Pottery Styles Research Articles

The Plastic Bag Store (Excerpt)

The Plastic Bag Store (Excerpt)

New data on the construction and meaning of the Shengavit settlement wall

Shengavit is a site of the Kura-Araxes cultural tradition, which radiocarbon dates and pottery style indicate spans its second phase, the KA2, from 2900 to 2500 BC. It also documents the transition to the Early Kurgan Period. The six-hectare site gives indications that it was a center for this time and place. Unlike the societies of the KA1 of 3500-3000 BC, we recovered evidence of the development of increased societal complexity while retaining an egalitarian symbolism. One of these signs is the construction of a massive stone wall with watchtowers, which we think surrounded the top of a bluff over the Hrazdan River. The effort needed to plan and recruit the labor to construct this wall, along with a profusion of large grain storage pits greater in volume than needed by residents of the site, point to the origin of some coordination mechanisms at the site. Still, some have questioned the Kura-Araxes date for the settlement wall. We discuss these issues and present new findings about the wall in this contribution, made in honor of Ruben Badalyan, who himself has done so much to promote our knowledge of the Kura-Araxes in Armenia.

Baden culture settlement at Grodkowice site 4, Kłaj municipality, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in the context of pottery material

This paper presents results of excavations conducted by Zdzisław Sochacki at Grodkowice site 4 in 1959, 1962-1963. An area of 1.15 h was explored during these three seasons and 50 features of the Baden culture were unearthed. The recovered materials have never been published completely. Some of them, together with the whole field documentation, were lost. However, the storerooms of the Faculty of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw accommodate a collection of pottery vessels from this site, and these vessels were subjected to a number of analyses.
 As a result of multi-proxy approach in the analysis of the pottery, mainly examination focussing on plant macro-remains, it was possible to establish the type of the economy of the Baden culture society at the site. Mineral and petrographic analyses indicated the composition and details of vessel production. Another important aspect of the study is an attempt at establishing the chronology of the settlement in relation to the pottery style. Radiocarbon dating contributed to clarification of this issue.
 The settlement at Grodkowice is definitely very interesting, and importantly, one of the few explored settlements. Although some of the material was lost, it was possible to fill a gap on the map of Baden culture settlement activity in the region of Wieliczka and Bochnia.

Some Balaton-Lasinja Graves from Veszprém-Jutasi Út and an Outline Chronology for the Earlier Copper Age in Western Hungary

A handful of new radiocarbon dates from three Balaton-Lasinja culture graves at the site of Veszprém-Jutasi út in western Hungary form the starting point for formal models for late Lengyel and post-Lengyel chronology in that region. The graves date to the later fifth millennium cal BC. They provide the opportunity to put the earlier Copper Age Balaton-Lasinja culture of Transdanubia into its regional and wider context, and to highlight both gradually improving understanding of its character and remaining problems of chronology and classification. The Balaton-Lasinja culture was part of a whole series of regional shifts in settlement and society connected to the end of the Neolithic and the demise of major settlement aggregations which had dominated lifestyles in previous centuries. This study indicates how much further detailed research continues to be needed to get fully to grips with this set of important changes, which run on into the Copper Age. Contrasts are drawn between western and eastern Hungary, and the uncertainties surrounding the chronology of the fourth millennium cal BC, including for the Furchenstich pottery style, are emphasised.

Diverse dietary practices across the Early Bronze Age 'Kura-Araxes culture' in the South Caucasus.

The Kura-Araxes (KA) cultural phenomenon (dated to the Early Bronze Age, c. 3500/3350-2500 BCE) is primarily characterised by the emergence of a homogeneous pottery style and a uniform 'material culture package' in settlements across the South Caucasus, as well as territories extending to the Ancient Near East and the Levant. It has been argued that KA societies practised pastoralism, despite a lack of direct examination of dietary and culinary practices in this region. Here, we report the first analyses of absorbed lipid residues from KA pottery to both determine the organic products produced and consumed and to reconstruct subsistence practices. Our results provide compelling evidence for a diversified diet across KA settlements in Armenia, comprising a mixed economy of meat and plant processing, aquatic fats and dairying. The preservation of diagnostic plant lipid biomarkers, notably long-chain fatty acids (C20 to C28) and n-alkanes (C23 to C33) has enabled the identification of the earliest processing of plants in pottery of the region. These findings suggest that KA settlements were agropastoral exploiting local resources. Results demonstrate the significance of applying biomolecular methods for examining dietary inferences in the South Caucasus region.

