Смольянинов Р.В., Ранний неолит Верхнего Дона

__________________________ Summary __________________________ This is manifested in the presence in the cultural layers o f hy­ brid ceramics, in the appearance o f which an important role was played by the population o f the Eneolithic Nizhnedonskoy culture. Mixed Neo-Eneolithic ceramics o f Cherkasy and Kurin types were found in four floodplain sites: Karamyshevo 9, Kurino 1, Ksizovo 6, Universitetskaya 3 and dates from the second ha lf o f the 5th mil­ lennium BC. Monuments o f the Dronikhinsky type, which we date to the middle o f the V millennium BC (possibly to the entire first half), are represented by some other striking but scarce materials on the Upper Don; there arc now 14 o f them. Unfortunately, the largest collection from the settlement o f Lipetskoye Ozero is a collection o f lifting material. The remaining Neolithic complexes o f the Up­ per Don sites contain ceramics o f this type from one to a maximum o f 58 fragments at the Ivnitsa site. The distribution boundary o f Dronikhinsky-type materials to the north runs along the Matyra River in the city o f Lipetsk. On the Don River, the northernmost point is the settlement o f Ksizovo 6 (near the village o f Ksizovo, Zadonsky district, Lipetsk region.) The w’aters o f the Voronezh River basin are clearly favored as locations for these monuments, where 12 o f them have been identified, as opposed to only two on the Don River. rhe heterogeneity o f the obtained ceramic collections is also noteworthy. They visually differ in impurities: at the Lipetskoye Ozero and Ksizovo 6 sites, a shell admixture is used; in the settle­ ment 1 near the Pervomaiskoye lesnichestvo - an organic impurity; and in the Savitskoye site, admixture o f fine sand is traced in most o f the ceramic fragments, although in isolated cases organic inclu­ sions are also present. The dishes also differ in the nature o f the processing o f external surfaces. At settlement 1 near Pervomaisky lesnichestvo, fragments on the outside and inside are smoothed out with long comb marks; at Savitsky 1, these combs are only on the inside; and at settlement Ksizovo 6, there are none at all. One o f the characteristic features o f the late (third) stage o f the Srednedonskaya culture’s existence was the appearance o f pot­ tery decorated w'ith a hybrid prick-pit ornament. To date, there are 40 known locations with prick-pit ceramics in researched territory. Parts o f the collection were obtained from 26 studied excavations o f exclusively multilayered monuments. Topographically, they arc all located in floodplains, on the rem- 193