The territory of modern Ukraine represents the western edge of ceramic using hunter-gatherers in Eastern Europe. The area to the West of the Dnieper River was influenced by the neighboring early agricultural communities of Southern and Central Europe. Their impact is more clearly recorded in Bug-Dniester culture, broadly dated from the end of the 7th millennium BC till the middle of the 5th millennium BC, although the chronology remains problematic. Here we present the first investigation of the use of pottery by this cultural complex using lipid biomarkers and compound-specific carbon isotope analysis from organic residues associated with pottery in comparison with the results from more eastern and northern territories.

A large variety of commodities were identified in the vessels with a frequent occurrence of ruminant products and some plants and aquatic input. Controversially, considering no domesticated animals were present in the faunal assemblage, putative dairy fats were identified in some vessels. Located on the border between the hunter-gatherer and farmer worlds, we will discuss the implications for these data in regards to broad spectrum economy and possible interaction with agricultural communities.