New data on the Neolithic pottery of the Lower Volga region

The article presents data on newly discovered ceramic complexes obtained during archaeological research of the Neolithic sites of the Lower Volga region (Taskuduk, Priozernaya, Algay) in 2021-2022. The results of statistical, morphological and technical-technological analysis of ceramics made it possible to compare the ancient pottery production in different landscape zones of the Lower Volga region: the semi-desert Northern Caspian region and the steppe Lower Volga region. New radiocarbon data obtained at the Isotope Research Laboratory of the Russian State Pedagogical University in the name of A.I. Herzen (St. Petersburg), and drawing analogies with other well-known sites in the region (Tenteksor, Zhe-Kalgan I, Varfolomeevskaya site) allow us to consider the newly discovered complexes as simultaneous and attribute them to the Late Neolithic. Morphological analysis of pottery complexes belonging to different cultures made it possible to reveal both common features (shape of vessels, flatness, decoration of vessels with pricking and indentation, presence of thickening on the inside of the rims) and differences (shape of pricks, ornamental compositions and motifs). The Neolithic materials of the Lower Volga region can be united within the framework of the Lower Volga cultural-historical community (LVCC) with division into regional cultures: Orlovskaya, Dzhangar, Kairshak-Tenteksor (Seroglazovskaya), which have signs of a common origin, common patterns of development and cultural interaction during all the Neolithic. The researchers revealed the existence of an early Neolithic center of the origin of pottery in the Lower Volga region, traced its evolutionary development and regional characteristics, reconstruct the archaic (pre-pottery) ideas of the ancient population about silts as a raw material for the production of dishes. In contrast to the Northern Caspian, where archaic traditions of silt selection were preserved even at the late stage of the Neolithic, in the steppe Volga region the new types of raw materials, such as silty clays and clays, appeared simultaneously with the traditional types and then became widespread. Identification of the causes of this phenomenon (climate changes or the emergence of new groups of the Neolithic population) requires further research.