Early Neolithic ceramics from the Shuangta site (Jilin province, China) and its relations with materials from adjacent territories

This study is aimed at pre-analysis of the materials of the ceramic complex of the Shuangta site first and second stages. Two cultural layers have been distinguished at the site. Early stage pottery is sparingly decorated, the edge of the rim may be covered with oblique notches or there can be variations of molded rolls, which are the most typical feature of the Shuangta ceramic complex. This allows making some comparisons with the materials from the adjacent regions. In Jilin and Heilongjiang Provinces, parallels to this discovery are episodic; these are basically very few finds of ceramic fragments with the molded rolls under the rim. Unlike the early stage, pottery of the second stage has some clear parallels in the Hongshan culture. The finds from the lower layer of the Shuangta site stand out from the Neolithic scheme of the region due to rather early dating (wood samples showed dates 9150-8760 BC, and the analysis of the soot on ceramics-9252-6745 BC), but also because of the paucity of parallels to some ornamental patterns. Therefore, the search for parallels also included Russian Primorye and the Amur region. The Shuangta first-stage pottery with the notched molded rolls tightly arranged under the rim can also be found on the Gromatukha vessels. In the materials of the Novopetrovka culture of the Middle Amur, pottery with a dissected roll under the rim is also known, and for the Late Neolithic Osinoozerka culture, the ceramics with the molded rolls under the rim, which form both combinations of straight lines and wavy patterns, is quite typical. Moreover, three fragments ofpottery with anthropomorphic masks resembling petroglyphs from the cult center near the villages of Sikachi-Alyan andMalyshevo were found in the Shuangta site first-stage materials. Thus, at the early stage, parallels to a certain extent can be traced both on the Neolithic pottery of the Nenjiang River basin sites and also in the materials of Russian Primorye and the Amur region.