‘North Caucasian Component’ in Сatacomb Ceramics of Kalmykia: Cultural and Chronological Attribution

Abstract

Goal. The article aims to trace the origins and chronological position of pits and catacombs with left-sided burials and ‘North Caucasian’ ceramics. Materials. The paper describes burials with amphorae and red-ochre vessels from kurgans excavated in 1965, 1966, and 1986 in Kalmykia, as well as similar complexes from North Ossetia’s kurgans. Conclusions. The ‘North Caucasian component’ in the ceramics of the Ciscaucasian Catacomb culture marks the beginning of a ‘pure’ Ciscaucasian catacomb culture and attests to the participation of the Kuban-Terek culture in its formation associated with the common origin of both the Novosvobodnaya Dolmen culture and directly with the Corded Ware and Globular amphora cultures of Eastern Europe constituting the core of the Catacomb cultural complex. Mounds of the East Manych (Chogray Reservoir, Kalmykia) contain amphorae with asymmetrical handles with mugs and incense vessels, as well as red-ocher vessels with incense pots, that are untypical for the Coscaucasian Catacomb culture. The first researchers of this region noted the similarity between some vessels of the Ciscaucasian Catacomb culture (the so-called «Manych type») and ceramics discovered in the Novosvobodnaya dolmens and the alleged links between their burial rites as well. These facts were reflected in the hypothesis of the catacombs as a Renaissance form of the Caucasian dolmens, from which it follows that the Ciscaucasian catacomb culture has a local origin. These issues are closely related to the problem of the origin and chronology of the Catacomb culture in the Ciscaucasia and the North Caucasus for which a solution is proposed in this article.