Ceramic complex of the Lower Don culture on the Rakushechny Yar site (layer 5, excavation I of T.D. Belanovskaya)

The Rakushechny Yar site is one of the few stratified reference settlements for the steppe zone of the Azov-Black Sea region with Neolithic-Eneolithic layers (6–5 mill. BC). The layer 5 with Viviparus shells accumulation represents an important chronological record of the transition period from the Late Neolithic to the Chalcolithic. The ceramics, which is a reference for the Mariupol cultural-historical area, at Rakushechny Yar settlement was recorded in layers 5–2. Single fragments of pottery attributed to Lower Don culture are found in layers 10–6. While most fragments in layer 5 belong to the Late Neolithic, the total number of fragments of Lower Don culture ceramics is about 6.6 %. The appearance of the latter is associated with epochal changes that encompassed the vast areas of the steppe–forest-steppe of the Dnieper-Don-Volga-Ural basin. The Mariupol traditions were suggested to be originated in the Lower Don area, with chronologically earlier complexes located in the Don-Dnepr region similar to those in the Volga-Ural area. However, this hypothesis leaves unresolved the question of the mechanisms of the emergence of these traditions in the territory of the Lower Don. The article represents an analysis of the ceramic complex of layer 5 and the issues related to chronology and genesis of the formation of this horizon. Typological analysis revealed chronological heterogeneity of ceramic series of the Mariupol cultural-historical area of 5–2 layers of the Rakushechny Yar settlement. Such heterogeneity of the ceramic complex, the presence of Late Neolithic pottery fragments in layer 5 could be related to the specific conditions of formation of these layers, where cultural horizons were not covered by sterile alluvial interlayers. The difficulties in accurate chronological reconstructions are caused by a small number of radiocarbon dates for the upper layers of Rakushechny Yar, almost complete absence of them for other Lower Don sites of the steppe area, revision of dating of Mariupol-type burials of the western area of taking into account the impact of the reservoir effect, and predominance of dates on ceramics in the Volga-Ural basin.