On the correlation of natural and cultural processes in the Neolithic – Volga-Kama area

The article is an attempt to retrace the appearance and growth or reduction in the number of Neolithic sites in relation to aridization and rainfall, and changes in the landscape in the Volga Kama region in the Atlantic period.V članku poskušamo slediti pojavu, rasti in zmanjšanju števila neolitskih najdišč v povezavi s sušnimi in padavinskimi obdobji ter okoljskimi spremembami v regiji Volga Kama v obdobju Atlantika

Nove interdisciplinarne raziskave neolitskih in eneolitskih najdišč na območju Spodnje Volge

The Neolithic and Eneolithic sites in the Low Volga River region have been poorly investigated in comparison with other territories due to a small number of excavated sites. On the Algay site and the Oroshaemoe I settlement there is evidence of the earliest appearance of Neolithic pottery and the first sign of domestication in the Eneolithic period within the Volgo-Ural territory. Archaeological, lithological, grain-size analyses, mineralogical-geochemical methods and radiocarbon dating of cultural deposits have been applied to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment in the Holocene in this area. The results show that the landscape-climatic conditions in the steppe area of the Lower Volga basin strongly affected the development and adaptation of ancient societies.Neolitska in eneolitska najdišča na območju Spodnje Volge so bila v preteklosti zaradi maloštevilnih izkopavanj slabše raziskana v primerjavi z drugimi regijami. Na najdiščih Algay in Oroshaemoe I smo odkrili najstarejši pojav neolitske lončenine in prve znake domestikacije v obdobju eneolitika na območju Volge in Urala. Za rekonstruiranje holocenskega paleookolja na tem območju smo uporabili arheološke, litološke metode, analize velikosti zrn, mineraloško-geokemične metode in radiokarbonsko datiranje kulturnih ostalin. Rezultati kažejo, da so okoljski in klimatski pogoji na območju stepe ob Spodnji Volgi močno vplivali na razvoj in prilagoditve preteklih družb

Periodization and Chronology of the Eneolithic in the Upper and Middle Kama Regions

The territory of the Upper and Middle Kama regions is important for study on account of the Turbino sites that have been open there. Artifacts of this type have also been found in Finland. Subsequently, there have been several topics of discussion. Some archaeologists considered the Garino cultural complexes to be from an earlier period, while others supposed that they had appeared simultaneously with the Bor cultural type. The single radiocarbon dates were only obtained for the Garino culture. Therefore, the periodization and chronology of the Eneolithic in the Kama region have not been developed. In recent years, new archaeological sites have been excavated and a series of radiocarbon dates have been obtained for both types of cultures. This allowed us to work out the periodization and chronology of the Eneolithic of the Upper and Middle Kama regions in more detail. The chronological framework of the Garino culture was determined from 4500 BP to 3500 BP (ca. 3500-1600 calBC). The sites of the Bor cultural type were occupied from 4200 BP to 3900 BP (ca. 3000-2200 calBC). Thus, the chronological priority of the Garino culture is established. According to the typological and chronological framework, two stages in the development of the Garino culture were elaborated. The coexistence of the Garino and Bor complexes had a place at the end of the early stage of the Garino culture

ABOUT ANCIENT CERAMIC TRADITIONS OF THE POPULATION OF THE NORTHERN CASPIAN REGION

Introduction. The territory of the Northern Caspian region plays an important role in the study of the Neolithic of Eastern Europe. The main criterion of this period is clay pottery. One of the difficult issues is the time of the ceramic technology appearance. Methods and materials. The study of the pottery technology of the Neolithic population of the Northern Caspian region is carried out in the framework of the historical and cultural approach to the study of ceramics, according to the method of A. Bobrinsky. The technique is based on binocular microscopy, tracology and experiment in the form of physical modeling. The basis for identifying technological traces on ceramics is the comparative analysis of the vessels under study with the base of standards. It is made by means of physical modeling in field and laboratory conditions. The age of the Neolithic monuments was determined using traditional methods in radiocarbon laboratories in Russia and Ukraine, as well as using AMS at universities in Sweden and Finland. Analysis. Over the past 10 years, more than 68 radiocarbon dates on different materials such as charcoal, bones, organics from ceramics, charred crusts, humus have been obtained. They give the possibility to determine the time of appearance and spread of the earliest pottery in the Northern Caspian region. This is the middle 7th millennium BC. The chronological framework for the development of the Neolithic in the Northern Caspian region is ca. 6600-5500 BC. The paper establishes the main and specific features of ceramic traditions. Results. The technical and technological analysis allows to reveal the genesis, the features of dynamics and further development of pottery in this region. The complex of results obtained allows to attribute the Neolithic sites of the Caspian region to the earliest pottery areal in Eastern Europe.Peer reviewe

