Gak E.I., Skorobogatov A.M. Sites with “Yamnaya-Repin Type” Ceramics. Paradoxes of Historiography, Study Problems, and New Data
Evgenii I. Gak, Candidate of Sciences (History), Senior Researcher, State Historical Museum, Red Square, 1, 109012 Moscow, Russian Federation; Researcher, Laboratory of Archaeological Soil Science, Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institutskaya St, 2a, 142290 Pushchino, Russian Federation
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Andrey M. Skorobogatov, Candidate of Sciences (History), Researcher, Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dvortsovaya Emb., 18A, 191181 Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
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Abstract. The article is devoted to Bronze Age sites, which share a unique syncretic-looking pottery, combining the egg-shaped form characteristic of the Yamnaya culture and the ornamental pit-pearl belt of the Repin culture. As a result of the historiographical analysis of the issues of origin, chronology and attribution of these sites, significant discrepancies were found both in the use of the notion of the “Yamnaya-Repin type” and in the understanding of what it represents. Some researchers estimate the appearance of this ceramics type as a result of mutual influence of the Repin and Yamnaya cultures at the stage of their formation, while others imply it is a product of synthesis of late Repin and late Yamnaya ceramic traditions in the pre-Catacomb and early Catacomb periods. In the study of the sites of the “Yamnaya-Repin type”, two interrelated problems have been identified: 1) the state of the source base formed by household remains from mixed layers, with the resulting difficulties of absolute dating, and 2) the search for criteria for identifying a separate cultural phenomenon. The results of recent excavations of the stratified settlement of Ksizovo-1 (Upper Don region) are published as new data for its assessment, where the Yamnaya-Repin site is locally and lithologically isolated from the late Catacomb site. The examination of the Yamnaya-Repin materials from Ksizovo-1 as well as their morphological and technological analysis in the context of a wide range of analogies, leads to the conclusion that the main distribution of this ceramic style in the Don-Donets region predates the formation of the local catacomb cultures. The chronology of the later part of these settlements, according to radiocarbon data, is 2700–2500 BC and shows the process of interaction between the aboriginal (Yamnaya-Repin) and the newcomer (Catacomb) population. Their common origin indicates that the settlements with ceramics of the “Yamnaya-Repin type” were seasonal pastoral temporary camps.
Key words: Bronze Age, Repin culture, Yamnaya culture, catacomb influence, Don region, ceramics, radiocarbon analysis.
Citation. Gak E.I., Skorobogatov A.M., 2026. Pamyatniki s keramikoy «yamno-repinskogo tipa». Paradoksy istoriografii, problemy izucheniya i novye dannye [Sites with “Yamnaya-Repin Type” Ceramics. Paradoxes of Historiography, Study Problems, and New Data]. Nizhnevolzhskiy Arkheologicheskiy Vestnik [The Lower Volga Archaeological Bulletin], vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 37-59. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/nav.jvolsu.2026.1.2
Sites with “Yamnaya-Repin Type” Ceramics. Paradoxes of Historiography, Study Problems, and New Data by Gak E.I., Skorobogatov A.M. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
