New data about the stability of skills for creating clay vessel shapes

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Abstract

The article analyzes the relative stability of skills for creating the shapes of clay vessels, both wheel-made and hand-made ones. Sources of the study included a series of “identical” vessels that were made as part of experiments conducted by employees of the Joint Team for Pottery Study in the 1970s and the Samara Expedition for the experimental study of ancient pottery in 2019–2022. Shape parameters have been identified that exhibit the greatest stability, regardless of the method of making the vessel, the type of building elements and the skill level of a craftsman. These parameters are the inclination angles of the lateral line of the shoulder-brachium frame and the body. The results of the study lead to the conclusion that these parameters can be considered as the most reliable for making conclusions based on the pottery shapes about the degree of cultural and ethnocultural homogeneity of the population groups that left archaeological sites.

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About the authors

Evgeny V. Sukhanov

Institute of Archaeology RAS

Author for correspondence.
Email: sukhanov_ev@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow

References

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2. Fig. 1. Research methodology: 1 – the functional parts subject to analysis (а – cheek-neck, б – shoulder-brachium, в – body, г – frame of vessel shape); 2 – the parameters of vessel shapes under study: A – general proportion of vessel shape, Б – proportion of functional parts, В – inclination angle of functional parts frame

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3. Fig. 2. Results of studying the stability of vessel shape parameters: A – group 1, wheel-made vessels; Б – group 2, hand-made vessels. Symbols: а – range of characteristic values, б – range of characteristic values for the most stable parameters, в – median value.

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4. Fig. 3. The Albanian-Sarmatian and early medieval sites on the territory of Dagestan: 1 – Bezhta; 2 – Botlikh; 3 – Agachkala; 4 – Arkas; 5 – Verkhny Chiryurt; 6 – Lvovskie; 7 – Urtseki; 8 – Palasa-syrt; 9 – Sirtich; 10 – Sharakunsky. А – first group; Б – second group

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5. Fig. 4. The similarity degree for jug shapes from the sites of the first and second groups (parameter numbers correspond to those in Fig. 2)

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6. Fig. 5. Results of comparing jugs shapes of the first and second groups using the principal component method: 1 – analysis based on unstable parameters; 2 – analysis based on the body inclination angle, the inclination angle of shoulder-brachium, and the general proportion of the vessel shape. а – vessels from sites of the first group; б – vessels from sites of the second group

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7. Fig. 6. Parameters of the shapes of jugs from the Dmitrievka burial ground: 1 – inclination angle of shoulder-brachium; 2 – inclination angle of the body

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8. Fig. 7. Analysis of the body inclination angle and the inclination angle of shoulder-brachium of the jugs from the Dmitrievka burial ground: 1 – the ratio of dominant and recessive traditions; 2 – comparison of the dominant traditions of the Dmitrievka burial ground and jugs of Caspian Dagestan; 3 – comparison of the recessive traditions of the Dmitrievka burial ground and jugs of the Kislovodsk Depression. Symbols: а – dominant traditions of the Dmitrievka burial ground; б – recessive traditions of the Dmitrievka burial ground; в – jugs of Caspian Dagestan; г – jugs of the Kislovodsk Depression

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9. Fig. 8. Catacomb burial grounds of the 1st millennium AD on the territory of the North Caucasus (after D.S. Korobov, 1999. Fig. 1): 1 – areas dominated by the position of the deceased laid with their head to the left of the chamber entrance; 2 – areas dominated by catacombs with low burial chambers; 3 – probable area of origin of the dominant traditions of jug shapes from the Dmitrievka burial ground; 4 – probable area of origin of the recessive traditions of jug shapes from the Dmitrievka burial ground

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