Special type of ceramic as a reflection of cultural links in the beginning of the middle Bronze age in the Volga-Ural region

The article is devoted to the rare vessel types of the early stage of the Middle Bronze Age - turnip-shaped big vessels with widened body and profiled neck found in the steppe of the Trans-Volga, North Caspian and steppe Ural regions. The group is presented by several samples. Close analogies of these vessels are known among the sites of the Novotitarovskaya culture of the Western Caucasus and the Catacomb one. After careful examination it was found that this type of ceramic is of the North Caucasian Novotitarovskaya origin. It confirms Caucasian influences on the genesis of cultures of the Volga-Ural region in the Early-Middle Bronze. The article is prepared with the support of the Russian Humanities Fund, Project №09-01-00306 a/У.