Zilivinskaya E.D.

Key words: Lower Volga, middle Ages, Samosdelka habitation site, cultic ceramic vessel, ceramic rhyton, Khwarezmian import.
The Samosdelka habitation site in the Astrakhan oblast is the only large settlement from the Khazar and Pre-Mongolian time in the Lower Volga discovered so far. It had always been a major center of pottery manufacture. The site yielded an unusual spheroconical vessel with a wide throat, a spout, a handle and appliqué zoomorphic decorations on the body. The vessel is indubitably a ceramic rhyton which has analogies in Central Asia and Iran.