Группа "История керамики" / "History of ceramics" research group

The article discusses the efficacy of modern science-based methods within the framework of various research approaches and the opportunities they provide in the study of ancient ceramics as a source of historical evidence. It is the authors’ opinion that a combined historical and cultural approach is the most promising that has been proposed to date. Such methods can only be successfully applied given close, creative collaboration between experts in the fields of both ancient ceramics and the natural sciences.
Keywords: Ancient pottery making, ceramics, science-based methods, approaches and methods for studying ceramics, experiment, ethnography of pottery.

The main goal of this investigation is to elaborate scientific methods for the reconstruction of ancient cultural traditions of preparing pottery pastes with natural clay and various organic additions. As it is well known from ethnographic and archaeological data, one of the most widely distributed organic materials in pottery paste is the dung of herbivorous animals. The investigation is based on large experimental materials including about thousand and a half patterns of clay with cow-dung, sheep-dung, and horse-dung in different proportions (from 3 parts of dung to 1 part of clay, to 1 part of clay to 5 parts of dung). The method of reconstruction of pottery paste composition consists of two steps: 1) the microscopic study of clay plasticity and of the state (dry or wet) of clay and organic materials, and 2) the special study of the kind and proportion of organic temper. The method was applied preliminarily on the ceramics from the Near East (Sotto-culture, 6 millennium BC), from Moldavia (Linear Pottery culture, 5 millennium BC), and from North Caucasus Maikop-culture, 4 millennium BC). Now there are still some scientific problems which make dificult the extensive use of this method and which require further insvestigations.

The paper is dedicated to the investigation of various natural silts as the most ancient type of raw material used in pottery production. The authors describe the specific features of the composition of plain and mountain silts, and discover the same features in ancient ceramics from different regions in Russia. It can be concluded that silts were the earliest raw material used, a tradition that faded away during the evolution of pottery production.

A pottery kiln of the first half of the 3 rd millennium BC was discovered at Tell Hazna I in northeastern Syria. The kiln represents a fire-construction with updraft motion of hot gases and consists of a deep fuel-firing unit, a permanent horizontal heat-conducting-and-separating unit, and a pottery-firing unit. According to Alexander A. Bobrinsky this kiln belongs to a rather early period of the pottery kiln evolution. The study of morphological and technological peculiarities of the pottery from the kiln was undertaken. Some vessels were completely handmade, while the others were also handmade but with limited (or secondary) use of a primitive potter's wheel or an acentric working support for smoothing the upper parts of the vessels. It is clear that the professional skills of local potters in making vessels by hand were well established, but the skills in using a potter's wheel were just at the first stage of mastering.

The Bronze Age ceramics from the forest zone of Eastern Europe include a category that is often described as " Fatyanovo-like ". These reveal a blend of predominantly Fatyanovo and other features. A morphological and technological analysis of 129 vessels from Nikolo-Perevoz I (a settlement with a collective burial) and II has revealed four groups––one Fatyanovo proper and three evidencing a mixture of Fatyanovo with local traditions of various origins. The Fatyanovo-Volosovo group appears to have been a result of local mixture, whereas that from the burial is close to the Fatyanovo-Osh-Pando tradition, which had been introduced from without. These fi ndings are relevant to the relationships between the Fatyanovo, Volosovo, and Osh-Pando people. They also demonstrate that the umbrella term " Fatyanovo-like " is meaningless.

The nature and the matter of pottery decoration are regarded in the paper as a part of human figurative and object activity. First, the auther presents a review of recent notions on decorations and the models of its origin, and a comprehensive consideration of the matter of decoration according to to seven thematic groups of information. As a result, the author cames to the conclusion that the first three groups characterise the process of decoration origin, the forth group characterises ornament as such, and three last groups of information deal with various functions of decoration in human society. Finally, a general definition of decoration is suggested, the author makes an attempt to summarize in it different aspects of the discussed historical and cultural phenomenon.

