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This is the first technological analysis of the earliest ceramics from final Late Pleistocene sites on the Amur River (Khabarovsk Province). Principal stages of manufacture are reconstructed, from the selection of raw materials to the chemical and thermal treatment of the surface. Differences between technological traditions practiced at three site...
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... sites under consideration are located in the Lower Amur valley (Fig. 1). The distance between Gosyan and Gasya is only 350 m whereas Osipovka is situated 75-80 km upstream on the Amur, on the outskirts of ...
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... Seventeen potsherds belonging to an unknown number of vessels were examined. Paste. Two distinct traditions can be reconstructed. The rst included the use of strongly ferruginized argillaceous low-ductility paste. The latter contains a large quantity of natural sand (angular particles up to 2 mm in size) in 1:3 -1:4 concentration (Fig. 2, 1), undissolved lumps of ductile clay, and some aquatic plant remains. This paste can be described as "mountain" silt (one case). The second tradition also included the use of argillaceous ductile paste with undissolved lumps of ductile clay, but in this instance, the amount of very thin aquatic plant remains is high (Fig. 2, 2-4), ...
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... surface treatment (Fig. 4). The outside of eleven specimens and the inside of ve are heavily damaged, making it impossible to assess surface treatment. In three specimens (Nos. 13, 16, and 17), the outside was smoothed with bunches of grass, and in three (Nos. 2, 6, and 14), with a comb. The inside of nine specimens (Nos. 4, 7, 9, 12-17) was smoothed with bunches of grass, that of two specimens (Nos. 1 Strengthening the vessels. The color of the surface and fractures suggests that two ring modes were used. The rst is a prolonged low-temperature ring (below the temperature of the incandescence of clay) ...
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... Paste. Five types of paste were detected. The rst is a clay-like, highly ferruginized, low-ductility paste with a heavy admixture of ne sand (acute- angled particles, mostly less than 1 mm in size) in a concentration around 1:2) and with or without a minor natural organic admixture (remains of aquatic plants) (Fig. 6, 1, 3). This is type 1 of "mountain" silt (specimens Nos. 12, 14-18, and ...
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... of paste (specimens Nos. 19 and 21). Sometimes they were strongly smeared (Fig. 7), which indicates a mold covered with a substance used to avoid sticking. In eight cases, the use of a mold of unknown shape is beyond doubt (Nos. 12, 14, 15, and 24-28). In 13 cases, the type of mold has been documented. In some cases, an inner mold was used ( Fig. 8, 1; Nos. 1, 2, and 5), in others, an outer mold ( Fig. 8, 2; Nos. 6, 7, 10, 11, 20-23, 29, and 30). In two specimens (Nos. 21 and 22), the outer surface of the shard bears weak traces of processed leather which was apparently placed between the mold and patches of paste from which the pot was modeled. In short, although only a few ...
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... all specimens are small, we cannot extrapolate the conclusions drawn from single potshards to entire vessels. In six specimens, no part of the outer surface is present. In other instances it was possible to reconstruct certain techniques. The outside of 14 specimens (Nos. 9, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23-26, 28, and 30) was smoothed with a comb (Fig. 9, 1-4). In six specimens (Nos. 1-5, and 8), traces of traction are preserved and the tool had a convex working part (Fig. 9, 5, 6). It is hard to say whether the tool used was a carved stamp or a smooth tool with a raised structure and wrapped in fabric. The imprints on ve 2 m specimens (Nos. 6, 7, 10, 11, and 22) are indistinct and reveal no ...
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... part (Fig. 9, 5, 6). It is hard to say whether the tool used was a carved stamp or a smooth tool with a raised structure and wrapped in fabric. The imprints on ve 2 m specimens (Nos. 6, 7, 10, 11, and 22) are indistinct and reveal no traction. The inside of 22 specimens (Nos. 4, 7, 11, 12, 14-28, 30-32) was smoothed with a comb, and in seven ( Nos. 1-3, 6, 8, 10, and 29), with bunches of grass. Three specimens (Nos. 1, 5, and 9) bear static imprints on the inside. Normally, traces of smoothing on the outside are vertical and those on the inside are horizontal, although sometimes both surfaces were smoothed using diagonal strokes running in opposite ...
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... for keeping re or embers. In eight cases (Nos. 5, 10, 11, 21-23, 25, and 27), the conclusion that the vessels were used in cooking is made tentatively, and in the remaining nine no conclusion regarding domestic use can be made at all. Notably, the vessels must have been valued highly because some shards (Nos. 15, 26, and 29) show traces of repair (Fig. ...
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Citations
... The similar design and shapes of pottery from the Osipovka complex (Khummi and Gasya sites) in the lower part of the basin and the Gromatukha complex in the middle section of the basin (e.g. Shewkomud and Yanshina, 2012;Zhushchikhovskaya, 2012;Medvedev and Tsetlin, 2013;Kuzmin, 2015) allowed the combination of these two areas in the Amur River center of the earliest pottery in East Asia (Fig. 2). In the neighboring territories, Primorye (Maritime) Province and Sakhalin Island, the earliest pottery-bearing sites are younger at ca. 9900e12,700 cal BP (Kuzmin, 2014). ...
