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The transition to the Neolithic on the East European Plain was a very different process to the Western model, featuring a long-lasting hunter-gatherer economy and late introduction of agriculture. The authors present results from multiproxy research on a 13.5m-deep core of organic deposits from the Serteya mire as part of an international research project to understand human-environment relations in the Western Dvina Lakeland.

International audience

Human history has been shaped by global dispersals of technologies, although understanding of what enabled these processes is limited. Here, we explore the behavioural mechanisms that led to the emergence of pottery among hunter-gatherer communities in Europe during the mid-Holocene. Through radiocarbon dating, we propose this dispersal occurred at a far faster rate than previously thought. Chemical characterization of organic residues shows that European hunter-gatherer pottery had a function structured around regional culinary practices rather than environmental factors. Analysis of the forms, decoration and technological choices suggests that knowledge of pottery spread through a process of cultural transmission. We demonstrate a correlation between the physical properties of pots and how they were used, reflecting social traditions inherited by successive generations of hunter-gatherers. Taken together the evidence supports kinship-driven, super-regional communication networks that existed long before other major innovations such as agriculture, writing, urbanism or metallurgy.

This paper presents the results of multiproxy research (pollen, charcoal, plant macrofossil and testate amoebae) on the biogenic deposits core from Gorodetsky Moch, an ombrotrophic peatland in western Russia (Western Dvina Lakeland). We reconstructed the impact of disturbance on peatland development in the last 300 years by using chronology of the records based on14C and210Pb data set. The multiproxy reconstruction was compared with changes in the land cover using historical maps and Corona images, which provides a unique spatial analysis of past ecological and land-use changes. We aimed to determine the effect of local disturbances (drainage) and land-use changes (landscape openness) on the development of the peatland during the last 300 years. Our study suggests that human activity had a crucial impact on the development of the peatland in the last centuries. The analysis of testate amoebae and plant macrofossils revealed a clear disturbed layer in the second half of the 20th century CE. Most probably, the drainage of the peatland triggered changes in the community of testate amoebae and plants, thereby causing a functional shift in Sphagnum peatland ecosystem. The hydrological stress and vegetation composition shift led to the collapse of mixotrophic testate amoebae. However, the peatland showed strong resilience and recovered toward the end of the 20th century CE and the beginning of the 21st century CE, despite the lower water table. Our study shows an example of the peatland ecosystem that experienced a considerable stress but finally sustained the former function.

A single burial mound is located on the right bank of the Serteyka River (north-western Russia). It was discovered by E.A. Schmidt in 1951 and is attributed to the Old Russian Period. New researches on the burial mound conducted in 2013 and 2014 have uncovered several diachronic constructions. The first stage was connected to a flint knapping site, which was located on a natural ele- vation. It can be attributed to the 6th millennium BC on the basis of the Early Neolithic pottery fragments found nearby. The next period is dated to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC, when a ritual platform was created. Moreover, on another mound, a ditch was created, which can be attributed to the Long Barrow Culture due to a ceramic fragment found there. Samples from burnt bones and charcoal indicate that the first and second stages of this construction could be dated to between the middle and the second half of the 3rd millennium BC – the late stage of the Zhizhitskaya Culture of pile-dwellers and the initial stage of the Uzmenskaya Culture. Animal bones were cremated along with bronze items, as evidenced by the patina visible on the surface of the bones. Such a rite has been recorded for the first time. Furthermore, a ritual fire-place was set on a flat platform, and additional fireplaces were situated on the slope of the burial mound. This complex, which can be interpreted as a site of worship from the Late Neolithic through the Early Bronze Age, existed for a long period of time. Nowadays, it is difficult to find analogies to such ritual complexes from the 3rd millennium BC from the territory of Poland and the Upper Dnepr region; only the kurgans and burial mounds of the Corded Ware Culture dating to the 3rd millennium BC are known. It might also be supposed that some of the sites with such a sepulchral rite, usually attributed to the Long Barrows Culture, could also be ritual sites – this, however, would require further research.

