Trypillian culture have been identified. Is there no more recent literature?

Periodization

There are two reasons for why there are discrepanciens in Cucuteni-Trypillian periodization: the first is due to it being done by separate scholars, and the second due to changes in how archeological typology is done as new methods and technologies were employed to analyze ancient cultural artifacts. This is barely literate.

In terms of overall size, some of Cucuteni-Trypillian sites, such as Talianki (with a population of 15,000 and covering an area of some 450 hectares – 1100 acres) in the province of Uman Raion, Ukraine, are as large as (or perhaps even larger than) the more famous city-states of Sumer in the Fertile Crescent, and these Eastern European settlements predate the Sumerian cities by more than half of a millennium. poor prose.

The houses of the Cucuteni-Trypillian settlements were constructed in several general ways:

Wattle and daub homes. Log homes, called (Ukrainian: площадки ploščadki). Semi-underground homes called Bordei. List, turn into prose.

It is factually accurate and verifiable.
a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):
Members of this culture belonged to tribal social groups, scattered over an area of southeast Europe encompassing territories in present-day Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. The important physical features of the land were rolling plains, river valleys, the Black Sea, and the Carpathian Mountains, which were covered by a mixed forest in the west, that gave way to the open grasslands of the steppes in the east. The climate during the time that this culture flourished has been named the Holocene climatic optimum, and featured cool, wet winters and warm, moist summers. These conditions would have created a very favorable climate for agriculture in this region. needs a citation.

Some Cucuteni-Trypillian communities have been found that contain a special building located in the center of the settlement, which archaeologists have identified as sacred sanctuaries. Artifacts have been found inside these sanctuaries, some of them having been intentionally buried in the ground within the structure, that are clearly of a religious nature, and have provided insights into some of the beliefs, and perhaps some of the rituals and structure, of the members of this society. Additionally, artifacts of an apparent religious nature have also been found within many domestic Cucuteni-Trypillian homes. needs citing.

Several dead links. I did not examine the rest of the refrences in detail due to the poor state of the artcile.
It is broad in its coverage.
a (major aspects): b (focused):
It follows the neutral point of view policy.
Fair representation without bias:
However it should be borne in mind that when reading from other sources, both print and online, one may still encounter frequent references to this culture that use the other terms associated with it. The important thing to remember is that, regardless of whether the term Cucuteni, Trypillian, or Tripolie is being used, it is the same culture that is being talked about. appears to be POV. Needs repharsing neutraly and any opinions need to be attributed in the text.

Her conclusions, which were always controversial says whom?

One of the unanswered questions regarding the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture is the small number of artifacts associated with funerary rites. says whom?
It is stable.
No edit wars, etc.:
It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.
a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):
I noted several ungrammatical captions but did not examine the licensing.
Overall:
Pass/Fail:
OK, I have read the whole article and pointed out some major defects above. in addition there are rather too many image galleries, I feel. The prose is of poor quality throughout and could do with a thorough copy-edit by an uninvolved editor. The article is a long way from Good Article status. GAN is not a substitute for peer review. I suggest that you work to remedy the defects and then go to peer review before renominating. Nominations at GAN should be ready for GA status and have (perhaps) only minor issues that need addressing. Iam going to fail this nomination now. Jezhotwells (talk) 00:18, 26 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback from editors

Good review and constructive criticism, Jezhotwells. I, for one, was a bit surprised that it was even being considered for Good Article status right now, and so I'll take the review and comments as points to address and repair to bring the article up to grade. Thanks for the time you took to do this. Although you suggested that the prose should be reworked by an uninvolved editor, until one volunteers to do so, I will take it upon myself to try to rewrite the thing. Keep in mind that when I first tackled this project, that it was in an pretty sad shape, and I was a very inexperienced editor. I feel now, though, that I could redo much of it and make big improvements on the narrative prose.

The images are pretty much all from one source: Cristian Chirita's own personal camera. He's taken many photographs in his travels around the region of Romania and Moldova, including many museums, and if you check into it, you'll find that it is his own work in every single photo used - and since he's turned his work over to public use, they're free and clear to use. Perhaps using fewer images would be good - indeed, this would be one of the reasons I decided to create the subarticles: to provide places to put some of these image galleries!

Thanks again - it helps to know where precisely to direct my best efforts. --Saukkomies ^talk 00:31, 26 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors can help with copy-editing. Jezhotwells (talk) 00:38, 26 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the tip, Jezhotwells. :) --Saukkomies ^talk 00:42, 26 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]