The article considers the results of multidisciplinary analysis of the Nabil archaeological culture pottery identified in 2005 by results of the archaeological researches in North Sakhalin. The Nabil archaeological culture includes the ceramics complex consisted of pointed shape pottery decorated by comb stamps. The sources of the study are the archaeological studies of the settlements (the collections and reports) organized by the research team of Sakhalin Archaeological and Ethnography Laboratory of IAET SB RAS and SakhGU in 2004–2015 and additional archaeological material from other collections. According to absolute dating of the Nabil archaeological complexes, the material was clustered into three chronological periods: early – 3065–2781 cal BP, middle – 2754–2342 cal BP, late – 2334–2009 cal BP. The study used technical methods like X-ray Diffraction analysis, Petrographic analysis of pottery, Optical Binocular Microscopy, method of sherds’ laboratory re-firing, statistic-and-classification method. Most part of the pottery was identified as the remains of the everyday utensils, the lowest rate of the others were used like celebratory vessels. Recipes of the moulding compounds are almost homogeneous. Their raw material includes meagre clay with a lot of dust-like natural sand. As a thinning agent for the moulding composition added sand temper in pottery paste and sometimes chamotte. The vessels were made by the wall only “seedbody”. The walls of the vessels formed by the linear-ring building method. The pottery was roasted with bonfire firing, the later period with oven devices for pottery firing. The vessel's shapes are asymmetry. The contour of the vessel shape of the Nabil’s type is oval-shaped with either concave or straight or ill-defined neck. The upper part of the vessel surface was decorated. The basic type of ornamentation is the comb stamps. The elements of the pottery ornamentation are both continuous and discrete horizontal lines, curved ornament, short, long, diagonal, and vertical lines as well as individual impressions. The pattern of the pottery decoration consists of either horizontal continuous lines or discrete ones with either series diagonal or vertical short stamping. It is widespread. Stylistically the composition of the pottery decoration evokes associations with the row of the beads and pendants. In conjunction with nipple-shaped thickened of the vessel to the bottom it creates a stylistic image of the female breast. There was the infiltration of foreign cultural elements in the Nabil archaeological culture in the late period.

Pashentsev Pavel Anatolievich, Researcher, Small innovative enterprise of Sakhalin State University; OOO “Iziskatel SakhGU”; of. 6, 72, Pogranichnaia st., Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 693008, Russian Federation, e-mail: pashentsev@inbox.ru

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