Sosnovoostrovskaya Culture: Identification of Ceramics and the Issues of Chronology

The article continues elaborating upon the topic of the Neolithic household of the Trans-Urals (Zauralye) and Western Siberia population. It aims at clarifying the chronological framework of the Sosnovoostrovskaya culture which occupies an area of the forest-steppe borderlands — South taiga zone of the Tobol river basin. For the first time, a complete summary and analysis of all currently available dates obtained by coal, ceramics and soil samples of palynological columns are presented in the article. The review is preceded by fixation of identification characteristics of dishes as the main cultural diagnostic criterion. The latter is particularly important in light of clearly denoted problems of the chronological framework appearance and local features of Neolithic ceramics ornamented with the use of a comb-stepping technique. Increasingly used radiocarbon dating of ceramics attaches particular topicality to choosing marker characteristics of pottery as the main factor for hasty conclusions about the process of neolithization in the region. Indicator characteristics of Sosnovoostrovskaya pottery are defined as a combination of a number of morphological and decorative features. Besides, the extensive use of walking comb among them are form of vessels (wall-sided and semi ovoid with a round or a bit pointed bottom); the shape of the rim (without an influx, made with a bevel on the inside, and sometimes a little bent out); décor features (continuous ornamentation of the outer surface, often the edge of the vessel and inner side of the rim). Predominance of horizontal zoning with the use of horizontal, slanting, rarely vertical motives in a pattern. The step, unlike that one on the dishes of Kozlovsky-Poludensky circle, is characterized by a variety of modifications. The wide use of rows, less often zones of zigzag, prickings and geometric patterns is specific). A belt of pearls along the edge of the vessel from the outer or inner side is a universal marker of the culture. Chronology of Sosnovoostrovskaya antiquities is updated. It is found that most of the dates gravitate to the first half of the V millennium BC and partly even to the turn of the VI–V millennium BC, which makes the existence of culture more ancient for at least half a millennium. This time interval corresponds to the period of the mid-Atlantic, which is characterized by excessive humidity in these areas. High hypsometric level of Sosnovoostrovskaya settlements arrangement is consistent with this fact.