... The similar design and shapes of pottery from the Osipovka complex (Khummi and Gasya sites) in the lower part of the basin and the Gromatukha complex in the middle section of the basin (e.g. Shewkomud and Yanshina, 2012;Zhushchikhovskaya, 2012;Medvedev and Tsetlin, 2013;Kuzmin, 2015) allowed the combination of these two areas in the Amur River center of the earliest pottery in East Asia (Fig. 2). In the neighboring territories, Primorye (Maritime) Province and Sakhalin Island, the earliest pottery-bearing sites are younger at ca. 9900e12,700 cal BP (Kuzmin, 2014). ...
Patterns for the emergence of pottery-making in greater East Asia based on radiocarbon dates associated with the earliest pottery assemblages are presented. According to a critical evaluation of the existing evidence, the oldest centers with pottery in East Asia are located in South China (dated to ca. 18,000 cal BP), the Japanese Islands (ca. 16,700 cal BP), and the Russian Far East (ca. 15,900 cal BP). The claim for earlier pottery in South China at the Xianrendong Cave, supposedly dated to ca. 20,000 cal BP, cannot be substantiated. The appearance of pottery in other parts of greater East Asia was a slow process, without clear diffusion from any of these centers toward the periphery. In neighboring Siberia, the oldest pottery dated to ca. 14,000 cal BP is known from the Transbaikal.
The second of the Holocene’s three ages. The Northgrippian temperature plateau bracketed by two major climate disruptions, the 8.2 k event, and the 4.2 k event. The four transformative technological and cultural developments that became widespread, often in combination, during the comparative warmth and stability of the Northgrippian: ceramics, domestication, villages and agroecosystems, and smelting.KeywordsCeramicsDomesticationVillagesAgroecosystemsSmelting4.2 k event
On the basis of the current knowledge, key archaeological discoveries made in Siberia and the Russian Far East over the three centuries, and spanning the interval from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age, are assessed. Principal scholars and their works are listed. Rescue excavations have made it possible to construct archaeological typologies and to model historical and cultural processes. D.G. Messerschmidt’s role as the discoverer of the Early Iron Age of Khakassia and of the Tom rock art site is described. Later, this rock art site was thoroughly studied by A.P. Okladnikov and A.I. Martynov. Achievements of the 20th century continued those of the 18th and 19th centuries. On the basis of typologies elaborated by S.A. Teploukhov for Khakassia, similar cultural and chronological models for neighboring areas of Western Siberia were constructed. A.P. Okladnikov’s typology for the Cis-Baikal Neolithic and Bronze Age were elaborated by his colleagues and students. The earliest stages of the Amur Neolithic with the most ancient ceramics in Northern Asia, dating to 16,780–14,200 cal BC, were described. E.N. Chernykh’s and S.V. Kuzminykh’s theory of SeimaTurbino—a transcultural phenomenon of key importance for the Eurasian Bronze Age—is outlined. While its basic features are better known today, their theory has retained its relevance. With regard to the Early Iron Age, the major excavations concerned mounds such as Arzhan-1, Arzhan-2, and Chinge-Teya-1 in Tuva. In the Altai Mountains, likewise outstanding Pazyryk kurgans (600–200 BC) were excavated. An entirely new stage in Scythian age archaeology was marked by N.V. Polosmak’s excavations of “frozen”, undisturbed burials of middle-ranking and low-ranking Pazyryk people on the Ukok Plateau. Similar burials were excavated by Z. Samashev and H.P. Francfort on the western slopes of the Altai. Pazyryk chronology was elaborated owing to the use of the tree-ring analysis.
The Amur River basin is widely known as one of the regions where the earliest pottery first appeared, however few are aware that it happened simultaneously in two separate areas associated with two different archaeological complexes -the Gromatukha and Osipovka. This duality is confirmed here through three lines of inquiry. The first section reviews the most recent general data on both complexes including radiocarbon ages and stone tool assemblages, the second gives detailed descriptions and analysis of both cultures’ pottery including composition, forming, and decorating techniques, and the third provides data on their changes over time. The primary distinctions between the two complexes are stressed including the distribution area, pottery and stone tool production, chronological discrepancies, complex origins, and affiliations. Based on these observations we conclude that the Osipovka and Gromatuka pottery are likely produced by different cultural groups in distinct regions, with little cultural interactions. These observations provide a more complex view of the invention and development of pottery within a smaller regional setting, facilitating future comparisons of the general context of pottery invention and opening new pathways for the reconstruction of human behavioral reactions to cultural, climatic, and environmental challenges in the past.
Problem de nition The Mariinskoye culture was practiced in the Lower Amur basin (Khabarovsk Territory) in the 8th– 7th millennia BC. It represents an Early Neolithic culture that emerged immediately after the earliest Neolithic Osipovka culture. The Osipovka culture has not been thoroughly studied as yet, and researchers have not developed a common approach to the issue of the Osipovka historical and cultural relationships with other cultures in the region. For instance, V.E. Medvedev argued that the Mariinskoye culture shares many features with Novopetrovka culture from the Middle Amur (2008: 248), and for this reason he did not believe in close *Supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research The present study was mostly aimed at reconstructing the traditions of ceramic manufacturing that were practiced by the people of the recently identi ed Mariinskoye culture of the Early Neolithic (the 8th–7th millennia BC) in the Lower Amur. This paper presents the results of a comprehensive analysis of ceramics via a historical-cultural approach to the studies of ancient pottery production. General pottery traditions have been established, indicating a cultural homogeneity for the population of the Mariinskoye culture. The work represents a methodological study that suggests various perspectives of this approach.