International audience; Peatlands are important records of past environmental changes. Based on a multiproxy analysis, the main factors influencing the evolution of a peatland can be divided into autogenic and allogenic. Among the important allogenic factors, apart from climate change, are deforestation and drainage, which are directly associated with human impact. Numerous consequences arise from these processes, the most important of which are physical and chemical denudation in the catchment and the related hydrological disturbances in the catchment and peatland. The present study determined how human activities and the past climatic variability mutually influenced the development of a small peatland ecosystem. The main goals of the study were: (1) to trace the local changes of the peatland history over the past 600 years, (2) to investigate their relationship with changes in regional hydroclimate patterns, and (3) to estimate the sensitivity of a small peatland to natural and human impact. Our reconstructions were based on a multiproxy analysis, including the analysis of pollen, macrofossils, Chironomidae, Cladocera, and testate amoebae. Our results showed that, depending on the changes in water level, the history of peatland can be divided into three phases as follows: 1/the phase of stable natural conditions, 2/phase of weak changes, and 3/phase of significant changes in the catchment. Additionally, to better understand the importance of the size of catchment and the size of the depositional basin in the evolution of the studied peatland ecosystem, we compared data from two peatlands – large and small – located close to each other. The results of our study indicated that “size matters,” and that larger peatlands are much more resilient and resistant to rapid changes occurring in the direct catchment due to human activities, whereas small peatlands are more sensitive and perfect as archives of environmental changes.

A multi-proxy record derived from sediments collected from an infilled lake basin within the area of the Serteya II site, Western Russia, was used to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment development of this site over the past ca. 9000 years. Despite there being archaeological evidence of a human presence in this area spanning several millennia, the results from pollen analysis indicate only a small-scale human impact on vegetation during the prehistory, reinforcing existing ideas that lifeways based upon hunting, fishing and gathering (h-f-g) were maintained over an extended period of time at this location. Human activities remained relatively extensive during the historical periods, although the first evidence of cereal cultivation dates to the Middle Ages. The results of earlier investigation, which suggested that cereal cultivation and animal husbandry may have begun at Serteya in the Late Neolithic, have not been confirmed by the presented dataset (or, at least, cannot be seen in it). The results from macrobotanical analysis reveal a gradual lowering of the lake-level, but with intervening transgression phases ca. 5550–3600 cal. BC and, more briefly, around the time of the 4.2 ka BP cooling event. The Late Neolithic pile dwelling settlement (dated to 2500–2200 cal. BC) that was present in the immediate area, and from which the samples are drawn, was situated in shallow water - the depth of which varied seasonally - and in the close vicinity of the shoreline. The gathering of berries and nuts, as well as starch-rich aquatic plants, seems to have played an important role in subsistence, which was further supported by hunting and fishing. Following a brief phase during which the pile dwelling settlement went into decline, the increased exploitation of aquatic plants appears to have intensified between ca. 2200 and 2000 cal. BC.

The emergence of pottery in Europe is associated with two distinct traditions: hunter-gatherers in the east of the continent during the early 6th millennium BC and early agricultural communities in the south-west in the late 7th millennium BC. Here we investigate the function of pottery from the site of Rakushechny Yar, located at the Southern fringe of Eastern Europe, in this putative contact zone between these two economic ‘worlds’. To investigate, organic residue analysis was conducted on 120 samples from the Early Neolithic phase (ca. mid-6th millennium BC) along with microscopic and SEM analysis of associated foodcrusts. The results showed that the earliest phase of pottery use was predominantly used to process riverine resources. Many of the vessels have molecular and isotopic characteristics consistent with migratory fish, such as sturgeon, confirmed by the identification of sturgeon bony structures embedded in the charred surface deposits. There was no evidence of dairy products in any of the vessels, despite the fact these have been routinely identified in coeval sites to the south. Further analysis of some of the mammalian bones using ZooMS failed to demonstrate that domesticated animals were present in the Early Neolithic. Nevertheless, we argue that intensive exploitation of seasonally migratory fish, accompanied by large-scale pottery production, created storable surpluses that led to similar socio-economic outcomes as documented in early agricultural societies. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12520-021-01412-2.