DeepJoin

We introduce DeepJoin, an automated approach to generate high-resolution repairs for fractured shapes using deep neural networks. Existing approaches to perform automated shape repair operate exclusively on symmetric objects, require a complete proxy shape, or predict restoration shapes using low-resolution voxels which are too coarse for physical repair. We generate a high-resolution restoration shape by inferring a corresponding complete shape and a break surface from an input fractured shape. We present a novel implicit shape representation for fractured shape repair that combines the occupancy function, signed distance function, and normal field. We demonstrate repairs using our approach for synthetically fractured objects from ShapeNet, 3D scans from the Google Scanned Objects dataset, objects in the style of ancient Greek pottery from the QP Cultural Heritage dataset, and real fractured objects. We outperform six baseline approaches in terms of chamfer distance and normal consistency. Unlike existing approaches and restorations generated using subtraction, DeepJoin restorations do not exhibit surface artifacts and join closely to the fractured region of the fractured shape. Our code is available at: https://github.com/Terascale-All-sensing-Research-Studio/DeepJoin.

A Comparative Study between Eastern Zhou and Early Ancient Greek Decorative Styles

Among creations at the peak of the arts and crafts realm, Chinese bronze vessels and ancient Greek pottery paintings have been key research subjects of art history. Their respective decorative styles have been studied comprehensively, but research is still lacking on Eastern Zhou pictorial bronze vessels and black-figure pottery, which are important stages in the development of Chinese bronze vessels and ancient Greek pottery paintings. To study the decorative styles of Eastern Zhou pictorial bronze vessels and black-figure pottery, this paper takes the Warring States Feast and War Pictorial Bronze Vessel and the Francois Vase as examples, compares their decorative styles, and explores the causes of their differences. The study finds that the decorative styles of Eastern Zhou pictorial bronze vessels and black-figure pottery are similar in terms of narratives and composition, reflecting features typical in the time and arts of an early-staged civilization. There are also great differences between the two in terms of contents of the decorations and art expression styles, revealing differences in craftsmanship, social environment, and artistic pursuit of the two cultures.

The Santa María pottery of El Bolsón valley (Catamarca, Argentina): Compositional characterization and implications on the elaboration processes, ca. 1000–1600 ce

AbstractThe results obtained from the multi‐analytic compositional characterization of ceramic pastes and paints of the Santa María style, from the El Bolsón valley (Belén Department, Catamarca Province, Argentina), are presented here. This pottery style had a wide regional distribution in Northwestern Argentina between ca. 1000 and1600 ce and is characterized by its complex iconography painted in black, cream and red. The analyses show that the containers correspond to the technical tradition of using grog temper and suggest that its manufacture involved a double firing process. This reveals a new practice for the time.

Intrasite Variability and Changing Social Practices during the Ubaid-Late Chalcolithic Transition at Tell Zeidan, Syria

By the mid-5th millennium BCE, the dark-on-light painted pottery style common to Ubaid societies across Greater Mesopotamia was slowly becoming less prominent relative to unpainted wares made using new, faster technologies. While this shift has helped identify the development of a Late Chalcolithic cultural complex, the material culture, polity types, and rates of change in the LC1 period are also characterised by both regional variation and local variability. Indeed, a gradual transformation belies an identifiable distinction between socially structuring elements of the Ubaid and LC1 periods. To explore the nature of this distinction, this paper considers artefact distribution, spatial function, and intrasite dynamics at Tell Zeidan, Syria. The latest Ubaid and earliest Late Chalcolithic levels at Zeidan reveal a course of development from an economically centralised society into an economically decentralised town marked by sociocultural variation. This dataset viewed in the broader regional context illustrates both LC1 variability and a commonality of socio-organisational departure from the Ubaid period. The paper concludes by proposing a theoretical model of sociopolitical change that highlights instrumental variability in craft production as a key factor.

