Elements of the Pan-European horizon of the corded ware culture in the southeastern coast of the gulf of Finland and in the Luga region

The Corded Ware culture in the eastern part of the Baltic region was described as an independent culture in the mid XX century. In recent decades 27 new sites have been discovered in the southwestern part of the Leningrad Region (southeastern coast of the Gulf of Finland and the Luga region), with similar materials identified (Fig. 1). The paper reviews the so called ‘pan-European’ types of vessels in the context of corded ware found in the southwestern part of the Leningrad Region; on the whole, such vessels serve as markers of a range of corded ware cultures. The paper analyzes in detail three types of vessels, namely, those with fingertip wavylike decoration; vessels with a horizontal relief band (Fig. 2); and cups with herringbone decoration (Fig. 3: 1-6) identified at eight sites in the studied region. The analysis also used data on stone shafthole axes (Fig. 3: 7). The materials were considered in the context of local Estonian ceramics tempered with organic fibers. The analysis proved that in the III millennium BC pan-European forms of ceramics coexisted with local vessels of corded ware in the discussed region (a more accurate chronological timeline is yet to be established). Presence of Corded Ware sites in regions where organic-tempered ceramics is absent or is present in small quantities suggests that the sites were visited once or visited repeatedly for a short time. The obtained results make it possible to include the southwestern part of the Leningrad Region into the broad European circle of related Corded Ware cultures.