Abstract. this paper is a follow-up of the earlier research carried out by the author to study the degree of relative stability of ornamental pottery traditions. the previous study of five Fatyanovo burial grounds identified that the most stable tradition is a type of the ornamental tool, then comes an «ornamental image», while the most variable attribute is an «ornamental motif». the historiographical database of this study covers all available Fatyanovo and Balanovo pots as well as Late Volosovo vessels from a number of sites in the upper and Middle Volga Regions. this study is used to revise the earlier conclusion made by the author
regarding the degree of relative stability of ornamental traditions; for example, it is now believed that the most stable ornamental tradition was an ornamental image rather than the motif. Besides, the paper describes new important distinctive features of mixed ornamental traditions developed as groups with extremely different cultural ornamental traditions mingled together.
Keywords: ceramics, ornament, cultural tradition, Fatyanovo culture, Balanovo culture, Late Volosovo ceramics.

1. By ‘social structure’ I understand the composition and specific features of the groups of people which constitute a society, and by ‘social stratification’ the presence in it of groups of people who occupy different social positions.
The research of social organization includes identifying clan and family structure, the type of lineage and the locality of settlement. The study of social stratification is aimed at identifying different groups within a society.
2. All the above issues are considered on the basis of pottery traditions of the Bronze- Age Fatianovo culture which was located in the forest zone of Eastern Europe. What kind of the information did the work yield?
Firstly. The study of raw materials, pottery paste, and tools for decoration used for the vessels from each grave permitted to find out how many potters had made the vessels. In Fatianovo cemeteries there are a lot of graves which include clay vessels made by two different potters. This fact reflects offerings of pottery by relatives on the two sides, i.e. the duality of society.
Secondly. Vessels from one and the same potter which occur in different graves at the cemetery show that the graves are synchronous and belong to relatives.
Thirdly. On the basis of the materials from Volosovo-Danilovsky cemetery and the different pottery traditions associated with different sex and age groups the author has identified that the connection between men and children was closer than that between women and children, which makes it possible to assume that Fatianovo society was patrilinear and patrilocal.
Fourthly. There are many graves with 6–10 vessels which were made by 3–4 and more potters. In these cases the vessels were brought by a wider circle of persons than the relatives on the two sides. Such outstanding (atypical) graves usually have nonstandard features in the
funeral custom.
3. Thus, on the basis of research of the Fatianovo pottery production we can speak about the ways of family organization, the kinds of lineages and the site’s locality, and about the social stratification of its society. Comparing the data from pottery and the funeral traditions of the ancient population will, of course, give more extensive information.

Abstract. The paper offers a principally new approach to the solution of an important methodological issue, i.e. development of a unified scale for converting quantifying characteristics of archaeological artifacts to qualitative concepts and ideas. It is based on the assumption that such characteristics are objective and universal for all humans as dimensional parameters of the surrounding world are perceived and assessed by Homo sapiens biological species roughly in the same manner. The issue is addressed by taking the analysis of quantifying and qualitative characteristics of the clay pottery capacity as an example.

The dictionary we are bringing to readers’ notice contains more than 350 scientific concepts and definitions developed within the framework of the Historical-and-Cultural approach to systemic study of ancient pottery and its products as a peculiar source of historical information. This approach considers pottery as the result of specific labor skills performance. These skills have been used by potters for pottery-making and ingrained in cultural traditions that passed from generation to generation within certain human collectives. Entries of the dictionary cover all aspects of ancient pottery study, methods of its analysis and historical interpretation.
The dictionary is intended for archeologists who study ancient pottery as well as for students of university departments of history and teachers’ training colleges who will nearly inevitably confront the task if they take interest in archeology.

The present monograph is the first comprehensive publication of the author's methods for systematic periodization of Neolithic cultures from the Center of the Russian Plain in 6th–2nd millenniums BC on the basis of
ottery decoration and the stratigraphy of multi-layer settlements. Practical application of the new methods allowed the author to seriously reconsider the ethno$cultural history of the ancient population of this extensive East European region.
The original methods are of interest for the purposes of Neolithic studies in both the region in question and other regions where scholars encounter similar scientific tasks. The herein published results of investigating the history of ancient tribes can be used in lecture courses at history faculties of universities and pedagogical institutes.

