Early Neolithic pottery of Western Belarus: current state of research and its perspectives

Abstract

The paper discusses the Early Neolithic pottery from the Western Belarus, pottery of Dubičiai type. The set of its most distinctive features includes organic temper in clay mass, a belt of deep round pits under a rim edge, strokes by round stick (hoofs), slantwise thin grooved lines or slantwise net ornament of such lines. Hypotheses on the origin of Dubičiai type pottery are under discussion as well. According to many scholars, the area of occurrence of Dubičiai type pottery includes Belarusian part of the River Neman region (except the River Viliya basin), the left-bank of the upper Prypiat River basin, the southern Lithuania, the part of the north-eastern Poland, and the northern part of Volhynia. At the same time D.Ya. Telegin, E.N. Titova, G.V. Okhrimenko distinguish the Volhynian culture in the region of the same name. It has many traits analogous to the Prypiat-Neman culture. The scale of differences between the Early Neolithic pottery from Western Polesia and Volhynia and Dubičiai type pottery from the River Neman region allows considering the Volhynian culture as not a separate culture but as a local variant of the Neman culture. Sokołwek type pottery has been discovered at the sites in Podlasie and in Belarusian part of the River Bug region. It is analogous to Dubičiai type pottery by morphology and ornamentation but has less of organic temper in clay mass. Most probably, it is a result of local development of the Early Neolithic traditions in the western part of Prypiat-Neman culture area.