Towards ritualisation: Insights into bone-tempered pottery from the TRB settlement in Kałdus (Poland, 3500–3350 BC)

Abstract

This work reports the results of an interdisciplinary study seeking to address the issue of bone tempering in the Funnel Beaker (TRB) culture from the territory that is today Poland. In this paper we contribute to this debate by closely examining the geochemical characteristics (using INAA, ICP-MS, SEM-EDS, γ-ray spectrometry and OM) of six ceramic vessels collected from the archaeological site in Kałdus, northern Poland. Particular emphasis is placed on the need to clarify whether the bones in the pottery from Kałdus were deliberately added or incidentally incorporated in a clay paste. Through exploring the chemical, mineralogical and petrographic composition of ceramics, we also investigate whether different pastes were used contemporarily by potters from Kałdus for different types of wares during the mid-4th millennium BC.The results has allowed us to hypothesise a local provenance of the bone-tempered vase from Kałdus. Furthermore, the TRB potters’ choices to add crushed and burned bones to a clay paste seemed to lack a technological basis. Rather, it appears that a temper made of bones had strong symbolic associations and was most likely ritualised in the working memory of the TRB potters from Kałdus, or even the entire TRB East Group milieu.