Diverse material cultures and simple categorisations: comment on the article ‘Comb Ware cultures in the eastern Baltic’ by Khrustaleva and Kriiska (2025)
Diverse material cultures and simple categorisations: comment on the article ‘Comb Ware cultures in the eastern Baltic’ by Khrustaleva and Kriiska (2025)

Summary/Abstract: Typical Comb Ware (TCW; see Europaeus­Äyräpää 1930) represents a distinct phase in the prehistory of northeastern Europe (the Baltic States, Finland, and northwest Russia) during the early 4th millennium BCE. A few centuries later, changes often characterised as fragmentation and revival of local traditions occur, reflected in the emergence of variously named and defined entities within traditional periodisations. Khrustaleva and Kriiska (2025) address this issue from the perspective of the eastern Baltic area. While they acknowledge the possibility of regional variation and local traditions, they amalgamate TCW and subsequent phenomena into a block called Comb Ware cultures (CWCs). The main reasons for abandoning the earlier classifications are the challenges encountered with traditional pottery typologies, and the ethnic attributes previously attached to archaeological cultures.

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