LEFKANDI PHASE I, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE POTTERY, ITS CHRONOLOGICAL POSITION, AND ITS ANATOLIAN CONNECTIONS

The aim of this article is to publish David French's manuscript on Lefkandi Phase I, in as close a form as possible to what he wrote. Some changes have been necessary to improve the presentation of the material, to correct occasional errors, and to conform with BSA stylistic requirements. The material discussed is essentially that from the lowest levels of the ‘Deep Sounding’ in Trench CC. The discussion has four sections. The first section is a very brief comment on the stratigraphical data, including sections of the Lefkandi Phase I stratum in Trench CC and plans of the remains of sub-phases. The second section is the core of the paper, a general account of the pottery, listing wares and shapes identifiable, which demonstrates that it contains a little material from periods certain or likely to be earlier than Phase I (Final Neolithic, Early Helladic I and Early Helladic II), also later strays, but essentially belongs to a range of wares that have clear West Anatolian links, although it cannot be linked exclusively with any individual Anatolian site or region. The third section lists the small finds from the stratum, with catalogue entries on the most significant, including a seal impression on a probable pithos rim fragment. Finally, the fourth section sums up views on the classification of the pottery, its chronological relationship with the Early Helladic sequence, its cultural relationship with West Anatolian material, and the question of how an essentially Anatolian style of pottery came to be locally produced in Euboea, with a range of references to comparable material from other Aegean sites.

The change of the pottery style of the Makó and Nagyrév cultures in the Early Bronze Age

Review article of PhD thesis submitted in 2021 to the Archaeology Doctoral Programme, Doctoral School of History, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest under the supervision of Gábor V. Szabó.

The emergence of 'Transeurasian' language families in Northeast Asia as viewed from archaeological evidence.

From a linguistic standpoint, Proto-Japonic and Proto-Koreanic are assumed to have split off the Transeurasian languages in southern Manchuria. The linguistic idea that Proto-Japonic came earlier than Proto-Koreanic in the chronological scheme means that the Proto-Japonic language first entered the Korean Peninsula, and from there spread to the Japanese archipelago at the beginning of the Yayoi period, around the ninth century BC, while the arrival of Proto-Koreanic in southern Korea is associated with the spread of the rolled rim vessel culture around the fifth century BC. The genealogical sequence of the Pianpu, Mumun and Yayoi cultures, which shared the same pottery production techniques, indicates the spread of Proto-Japonic. On the other hand, migrants moved from Liaodong to the Korean Peninsula and established the rolled rim vessel culture. This population movement was probably due to social and political reasons as the Yan state enlarged its territory eastward. The Proto-Koreanic of the rolled rim vessel culture later spread to the Korean Peninsula and gradually drove out Proto-Japonic, becoming the predecessor of the Koreanic. In this paper, I examine the spread of Proto-Japonic and Proto-Koreanic in Northeast Asia based on archaeological evidence, focusing especially on the genealogy of pottery styles and pottery production techniques.

“New Kids on the Block?” Reappraising Pottery Styles, aDNA, and Chronology from Western Iberia Early Neolithic

Abstract Western Iberia Early Neolithic has been described as an ultimate and very altered form of the Mediterranean Neolithisation process. Despite its Atlantic position, this territory – corresponding mainly to Central/Southern Portugal – is, in its physical and cultural geography, a Mediterranean landscape deeply connected to a historical process arriving from beyond the Strait of Gibraltar. The presence of cardial pottery led archaeologists to ascribe Portuguese Early Neolithic to a Mediterranean impressed Pottery cultural area, and according to demic diffusion models, small pioneer groups carrying the Neolithic package originated there. Recently, the archaeological record for the Western Mediterranean Neolithisation is becoming more complex and longer lasting cardial dominance over the seas has been disputed. Previous Neolithic groups seafaring the Mediterranean coasts with Impressa style pottery could have reached Iberian Peninsula by 5600–5400 cal BC, proving that by the mid-sixth millennium, different cultural entities were moving in the Western Mediterranean regardless of their genetic features. The main goal of this study is to disclose this cultural diversity in Western Iberia using a robust chronological database and debating how different proxies, like pottery styles and ancient DNA (aDNA), reveal it in Western Iberia. While recognising the Mediterranean input to Western Iberia groups, mapping the variability and the significance of different decoration techniques, such as cardial, false acacia leaf, impressed stripes, and using the aDNA to identify continuities/changes in ancient populations are here as tools to understand when, who, and how new kids came to the block. To do so, different disciplinary boundaries are crossed, and some transdisciplinary critical aspects are also commented.

