On the Structure of Early Neolithic Societies of the Forest Tobol-Ishim Area: morphology and ornamentation of the pottery

Abstract

The Early Neolithic complexes located in Western Siberia are characterized by the following common determinant features: chronological position within the end of 7,000 – turn of 6,000 cal BC, flat-bottomed vessels, design layouts of vessel necks (lips, rims, collars), and geometric and tree-like ornamental elements. The ceramic complexes are distinguished by different qualitative and quantitative ratios of the types of pottery (Boborykino, Koshkino, Satyga (with rims), comb ceramics, etc.) identified by researchers. When found in the same occupation layer, such a variety of ceramics might be evidence of an unequal sociocultural structure of the Neolithic population groups. The author stand for the concept that ceramic production and new stone processing skills and technologies were introduced (Zach, 2018, 2020) to the indigenous groups with Mesolithic traditions. It resulted in the interaction of autochthonous groups and newcomers and the subsequent merging of their structures, which ran differently in different territories. The author tend to consider the development of “syncretistic” societies in the first stages of such interaction in the Tobol-Ishim Rivers area as a process of transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic. Various types of pottery have been recorded at Boborykino complexes. The variety increases at Koshkino complexes, in different settlements and different proportions, which apparently reflects the formation of a new stable cultural tradition. The Kozlovo ceramics became such a tradition, being characterized by round-bottomed vessels with sags in the interior of the rim and a combination of ornaments in mainly incised-receding and comb techniques.