Lower Ishim River bazin in the 5th — early 4th millennium BC (current state of research)

Presented are the results of the study of new Late Neolithic pottery complexes from the settlements of the north-eastern shore of Lake Mergen (Mergen 3, 7, 8) in the Lower Ishim River region (forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia), which allow adjusting the existing cultural-chronological scheme. The analysis of the possibility of their correlation with the late Kozlov, Makhanjar, Belkaragay, Artyn and pit-comb complexes of adjacent territo-ries (forest-steppe Trans-Urals, Northern Kazakhstan, Middle Irtysh, and Baraba regions) has been carried out. Based on the analysis of morphological and ornamental features of ceramic assemblages, their stratigraphic and planigraphic location in settlement layers, as well as dating (including AMS), a number of suggestions regarding their genesis and the sequence of their existence in the territory of the Lower Ishim River have been proposed. The conclusion has been made about the increase of the degree of patchiness in the cultural appearance of the population of the Ishim River valley from the second half of the 5th millennium BC, reflecting the processes of epo-chal changes at the turn of the Neolithic and Eneolithic.