Pottery Styles in Transition in Iron Age Crete

This paper presents the preliminary results of the study carried out by the author on a precise class of materials: Protogeometric B pottery from the site of Prinias, in central Crete. The pottery comes from the excavations conducted in the necropolis of Siderospilia, used from the end of XII century BC until the VII/VI century. A large assemblage of material has been so far analyzed, mostly consisting on figured specimens. Among this, a particular class of pithoi, characterized by straight sides and mostly used as cinerary urns, stands out for its quite unique features, finding comparisons just in Knossos and in few other Cretan sites. The impressive figured repertoire adopted in decorating PGB pottery (850-800 BC) does not find comparisons in continental Greece and it seems to reflect some sort of mixed tendency between Near Eastern influences, involving Crete in Early Iron age, and Minoan background. Keywords: Prinias, Protogeometric B, Pithos, Crete, Aegean

Steinalderkeramikken fra Rogaland – en kronologisk studie

From the 1800’s and onwards, pottery sherds have been found at a number of Neolithic occupation sites in Rogaland County, Southwestern Norway. In this paper, pottery assemblages from nine contexts are analyzed in order to produce an interpretative chronology. Typological analysis is combined with correspondence analysis and Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates. The result is a coherent chronological model that accounts for variations in pottery decoration styles between the late Early Neolithic and the Late Neolithic. There is a development in decorative styles from cord and cord-stamp ornamented vessels followed by a period of pots decorated with cord-stamp, small imprints and incisions, and finally a phase with added lines, comb, and cord-stamp. However, the multi-phased nature of the sites suggests that there are still many unanswered questions. New excavations and re-analyses of older sites are necessary for a better understanding of the developments in Neolithic pottery styles.

The Development of Early Pottery in the Forest Zone of the Middle Volga Region (Eastern Europe)

The article is devoted to the Neolithisation in the forest zone of the Middle Volga River basin. The different conceptions of the process are considered. The archaeological materials from different sites located on this territory and neighbouring regions have been compared. The question was raised regarding animal domestication and its attributes in the forest zone of the Volga region in the Neolithic period. The hypothesis that pottery spread in the forest zone of the Middle Volga region under the influence of cultures from a forest-steppe zone of the Volga region was examined, and the chronological frame of this process was determined. However, the process has been essentially one of migration and was not autochthonous. The mobile lifestyle of early Neolithic hunters played a major part in their movements and did not connect with a productive economy (i.e. domestication). An indicator of these changes is pottery style. For the forest zone of the Middle Volga region, the earliest Neolithic vessels are characterized by rare ornamental patterns that appeared earlier than other types.

Exploring the Broad Spectrum: Vegetal Inclusions in Early Neolithic Eastern Balkan Pottery

AbstractWhy was “chaff temper” used in pottery production? The possible reasoning behind the practice of intentionally adding organic matter (various plant parts and plant-containing materials) to the clay paste when making pottery is explored by studying four Early Neolithic open settlements. Located in contrasting regions, northwest and southwest Bulgaria, they have contrasting geological settings, altitude, climate, and “pottery styles.” Ceramic fragments containing vegetal remains (charred, semi-charred parts, imprints, and phytoliths) found both on the surface of the vessels and within the body clay are studied in hand specimens, thin-sections and by using scanning electron microscopy. Whether the addition of “organic temper” was an actual functional prerequisite (e.g. caused by technological limitations of the local clays, the vessels’ use, etc.), and how to interpret the variable contents and types of vegetal remains within the clay fabrics, are the main questions discussed within a broader context. The observed variability raises awareness of a series of potential biases when interpreting vegetal remains in Early Neolithic Southeast European pottery. This study not only tackles the interrelation between two major Early Neolithic cycles – ceramic technology and agriculture – but also reveals the potential to examine the synergies between specifically technological, agricultural, and environmental study aspects. It demonstrates the intrinsically intertwined crafts and husbandry activities, technological landscapes, decision-making strategies, and subsistence patterns, all within site-specific environment. It also frames a debate on such inclusions’ strictly technological significance, their role as a cultural factor embodied in social behaviour, or completely accidental presence in the clay fabrics, and a whole spectrum in between.

