Усть-бельская керамика с эпонимного местонахождения из фондов Иркутского областного краеведческого музея им. Н. Н. Муравьева-Амурского

Abstract

This article presents Ust-Belaya ceramics of the Ust-Belaya site from the funds of the Muravyov-Amursky Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local History. The multilayered site Ust-Belaya is located 110 km northwest of Irkutsk at the Belaya River mouth (left tributary of the Angara). The considered Ust-Belaya ceramics belongs to the finds from the excavations of 1958–1964. The collection includes 1331 fragments from at least 60 pots. The vessels have a simple closed, rarely open shape and a rounded bottom. The ornament could be located both the upper part of the vessel and cover it entirely. Vessels ornamented with horizontal straight lines predominate. In three cases they are complemented by zigzag lines. The rim on the outer side or on both sides is decorated with oblique impressions of a comb stamp, rarely smooth or other varieties of serrated tools. Almost all vessels in the rim area have a line of rounded pits. The main part of the ornamental composition is represented by lines of a receding scapula or rows of impressions of comb, larval and other types of toothed stamp (rarely smooth), which are set close, separately or using the technique of retreat. Signs of making, recorded on ceramics during the study, allow us to identify several features in the production of Ust-Belaya type ceramics. The vessels were formed by the method of zonal patchwork modeling, partially or almost completely on a base form, which could be another vessel. In the production of vessels, they were knocked out with a smooth mallet, achieving dense and thin walls. Upon completion of the modeling, a rim was formed using an additional structural element such as a conditional tape or funiculus. Then the vessel was ornamented, and the walls were smoothed or rubbed from the inside. Since the finds of 1958–1964 deposited in a mixed compression layer, which complicates dating. In 2017–2018 at the Ust-Belaya site, located on the middle floodplain, Ust-Belaya pottery was recorded in a clear stratigraphic position. Based on bones from the layer, dates were obtained with a range of 6730–6306 cal BP. Also, according to one Ust-Belaya vessel from other excavations of Ust-Belaya in 1957, a date was obtained from carbonized organic residues (foodcrusts) from the inner surface with a value of 6977–6800 cal BP. By analogy with these assemblages, the age of the collection of Ust- Belaya ceramics presented by us is tentatively determined in the range of 6977–6306 cal BP.