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

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.