Neolithic complexes of the Koksharovsky hill: genesis, stages of development and cultural continuity

The paper is devoted to the problems of evolution and cultural continuity of the Neolithic complexes of archaeological site «Koksharov Hill - Yurynskoye settlement». The basis for solving these problems is the presence of all types of Neolithic ceramics from the Trans-Ural region in the cultural strata of this complex: Koshkinskaya, Koksharovsko-Yuryinskaya (Kozlovskaya), Poludenskaya, Basyanovskaya (Boborykinskaya). Each of them has a reliable time reference, based on both stratigraphic observations and a solid base of radiocarbon dates including 54 received dates. The beginning of the Neolithic epoch on the monument is connected with the formation of the complexes of the Koshkinskaya archaeological culture no later than the third - the last quarter of the 7th millennium BC. At the same time, not later than the very beginning of the 6th millennium BC, complexes of the Koksharovsko-Yuryinskaya archaeological culture appeared. The indented strokes technique of ornamentation dominates in the design of ceramic ware of these cultures. But in the ornamentation of the vessels of the Koksharovsko-Yuryinskaya culture there are more features that go back to the local Mesolithic basis. A distinctive feature of both cultures is the presence of vessels with relief to stick. The population of these cultures existed, often in the framework of exogamous groups, during the early stage of the Neolithic region, before the 6th-5th, and even the first quarter of the 5th millennium BC, when they were re-registered in the Late Neolithic Poludenskaya and Basyanovkaya. Radiocarbon dates obtained from fragments of ceramics of the Ayatskaya culture, which fit into the interval of the third - last quarter of the 5th millennium BC, mark the beginning of the Eneolithic epoch on the monument.