V.E. Medvedev, Yu.B. Tsetlin, E.V. Volkova, O.A. Lopatina. On Proto-Pottery Production in the Russian Far East (Amur Region).
The paper summarizes the data on ancient pottery traditions comparative study of the Osipovo, Mariinsk, and Malyshevo archaeological cultures owners from the Neolithic Age located at the Low Amur region. Ceramic investigation included pottery technology, shapes, decoration, and use of vessels but with various details. In the result of the study it became clear that the population of each three cultures was heterogeneous. But the population of Mariinsk, and Malyshevo cultures were much more close than these cultures and Osipovo inhabitants. By the general mechanism of pottery production evolution the pottery traditions of Osipovo culture belong to fi rst–third stages, and the tradition of Mariinsk, and Malyshevo cultures are typical to 4–5th stages of the proto-pottery production.
Keywords: Low Amur region, pottery, Neolithic age, Osipovo, Mariinsk, Malyshevo cultures, pottery traditions.

The paper is dedicated to the results of all-round investigation of two small ceramic collections from Novopetrovka-2 and Gromatuha sites. Ceramic study includes vessels size, natural structure of shapes, plastic raw materials, pottery pastes, modes of vessels’ construction, mechanical and thermal treatment of vessels, and pottery decoration. Pottery traditions of Novopetrovka-2 and Gromatuha population were close by the using of mountain silt as a plastic raw material, convex-form molds, beating of vessels with paddle, and fi ring regimes. But some differences show more developed level of Novopetrovka-2 pottery traditions included the using of various organic solutions in pottery paste, grouping the clay patches in wide circle band, developed added sculptural decoration with absolute absence of technological decoration. These facts drew to the conclusion that Gromatuha pottery traditions were closer to Osipovka ones. At the same time Novopetrovka potters did not turn yet to the use of natural clays and mineral temper as Mariinskaya culture potters.
Keywords: Low and Middle Amur-river, ceramics, Neolithic Age, Gromatuha and Novopetrovka cultures, pottery
traditions.

A.A. Bobrinsky, Yu.B. Tsetlin, I.A. Gey. Some Evidences of Techniсal Devices and Technology of Kuro-Araxes Potters (On the Materials of Novo-Gaptsakh settlement in Dagestan).

The article presents the results of technical and technological study of Early Bronze Age pottery (Kura-Araxes culture) from the excavations at Novo-Gaptsakh settlement in Dagestan. The authors analyze the cultural traditions in the choice and treatment of clay, making of the clay mass, use of molds and potter’s wheels. Local and imported traditions are identified.

The paper is dedicated to one of the most important and difficult issues connected with the task to select the substratum (more stable) and adoptive (less stable) traditions of ornamentation by the ceramics of Bronze Age Fatianovo culture distributed in the Central part of forest zone of the Eastern Europe. The author made a comparative analysis of such components of ornamental traditions as “kind of tool”, “element”, “image”, and “motif” of ornament.  She gave special attention to the study of various “imitation” and “substitution” of the tools for ornamentation, to the imitation of new images, and to the placing of various images inside the same ornamental zone.
Volkova found out, first, that during the cultural blending kind of tools were changing slower than image of ornament, i.e. it was more stable, second, images of ornament characterized usually local groups of population or a culture as a whole and on the contrary the motifs of ornament reflected the peculiarities of settlements’ inhabitants, i.e. the last were less stable.
The study of ornamental traditions permitted the author to come to the conclusion that during the blending of the owners of various ornamental traditions the “motif” was changed for the first time, then followed “image” of ornament, and the next was changed “kind of tool” which was the most stable among them. But now it is too difficult to determine the speed of various ornamental traditions changing, and that is why it is impossible to separate “substratum” traditions from “adoptive” ones.

