Morphological analysis of vessels with the neck of the paleometal age from the Amur region and Southern Manchuria

The study on the origins of the Uril culture in the Amur region and analysis of pottery used by the population from that region have shown that this population was closely related to the cultures of the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age of Manchuria and the regions of Inner Mongolia in China. A vessel with the neck from the Jinzhou Museum of History, found at the Xiangyangling settlement of the Lower Xiajiadian culture in the Liaoning Province can be considered as important evidence of this connection. Such vessels with necks are the main categories of pottery among the population of the Uril culture. The archaeologists who investigated the pottery of this culture divided it into several types and subtypes according to their well-profiled or slightly profiled neckline. The indicators/indexes of the relative characteristics of vessel shapes were established using the statistical methodology elaborated by V.F. Gening, which made it possible to make an objective comparison between this pottery and other vessels. The vessel from Xiangyangling was additionally examined and its parameters and indices of shape have been verified. Comparative analysis of morphology of the Xiangyangling pot and open vessels with necks of the Uril culture from the Amur region has revealed that the morphological structure of the Xiangyangling pot could have served the prototype for the potters of the Uril culture. This pottery tradition could reach the Amur region with migrants from the proto-Uril multicultural conglomerate in the 11th century BC and were further developed in this region already in the Uril pottery. Ancient Xiajiadian population with their pottery tradition could also participate in these migration processes, which is confirmed by large vessels of the closed neck type and some types of ornamentation, showing parallels with the Uril culture of the Amur region.