Ceramic Dishes Were from the Don Settlements of Gorodets Culture

Abstract

The author characterizes the ceramic complex of the Gorodets culture settlements, widespread in the second half of the 1st millennium BC in the forest-steppe part of the Don basin. It consists of molded earthenware for kitchen purposes; there are practically no tableware. The pottery had both a smoothed and relief-shaped outer surface (“matting”, “mesh”, “grooved”). The main mineral impurity added to the molding mass during their manufacture was grus (crushed mineral rocks). Sand and chamotte (crushed ceramics) were often used. The dominant type of dishes were pots, the appearance of which is given by 24 reconstructed specimens. Three main and several single varieties of shape of these vessels have been identified. Less numerous are jars and cups, of which three were found in their “whole” form. A significant part of the vessels were undecorated, but most ones were decorated with finger tucks, notches, punctures. The spread of well-profiled pots in the Gorodets environment, which replaced jar forms, is explained by economic interaction with the Scythian culture, whose area covered the southern part of the region.