© 2018 Nikolay V. Lopatin

Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia

E-mail: n.lopatin@gmail.com

Keywords: the upper Dnieper region, forest zone, 1st millennium AD, cultural groups, Tushemlya, Bantserovs­hchina, hand-made pottery.

The article compares the pottery assemblages from the two standard sites whose names were used to identify archaeological cultures of the third quarter of the 1st millennium AD in the forest zone of the Dnieper region, the fortified sites of Bantserovshchina and Tushemlya (the upper horizons of the cultural layer). Most research­ers either consider cultures of Bantserovshchina and Tushemlya type related or unite them. Comparison of the pottery assemblages shows that their distinctive features are clearly visible against the background of most general similarity. Frequent types 4 and 8 (with a wide upper edge), although present on both monuments, are repre­sented mainly by different variants. Shapes with a narrower (relative to the trunk) edge are characteristic only of Bantserovshchina (types 1b, 3b, 7). Egg-shaped vessels of type 6 with smoothed surface is a feature of the Tush­emlya assemblage. Ribbed vessels are few in both sites. Bowls and a few small vessels represent individual shapes.

DOI: 10.31857/S086960630003388-5