Ліпний посуд Книшівського городища

Abstract

Knyshivka hill-fort is one of the most extensively excavated archaeological sites of the Scythian period in Ukrainian forest-steppe zone. As a result of the research at 5660 m2, a representative collection of hand-made ceramics is obtained, among which pottery is the most mass category. An analysis of hand-made ceramics from Knyshivka hill-fort is presented in this paper. It includes the description of morphology and ornamentation, the typology, the statistical data and their comparison with the materials from the excavations at synchronous sites on the neighbouring territories within the forest-steppe of the Dnipro and Donets Rivers basins. The hill-fort’s habitants used quite a wide set of vessels during the Scythian period: pots, jars, pouring vessels, bowls, dippers, mugs, cups, large pots, jugs, and small-size vessels. By its variation and morphology, this ceramic complex is fully identical to the ceramic types from the systematically excavated archaeological sites in the forest-steppe of the Dnipro and Donets region of the period from the second half of the 6th century to the 4th century BC. Based on this fact, it is possible to speak of single ceramic traditions of the population of Scythian period settling the basins of the Vorskla, Psel, Sula, and Siverskyi Donets Rivers whose appearance on this territory is related to several migration waves from the forest-steppe of the Dnipro River right bank region.