Natural and Climatic Crises as a Factor of Cultural and Economic Changes in the Neolithic–eneolithic of the Lower Volga Region

The Lower Volga region is important for studying natural and climatic crises as a factor of cultural and economic changes since the local Neolithic and Eneolithic societies are marked by the early appearance of ceramics, cattle breeding and copper items. However, the impact of natural and climatic crises on these processes has not been considered earlier for a number of reasons. First, most of the sites had not detailed information obtained by the analytic research on past environmental and climatic situation. Second, numerous and contradictory radiocarbon dates prevented from determination of the chronological frameworks of these processes. During the period of 2007–2020 the situation has begun to change with the appearance of new archaeological information including homogenous and stratified archaeological sites. The multidisciplinary research made it possible to obtain new data on the chronological framework of the Neolithic–Eneolithic cultures of the Lower Volga region in context of paleoclimatic reconstructions. The results of archaeozoological studies and technical-technological analysis of ceramics had a significant meaning too. Determination of the species composition helped to establish differences in zoological collections of the Neolithic of the Northern Caspian and the steppe Volga region. It was demonstrated that the emergence of a food producing economy in this territory is associated not with the Khvalynsk, but with the earlier Caspian culture. The entire set of data made it possible to bring the development of the question of environmental factors in cultural and economic changes in the Neolithic–Eneolithic of the Lower Volga region to a new level

Ancient history · Archaeology · Beaker · Bronze Age · Chalcolithic · Geography · Radiocarbon dating · Steppe · Volga region · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Marine and environmental studies

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