Neolithic farmers or Neolithic foragers? Organic residue analysis of early pottery from Rakushechny Yar on the Lower Don (Russia)

Manon Bondetti,John Meadows,Oliver E Craig,Sam Presslee,Viktor Tsybriy,Peter Jordan,Carl Heron,Lara González Carretero,Andrey Tsybriy,Ekaterina Dolbunova,Alexandre Lucquin,Andrey Mazurkevich,Krista Mcgrath

doi:10.1007/s12520-021-01412-2

Abstract

The emergence of pottery in Europe is associated with two distinct traditions: hunter-gatherers in the east of the continent during the early 6th millennium BC and early agricultural communities in the south-west in the late 7th millennium BC. Here we investigate the function of pottery from the site of Rakushechny Yar, located at the Southern fringe of Eastern Europe, in this putative contact zone between these two economic ‘worlds’. To investigate, organic residue analysis was conducted on 120 samples from the Early Neolithic phase (ca. mid-6th millennium BC) along with microscopic and SEM analysis of associated foodcrusts. The results showed that the earliest phase of pottery use was predominantly used to process riverine resources. Many of the vessels have molecular and isotopic characteristics consistent with migratory fish, such as sturgeon, confirmed by the identification of sturgeon bony structures embedded in the charred surface deposits. There was no evidence of dairy products in any of the vessels, despite the fact these have been routinely identified in coeval sites to the south. Further analysis of some of the mammalian bones using ZooMS failed to demonstrate that domesticated animals were present in the Early Neolithic. Nevertheless, we argue that intensive exploitation of seasonally migratory fish, accompanied by large-scale pottery production, created storable surpluses that led to similar socio-economic outcomes as documented in early agricultural societies.

Highlights

The transition to the Neolithic marks a period of profound socio-economic change, often related to increased sedentism, intensification of subsistence practices with the rise of new, more specialist strategies
To prehistorians working in northern Eurasia, the Neolithic denotes the emergence of pottery production invariably amongst hunter-gatherer communities (Zhukov 1929; Chard 1974; Barnes 1999; Gibbs and Jordan 2016)
In order to examine the different aspects of pottery production in this region, here we present lipid residue analysis of vessels from one of the key sites, Rakushechny Yar, a hunter-gatherer site situated close to the putative forager/ farmer contact zone in the Pontic steppe (Fig. 1a) that dates from the mid/late 6th millennium BC (Supplementary Materials)

Summary

Introduction

The transition to the Neolithic marks a period of profound socio-economic change, often related to increased sedentism, intensification of subsistence practices with the rise of new, more specialist strategies. In order to examine the different aspects of pottery production in this region, here we present lipid residue analysis of vessels from one of the key sites, Rakushechny Yar, a hunter-gatherer site situated close to the putative forager/ farmer contact zone in the Pontic steppe (Fig. 1a) that dates from the mid/late 6th millennium BC (Supplementary Materials).

Results

Conclusion