New data on the pottery of the Yamnaya culture of the Southern Urals

The article presents the results of the technological analysis of the ceramics of the Yamaya culture from kurgan 1 of Boldyrevskiy IV cemetery in the Orenburg region. The construction of the kurgan is unique. Two early mounds with children’s burials were overlaid by a huge mound made over another burial of adults constructed later. Ceramics were found in children’s burials placed under small mounds, in the ditches and in the mound. The technological analysis of ceramics carried out according to the methodology developed by A. A. Bobrinskiy within the framework of the historical and cultural approach revealed the skills of potters at all stages of the technological process. Comparison of the obtained data with the specific traits of pottery-making technology of the Yamaya culture at different stages of its development made it possible to attribute the studied vessels to the developed stage of the culture. Similarity of the substrate skills at the design stage indicates the cultural proximity of the population that formed earlier, at the formative stage of the Yamaya culture. However, the Yamnaya population was not homogeneous, it consisted of at least two kin groups. This is evidenced by differences in the plastic raw material and specific features of clay composition of the molding masses. It can be deduced from the technological analysis that the smaller mounds were constructed during a short period of time by related groups that belonged to independent kin communities. Archaeological data do not contradict this conclusion.