In the region of the Serteyka River, an extensive accumulative fan was studied. The main goal of the research is an attempt to reconstruct the palaeogeographic development of erosive cuts in Western Russia. The geological structure of the fan and its surroundings was recognized. The fan is built by deluvium sediments, which can be divided into: lower diluvium unit, middle diluvium unit and upper diluvium unit. The top of the fan is built by tillage diamicton. The fan was formed at the earliest from the 2nd half of the 17th century (during the Little Ice Age pessimum). Samples were taken for AMS, OSL, Pb210 dating to determine the phases of fans development. The AMS dating produced mixed results. This was due to the redeposition of the material. Using the OSL method, two samples were dated from the bottom of the clastic fan deposits. Dates from the Neolithic period were obtained, additionally in inversion. It was caused by inaccurate bleaching of the quartz grains. The top part of the fan was dated using the Pb210 method. Slope sediments can be extremely difficult to dating. This may be due to the redeposition of the material, the presence of hiatuses and inaccurate bleaching of samples. The individual units of deluvium sediments differ in colour, structural and textural features.

Two kinds of samples of Early and Late Neolithic ceramic sherds of pots from excavations of sites located in Dnepr–Dvina and Low Don region (Serteya II and Rakushechny Yar) were investigated for multi-analytical comparison. The methods include thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and method of standard contact porosimetry. The pottery manufactured in Serteya II and Rakushechny Yar has different clay sources, but close mineral composition. Inner sides of sherds are less thermally durable as a result of the contact with cooking meal or boiling water in ancient times: They lose more mass during thermogravimetric measurements. At the same time, the minerals in outer sides of the samples are partly destroyed because of contact with fire in the past. According to differential scanning calorimetry curves, there are thermal effects above 1000 °C in all sherds due to mullite formation. There are organic C–F bonds and sharp endothermic peaks at 600–750 °C in samples from Serteya II site. In addition to elevated level of nitrogen and phosphorus and carbon black layer on the inner side, it allows to propose that the pot from Serteya II was used for cooking. The sherds from both sites have close overall porosity, but in case of Serteya II size of mesopore is more isotropic.

The phenomenon of northern pile dwellings has been found in different geographical zones and landscapes of the Circum-Baltic region: in sea landscapes and on the shores of inland lakes and rivers. Inland sites were established in specific lacustrine landscapes, appearing within former post-glacial basins. The pile dwellings revealed here are characterized by different types of wooden buildings, including structures with raised floors. They are dated to the 4th millennium BC to 4th century BC in Central Europe and the Baltics, and to the end of the 4th to end of the 3rd millen nium BC – in NW Russia and Belarus. They appeared in major cases independently and followed different cultural trajectories. The article presents an overview of a number of sites which can be attributed to pile dwelling settlements distributed in the Circum-Baltic area. It discusses particular features of their construction, traits of material culture, and site location patterns. Keywords: pile dwellings; Eastern Europe; Circum-Baltic; Neolithic; limnic landscapes.

The accumulative fan was formed at the mouth of a well-developed system of erosive cuts in the lower Serteyka River valley in western Russia. The length of the fan reaches 70 m, and its thickness is up to 2 m. The erosive cuts (gullies) were formed on the steep and short slopes of the tunnel valley (transformed later into the river valley) and dissect the surface of the glaciofluvial plain for a length of ca. 110 meters. The absolute chronology of the development of that relief form was determined based on 14C and 210Pb data set. It was started at the earliest in the second half of the 17th century, and finished before the mid-19th c. AD. These processes can be correlated therefore with palaeoenvironmental changes during the pessary of the Little Ice Age (LIA), as well as with human impact during the agrarian and industrial revolution in Eastern Europe. Studied accumulative fan is formed of deluvium with the insertion of the proluvium and an agricultural diamikton which is developed in ceiling part. The research based on the results of analysis of depth diversity of textural features (mean grain-size diameter, sorting index, skewness and kurtosis), geochemical features (chemostratigraphy determined on the basis of X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy – XRF) of the fan’s sediments and palaeoecological features (palynology analysis, subfossil Chironomidae and Cladocera analysis, plant macrofossil analysis) of biogenic deposits from under the fan.

