Chronological timeframes of cultural changes in the Dnepr-Dvina region (7th to 3rd millennium BC)

Abstract

Since the 1960s, more than 250 radiocarbon dates have been obtained for materials in the Upper Western Dvina area, which cover a timeframe from the 7th to the 1st millennium BC. Ra­diocarbon dates for materials of the Dnepr-Dvina area date the appearance and decline of various cultural traditions – from the formation of the most ancient pottery among hunter-gatherer com­munities until the appearance of the first stock-breeders in the forest zone, the bearers of cultural traditions of the Corded Ware culture. Dates for materials from the Upper Dvina area show both the existence of hiatuses between some cultural-chronological groups coinciding with some sig­nificant climatic and environmental changes, and the quasi (?) co-existence of some of the groups. Could these hiatuses also be traced in material culture, or do they appear because of a lack of data?

Keywords

• Eastern Europe
• chronology
• Neolithic
• earliest pottery
• pile-dwellings
• LBK