Neolithie Ceramic Chronology in the South-Eastern Baltic Area in view of C Accelerator Datings

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Neolithic ceramic chronology in the south-eastern Baltic Area in view of 14C accelerator datings

Timofeev, Vladmir Ivanovich Fornvännen 90:1, 19-28

http://kulturarvsdata.se/raa/fornvannen/html/1995_019 Ingår i: samla.raa.se

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Neolithie Ceramic Chronology in the South-Eastern Baltic Area in view of C Accelerator Datings

By Vladimir Timofeev, Ganna Zajceva and Göran Possnert

Timofeev, V., Zajceva, G. & Possnert, G. 1995. Neolithie Ceramic Chronology in the South-Eastern Baltic Area in view of l4C Accelerator Datings. (Yngre stenål- derns keramikkronologi i det östbaltiska området. Nya rön genom tidsbestämning med¹⁴C accelerator.) Fornvännen 90. Stockholm.

The chronology of the Neolithie in the South-Eastern Baltic area has many unsolved problems connected with the dating of Neolithie pottery. One of the peculiar traits of the Neolithie sites of Zedmar type is that wares made with different technology have been found embedded in the same cultural layers. The pottery of Zedmar type consists of two main groups: I) with an admixture of crushed shells and vegetable matter in the clay and II) with an admixture of crushed stone and sand (mineral admixture). This situation is unusual for the Neolithie cultures in the Baltic area and the Forest zone of Eastern Europé. A detailed chronology for pottery with different kinds of tempering can only be accomplished by direct dating of the potsherds, which has been almost impossible using conventional radiocarbon technology. This artide presents results of a direct dating of five sherds from the main site of Zedmar type, the peat-bog site Zedmar D. The accelerator l4C technique has made it feasible to radiocarbon date organic remains, "food crust", from the inside of the pot sherds. Three of the sherds belong to group 1 and two sherds to group 2. The 14C dates obtained cannot be differentiated chronologically. The dates of group 1 fall within the interval 5200-4800 BP, and those of group 2 within 5400-5000 BP. These dates are somewhat older than expected but supported by other data. The results are of special interest when problems concerning the location of the sites are discussed.

The dates, which prove the coexistence of pottery with difTerent types of tempering, are of primary importance for understanding the cultural processes in the Neolithie of the South-Eastern Baltic area.

Vladimir Timofeev and Ganna Zajceva, Institute of lhe History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvorcovaja nab. 18, 191065 St. Petersburg, Russia.

Göran Possnert, The Svedberg Laboratory, Box 533, S-75121 Uppsala, Sweden.

Direct d a t i n g of p o t t e r y is y i d d i n g i m p o r t a n t c a t t l e - b r e e d i n g in the E a s t e r n Baltic a r e a is results for t h e c h r o n o l o g y of t h e S c a n d i n a v i a n d a t e d to a m u c h l a l e r p e r i o d .

Neolithie ( S e g e r b e r g et al. 1991, p p . 83 fT.). A T h e chronological p r o b l e m s a r e especially large field for s u c h i n v e s t i g a t i o n s is given by c o m p l i c a t e d in c o n n e c t i o n w i t h t h e S o u t h - E a s t - m a t e r i a l from t h e E a s t e r n Baltic a r e a , w h e r e ern Baltic Neolithie sites, w h i c h Ijave yielded defined typologieal a n d technological g r o u p s of special a s s e m b l a g e s differing from t h e well- Neolithic p o t t e r y often d o n o t have a precise known a n d w i d d y d i s t r i b u t e d c u l t u r e s in t h e e n o u g h c h r o n o l o g y . I n R u s s i a n a n d E a s t e r n W e s t e r n Baltic ( t h e E r t e b e l l e a n d F u n n d - B e a k - Baltic a r c h a e o l o g i c a l l i t e r a t u r e the b e g i n n i n g of er cultures) a n d E a s t e r n Baltic (the N a r v a cul- the Neolithie is n o r m a l l y set at t h e first i n t r o - ture a n d C o m b - P i t P o t t e r y c u l t u r e s ) . A s s e m - d u e t i o n of p o t t e r y . T h e a p p e a r a n c e of s o m e blages of Z e d m a r t y p e (Timofeev 1991, p p .

