Phenomenon of Maidanskaya culture of Middle Volga version of Volosovo cultural and historical community. Part 1

The article contains the results of many years of research on the debating problems of the “Volosovо culture” raised by scientists since the 1950s. On the extensive materials of the Mari archaeological expedition, we propose the hypothesis of the cultural genesis of an unique kind of society in the territory of the Middle Volga region at the turn of the Stone Age and the beginning of the early metal age; it was the culture of porous ceramics. By the name of the cluster of the investigated sites (Maidanskoe) the culture is called Maidanskaya; it represents one of the variants of the Volovskaya cultural and historical community.