The use of early pottery by hunter-gatherers of the Eastern European forest-steppe

The Eastern European steppe and forest-steppe is a key region for understanding the emergence of pottery in Europe. The vast region encompasses the basins of two major waterways, the Don and the Volga rivers, and was occupied by hunter-gatherer-fisher communities attracted to highly productive forest/aquatic ecotones. The precise dates for the inception of pottery production in this region and the function of pottery is unknown, but such information is vital for charting the pan-Eurasian dispersal of pottery technology and whether there were common motivations for its adoption. To investigate, we conducted AMS dating, including a re-evaluation of legacy radiocarbon dates together with organic residue analysis and microscopy. The dating programme was able to clarify the sequence and show that hunter-gatherer pottery production was unlikely in this region before the 6th millennium BC. Regarding use, stable isotope and molecular analysis of 160 pottery samples from 35 sites across the region shows that terrestrial animal carcass fats were preferentially processed in pots at Middle Volga sites whereas aquatic resources dominate the residues in pottery from the Middle and Upper Don basin. This is supported by fragments of fish, legumes and grasses in the available charred deposits adhering to the inside of pottery from the Don basin. Since the sites from both river basins had similar environmental settings and were broadly contemporaneous, it is posited that pottery use was under strong cultural control, recognisable as separate sub-regional culinary traditions. The ‘aquatic hypothesis’, previously suggested to explain the emergence of Eurasian pottery, cannot be substantiated in this context

The transmission of pottery technology among prehistoric European hunter-gatherers

Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radiocarbon dating, we propose this dispersal occurred at a far faster rate than previously thought. Chemical characterization of organic residues shows that European hunter-gatherer pottery had a function structured around regional culinary practices rather than environmental factors. Analysis of the forms, decoration and technological choices suggests that knowledge of pottery spread through a process of cultural transmission. We demonstrate a correlation between the physical properties of pots and how they were used, reflecting social traditions inherited by successive generations of hunter-gatherers. Taken together the evidence supports kinship-driven, super-regional communication networks that existed long before other major innovations such as agriculture, writing, urbanism or metallurgy

The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordData availability: All collapsed and paired-end sequence data for samples sequenced in this study are available in compressed fastq format through the European Nucleotide Archive under accession number PRJEB44430, together with rescaled and trimmed bam sequence alignments against both the nuclear and mitochondrial horse reference genomes. Previously published ancient data used in this study are available under accession numbers PRJEB7537, PRJEB10098, PRJEB10854, PRJEB22390 and PRJEB31613, and detailed in Supplementary Table 1. The genomes of ten modern horses, publicly available, were also accessed as indicated in their corresponding original publications57,61,85-87.NOTE: see the published version available via the DOI in this record for the full list of authorsDomestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 BC. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia and Anatolia, have also recently been challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from 273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia from about 2000 BC, synchronously with equestrian material culture, including Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We find that equestrianism involved strong selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1 genes. Our results reject the commonly held association between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 BC driving the spread of Indo-European languages. This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium BC Sintashta culture

On Neolithic Pottery Technologies in the Lower Kama Region and the Time of Ancient Ceramic Traditions Expansion

The results of typological and technological analysis and radiocarbon dating of the Neolithic ceramics in the Lower Kama region are presented in the article. The study was aimed at clarifying a number of issues related to the relationship and interaction character between bearers of different cultural traditions. The characteristic distinctive features of the Kama and Volga-Kama cultures ware have been defined, the specificity of these cultures at different stages of development has been traced/ The absolute dating of all periods of each culture has been checked, their synchrony at certain stages being proved. Reliable data on interactions between the bearers of the Kama and the Volga-Kama cultures in the Kama river region have been accumulate