Dalma ceramics at Surezha in the Erbil Plain: Stylistic, compositional, and petrographic evidence for trans-Zagros interaction during the Terminal Ubaid/Late Chalcolithic 1

Excavations at Surezha, on the Erbil plain in Iraqi Kurdistan, yielded 89 sherds of Dalma style pottery from 5th millennium BC contexts. Dalma ceramics are widespread in northwestern Iran but occur only rarely west of the Zagros in northeastern Iraq. To understand the significance of Dalma ceramics at Surezha, we document their forms, production technology, and decorative style. We use Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis and petrography to determine geochemical composition and location of manufacture. We then use the same techniques to examine similar wares from the type site of Dalma Tepe in Iran. These complementary analyses show that the Dalma style wares from Surezha and Dalma Tepe are stylistically alike but compositionally distinct. Clay compositions of Dalma wares from Surezha match those of local Erbil Plain ceramics, and we conclude that the Dalma wares at Surezha were made locally. Stylistic and petrographic data lead us to suggest these Surezha vessels were produced by small groups of individuals, either transhumant pastoralists or persons displaced via exogamy, from the Iranian highlands. Finally, the composition of a single black-on-buff Ubaid/LC-1 style sherd from Dalma Tepe indicates that it was probably manufactured in the Tigris River basin of Mesopotamia. Our findings suggest periodic contact between Iranian highland populations and northeastern Mesopotamian communities during the early 5th millennium BC, and may indicate an early manifestation of seasonal transhumant pastoralism.

Tequinho Geoglyph Site and Early Polychrome Horizon BC 500/300 - AD 300/500 in the Brazilian State of Acre

In Amazonian archaeological discussion the concept of tradition presupposes a keen connection between pottery styles and specific language groups. Multicultural traditions or transcultural adaptions are often pushed aside. Denise Schaan returned to the concept of horizon in order to explain a number of archaeological phenomena from a wide geographical and chronological perspective. Also in this study the concept of Polychrome Horizon is used, but it is divided between Early and Late Polychrome Horizons. At the same time an entirely new area, eastern Acre, and its archaeological sub-phase Tequinho, dated 50BC – AD200 with its polychrome pottery, are brought into the discussion.

THE LATE BRONZE AGE GÁVA POTTERY FROM THE LOWER MUREȘ

The widespread societal collapse that occurred in the Lower Mureș Basin in the Late Bronze Age following the destruction of mega-sites during the 13 th century BC is largely mirrored in the dwindling number of settlements, prestige goods, and metal finds. The same period is also associated with the spread of Gáva pottery. Apparently, the respective pottery style has been subject to thorough investigation; however, ceramic analyses and 14C data are quite scarce. We are publishing here a pottery assemblage from contexts located in the Lower Mureș Basin, where Gáva pottery style was discovered. Besides illustrating representative potsherds, we have analyzed their style and added 14C data when available. The results of the study proper and comparative analyses with other assemblages suggest a different perspective from certain approaches to Gáva culture as a unitary phenomenon. Starting from the stylistic features of the pottery, we have attempted at offering a regional perspective without overlooking the distinctive characteristics of a much wider area. Moreover, 14C data and previous studies on LBA II pottery enable us to argue that several well-known features of the Gáva pottery style can be identified, at least in the Lower Mureș Basin, as early as the 14 th -13 th century BC and even earlier, with some dating back to the 15 th century BC.