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An analysis was carried out on the materials from the settlements of the Early Neolithic period at Lake Mergen (Mergen 3, 7, 8) in the Lower Ishim River basin (Western Siberia). The aim of the research was the consolidation of the obtained data and its preliminary correlation with synchronous complexes of the forest-steppe zone of the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia. The source base of the work was constituted by the Early Neolithic pottery collections, stone goods, and planigraphic drawings of the archaeological sites. The pottery-making traditions of the ancient population were analysed from the standpoint of syncretising two approaches — formal classificatory, and historical and cultural — in several stages: comparative-typological analysis of the morphology and ornamentation, and preliminary conclusions of the technical-technological investigation of artefacts. The stone goods are presented from the results of the typological and traceological investigation and using the data of the petrography. The house-building traditions have been considered in terms of a thorough analysis of the planigraphy and stratigraphy of the buildings, as well as taking into account the established classification of the archaeological sites. As the result, it has been found that for the ancient communities at Lake Mergen characteristic were the dwellings with ditches of a rounded shape, contralateral recessions, and drains in the floors. Predominant were open thick-walled flat-bottomed pottery vessels of potted-jarlike shapes, with a rounded cut of the rims, ornamentation, in the stroke or streak technique. About a third of the items were without ornamentation. The straight line, sparse pitted indentation, and zigzag constitute the principal element of decoration. Nearly half of the ornamented vessels feature compositions elaborated with geometrical figures (triangles, rhombi, parallelograms), rhombic lattice etc. As the raw moldable material in the ware fabrication, potters used highly oversanded silty clays, to which chamotte and organic compound were added. Scrap was the main building material. The firing was carried out in the natural conditions under the effect of temperatures no less than 650°C. The dominant raw material in the stone industry is represented by local run-of-river quartzose sandstone. Also identified were rocks related to the South-Urals jasper province, Kazakh Uplands. The complex is lamelliferous, dominated by the items of a width up to 1 cm (60%). On the basis of the obtained data, there has been established the chronological priority of the considered materials with respect to the complex of the settlement of Mergen 6, whilst in the pottery making the link with its pottery group I (Boborykino). There have been confirmed the analogies with the Boborykino complex of the settlement of Yurtobor 3 (the Lower Tobol River basin). A hypothesis has been drawn on the synchroneity with the Barabino antiquities (the Barabino Culture of the Neolithic), similarity of the Neolithic with flat-bottomed pottery with them within the Western Siberian affinity, but not on the cultural unity.

The settlement of Mergen 6 is located in the Ishim District of the Tyumen Oblast on the northeastern shore of Lake Mergen by the head of the river Mergenka. It was studied in 1990 and 2002–2011 under the direction of V.A. Zakh and S.N. Skochina. On the site, 1494 m2 were examined. The settlement is multi-layered and contains the materials from the Neolithic Period through to the Middle Ages. The research is aimed at the detailed characterisation of the ceramic complex of the Transitional Period from the Bronze to the Early Iron Age (TPBIA), dated to the 8th–7th cc. BC. The TPBIA ceramic complex is a large one (approximately 7.5 thousand items identified), deposited at a depth predominantly no more than 60 cm from the surface in the layers disturbed by ploughing. It is highly fragmented; whole forms are lacking; in some cases, ceramics was deposited in clusters. Therefore, the object of the research was a subset from the TPBIA ceramic complex of the settlement of Mergen 6 which was analysed on the basis of the formal-classificatory and cultural-historical approaches. With the aid of the methods of mathematical statistics, possible interrelations between the morphological and ornamental traits of the object of the research were established. In the TPBIA ceramic subset, the fragments of the pottery vessels which can be correlated with the ceramics of the archaeological cultures of Krasnoozerka (335 vessels identified by the necks), Gamayun (no more than 8 items), and Itkul (37 items), and a ceramic group designated as ‘synchretic’ (102 items) were identified. The analysis of the morphological and decorative features of the TPBIA ceramics showed quite a close interaction of the diverse population during the considered period. Elements of the ornament and morphological features of the pottery vessels, constituting the specifics of both the syncretic group of the ceramics, characterised by mixed Krasnoozerka-Gamayun-Itkul traits, as well as by the individual traits of the main cultural groups of the site — on the pottery vessels of the Krasnoozerka group, some elements characteristic of the Gamayun-Itkul decorative patterns; the vessels of the Gamayun-Itkul group have been produced with a deviation from the typical canons — served as markers of the mutual influence.