Regional and chronological characteristics of the Atlym culture ceramic complexes

The absence during the long time the discoveries that could dramatically affect to the formed ideas about the Atlym culture of the Late Bronze Age in the north of Western Siberia, has led to the extinction of the interest in this subject. In order to resume the scientific discussion, the article shows a hypothetical model of the transformation of ornamental traditions over time, created on the basis of a comparison of ceramic complexes with different Atlym monuments. The main directions of movement of northern populations of the Late Bronze Age are traced. Currently Atlym culture is associated primarily with the second type of Atlym ceramic vessels which are characterized by an arcuate curved neck cross-pothole ornamentation. In the article two options of the structure of ornamental composition on the Atlym dishes of the second type are sorted out for the first time. Spatial and chronological distribution of ceramic with these types of ornamental composition are not uniform. "Lower Ob" and "Surgut" local options may be conditionally divided in the Atlym culture. Regional features are not the result of variation of the Atlym traditions in different territories. The allocated local versions of the Atlym culture have a common territorial core and are in fact more likely chronological stages. "Surgut" version of the Atlym ceramics formed in the territory of the Lower Ob River at the turn of the II and I millennium BC on the base of the early Atlym ceramic tradition. At the beginning of the I millennium BC one part of the Atlym population moved to Surgut Ob' district. Relationship with the mother country was lost by the migrated population, that led to the preservation of the Surgut Ob' district of Atlym ceramic tradition in invariable form. The further development of the ornamental tradition in the Lower Ob led to the transformation of "Surgut" option in the "Lower Ob." From this time there were two options of Atlym ceramics of the second type in different areas together: the early "Surgut" - in Surgut Ob', Vasyugan and Urals districts; later, "Lower Ob", throughout the Lower Ob' district, including tributaries up to the Yamal Peninsula, in the Lower Irtysh. At the end of existence of the Atlym culture "Lower Ob" and "Surgut" Atlym population restored the lost connections, which is reflected in the materials of some monuments in Irtysh and Surgut Ob' district. Thus, the recorded changes in the structure of ornamental compositions of Atlym dishes are quite clear markers of the movements of various groups of Atlym population in the time and in the space. New structural elements reflect both the processes, which were specific to the evolution of many ornamental traditions of bronze final period, and the processes, which determined their development at the beginning of the Iron Age.

Keywords

Authors

References