Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 53 (4) 2025   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.4.060-070

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Multidisciplinary Study of the Neolithic Pottery from Osinovoye Ozero,
the Middle Amur

D.V. Selin¹, L.N. Mylnikova¹, and S.V. Kovalenko²

¹Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

²Center for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Amur Region, Per. Uralova 5/2, Blagoveshchensk, 676000, Russia

We describe ceramics of the Osinovoye Ozero culture from the 1962 and 1965 excavation seasons at the Osinovoye Ozero settlement on the Middle Amur River, with a view to reconstructing certain stages of pottery production in that region, using methods such as binocular microscopy, petrography, and derivative thermogravimetry. Two subtypes of raw material were identified on the basis of natural admixtures: one with brown iron ore and mica plates, the other with sporadic inclusions of organic matter. Petrographic analysis revealed two groups of clay: 1) with micaceous illite-muscovite and feldspar, and 2) with micaceous illite-muscovite-biotite, quartz-feldspar, and dark-colored minerals. Eight recipes for paste are described; five of them with grus, five with sand, three with organic solution, and two with grog. Two unmixed recipes are the most common. Surfaces of vessels were smoothed with a hard tool and sometimes polished. Most vessels are well baked. The quality of baking in the ceramics of the Osinovoye Ozero and Lower Amur (Malyshevo, Kondon) cultures was compared. In this regard, certain specimens from Osinovoye Ozero resemble Early Neolithic ones. Osinovoye Ozero and Novopetrovka ceramics belong to different traditions of pottery manufacture. Our findings suggest that the Osinovoye Ozero people used several recipes for paste preparation, practiced in one and the same settlement.

Keywords: Ceramics, Neolithic, Osinovoye Ozero culture, technological analysis, petrography, derivative thermogravimetric analysis