Pottery from the Volga area in the Samara and South Urals region from Eneolithic to Early Bronze Age

The paper studies the evolution of pottery from the early Eneolithic period to the Early Bronze Age in the Volga area near Samara and South Ural in accordance with the typological and technological features of the ceramics peculiar to the Samara culture and the early stage of the Yamnaya (Pit-Grave) culture. It is concluded that the Early Bronze Age ceramics represent different traditions practiced by both local and migrating groups of the population. The study of the materials across different methods allow to conclude that pottery, metallurgy and cattle-breeding developed in step with each other and progressed continually in the second half of the Eneolithic period and the early Bronze Age.V članku predstavljamo evolucijo lončenine na območju reke Volge v pokrajinah Samare in južno od gorovja Ural, in sicer od zgodnjega eneolitskega obdobja do zgodnje bronaste dobe. Ta razvoj gradimo na tipoloških in tehnoloških značilnostih posod iz kulture Samara in iz zgodnjega obdobja kulture Yamnaya (kultura jaškastih grobov). Za zgodnje bronastodobno lončenino je značilno, da predstavlja različne tradicije tako lokalnih kot priseljenih skupin ljudi

New Data on the Chronology and Development of Cattle Breading During the Eneolithic and Early Bronze Age in the Southern Ural Region

Introduction. The article considers the features of cattle breeding and consumption of meat products in the Eneolithic cultures (the Samara culture) and the Early Bronze Age cultures (the Repin stage of the Pit Grave culture) on the territory of the Southern Urals (the Samara Trans-Volga region). The paper specifies the chronology of these cultures on the base of radiocarbon dating. The main site for the study was Turganik settlement located in the Southern Ural region (Orenburg region). Methods. More than 800 m2 of the settlement area was excavated. There were six paleosoil layers. Four upper layers were empty, without artifacts. The sixth layer contained Eneolithic finds. The fifth layer contained finds of the Early Bronze Age. The archaeozoological collection was analyzed in accordance with the methodological scheme developed by E.E. Antipina. For radiocarbon dating collagen was treated from bone samples on the base of the standard procedure and radiocarbon activity was measured by Quantulus 1220 low background scintillation counter. Analysis and Results. As a result 32 radiocarbon dates were obtained on animal bones and on organics from pottery of different types from different cultural layers of Turganik settlement. The Eneolithic complex includes ceramics, flint and bone tools. The paper specifies the finds of developed and later stages of the Samara culture. The artifacts of the second stage of the Samara culture were dated to 4900–4500 cal BC. The artifacts of the later stage belong to the period of 4300–3800 cal BC. We suggest that from the Early Eneolithic local people practiced cattle breeding without agriculture. Hunting played a secondary role and fishing was poorly developed. Beef was the main food in the people’s diet during the Eneolithic period. The Early Bronze Age assemblage includes ceramics of the Repin stage of the Pit Grave culture, stone macro-tools, flint arrowheads, items made of bones and copper, slags and scarps of copper ore. The technological analysis supported that ceramics belong to the Pit Grave culture. The layer age is from 3800 to 3300 cal BC. During the Repin stage the role of sheep breeding was increased and consumption of sheep meat prevailed in comparison with the Eneolithic period. This is an evidence of the transition to the nomadic form of stock breeding

Radiocarbon Chronology of the Burial Ground near the village of Syezzheye

The paper deals with absolute radiocarbon chronology of the burial ground near the village of Syezzheye that was established during long-term archaeological investigations. This burial ground is interesting not only for the study of Eneolithic of forest zone in the Volga River region but also for the entire Mariupol historical and cultural area. This publication is timed to 50 years since discovery of this site in 1973 and anniversaries of archaeologists G.I. Matveyeva and I.B. Vasilyev. The most difficult aspects of this burial ground study are determination of its homogeneity and reliable chronological framework because of lack of inventory at some burials. To determine the chronology of burial grounds, several radiocarbon dates on organics from ceramics had been obtained. These dates gave two chronological intervals: the first interval is the second half of the VI millennium BC and the second one is the first half of the V millennium BC. After that the radiocarbon dates of 6520±30 ВР and 5925±25 ВР on the human bones from two burials were obtained that confirmed earlier determined dates. The repeated radiocarbon analysis of three ceramic samples confirmed just second interval of the first half of the V millennium BC. In 2022 three AMS dates were obtained in the Lab of IAE SB RAS. The bone artifact from burial 10 was dated to the Mesolithic. The bone harpoon from the sacrificial zone was dated to the same age as the “collar” pottery of the Eneolithic (4900–4800 calBC). The chronological framework of the Eneolithic complex of burial ground near the village of Syezzheye coincides with the absolute dates of the Caspian culture

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