Peatlands are natural geoarchives which record within organic deposits a picture of the past environmental changes. Depending on the preserved proxy, we are able to reconstruct various aspects of palaeoenvironmental changes, e.g. using pollen (vegetation composition), plant macrofossils (local vegetation changes), testate amoebae and zoological remains (hydrological changes) or XRF scanning (geochemical changes). Here, we investigated changes in land use and climate of western Russia using a range of biotic and abiotic proxies. This part of Europe is characterized by a continental climate, which makes this region very sensitive to climate change, in particular to precipitation fluctuations. Furthermore, in the last two centuries strong human impact in that area has been noticed. The Serteya kettle hole mire (55°40'N 31°30'E) is situated in the Smolensk Oblast in Western Dvina Lakeland. Study site is located close to the range of plant communities belonging to the hemiboreal zone, making it an ideal position to trace the plant succession of Eastern Europe. Preliminary dating of the material proves that the average rate of biogenic deposits in the reservoir was approx. 1 m per 600 years. The majority of the European peatlands was in some sense transformed as a result of drainage and land use practices in their basins. Serteya kettle hole mire allowed us to accurately track how a small ecosystem responds to palaeoenvironmental changes. Preliminary results will show the major fluctuations of the mire hydrology accompanied by the changes in the land use in the region. Our goal is also to determine the resistance and resilience of peat bogs to disturbances.

The article presents the results of a study on archaeological structures and horizons developed in the palaeolake shore-zone of the Serteya II site that was occupied intermittently and to a greater or lesser intensity from the Mesolithic up to the Middle Ages. The Serteya II site is a multilayer complex used by hunter–fisher–gatherer communities in the 9th–8th mill. BC, and from the end of the 7th till the end of the 3rd mill. BC. The article is focused on the particularities of the formation of archaeological layers and the reconstruction of the ancient environment in different periods of time. The study of the sets of artefacts, their state of preservation, as well as the traits of archaeological features, may indicate the peculiarities of the formation of different sedimentological units. Based on the results of complex natural-scientific research it was possible to reconstruct the palaeo-ecology of changing water regimes as well as changes in environmental conditions.

The Rakushechny Yar site is a floodplain multi-layer archaeological site encompassing strata dated from the Early Neolithic to the Bronze Age. It is characterised by a complex stratigraphy, with the presence of different deposits, buried soils and archaeological layers. Fluvial deposits interlay different settlement strata, which provides an opportunity to elaborate a precise chronological scheme and to study the successive changes in hydrological regime, climate and vegetation, along with the phases of human occupation. A study of the pastes used in ceramic manufacture was conducted to investigate changes in the procuring of raw materials, whose procurement would have depended heavily on their availability and sedimentation process. The fluvial deposits, which have safely preserved the Neolithic–Bronze Age archaeological layers, reach thicknesses of more than 6 m, which makes this site interesting both for the reconstruction of the human–environmental interaction and for the palaeoenvironmental history of the region.

The article presents the results of a study on sediment deposition processes in the palaeolake shore zone, at the multilayered Serteya II archaeological site in Western Russia. In recent years, geomorphological, palaeopedological and palaeoecological research was undertaken in strict cooperation with archaeological fieldwork. The Serteya II site occupies a substantial area of a kame terrace and biogenic plain within a palaeolake basin. From an archaeological point of view, the site is represented by few Mesolithic artefacts, but mostly by remnants of hunter–gatherer–fisher communities attributed in the Russian scientific tradition to the Neolithic period and dated from 6300 BC to 2000 BC. Later, the area was used by people in the Bronze Age, Early Iron Age and Early Middle Ages. The integration of archaeological and multidisciplinary palaeoenvironmental research allowed the natural and human induced deposition of mineral-organic and minerogenic sediments to be reconstructed, as well as the development of structures in the lake shore zone. The changes from lacustrine to fluvial system were documented and the human impact is recorded mostly in the acceleration of slope processes.

Dr. Ganna Zaitseva participated a lot in researches conducted within the North-Western archaeological expedition of the State Hermitage Museum and elaborating the chronological timeframes for Neolithic in this region. Multidisci- plinary investigations of the last five years changed a lot historical schemes and environmental reconstructions made for Serteya II site, located in Smolensk region. The Serteya II site is a multilayer complex used by hunter–fisher–gath- erer communities in the 9th-8th mill. BC, and from the end of the 7th till the end of the 3rd mill. BC. Archaeological structures and horizons were developed in the palaeolake shore zone within changing water regimes and changes in the environmental conditions. Based on the most convergent dendrochronological sequences, two floating chronolo- gies were compiled, for pine wood 53 years old and larch wood 54 years old. Finally five OSL dates have been obtained, but the acquired age of geological ones significantly exceeded expectations. Three dates indicate the Neolithic period (contrary to expected XVII century), and a chronological inversion of OSL dates can be seen. Surprisingly spectrom- etry measurements of gytia sediments, despite of significant amount of organic matter allow as to calculate the dose rate and then to date one piece of Neolithic pottery. The obtained age perfectly corresponded to present state of knowledge.