Fornvännen 90 (1995)

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V. Timofeev, G. Zajceva & G. Possnert

Fig. 1. The distribution of the sites of the Narva culture, the Nieman culture and the Zedmar type in the Eastern Baltic region. • - Narva culture. • - Nieman culture. + - Zedmar type.

Z-Zedmar peat-bog, Large symbol represents two or more sites. - Geografisk fördelning i östbaltikum av lokaler som representerar Xarvakulturen ( • ) , Nie- mankulturen (A) och Zed- markulturen ( • ) . Stora symboler representerar två eller fler arkeologiska lokaler.

15fl".) are known from Neolithie sites in a restricted area in the South-Eastern Baltic (Fig.

1). Sites of Zedmar type are characterized by two main technological groups of pottery: I) with crushed shells and vegetable matter in the day, and II) with crushed stone or sand in the clay (mineral tempering), sometimes with addition of vegetale matter. This combination is unusual in the Forest zone of Eastern Europé, where pottery of each separate stage of the Neolithie cultures is usually characterized by a uniform kind of tempering, and where research- ers often divide chronologically unstratified pottery collections according to technological differences between pottery groups.

The pottery of the Narva culture (Timofeev 1988, pp. 207 ff.), which was spread in Latvia, Estonia, partly Lithuania, Northern Bydorus-

Fomvännen 90 (1995)

sia and North-Western Russia in the Early Neolithie period, was characterized by a tempering of crushed shells, usually with the addition of vegetable matter. The same kind of ware tempering had a long existence in part of the area, in Lithuania and in the littoral zone of Latvia, where the population of the Narva culture remained in the Middle Neolithie and lat- er, until the spread of the Corded-Ware culture.

In the western part of the Baltic area, mineral (crushed stone) tempering was characteristic of the pottery of the Erteb0lle culture, which occu- pied Southern Sweden, Denmark, Northern Germany and, as established recently (II- kiewicz 1989, pp. 17ff.), also Northern Poland.

Crushed stone tempering was also characteristic of the pottery of the northern group of the Funnel-Beaker culture, which succeeded the

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Neolithie ceramic chronology in the South-Eastern Baltic 21 Ertebölle culture in the Western Baltic area. In

the eastern part of the Baltic area, crushed stone tempering appeared only in the Middle Neolithie and mainly in the northern part of the Eastern Baltic, in the Comb-Pit ware, which is mainly found east of the Daugava river, in East- ern Latvia, Estonia, Karelia and Finland. In the South-Eastern Baltic, only a few finds of this ware are known.

The combination of both kinds of tempering in the pottery assemblages on Neolithie sites in the South-Eastern Baltic area could be explained by the intermediate geographical position of the area, between the large western and eastern cultural entities mentioned above. The problem is that the coexistence of the two technological groups of pottery can in fact only be proved by a direct dating of the pottery. Earlier

14C dates relating to other components in the layers (charcoal, wood etc.) give rather broad frames for the layer.

Direct radiocarbon dating of the pottery is of extreme importance for the Neolithie chronology, mainly because the results of this dating are so closely associated with the concrete archaeological typology, "with full certainly", to follow the division of radiocarbon samples, as presented by H. Waterbolk (Waterbolk 1971, pp.

15ff,). The possibilities to reach this degree of association between the sample and the archaeological material were very rare before the introduction of accelerator technique. It is also important to note that when dating the sample of "food crust" a dating is also made of the death of the animals or plants, that had oc- curred just before they were used for food.

Thin layer chromatography of amino-acids was used in the Laboratory of the Institute of the History of Material Culture, St. Petersburg, to determine organic constituents in the "food crust". On the chromatogramm for the "food crust" on the inside of sherds of Zedmar type from the Zedmar D collection five coloured spöts were defined, each correponding to a certain type of protein. Two spöts were identified, one of animal or fish origin (probably from fish glue) and the other of plant origin. The qualita- tive analysis of the amino-acids showed the presence of amino-acids common to both animal and plant matter.

