Net-impressed and hatched pottery

M.G. Gusakov and S.V. Kuzminykh raise the question on the role the bearers of net-impressed and hatched pottery played in the history of the Volga-Oka interfluve in Hallstat, and formation of D'yakovo and Gorodets cultures. The authors dwell upon the history of investigation of the net-impressed pottery, in particular, they discuss A.A. Bobrinsky's experimental work on the simulation of net-impressed pottery. These experiments can help to explain the similarities and differences in the origin of the surface treatment known as stamped pottery. It is supposed that the early stage of D'yakovo culture (the 8th - 6th cc. BC) was not in fact related to this culture, but represented an independent phenomenon. It should be interpreted as the final stage of the Bronze Age of Eastern Europe, substantially postponed in the forest zone. At the same time the coeval forest-steppe communities had already passed the changeover to the Iron Age. The same reasons are responsible for slow development of the Upper Volga sites in the context of D'yakovo culture. It is stressed that at the discussed sites net-impressed pottery ceased as late as the mid 1st mill. AD.