Rakushechny Yar site is a floodplain multi-layer archaeological site encompassing strata dated to Early Neolithic – Bronze Age. It is characterized by complex stratigraphy, presence of different deposits, buried soils and cultural layers. Fluvial deposits interlay different settlement strata, which provide an opportunity to elaborate precise chronological scheme and study the successive changes in hydrological regime, climate and vegetation changes along with human occupation phases. A new series of samples, from cultural layers of new excavated areas dated to an interval spanning no more than a few decades, centered around 5600 cal. BC.

So far, four different cultural-chronological groups of sites have been identified in the North-eastern Azov Sea and Lower Don River areas, including sites of the Rakushechny Yar culture, Matveev Kurgan culture, Donets culture, and sites of the Caspian-Ciscaucasian region. An analysis of all known dates, as well as the contexts and stratigraphies of the sites, allowed us to form a new perspective of the chronology of southern Russia, to revise the chronology of this region, and change the concept of unreliability of dates for this area.

The Upper Volga culture (UVC) in the Volga and Oka basin is one of the earliest pottery cultures in Eastern Europe. The Sakhtysh IIa site is attributed to the core area of the UVC, with pottery encompassing all stages of this culture. A detailed analysis of artefact deposition in different lay­ers allows the creation of chronological models of early pottery development in this region. A series of new radiocarbon dates of food crust on pottery sherds which typologically belong to different stages of UVC at Sakhtysh IIa, as well as an overview of the oldest pottery are presented in this article.

Paleoparasitological analysis was performed on a set of ten coprolites recovered during excavations of the Neolithic site Serteya II (NW Russia). Eggs of four gastrointestinal parasite taxa were identified, namely the fish tapeworm genus Diphyllobothrium, the giant kidney worm Dioctophyma renale, and two trematode taxa, including the liver lancet fluke genus Dicrocoelium. The diversity of parasites enables us to discuss the biological origin of the studied material, which can be attributed to carnivores, probably to canids. This is only the second record of ancient parasites in this part of the world for the Neolithic period and our results are consistent with those from the first study. They contribute to highlighting relationships between humans and animals, and show how environments and human activities can induce parasite transmission.

The Serteyka River valley is one of the most important archaeological localities in North-Western Russia. The State Hermitage Museum has conducted research in Serteya since the 1970s. The pile-dwelling remnants located within the Great Serteya Palaeolake Basin (GSPB) are the most prominent excavation. The investigation using precise underwater techniques recovered many exceptional remains of the Neolithic settlement that were preserved below the groundwater level in biogenic deposits. The large-scale studies focused till now primarily on relicts of the human settlement and only scarce environmental data were available before the last decade. A broad environmental archaelogical project using cores of organic deposits has been conducted since 2016 in the framework of Polish-Russian cooperation. The 8 m long STIIa core from the deepest lake point has been investigated. It gives a full sequence of the lake history from the Late Valdai Glaciation to the Middle Ages. Multi-proxy analysis of the STIIa core aims at the reconstruction of regional and local habitat conditions (e.g. climate, hydrology, trophic state, water chemistry, and plant communities) at the lake side during the MIS1.

Radiocarbon dating and research into offset correction for freshwater reservoir effect were conducted at the pile-dwelling site Serteya II, located in the Dvina-Lovat' basin (northwestern Russia). Cultural layers of this site are situated underwater, hence the unique state of preservation of material culture of the 3rd millennium cal BC. 14C dating of different organic materials [wood, hazelnut (Corylus avellana), and elk bones] from this site allows their ages to be correlated and 14C age offsets caused by freshwater reservoir effects (hardwater effects) in the dating of materials such as organic crust, pottery, bones, and lake sediments to be estimated. Consideration of the late Neolithic subsistence strategy underpinning the archaeological finds from this site and analysis of lipid components in ceramic vessels, as well as the determination of 14C activity of modern aquatic and terrestrial samples, allows us to calculate the local freshwater reservoir effect and 14C age offset for charred food crusts from different ceramic vessels more precisely.

