Complexes with Flat-Bottomed Ceramics in the Neolithic from the Don to the Irtysh: A Chronological Aspect

Abstract

Purpose. The aim of the work is to analyze the chronology of Neolithic complexes containing flat-bottomed ceramics in the European part of Russia and the Ural-Siberian region, as well as an attempt to highlight patterns in the development of Neolithic Ural-Siberian cultural traditions amidst complexes with flat-bottomed ceramics of the Volga region. Results. Researches of Baraba culture of the early Neolithic of Western Siberia: Tartas-1, Ust-Tartas-1, Vengerovo-2, with radiocarbon dates 8th – 7th thousand BC made it possible to re-address the problem of complexes with flat-bottomed ceramics, especially in the Trans-Ural region and Western Siberia and, perhaps, to reconsider some established points of view. One of the first centers of the autochthonous origin of the Neolithic at the end of VIII – beginning of VII millennium BC is the Baraba cultural tradition of the West Siberian forest-steppe. Also, the autochthonous center for the origin of the Neolithic was the territory of the Northern Caspian region and the Lower Volga region in the first half of the 7th millennium BC. In the middle of the 7th millennium BC in the Volga-Urals region, due to direct migration of the population from the territory of the Aral-Caspian, an Elshan cultural tradition appears. In the second half of the 7th millennium BC the Neolithic of the Trans-Urals is being formed. Technology of Koshkino and Kozlovo cultural pottery traditions was most likely borrowed from the population of the Aral-Caspian, relations with which have been established since the Mesolithic. Conclusion. The obtained results give grounds to identify several centers of origin of the Neolithic in the territories of European Russia, the Urals and Western Siberia with flat-bottomed ceramics at the end of 8th – first half of 7th millennium BC and round-bottom ceramics in the middle of the 7th millennium BC. The oldest among them are sites of the Baraba forest-steppe.