Neolithic Patterns from the Vilovatoye Site: New Radiocarbon Chronology Data

Introduction. The article presents some latest absolute dates for Neolithic pottery from the Vilovatoye site, the latter being characterized by a most impressive pottery collection from the Middle and Late Neolithic across the forest-steppe Volga River basin. Goals. The work shall introduce a series of radiocarbon dates for Neolithic patterns of the Vilovatoye site. To facilitate this, the paper shall describe the vessels that yielded such radiocarbon dates, analyze and interpret the absolute values, compare the latter to those of the Middle Volga culture. Materials and methods. In 2018–2019, shards from a total of fourteen Neolithic vessels excavated in the site of Vilovatoye were selected. Four of them were decorated with pricks of different shapes, one bore pricks combined with blackened lines, and nine vessels had comb stamps. Radiocarbon dating by liquid scintillation was conducted at the Radiocarbon Laboratory of Herzen University. Results. The pricked vessels of the Vilovatoye site dated from the third quarter of the 6th millennium BC to the second quarter of the 5th millennium BC. These results tend to well correlate with dates yielded by pricked pottery of the Middle Volga culture. The shards of the vessel decorated with pricks and blackened lines were dated to the first half of 5th millennium BC. The absolute dates for the comb-imprinted pottery cluster within a vast interval — from the last quarter of the 6th millennium BC to the third quarter of the 5th millennium BC. So, the latter dates also well correlate with available radiocarbon values for comb-ornamented pottery of both the Vilovatoye site and the Middle Volga culture. Conclusions. The newly obtained radiocarbon values shall significantly add to the set of dates for the Middle Volga culture. Those are evidence that the traditions of pricked and comb-stamped pottery somewhat co-existed — on the Vilovatoye site in particular, and within the Middle Volga culture at large.

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