Complexes with flat-bottomed pottery from the early 7th millennium BC settlements of the Mergen archaeological microdistrict (the Lower Ishim River basin)

Abstract

An analysis was carried out on the materials from the settlements of the Early Neolithic period at Lake Mergen (Mergen 3, 7, 8) in the Lower Ishim River basin (Western Siberia). The aim of the research was the consolidation of the obtained data and its preliminary correlation with synchronous complexes of the forest-steppe zone of the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia. The source base of the work was constituted by the Early Neolithic pottery collections, stone goods, and planigraphic drawings of the archaeological sites. The pottery-making traditions of the ancient population were analysed from the standpoint of syncretising two approaches — formal classificatory, and historical and cultural — in several stages: comparative-typological analysis of the morphology and ornamentation, and preliminary conclusions of the technical-technological investigation of artefacts. The stone goods are presented from the results of the typological and traceological investigation and using the data of the petrography. The house-building traditions have been considered in terms of a thorough analysis of the planigraphy and stratigraphy of the buildings, as well as taking into account the established classification of the archaeological sites. As the result, it has been found that for the ancient communities at Lake Mergen characteristic were the dwellings with ditches of a rounded shape, contralateral recessions, and drains in the floors. Predominant were open thick-walled flat-bottomed pottery vessels of potted-jarlike shapes, with a rounded cut of the rims, ornamentation, in the stroke or streak technique. About a third of the items were without ornamentation. The straight line, sparse pitted indentation, and zigzag constitute the principal element of decoration. Nearly half of the ornamented vessels feature compositions elaborated with geometrical figures (triangles, rhombi, parallelograms), rhombic lattice etc. As the raw moldable material in the ware fabrication, potters used highly oversanded silty clays, to which chamotte and organic compound were added. Scrap was the main building material. The firing was carried out in the natural conditions under the effect of temperatures no less than 650°C. The dominant raw material in the stone industry is represented by local run-of-river quartzose sandstone. Also identified were rocks related to the South-Urals jasper province, Kazakh Uplands. The complex is lamelliferous, dominated by the items of a width up to 1 cm (60%). On the basis of the obtained data, there has been established the chronological priority of the considered materials with respect to the complex of the settlement of Mergen 6, whilst in the pottery making the link with its pottery group I (Boborykino). There have been confirmed the analogies with the Boborykino complex of the settlement of Yurtobor 3 (the Lower Tobol River basin). A hypothesis has been drawn on the synchroneity with the Barabino antiquities (the Barabino Culture of the Neolithic), similarity of the Neolithic with flat-bottomed pottery with them within the Western Siberian affinity, but not on the cultural unity.

Keywords

• early neolithic
• western siberia
• mergen
• flat-bottomed ceramic complexes