Fast Wheel Gravel-tempered Coarse Ware Found in 7th–10th-Century Cemeteries from Western Romania

Abstract

Sometime in the 7th century, pottery made with a potter’s wheel reaching a medium rotation speed appeared in the Carpathian Basin. This particular pottery, generically referred to as “Danubian-type pottery”, evolved in different ways from one region to another until it was generalized in the 8th century as a specific type that characterizes large areas in central and south-eastern Europe. Owing to the technical innovations that led to the improvement of the potter’s wheel, pottery also began to be produced on the fast-rotating wheel. However, 7th–10th-century fast wheel pottery from Transylvania should not be regarded as an ethnic attribute. Early Medieval wheel-thrown pottery is recorded not only in settlements but also in inhumation and bi-ritual cemeteries from Transylvania, north-western Romania and Crișana (centralwestern Romania), constantly appearing from the Middle Avar period (AD 650/670) until the end of the 10th century (Tab. 1–2). The list of finds thus demonstrates that all population groups archaeologically attested in Transylvania by material evidence and, especially, spiritual activities knew fast wheel pottery. These are mainly Avar and Slavic populations, represented in the group of Avar cemeteries at the Mureș river bend in central Transylvania and the Mediaș Group, which can be attributed to the Slavic and Slavo-Avar populations of the Transylvanian Plateau.