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 Early and Middle Neolithic in NW Russia: radiocarbon chronologies from the Sukhona and Onega regions

The onset of the Neolithic period in the Russian North is defined by the emergence of pottery vessels in the archaeological record. The ceramics produced by mobile hunter-gatherer-fisher groups in the north-eastern European forest zone are among the earliest in Europe, starting around 6000 cal BC. After the initial mosaic of local styles in the Early Neolithic, including sparsely decorated wares and early Comb Ware, the Middle Neolithic period, starting in the 5th millennium cal BC, saw the development and spread of larger, more homogenous typological entities between the Urals and the Baltic, the Comb-Pit and Pit-Comb wares. Absolute chronologies, however, are still subject to debate, due to a general lack of reliable contextual information. Direct 14C dating of carbonised surface residues (‘food crusts’) on pots can help to address this problem, as it dates the use of the pottery; but if aquatic foods were processed in the vessels, the respective radiocarbon ages can appear to be too old due to the freshwater reservoir effect. In this pa­per, we discuss the radiocarbon chronologies of four important stratified archaeological complexes in the region between Lake Onega and the Sukhona basin, Berezovaya Slobodka, Veksa, Karavaikha, and Tudo­zero. A growing series of dates, including AMS dates, sheds new light on the onset and further periodisation of the Early and Middle Neolithic in this important area between Eastern Fennoscandia, Central Rus­sia and the Far North-East of Europe, although problems concerning the absolute chronology of the initial Neolithic remain

Specifics of Asbestos Utilization in the Second Half of the 4th Millenium Bc in the Eastern Fennoscandia (on the materials of lithic workshop Fofanovo XIII)

The authors analys the cultural phenomenon of asbestos ware in the forest zone of North-eastern Europe in the second half of the 4th millennium BC. The dynamic of this phenomenon is studied on the materials of the site Fofanovo XIII, which combines characteristics of metatuff adze and axe workshop, asbestos ware workshop, and interregional center for social communication. Typological and spatial analysis of the ware collections allows us to distinguish two periods of asbestos ware distribution in the late Neolithic-Eneolithic. During the first period (3500–3300 BC), asbestos ware (type Voinavolok) had high social status and was distributed far from the zone of natural deposits of this mineral. Distribution of asbestos ware at this stage fits the model of prestige economy. During the second period (3300–3100 BC), asbestos ware (type Orovnavolok) lost its interregional status. The distribution zone of the asbestos ware had decreased and took its place in linear economic connections. Statistical comparison of the metric parameters of pieces of asbestos collected on the site, as well as phase and chemical analysis show that changes in the social role of asbestos correlated with the downgrade of the mineral raw material quality, and increase of its variability. The authors suggest that this dynamic could be explained in the context of the change in the role of the social centers on the western shore of lake Onega, presented by site Fofanovo XIII