Neolithie sites of Zedmar type and the problem of Neolithie chronology in the South-Eastern Baltic area

The chronology of the Neolithie of the South- Eastern Baltic area is, until now, based on C determinations from rather few sites. Radiocar- bon dates are lacking for sites of the Nieman Neolithie Culture, that covered a large area of southern Lithuania, north-western Bydorussia and north-eastern Poland (Fig. 1). Concerning the Narva culture, represented in the area by its western group in the littoral zone of Lithuania and by some sites belonging to its southern group in the eastern part of this country, almost all dated sites are from the period after 4800 BP (Rimantiene 1978, pp. 31 ff., 1980; Girininkas 1980). Sites with older 14C dates are represented in the area by the Zedmar group, situated in the inner part of the area, in a restricted region induding the south-eastern part of Kaliningrad district, Russia (Timofeev 1991, pp. 15 fT.), and north-eastern Poland (Guminski and Fiedorc- zuk 1988, pp. 113fT.). The oldest known Zed- mar-type Neolithie material came to light in the lower layer of the multi-layered site Zedmar A, which could be defined as belonging to the second half of the Early Neolithie, 5400-5100 BP (Timofeev 1991, pp. 17ff., fig. 3). Sites dated to the time of the first introduction of pottery, that is, according to some assemblages in neighbouring areas, 6500-6000 BP (Loze

1988, pp. 10fT; Zagorskis et al. 1984, pp. 55ff.;

Ilkiewicz 1989, pp. 19, 21) have not been discovered in the South-Eastern Baltic area. The problems concerning the cultural attribution of the Zedmar Neolithie sites and their chronology have been discussed in literature from the 1920s onwards, and very different views have been expressed on this subject (i.a. Gaerte 1924;

Gross 1936, pp. lOOff; Äyräpää 1930, pp.

214 (T.) based on the results of amateur excavations conducted in the Zedmar peat-bog by K. Stadie (Stadie 1921, pp. 148 ff). At the present stage of research, after large-scale excavations carried out during the 1970 and 1980s, Neolithie sites of Zedmar type are considered to represent the local culture of the Eastern Baltic Neolithie (Timofeev 1991, pp. 15ff). It is relat- ed in some aspects to the Narva and the Nie- man Neolithie cultures. Because of the Narva

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Q» a»

av

H

* raa* i s h csu-

⁵

Fig. 2. Zedmar D. Cross section. 1) clayish soil, 2) peat, 3) gyttja, 4) sand, 5) aleuritus. - Stratigrafisk skiss över lokalen Zedmar D. 1) lera, 2) torv, 3) gyttja, 4) sand, 5) mosand.

elements, presumably the tempering of crushed shells, some recent authors therefore include the Zedmar-type sites in the Narva Culture (Kempisty 1986, pp. 204ff; Girininkas 1985, pp, 119ff), and because of some elements of ornamentation of the pottery and flint types R. K. Rimantiene includes the sites in the Nie- man Neolithie culture (Rimantiene 1973, pp.

221 ff; 1984, pp. 112ff), The Zedmar sites are, however, distinguished by special elements in the pottery ornamentation, the forms of the vessels, the assemblage of bone and antler tools and the stone industry. Some elements foreign to other Eastern Baltic Neolithie cultures probably came, as a result of diffusion and cultural influences, from the west and south. The flat- bottomed vessels, typical Zedmar-type pottery assemblages, are the most ancient in the East- ern Baltic region. In other parts of the region, only pointed-bottomed or round-bottomed vessels were in use until late in the Neolithie period.

Zedmar D is the largest excavated site of this type. An area of c, 800 m2 was excavated during the 1970s and 1980s. The Neolithie remains are embedded in the bottom of a sand layer, covered by peat and gyttja sediments (Fig. 2). The assemblage consists of bone, antler and stone

tools, some finds of amber and numerous faunal remains (Timofeev 1991, pp. 19ff). The large collection of pottery includes sherds from

120-130 vessels (finds from 1988 exeavation are not included). About one third of the pottery belongs to group I, with crushed shells and vegetable tempering, whereas the prevailing pottery is group II, with tempering of crushed stone and sand, sometimes with the addition of some vegetable matter. The percentage of ware with mineral tempering in the Zedmar D pottery assemblage is higher than in any other Zedmar type assemblage, where tempering of crushed shells prevails. Many field observations fix sherds of both technological groups to the same stratigraphical position and the same planigraphy. The sand layer may certainly be assumed to have accumulated during a certain period of time. According to pollen-analytical data and 14C results from the upper sediments, there was also a time-gap between the accumu- lation of the sand layer and the superimposed gyttja. Some låter intrusions were also revealed in the excavated area. Radiocarbon dates, made on charcoal, wood and gyttja-peat samples (the last ones originating from very thin, interrupted horizons in the southern part of the excavated area, dose to the bog) can be divided

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Neolithie ceramic chronology in the South-Eastern Baltic 23 Table 1. Conventional 4C dates from the Zedmar D

site (charcoal, wood and gyttja samples).

