scholarly journals Early Neolithic of Trans-Urals: the contemporary view on historiographic problems

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-208
Author(s):  
Vadim Sergeevich Mosin ◽  
Ekaterina Sergeevna Yakovleva

This paper is devoted to the critical issues of historiography and source study in the early Neolithic of the Trans-Urals. The authors consider basic dated monuments in the context of radiocarbon chronology; analyze the established criteria for identifying archaeological cultures and ceramic traditions and types of this period. Based on statistical processing of the ceramics of the forest-steppe Tobol region settlements: Tashkovo 1, Dolgovskoe 3, Kochegarovo 1, Ust-Suerka 4, the authors distinguish some stadial features in the evolving of the material culture of the early Neolithic in the first and second halves of 6 thousand BC. Attention is paid, firstly, to the co-existence of Koshkino and Kozlovo ancientries within the settlements, and, secondly, to the coincidence of a number of characteristics of Koshkino and Kozlovo material culture regarding the morphology of potteries, ornamentation techniques and basic decorative motifs. Within the framework of a sociocultural approach, it is proposed to consider the bodies of evidence as complexes of two coexisting and interacting traditions within one sociocultural space, understood in the source sense as an archaeological culture, instead of dividing them into two independent lines of development. Besides it is emphasized that the problem of the Neolithization of Trans-Urals, on the basis of the available data, at this time cannot be solved plausible.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 218-225
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Sergeevna Yakovleva

The paper examines the Poludenka discourse in the context of historiography and modern research practices. It analyzes changes in attributive characteristics and essential interpretation of Poludenka ceramics (culture, traditions) and the associated empirical and theoretical difficulties. It is noted that the problem of typological criteria is associated with the periodization paradigm the use of three- or two-stage periodization, which includes or excludes a transitional stage in the material culture of the Trans-Urals Neolithic between the early and late stages of development. The issue of the genesis of the Poludenka tradition and foreign cultural influence, as well as its local isolation on the southern periphery of culture, is also considered. It is assumed that the ornamental originality of the Poludenka pottery in the forest-steppe Pre-Tobol Region is associated with the interaction of the Trans-Urals population at the end of the Early Neolithic with the bearers of the Makhanjar tradition; emphasizes the participation of the Koshkino component in the Poludenka tradition creation at the previous stage. As a solution, it is proposed to return to the notion of a transitional stage between the Early and Late Neolithic, probably at the interval that coincides with the period of coexistence of all traditions, using the established term Kozlovo-Poludenka; the author also notes the perspective of material complexes analysis taking into account the geographical factor.


2017 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 97-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Garrow ◽  
Seren Griffiths ◽  
Hugo Anderson-Whymark ◽  
Fraser Sturt

The western seaways – an arc of sea stretching from the Channel Islands in the south, up through the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man, and the Outer Hebrides to Orkney in the north – have long been seen as crucial to our understanding of the processes which led to the arrival of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland in the centuries around 4000 cal bc. The western seaways have not, however, been considered in detail within any of the recent studies addressing the radiocarbon chronology of the earliest Neolithic in that wider region. This paper presents a synthesis of all existing 5th and 4th millennia cal bc radiocarbon dates from islands within the western seaways, including 50 new results obtained specifically for this study. While the focus here is insular in a literal sense, the project’s results have far reaching implications for our understanding of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Britain and Ireland and beyond. The findings broadly fit well with the Gathering Time model of Whittle et al., suggesting that the earliest dated Neolithic in this zone falls into the c. 3900–3700 cal bc bracket. However, it is also noted that our current chronological understanding is based on comparatively few dates spread across a large area. Consequently, it is suggested that both further targeted work and an approach that incorporates an element of typo-chronology (as well as absolute dating) is necessary if we are to move forward our understanding of the processes associated with the appearance of the first Neolithic material culture and practices in this key region.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 204-210
Author(s):  
Vladimir Vyacheslavovich Stavitsky

The paper deals with the chronology of the early Neolithic forest-steppe Zavolzhye monuments, which is based on radiocarbon definitions obtained from fragments of ceramics. Radiocarbon dates on Elshanskaya and Srednevolzhskaya culture monuments are collected in two tables. They are graphically represented by a probability interval for each date. For the conditional statistical unit the chronological interval of 125 years is accepted. On the basis of statistical data, the author has constructed graphs that reflect the frequency of dates occurrence for periods of 250 years. As for the Elshanskaya culture monuments the highest concentration of radiocarbon dates occurs on a chronological segment 5875-5250 cal BC (39% of all dates). Half of the dates are recorded on the segment 4750-4500 cal BC (21%). Only 12% of radiocarbon dates are in 6750-6250 cal BC, which belongs to the period of the Elshanskaya antiquities development. In our opinion, Elshanskaya culture could not exist unchanged for such a long time. Such a significant variation in time is apparently due to the imperfection of the dating method and the presence of reservoir effects of various kinds. Elshanskaya culture probably existed in 5875-5250 cal BC. At the final stage of Elshanskaya antiquities existence (5500-5250 cal BC) the monuments of Srednevolzhskaya culture started to develop.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 54-57
Author(s):  
Aleksandr Viktorovich Viskalin

