«SLINGSHOT-SHAPED» PENDANTS-AMULETS OF THE EARLY BRONZE AGE: DISTRIBUTION AND DATING
Authors: Rassamakin Yu. , Tuboltsev O. 
Published: January 2025

The Early and Middle Bronze Age kurgans in the Northern Pontic region, accompanied by the bone slingshot-shaped pendants-amulets are published and analyzed in the paper. In the Dnipro-Molochna region five burials of the Yamna culture and one find at the Generalka 2 settlement of the Yamna culture on the Khortytsia island with such items are known. The seventh find in the burial of the Ingul Catacomb culture was discovered. Three more burials of the Yamna culture with these pendants-amulets are known in the Crimean steppe.
The stratigraphic position of burials in the kurgans, burial rites, as well as the finds, found with pendants-amulets, in particular the pottery and bronze artifacts are analyzed in the paper.
The bone slingshot-shaped pendants-amulets are also known in the burials of the Yamna culture in other territories: on the Lower Don (6 burials), Kuban and Stavropol (5 burials), and the Volga-Ural region (4 burials). The authors used materials from these regions for cultural and chronological comparative analysis with the finds from the Dnipro-Molochna region and Crimean steppe.
The design features of pendants-amulets provided the reasons for distinguishing two groups but they do not show any regional or chronological differences.
The peculiarity of the burials of the Dnipro-Molochna region and Crimean steppe is the lack of Repin type pottery in the burials with pendants-amulets. Such ceramics characterizes the Repin culture or the early stage of Yamna culture. The only exception may be represented by the burial from Novopylypivka, but available information concerning it is limited. Other available materials show that burials may refer to the so-called Late period of the Yamna culture. This is indicated by the finds of bronze ornaments, which are characteristic of the time of the appearance of burials of the Early Catacomb type. In particular, these are bronze round hemispherical plaques and clips with punch decoration. This does not contradict the find of a fragment of the pendant-amulet at the Generalka-2 settlement of the Yamna culture. The latest is a burial of the Ingul catacomb culture (Arkhangelska Sloboda 4/9).
In other territories the Repin type pottery in the burials with pendants-amulets has occurred. This makes it possible to consider them earlier than the burials of the Dnipro-Molochna region and Crimean steppe. However, the assemblages that can be attributed to the Late Yamna period are also represented there. On the territory of Ukraine, burials with the Repin type pottery as well as the settlements are known on the Left Bank of Dnipro, in the Azov steppe and in the Basin of the Siverskyi Donets, but the pendants-amulets in this context are unknown.
Spatial distribution of burials with pendants-amulet shows that the main direction of the spread of these cult ornaments during the period of Yamna culture passed along the line of Kuban — Crimean steppe — Dnipro-Molochna interfluve. The Volga-Ural region was not a priority. This is also confirmed by the comparative analysis of the distribution of bone hammer-shaped pendants-amulets (so-called pins) in the Northern Black Sea region and in the Volga-Ural region during the development of Yamna culture and the appearance of burials of the Early Catacomb type.
Radiocarbon dates are presented for a single burial (Vynogradne, 24/7) on Molochna river, as well as a series of dates for the settlement of «Generalka 2». Dating of the burial (BLN-4687: 4327 ± 49 BP) must be explained in the context of stratigraphy and the obtained dates for other burials of the Yamna culture and burials of the Early Catacomb type of the mound 24. Burial 7 belonged to the third phase of six, allocated for burials of the Yamna culture and burials of the Early Catacomb type. When calibrating the dates of these burials using Bayesian modeling, burial 7 was dated to c. 2850—2780 BC. The whole range of Yamna culture and Early Catacomb type burials covered for approximately 550 years.