Multidisciplinary approach to the study of Neolithic pottery technology (based on the materials of the Luzhki II site)

The excavations of a new Neolithic site in the Samara Volga region, conducted by archaeologists of Samara State University of Social Sciences and Education in 2020–2023, yielded numerous ceramic materials, a comprehensive analysis of which is currently being conducted. The results of the technical and technological analysis of ceramics according to the method of A.A. Bobrinsky and the specifics of the geographical location of the Luzhki II site led to the appeal to more detailed methods of study. In addition to archaeological (morphological grouping of vessels, typology, technical and technological analysis of ceramics based on binocular microscopy, tracology and physical modeling), the methods of geology (petrography, X-ray phase analysis) and paleosolvology were used in the study. The results of the multidisciplinary approach to the study of Neolithic pottery technology are presented in this article. They suggested that a small site without stationary dwellings could be used as a seasonal place for making household utensils (in addition to the usual hunting and fishing activities). As a result of the technical and technological analysis of pottery ceramics of the Luzhki II site, a significant proximity of the pottery traditions of the population groups who left different ceramic complexes was revealed, which indicates the simultaneity of their existence in this area and active mixing processes. The archaization of the potters' ideas about plastic raw materials is noted – a return to more archaic methods: the share of the use of silt in the production of post-Yelshan ceramic complex lot is 82%; pricked – 75%; combed – 89%; «mixed» group – 83%. From the point of view of the historical and cultural approach, such a result could arise only because of the appearance in the southern Middle Volga of new groups of Neolithic population with archaic ideas about raw materials.