Final of the stone age in the Don forest-steppe region: relics of Neolithic or Neo-Eneolithic

The authors discuss approaches to the periodization of the Neolithic and Eneolithic of the Don forest-steppe region, provide data on the joint occurrence of materials from Neolithic and Eneolithic cultures, give their own position on the use of the term “relics of Neolithic” and the identification of the Neo-Eneolithic period in the region. Until now, the main approaches to the periodization of the Neolithic era were based on the scheme by A.T. Sinyuk, developed back in the early 1970s. According to the authors, the time of coexistence of the cultures traditionally attributed to different archaeological eras (Neolithic and Eneolithic), which implies their economic differences, on the same territory, should be considered as neo-Eneolithic period. A similar view on archaeological periodization has been successfully applied by researchers for the study of the neighboring regions (Dnieper and Volga regions). With this approach, the term “relics of Neolithic” becomes irrelevant. According to the latest cultural-chronological researches, the complexes of the Lower Don culture appeared in the forest-steppe Don region already at the end of the VI millennium BC, and the sites of Srednii Stog culture appeared in the second quarter of the 5th millennium BC, while the local Neolithic cultures still were developing, which allows us to distinguish the neo-Eneolithic stage. We do not observe sharp and consistent changes of the multicultural population in the forest-steppe region, including the neighboring Dnieper and Volga regions.