14C age BP E group 4 990 ± 4 5 5 090 ±50 5 170±70 4 880±50 5 150±100 5 070±150 4 890±100 5 640±300 L group 4 240 ±90 4 180±50 3 870±290 4 020±80 4 350±80 3 890 ± 6 0 4 300±40 4 250±40 4 210±45 4 170±45 4 120±100

Lab.

number

Le-3173 Le-3174 Le-3176 Le-3179 Le-3181 Le-3924 Le-3926 Le-3921

Le-1176 Le-848 Le-3925 Le-1181 TA-1173 Le-3168 Le-3169 Le-3171 Le-3170 Le-3177 Le-3992

Type of material

wood wood charcoal wood charcoal gyttja"

gyttja antler tool

charcoal charcoal charcoal wood' wood' wood wood'' wood'' wood' wood' wood'

' Peat-gyttja from a thin, interrupted horizon, immediately superimposing some Neolithie finds in a small part of the excavated area.

Peat-gyttja from a thin interrupted horizon in the sand layer immediately superimposing the Neolithie cultural layer in a small part of the excavated area close to the bog.

' The same piece of wood—a thin pile or sharpened stick, embedded in virgin soil in the western part of the excavated area.

Piece of a pile, found in vertieal position in virgin soil in the area of wooden construetions in the eastern part of the excavated area.

' Horizontally embedded piéces of the wooden construetions at the top of the sand layer.

into two groups (Table 1), called the E (early) and L (late) groups. Stratigraphical evidence gathered in the eastern part of the excavated area (the 1988 excavations) also defines two occupation periods. The laler period was connected with remains of wooden construetions found at the top of the sand layer (cf. the apparently very similar situation discovered at the Funnel-Beaker Culture site of Siggeneben- Siid in Northern Germany; Meurers-Balke 1983).

The l4C dates of the E group (8 datings) fall within the time interval 5200-4800 BP, and the dates of the L group (11 datings) within the interval 4400-3800 BP. There are two possible ways of explaining and understanding the chronology of the Zedmar D site assemblage:

1) The L group of datings belongs to a short episode of a late occupation, corresponding to the wooden structures discovered in the eastern part of the excavated area. The shortness of this occupation is also in accordance with the fact that very few objects were connected with the wooden construetions.

2) A more traditional way of explanation would be to connect the technological division, following the idea that the pottery of group I is more archaic and more similar to the oldest pottery of the Eastern Baltic area—the Narva type characterized by tempering of crushed shells. According to this explanation, pottery group I would be connected with the group E datings and pottery group II with the L group datings. To check and defme the chronology of pottery groups I and II was possible only by way of direct-dating the sherds. Typical sherds of both groups, found in the lower part of the sand layer, were chosen for the datings.

I4C accelerator datings

In the present investigation, five different pot sherds were radiocarbon dated. The sherds are displayed in Figs. 3 and 4 and described in Table 2. Three of them belonged to group I and two to group II. The sherds were carefully chosen from a larger assembly by the criteria of exhibiting well-defined organic remains on the surfaces. Some of the pot sherds were unfortu- natdy prepared along the edges with some sort of lacquer which was avoided when the "food crust" was scraped off, in order not to include contaminating carbon of no relevance for the dating. From similar investigations of ceramics found in Seandinavia we have learned that a refined and complicated chemical approach where separate chemical compounds such as amino-acids or proteins are extracted is not necessary to apply in order to obtain reliable datings. Such investigations might certainly be of interest from another point-of-view, namely to trace the origin of the food constituents and

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fiS?

i ^{< «}•*• -

' < * '

Fig. 3. Dated sherds of lhe lechnological group I. The sherds (1-3) are described in Table 2. - Daterade kera- mikskärvor av magringslyp I. Skärvorna 1-3 beskrivs i tabell 2.

thereby possibly shed some light on the econo- my of Neolithie man. Such a study can be performed on small quantities (micro grams) in an analytical way while the radiocarbon analysis on separate compounds requires preparative amounts (some milligrams) which is more diffi- cult to find on existing excavated pot sherds.