The multilayer waterlogged site Zamostje 2 in Central Russia represents a unique opportunity to study the interplay of human cultural history and its environmental context over the late Mesolithic – Middle Neolithic, ca. 7900–5500 BP (7000–4300 BC). Compared to previous paleogeographical reconstructions made more than 15 years ago and pollen diagrams for a number of profiles from Zamostje 2, along with materials from other sites from the region, in this paper we present new data about the use of wood by ancient inhabitants of lake settlements, and the discovery of fishery constructions. These data are used to reconstruct local changes in paleo-landscape and its exploitation by ancient hunters–fishermen during a period of two thousand years. It was possible to correlate the types of fishing constructions with the water-depth of the ancient lake. The fishery economic zone of the paleo-lake always been a structural part of the settlement. New data allowed us to revise or update previous schemes of local paleo-landscape changes at the site, and the regional scheme of the Holocene vegetation development in the Volga-Oka region.

The characteristics of the oldest pottery in Eastern Europe, located in three main regions, the Lower Don and Lower and Middle Volga, and a description of different Early Neolithic types of pottery production are described in this article. We present ideas on how and when the oldest pottery traditions were distributed through Eastern Europe according to radiocarbon dates. Also, models of the Neolithisation of Eastern Europe are suggested based on archaeological evidence and absolute chronology.

At 8200 calBP, the beginning of the Atlantic period, there was a drastic change from warm and humid climatic conditions to cold conditions. The abrupt cooling at 8200 calBP has been documented in different parts of Europe. In western, and some parts of southern, Europe, this event was a trigger for new forms of economy and migrations of groups of Neolithic farmers. This paper considers the different ways in which ceramic traditions developed in eastern Europe in the steppe,steppe-forest and forest zones as a result of the rapid climate changes at about 8200 calBP.

Since the 1960s, more than 250 radiocarbon dates have been obtained for materials in the Upper Western Dvina area, which cover a timeframe from the 7th to the 1st millennium BC. Ra­diocarbon dates for materials of the Dnepr-Dvina area date the appearance and decline of various cultural traditions – from the formation of the most ancient pottery among hunter-gatherer com­munities until the appearance of the first stock-breeders in the forest zone, the bearers of cultural traditions of the Corded Ware culture. Dates for materials from the Upper Dvina area show both the existence of hiatuses between some cultural-chronological groups coinciding with some sig­nificant climatic and environmental changes, and the quasi (?) co-existence of some of the groups. Could these hiatuses also be traced in material culture, or do they appear because of a lack of data?

This article outlines the results of a multidisciplinary project currently conducted in the upper part of the basin of the Western Dvina River in North-Western Russia. The project targeted at prehistoric sites in that area was aimed at the precise dating of the initial transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture in that area. The methods used included pollen, diatom and geochemical analyses under strict time control provided by 14 C dating. The initial settlement emerged at ca 6200 cal BC, when the valley was taken up by a fresh water lake with a relatively high lake-level. The initial indices of agriculture became apparent in the deposits of Usvyatian Culture (4600–3400 cal BC), featuring large-scale constructions of pile-dwellings. Indices of swidden type agriculture became apparent in the deposits of Zhizhitsian Culture, 2300–2200 cal BC.

This article outlines the results of one of the aspects of a multidisciplinary project currently conducted in the upper part of the basin of the Western Dvina River in North-Western Russia. The project was targeted at prehistoric lake dwelling sites in the valley of Serteya River, a small tributary of the Western Dvina, and aimed at the precise dating of the initial transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture in that area. The methods used included pollen, diatom and geochemical analyses under strict time control provided by radiocarbon dating. The initial settlement emerged at c. 6200 cal. BC, when the valley was filled by a fresh water lake with a relatively high lake-level. The initial indices of agriculture became perceptible in the deposits of Usvyatian Culture (4600-3400 cal. BC), featuring large-scale constructions of pile-dwellings. Indices of swidden type agriculture became apparent in the deposits of Zhizhitsian Culture, 2300-2200 cal. BC.