According to the radiocarbon chronology formation of the Neolithic communities acquainted with manufacturing baked clay pottery takes place in the Steppe and Forest-steppe Volga region in the early Atlantic period about 6000 BC. Weakly ornamented Yelshanka point-bottomed pottery borrowed from Transurals was developing in the Forest-steppe Volga region at this period. As for the Steppe Volga region, plain-bottomed richly ornamented Cairshak pottery influenced by the traditions of the Transcaucasus Neolithic centers was spreading. Establishing close contact between Steppe and Forest-steppe Volga regions population dates as far back as the last quarter of the 6 th millennium BC which caused extrinsic for the Asiatic region features of the Yelshanka pottery such as smoothed body rib, crown bulge, geometrized ornament of drawn lines and dimples forming triangles, punctured zigzags. In the early 5 th millennium BC latitudinal contacts tended to substitute longitudinal ones which is proved by differences having appeared between the Steppe and Forest-steppe Volga region pottery. Tradition of producing ribbed vessels with crown bulge continued in the steppe was lost in the forest-steppe. Distribution of the non-ornamented plain-bottomed pottery of the Lugovskoy type in the Middle-Volga area also confirms the fact of developing latitudinal contacts. There is no such pottery in the Steppe Volga region but it can be found in numerous cultures south of the Russian Plain. As the most ancient sets of such pottery were found in the Bugo-Dnestr culture so it could be supposed that its dispersion beyond the original territory happened under the eastward pressure of the Tripolye culture. External character of the non-ornamented plain-bottomed pottery of the Lugovskoy type is proved by its typological heterogeneity. Vessels with body rib and crown bulge are characteristic for some of the pottery sets with sporadic ones having dimple-pearly girdle (e.g. Ust-Tashelka). In other sets the number of vessels with dimple-pearly girdles is much bigger while there are much less vessels with body rib and crown bulge (e.g. Krasny Gorodok, Lugovoye III) which reflects the process of assimilating the new-comers by the descendants of the Yelshanka culture.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-193
Author(s):  
František Trampota ◽  
Petr Květina

The object of the paper is to update the current concept of the chronology of the Neolithic (c. 5400–3300 BC) of the Czech Republic and northern Lower Austria by comparing the typo-chronological development of pottery and modelling the corresponding radiocarbon dates. Up until now, pottery and its style have often been perceived in Central Europe as “basic indicators” of archaeological cultures or pottery traditions, which are then further divided into chronological stages and phases. And yet, an analysis of the relationships of all three levels of these entities in the context of four types of models of radiocarbon dates indicates that changes in the original material culture do not necessarily occur on a time axis. While it is true that archaeological cultures have proven to be the robust materialisation of primarily chronological trends valid in larger geographic areas, at the level of general and more detailed pottery groups, development can be manifested in other ways (regionally, socially or in a way that is difficult to interpret). Central Europe – Neolithic – pottery typo-chronology – archaeological culture – radiocarbon dating


2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-146
Author(s):  
T. A. Chikisheva ◽  
D. V. Pozdnyakov

On the basis of statistical analysis of craniometric data relating to Mesolithic and Neolithic samples from northern Eurasia, we discuss the peopling of the Baraba forest-steppe in the Early Holocene. This region is represented by samples from Sopka-2/1 (early sixth millennium BC), Protoka (late fifth to early fourth millennia BC), Korchugan (early-mid sixth millennium BC), and Vengerovo-2A (late sixth millennium BC). The results of the principal component analysis are interpreted in the context of debates over the role of autochthonous traditions in the Neolithic. During the Preboreal period (10 ka BP), large parts of the Baraba forest-steppe were flooded by the transgression of lake systems during climatic warming. This may have caused depopulation, lasting for at least a millennium. The Early Holocene people of Baraba were an offshoot of Meso-Neolithic populations of the northwestern Russian Plain. On that basis, the Early Neolithic populations of Baraba were formed. Direct population continuity is traceable only through the Chalcolithic. Since the late sixth millennium BC, however, the local population had incorporated migrants from the Pit-Comb Ware area in the central Russian Plain and, indirectly (via the Neolithic Altai), from the Cis-Baikal area.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 783-794 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalia E Zaretskaya ◽  
Sönke Hartz ◽  
Thomas Terberger ◽  
Svetlana N Savchenko ◽  
Mikhail G Zhilin

Two well-known archaeological sites, the peat bogs of Shigir and Gorbunovo (Middle Urals, Russia), have been radiocarbon dated (61 conventional and accelerator mass spectrometry [AMS] dates from various natural and artifact samples). For the first time, a detailed chronology of Early to Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic occupation for this region has been obtained, and a paleoenvironmental history reconstructed. Based on these results, we propose that the Mesolithic settlement of the Middle Urals region started in the early Holocene, at the same time as in central and eastern Europe.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 13-18
Author(s):  
Konstantin Mihailovich Andreev

The article analyses the problem of different Neolitization origins in specified regions. In early Neolithic Age the contacts had a small coverage. Wide-ranging penetration of Lower Volga pin- scratched pottery ornamentation tradition carriers into forest steppe refers to VI and V centuries BC. It was caused by natural and climatic reasons. Up to the late Neolithic Age the influence was one-way - from south to north.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-159
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Nikolaevna Dubovtseva ◽  
Lubov Lvovna Kosinskaya ◽  
Henny Piezonka

The ancient fortified settlement of Amnya I is a unique Early Neolithic site in the northern taiga zone of Western Siberia (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, the Amnya river). It is located on a promontory and has three lines of defense and ten dwelling depressions. The structures of the excavated dwellings are very similar, though the artifact assemblage appears rather heterogeneous. We carried out a technical and technological analysis of ceramics, which showed no correlation between the texture, on the one hand, and the morphology and ornamentation of pots on the other one. Planiographic analysis of ceramics showed that vessels with comb and incising patterns are found in different dwellings, although there are objects in which both groups lie together. Various categories of stone implements (bladelets and polished arrowheads) also appear on different parts of the settlement. Most likely, the observed differences in the artefact complexes of objects are associated with the stages of the functioning of the settlement. The absolute chronology does not yet clarify the sequence of erection and existence of objects. New AMS date is probably vulnerable to a significant reservoir effect. The abundance of unsolved issues of absolute and relative chronology makes the resumption of research on this unique site urgent.


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