The Stone Age in the East of the East European Plain. Review of the "The Stone Age" Volume of the Multi-Volume Edition "Archaeology of the Volga-Urals"

Abstract

The volume “The Stone Age” within the academic series “Archaeology of the Volga-Urals” was prepared by a team of leading Russian specialists. It comprises four parts (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Paleoanthropology), covering the forest and forest-steppe zones of the Middle Volga region and the Urals. The publication's conceptual framework integrates archaeological, historical, anthropological, and ecological approaches. Each part includes a paleogeographic overview, with the material organized according to physiographic regions and incorporating significant refinements in absolute chronology. The first part presents a complex picture of cultural and historical processes in the region during the Late Pleistocene. The Ural and Ust-Kama cultures emerge as the dominant cultural formations of the Final Paleolithic. The second part, on the Mesolithic, clearly demonstrates the uneven distribution of source material across geographical areas. The Russko-Lugovskaya, Ust-Kama, and Kama Mesolithic cultures are identified within the forest zone. Sites in the remaining territories reflect dynamic intercultural connections. In the Neolithic (the volume's third part), the leading processes of cultural genesis were defined by the Volga-Kama culture with stroked ceramics, the Kama culture of combed ceramics, and sites with pit-comb ware. For the latter, a hypothesis of ethnocultural continuity is proposed. Additionally, the concept of sites transitioning from the Neolithic to the Eneolithic is introduced, including the Russkiy Azibey, Tatarskiy Azibey types, and the Novoilyinskауа culture. The review of Neolithic cultures concludes with an outline of pottery technology development and the concept of the region's neolithization. In the final part, paleoanthropological data from a limited number of burial sites are synthesized, interpreted through the lens of contemporary understanding of race formation processes and paleogenetics.