The closed system criteria, which means that only carbon contemporaneous with the ceramic is present in the organic remains, seems to be surprisingly well fulfilled in the organic crust. A normal chemical pretreatment has, of course, to be applied in order to diminate influences of humics and carbonates from the surrounding sediment. In lhe present case, no visible rootlets

or other contaminants were observed or re- moved. The organic surface lay scraped off was dark black and somewhat crackled and easily separated from the ceramic surface. The pretreatment chemistry consisted of a standard acid-base-acid approach where a 1 % HC1 (8 hours below boiling) and a 1 % N a O H (8 hours below boiling) with distilled water washes in- between was applied. The insoluble fraction (INS) and acid precipitated soluble fraction (SOL) was then combusted to C 02 by oxida- tion with C u O at 800°C for c. 5 minutes. The carbon dioxide was finally converted to graph- ite by Fe catalytic reduction in a H2 atmosphere (Hut et al., 1986). The natural mäss fractiona-

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Neolithie ceramic chronology in the South-Eastem Baltic 25

, . £ ? *

\

Fig. 4, Dated sherds of the technological group II.

The sherds (1-2) are described in Table 2. - Date- rade keramikskärvor av magringstyp II. Skärvorna 1-2 beskrivs i tabell 2.

tion <5I3C w a s d e t e r m i n e d w i t h a c o n v e n t i o n a l m ä s s s p e c t r o m e t e r ( V a r i a n M A T 230S) while the r a d i o c a r b o n a n a l y s i s w a s c o n d u c t e d w i t h the use of the U p p s a l a E N t a n d e m a c c e l e r a t o r used as an u l t r a sensitive m ä s s s p e c t r o m e t e r (Possnert 1990). T h e yields in t h e c h e m i s t r y as well as the a n a l y t i c a l results a r e p r e s e n t e d in T a b l e 3. T h e r a d i o c a r b o n results for t h e different s a m p l e s a n d fractions a r e also d i s p l a y e d graphically in Fig. 6. N o significant differences were observed b e t w e e n t h e I N S a n d S O L fractions, except in s a m p l e I I : 15. T h e total a m o u n t of m a t e r i a l w a s low for this s h e r d , 7 - 1 5 times lower t h a n for t h e o t h e r s , a n d therefore d i s t u r b - ing factors a r e m o r e severe. W e have l e a r n e d that in s u c h a case t h e S O L fraction t h a t p r o b - ably c o n t a i n s most of t h e o r g a n i c c o m p o u n d s , gives the most relevant d a t i n g c o m p a r e d to t h e I N S fraction, t h a t m a i n l y consists of c a r b o n i z e d m a t e r i a l a n d solid p a r t i d e s from t h e soil. T h e r a d i o c a r b o n results t h e n i n d i c a t e t h a t g r o u p I belongs to a period 4 8 0 0 - 5 2 0 0 B P a n d g r o u p I I to a time interval 5 1 0 0 - 5 3 0 0 B P . Since only five s h e r d s were i n v e s t i g a t e d it is m o r e significant t o state t h a t t h e r e is n o t m o r e t h a n p e r h a p s s o m e h u n d r e d years difference, if a n y , b e t w e e n t h e two typologieal g r o u p s . F u r t h e r s a m p l e s have

Table 2. Description of the potsherds with "food crust" from the Zedmar D Neolithie site dated by accelerator C.

Sherds of group I (Fig. 3: 1-3):

Sample sherd 1. 1977 excavations, locus 28, N 1351 (Fig. 3:1).

Temper of crushed shells and vegetable malier.

Traces of smoothing on the surface. Thickness of the sherd 9 mm.

Ua-2375 (I: 1 INS) 5 180±100 BP Ua-2376 (I: 1 SOL) 5 120±100 BP

Sample sherd 5. 1977 excavations, locus 7, N 315 (Fig.

3:2).

Temper of vegetable matter, with addition of a small amount of fine sand. Slight traces of smoothing. On the edge of the sherd, traces of ornamentation in the form of a small shallow pit-like depression. Thick- ness of the sherd 8 mm.

Ua-2377 (1:5 INS) 5 030±100 BP Ua-2378 (1:5 SOL) 4 950±90 BP

Sample sherd 7. 1977 excavations, locus 37, N 1795 (Fig. 3 : 3 ) .

