Abstract
Abstract Early pottery on the territory from the Eastern Caspian Sea and Aral Sea to Denmark reveals a certain typological similarity. It is represented by egg-shaped vessels with an S-shaped profile of the upper part and a pointed bottom. The vessels are not ornamented or decorated with incised lines, organized often in a net. This type of pottery was spread within hunter-gatherer ancient groups. The forest-steppe Volga region is one of the earliest centers of pottery production in Eastern Europe. The first pottery is recorded here in the last quarter of the seventh millennium BC. Its appearance is associated with the bearers of the Elshanskaya cultural tradition. The most likely source of its formation is the territory of Central Asia. Later, due to aridization, these ceramic traditions distributed further westward to the forest-steppe Don region. During the first half of the sixth millennium BC, groups associated with the bearers of the Elshanskaya cultural tradition moved westward. Significant similarities with the ceramic complexes of the Elshanskaya culture are found in materials from a number of early pottery cultures of Central Europe and the Baltic (Narva, Neman, and Ertebølle).
Highlights
The most ancient pottery in the territory from the Eastern Caspian and Aral Sea regions to the northern regions of Central Europe shows a certain typological similarity
The vessels have an S-shaped profile and a conical bottom. They are almost non-ornamented, less often decorated with roundish impressions under the rim, forming convex imprints or carved lines (Figure 2). According to these typological features, this pottery is quite close to the complexes of the Central Asia considered above
The pottery complexes of the analyzed cultures show a certain affinity. They are characterized by the following type of pottery: conical bottomed pots with an S-profiled upper part without ornamentation or ornamented with thin intersecting incised lines
Summary
The most ancient pottery in the territory from the Eastern Caspian and Aral Sea regions to the northern regions of Central Europe shows a certain typological similarity. It is characterized by vessels with an Sshaped profile and a pointed bottom. The pottery is either without ornamentation or is decorated with incised lines organized often in a net. The noted affinity between forms of the vessels suggests a certain relationship between the population of these territories. It was suggested for the first time in 1969 by the Soviet archaeologist Danilenko
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