How Earthworms Secretly Shaped Ancient Ukrainian Cities Alongside Humans

A new research project has uncovered an unexpected partnership between humans and earthworms in ancient Ukraine. The findings suggest these creatures played a key role in forming nutrient-rich soil in prehistoric settlements. Yet, despite their influence, earthworms remain overlooked in architecture and art due to their shapeless, unstructured nature.

The study, titled The Nebelivka Hypothesis, examined circular settlements in Ukraine dating back thousands of years. Researchers found that earthworms worked alongside humans to create chernozem—deep, fertile black soil. This challenges the idea that such landscapes formed purely through natural processes or human labour alone.

Earthworms defy traditional categorisation, lacking clear fronts, backs, or fixed forms. Philosophers like Georges Bataille and art historian Yve-Alain Bois describe them as formless—a concept that unsettles structured thought. Their movement reshapes soil, leaving traces that are neither deliberate design nor random chaos.

Despite their ecological role, earthworms rarely appear in architectural drawings. Architects avoid depicting them, as their fluid bodies resist rigid representation. Even John Hejduk's Architectural Parables, which feature wormlike creatures, focus on abstract detours rather than real earthworms. In his illustration of The Hare and the Tortoise, earthworms accompany the tortoise, symbolising persistence—but their deeper significance goes unnoticed.

Scientists like Charles Darwin and Otto August Mangold observed that earthworms perceive the world through taste, not shape. Their collaboration with humans in soil formation contrasts with the Nebelivka Hypothesis's original focus on settlement layouts, which made no mention of earthworms or chernozem's origins.

The research highlights earthworms as silent co-creators of human environments, yet their contributions remain invisible in design and history. By rethinking cities as collaborative spaces—between humans and nonhuman agents—the project questions traditional, extractive urban models. The findings suggest a need to recognise earthworms not as formless obstacles, but as active participants in shaping the ground beneath us.