Temper of vegetable matter, probably with addition of some crushed shells. Part of the body close to the bottom. Thickness of the sherd 14 mm.

Ua-2379 (I: 7 INS) 4 840± 100 BP Ua-2380 (I: 7 SOL) 5 100±100 BP Sherds of group II (Fig. 4: 1-2):

Sample sherd 15. 1975 excavations, locus 2, N 447 (Fig.

4:1).

Temper of crushed stone, with a small addition of vegetable matter. Traces of smoothing on lhe surface. Ornamenlation in the form of a broad, deep elongated line. Thickness of lhe sherd 11 mm. Prob- ably, the sherd represents a piece of a large pot with narrow, massive flat bottom, now reconstructed (Fig. 5).

Ua-2381 (11:15 INS) 4 810±100 BP Ua-2382 (II: 15 SOL) 5 230±100 BP

Sample sherd 20. 1978 excavations, locus 23, N 3484 (Fig. 4:2).

Temper of crude sand. Piece of profiled part of lhe body. Thickness of the sherd 8 mm.

Ua-2383 (11:20 INS) 5 360±130 BP Ua-2384 (11:20 SOL) 5 280±80 BP

to be d a t e d to confirm a refined c h r o n o l o g i c a l division. T h e c o r r e s p o n d i n g c a l e n d r i c age inter- vals for g r o u p s I a n d I I a r e 4 0 2 0 - 3 5 7 0 cal B C a n d 4 1 8 5 - 3 8 8 5 cal B C , r e s p e c t i v d y .

T h e n a t u r a l m ä s s f r a c t i o n a t i o n v a l u e s , tV3C, have an interest besides t h e c o r r e c t i o n to t h e r a d i o c a r b o n values in t h e respect t h a t i n d i c a - tion of t h e s o u r c e of t h e food i n t a k e c a n be

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Fig. 5. Reconstruction of a pot belonging to the technological group II, probably dated by sherd sample 15, Fig. 4 : 1 . - Rekonstruktion av kärl som kommer från magringsgrupp II och som sannolikt är daterad av provet från skärva 15 (figur 4:1).

revealed. Any deviation from values in the range —21 to — 26%o versus the PDB standard, which is a typical figure for terrestrial material, is of special interest. In the present case, low

values are obtained similar to those found when a fermentation-humification process has taken place.

Conclusions

The new accelerator datings are roughly of the same age, i.e. they show the coexistence of pottery groups I and II in the assemblage, which means that mineral tempering existed in the South-Eastern Baltic region at the same time as the earliest Eastern Baltic crushed-shdls and organic tempered potteries. This is probably due to the geographical position of Zedmar- type sites located between the Eastern Baltic Neolithie entities, where crushed-shdls and organic matter are characteristic of the tempering of the pottery, and Western Baltic Late Meso- lithic-Early Neolithie cultures, where mineral tempering similar to that found in the Ertebelle type of wares is characteristic.

The l4C datings presented also give a somewhat older age for the main assemblage of the Zedmar D site if compared with the L group of datings. The early date of the main assemblage of Zedmar D gives a new possibility of understanding some elements of the culture, unusual for the Eastern Baltic Neolithie, and foremost all the antler industry (Timofeev 1981, pp.

115ff). This is similar to the Industries of Cen- tral Europé and Seandinavia, characterized by T-shaped axes and other tools made of red deer

Table 3. Summary of the radiocarbon pretreatment chemistry and dating measurements.

Lab. number Ua-2375 Ua-2376 Ua-2377 Ua-2378 Ua-2379 Ua-2380 Ua-2381 Ua-2382 Ua-2383 Ua-2384

Sample 1:1 INS 1:1 SOL 1:5 INS 1:5 SOL 1:7 INS 1:7 SOL II: 15 INS II: 15 SOL 11:20 INS II: 20 SOL

Total sample (mg)

82.1 159.4 109.7 10.6 73.3

Pretreated (mg) 21.2

5.12 78.6 29.6 26.7 3.89 1.16 2.34 17.3 15.8

Carbon

% 37 40 36 45 43 47 60 41 49 59

dnC

%c

-26.39 -26.63 -30.13 -28.94 -27.47 -25C) -25C) -25(*) -26.72 -26.63

l4C age BP 5 180±100 5 120±100 5 030±100 4 950±90 4 840±100 5 100±100 4 8IO±100

•5 230±100 5 360±130 5 280 ±80 (*) not measured.

