The Cultural Context of Ceramics from Neolithic Mariupol-Type Cemeteries

From 1927 to 1980, 24 Neolithic burial grounds dating from the 7th to 5th millennia BC were discovered in the Middle and Lower Dnieper River basin. All cemeteries had similar cemetery structures and characteristics. Simultaneously, the cemeteries were separated from the settlements, and not all of them remained in direct connection with each other. Among them, the cemeteries of Lysa Hora, Yasynuvate, Mykilske, Dereivka, and Chaplynka have ceramics among the funeral goods.

This research had several goals. The first goal was to summarise and revise the history of excavations of Neolithic cemeteries from the 20th century on the Dnieper River. The second goal was to implement pottery collections from the Lysa Hora cemetery in the scientific context. The cemetery was opened in 1959 and had a rich pottery collection of 88 vessels belonging to the burial ritual itself. The research provided an extensive description of the collection, a reconstruction of the vessel’s profiles, and a summary of the statistical information. The third goal was to develop a typological model based on the Lysa Hora pottery collection that can be used in future research on Neolithic ceramics. By developing this model, we were allowed to compare a relatively homogenous pottery assemblage, establish specific types of vessels depending on the shape/form, the composition of mass, and the characteristic ornamentation, and produce a detailed typology and chronology.

Implementing our typological scheme, we compared the ceramic complexes from the cemetery and settlement sites to find migration and social contacts in the region along the Dnieper River and nearby regions.