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The Eastern European steppe and forest-steppe is a key region for understanding the emergence of pottery in Europe. The vast region encompasses the basins of two major waterways, the Don and the Volga rivers, and was occupied by hunter-gatherer-fisher communities attracted to highly productive forest/aquatic ecotones. The precise dates for the inception of pottery production in this region and the function of pottery is unknown, but such information is vital for charting the pan-Eurasian dispersal of pottery technology and whether there were common motivations for its adoption. To investigate, we conducted AMS dating, including a re-evaluation of legacy radiocarbon dates together with organic residue analysis and microscopy. The dating programme was able to clarify the sequence and show that hunter-gatherer pottery production was unlikely in this region before the 6th millennium BC. Regarding use, stable isotope and molecular analysis of 160 pottery samples from 35 sites across the region shows that terrestrial animal carcass fats were preferentially processed in pots at Middle Volga sites whereas aquatic resources dominate the residues in pottery from the Middle and Upper Don basin. This is supported by fragments of fish, legumes and grasses in the available charred deposits adhering to the inside of pottery from the Don basin. Since the sites from both river basins had similar environmental settings and were broadly contemporaneous, it is posited that pottery use was under strong cultural control, recognisable as separate sub-regional culinary traditions. The ‘aquatic hypothesis’, previously suggested to explain the emergence of Eurasian pottery, cannot be substantiated in this context.

Nowadays there are 72 sites of the Neolithic Middle-Don Culture. Ceramic vessels are ornamented mostly using triangular pricks. These settlements are located on the banks of the rivers Voronezh and Don in their lower reaches. Not far from the town of Dobroe, a concentration of Neolithic settlements was found. Three of them contained Early Neolithic pottery of the Middle-Don Culture (6th millennium BC). For the first time on the settlement Dobroe 9 a cultural layer was found in situ. Due to the discovery of the assemblage of pottery and stone and bone tools, new excavations allowed us to characterise the material culture of the ancient population of the Upper Don in a new way.

The settlement and grave fieldVasilyevskiy Kordon 27was discovered by A.A.Klukoit in 2008 and it was investigated from 2016 to 2018. In the excavation within the area of 195 sq. m. six ancient buildings and four burials were identified. A large number of Eneolithique ceramics of theSrednestogovskayaandVolosovskayaculture as well as Ksizovski type vessels were discovered.A huge number of finds testify to the hunting and fishing on the monument.The accompanying flint inventory is represented by tools related to both economic activity and hunting weapons, with the latter predominating. In the outbuildings, burials and cultural layer 68 stone arrowheads and darts were found. 2245 residues of animal origin were also revealed.There are 1386 mammalian bones, 595 birds, 61 reptile bones and 138 fragments of mollusk shells among them. It is interesting to note that there were ceramic fishing weights carved from the broken vessels. On the monument animal husbandry was noted for the Upper Don for the first time, while poultry farming was absent. Bones of wild species of mammals, birds, fish and turtles confirm the importance of hunting and fishing as the main (but not the only) source of food in the settlement. At the same time, only four hunting tools were made of bone: two edges and two fragments of harpoons. The archaeological collection of the settlement Vasilyevskiy Kordon 27 refers mainly to the late Eneolithic period and datesthe 32 quarter of the IV Millennium BC.

This paper analyzes materials located in the floodplain of the Matyra River (left tributary of the Voronezh River) of the Yarlukovskaya Protoka (point 222) in the Gryazinsky District of the Lipetsk Region. It was investigated in 1963, 1964, 1967 and 1968 by Vsevolod Levenok. The materials of three early Neolithic cultures of VI Millennium BC were revealed here. The materials of the Yelshanskaya culture are represented by corollas and bottoms of 12 vessels. Almost all dishes, except one bottom and several walls, have no ornament, with the exception of one or two rows of conical pit. All ceramics are well smoothed. Ceramics were made from silty clay. The location of materials in the cultural layer confirms the earlier occurrence of the Yelshanskaya culture ceramics. The ceramics of the Karamyshevo culture is represented by fragments from three vessels. The dishes are predominantly decorated with small oval pricks composed in horizontal and vertical rows. Ceramics were made from silty clay. Ceramics of the Srednedonskaya culture are represented by corollas and rounded bottoms of 15 vessels. It is decorated with triangular prick or small comb prints. Ceramics were made from silty clay. At Yarlukovskaya Protoka site 304 stone artifacts were discovered, mainly of flint. This industry could be described as flake-blade technique. The monument is a mixed complex - stratigraphic and planigraphic readable observations of stone inventory location could not be done.