Cultural complex of “Fatianoidnaya” pottery found out by the author at the settlements Nikolo-Perevoz I&II is described in the presentation. The author, according to A.A. Spitsin - the first who had proposed this term, determines “Fatianoidnaya” pottery as close to Fatianovo one, but is not the same. The “Fatianoidnaya” pottery appeared in the result of mixing between the Fatianovo pottery traditions and the traditions of some other ancient cultural groups, with the Fatianovo dominant position. The author had reconstructed the Fatianovo pottery traditions on the materials from those settlements and from the collective burial at Nikolo-Perevoz I in shapes, decoration, raw materials, and pottery pastes of vessels under Historical-and-Cultural approach, elaborated by Alexander A. Bobrinsky. On this base H.V. Volkova had divided this complex into four groups of pottery - the really Fatianovo, the Fatianoidnaya 1 is a result of mixing the Fatianovo and the Osh-Pando traditions; the Fatianoidnaya 2 is a result of mixing the Fatianovo and Volosovo traditions; and the Fatianoidnaya 3 is a result of mixing the Fatianovo and some unknown the Bronze Age pottery traditions. All these groups were tested through qualitative and quantitative analyses with the pottery from the collective burial. In the result the author came to the conclusion that the burial belongs to the mixed Fatianovo - Osh-Pando population (i.e. Fatianoidnaya 1 group).

The monograph is dedicated to the detailed research of artifacts which the author found excavating the compact group of the four burial grounds of the Fatianovo culture dating back to the II millennium B.C. in the forest zone of Eastern Europe. Results of the research for the first time are put into scientifi c use as a single whole. The book analyzes in detail the planigraphy of burial grounds, objects of the funeral cult, it also deals with the reconstruction of the funeral rite of the Fatianovo tribes and age and sex of the deceased. Special attention is given to research of pottery traditions. The author reconstructs origin, formation and social structure of the Fatianovo population which left these burial grounds. The book is meant for archaeologists and students of history departments of universities and teacher’s training colleges.

Abstract. The paper is dedicated to the study of the so called textile imprints of the D’yakovo culture. Results of reconstructing the tool used to make imprints and the method of its use regarding one group of textile imprints are presented. These imprints are tiny arc-shaped pits, which look like nail impressions (marks) and cover the entire surface of the vessel. The data of the experiment demonstrate that the textile imprints were largely made by rouletting. Fir-cones with partially removed scales were used as a rouletting tool. The scales could be deliberately removed by humans or could be eaten up by rodents Мuridae and Cricetidae. The partially removed scales are identified by the presence of a distinctive line of the scale edge, impressions of fibers, rodent teeth marks, and impressions of the scale rib. A large number of such imprints suggest that a special cultural tradition existed in the D’yakovo pottery-making.
Keywords: D’yakovo culture, textile ceramics, experiment, rouletting, reconstruction, ornamenters.

Abstract. to study pottery traditions of the Medieval Russia population in Rostov the Great, materials retrieved from two excavation trenches in the city were used. the technological examination of the ceramics was based on A. A. Bobrinsky’s methodology with the use of the historical and cultural approach. traditions of selecting oversanded clay and using the ’clay + broken stone + organic materials’ formula predominated. the tradition of using grog is recorded mainly in a mixed formula: ’clay + broken stone + grog + organic materials’. No chronological characteristics in the spread of these traditions were identified. Gradual changes occurred only in the ’clay + broken stone + organic materials’ formula and consisted in a shift from coarse-grained broken stone to fine-grained broken stone and from larger broken stone quantities to smaller grit quantities and can be traced in the ceramics from the Grigoryevsky excavation trench. Comparison of the materials from these two excavation pits identified some specific features of clay selection and also suggested that the lower layers of the Konyushenny excavation trench had been dislodged. A certain linkage of traditions of making ornamented vessels and using grog as temper was also established.
Keywords: Rostov the Great, hand-modelled ceramics, historical and cultural approach,
pottery-making technology.