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Neolithie ceramic chronology in the South-Eastern Baltic 27 14 C age BP

e o 1:1 INS J

III SOL "

1:5 INS "

1:5 SOL "

1:7 INS "

1:7 SOL "

11:15 INS "

11:15 SOL •

11:20 INS ~

11:20 SOL -

—i—i—i— —t—i—i—

t -

i -

—i—i—i—

i - l

i - O -

I - » - I

l - O H

• - 1

i - O -

M

t- 1 l i i - i

i

O - i

* * *

- C "

— 1 — 1 — 1 —

I I 1

Fig, 6. Results of the radiocarbon datings of the different fractions and pot sherds in radiocarbon ages BP. - Grafisk presentation av de erhållna ' ^ - å l - drarna BP for de olika keramikskärvornas kemiska fraktioner INS och SOL (se texten).

antler. G e o g r a p h i c a l l y d o s e r t o t h e S o u t h - E a s t - ern Baltic a r e a is t h e a n t l e r i n d u s t r y of this kind from the B r z e s c - K u j a w s k i g r o u p of t h e L e n g y e l c u l t u r e , d a t e d to t h e s a m e t i m e as given by t h e new a c c e l e r a t o r d a t i n g s , a n d t h e E g r o u p of t h e o t h e r¹⁴C d a t i n g s ( G r y g i d 1986, p p . 2 1 2 f f , table I I I ) . I t s h o u l d be m e n t i o n e d t h a t 1-3 c e n - turies previously, in t h e a s s e m b l a g e of t h e Z e d - m a r A site, a n o t h e r t y p e of a n t l e r i n d u s t r y w a s in use, following M e s o l i t h i c K u n d a t r a d i t i o n s (Timofeev 1981, p p . 1 8 f f ) . P r o b a b l y , t h e prevalence of p o t t e r y w i t h m i n e r a l t e m p e r i n g a b o u t 5000 B P in t h e Z e d m a r a r e a s h o u l d be explained by a n i n c r e a s i n g i n t e r a c t i o n w i t h Neolithie c u l t u r e s to t h e west or s o u t h of the

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Drs. Ingmar Jansson and Ann Segerberg for valuable comments on the manu- script. This work was supported by T h e Royal Swed- ish Academy of Letters History and Antiquities and the Swedish National Science Research Council.

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Sammanfattning

Den neolitiska kronologin for sydöstra Baltikum är komplicerad och delvis oklar. Speciellt gäller detta keramikfynden som i den ryska littera- turen spelar en avgörande roll vid definitionen av den neolitiska periodens början. Eftersom keramik med olika typer av magring, såväl blandningar av krossade mollusk-skal och växtdelar (grupp I) som blandning av krossad sten och sand (grupp II), förekommer i strati- grafiskt närliggande nivåer, fordras en direkt datering av keramiken for att klargöra dess kronologi. En unik möjlighet erbjuder därvid de organiska rester, ofta benämnda »matskorpor»

som återfinns på keramikskärvornas insida.

Materialet är naturligtvis starkt relaterat till användningstidpunkten och därmed speciellt lämpligt (ör radiometrisk datering med 14C. I den aktuella studien har fem keramikskärvor

(tre från grupp I och två från grupp II) från lokalen Zedmar D daterats med den acedera- torbaserade l4C-tekniken som genom sitt låga krav på materialmängd möjliggjort analysen.

Dateringsresultatet uttryckt i kalibrerad ålder ger vid handen att dateringarna för grupp I- skärvorna svarar mot perioden 4020-3570 f. Kr.

medan grupp II hänför sig till intervallet 4185-3885 f.Kr. Slutsatsen härav är att de olika typerna av magrad keramik tillverkats under samma tid. Förklaringen ligger förmodligen i Zedmarkulturens geografiska läge och därmed samtidiga influenser och kontakter både åt norr mot den östbaltiska Narvakulturen vars keramik är renodlad av typ I och mot söder mot syd- och västbaltiska ertebölle- och trattbägar- kulturerna med sin typiska grupp Il-keramik.

Fornvännen 90 11995)