THE EARLY NEOLITHIC OF THE UPPER DON

Abstract

Traditionally the Early Neolithic of the Upper Don was associated the Middle Don culture (Sinyuk, 1986), but recent researches of the following sites - Karamyshevo 5, 9; Vasilyevsky Kordon 5, 7; Ivnitsa etc. have afforded ground for attributing the Early Neolithic of the Upper Don to Karamyshevo culture. This article analyzes the finds of Karamyshevo culture from 26 sites located in the basin of the Voronezh river. Those collections have all the grounds to be included into Early Neolithic antiquities as they have gone through radiocarbon dating and their chronological position correlates with the data of Elshan, Upper Volga and other Early Neolithic Cultures. In terms of location some Karamyshevo sites can be singled out: - in the Upper Voronezh region near the settlements of Preobrazhenovka and Dobroye in Lipetsk region in the right-bank flood plain of the river on the buttes of terraces above the flood-plain and leveed banks (Vasilyevsky Kordon 3, 5, 7, 25, Ratchino 22, Dobroye 1, Studenovka 3); - in the Middle Voronezh region round Lipetsk and near the settlement of Karamyshevo in Lipetsk region in the flood plain of the river on the buttes of terraces above the flood-plain (Lipetskoye Ozero, Shlyuz, Gudovsky Kordon, Krasny Bugor, Karamyshevo 1, 5, 9, 19 etc.) - in the Lower river region on the border of Lipetsk and Voronezh regions in the left-bank flood plain of the Voronezh river on the buttes of terraces above the flood-plain (Savitskoye 1, Kurino 1, Ivnitsa, Stupino) The sites of Karamyshevo culture show some typical features which are characteristic of the Upper Don region - few stone implements, so the main distinguishing feature of those antiquities is pottery according to its finish and decoration. This pottery has lumpy paste which visually consists of natural inclusions or chamotte in rare cases. More recent pottery finds have sanded paste without visible inclusions which is similar to that of the Middle Don culture. According to the method of finishing the pottery is divided into two groups: thouroughly smoothed and burnished on the outer surface pottery and smoothed one with scratches which seems to be a definite chronological marker. According to their shape the vessels are divided into straight-walled and biconical with a straight or shaped rim and mainly with a pointed bottom. The larger part of Karamyshevo pottery is plain. So among 500 pottery finds from Ivnitsa site 62% of those materials is plain, about 20% is decorated with oval, triangle and paired strokes, 11% is decorated with a short-pitch stamp, 21 finds have thin and shallow lines on the surface and 10 finds are decorated with pits. Here we can speak about a relatively early stage of the site as later sites (Karamyshevo 9, Vasilyevsky Kordon 7) have more decorated pottery. The appearance of pit-like and comb decorations is connected with the final stage of this culture. For dating of Karamyshevo culture we have the dates of the beginning of the Vth century B.C. - the first half of the IVth century B.C. (ВР). On the basis of the above-stated data we can come to a conclusion that at the end of the IVth century B.C. the first pottery complexes appeared in the forest-steppe and forest zones of Eastern Europe and they had a number of common features which specifically formed the basis of local cultures that we single out today and which existed in the Vth century B.C. Such cultures include Karamyshevo culture which sites might have dated back to the first half of the IVth century B.C.