Ceramics from Novoilyinka III, a Chalcolithic Site in Kulunda, Western Siberia

Ceramics from Novoilyinka III, a Chalcolithic Site in Kulunda,
Western Siberia

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2016.44.3.101-110

K.Y. Kiryushin and N.F. Stepanova
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
Altai State University, Lenina 61, Barnaul, 656049, Russia

Chalcolithic ceramics from Novoilyinka III in Western Siberia (early 3rd millennium BC) were analyzed in terms of manufacturing technology and decorative techniques, with especial regard to tools for applying decoration. Two ornamental traditions relating to the selection and processing of paste are described. The typical tradition was the use of low-ductility ferrous clay tempered with fi ne sand, down, and organic matter. The less-common practice was to use high-d uctility clay tempered with grit and grog, but not down. In decoration as well, two traditions are evident. Most vessels tempered with down are decorated with non-comb imprints such as pits. Vessels made of lowductility clay and tempered with grit and grog (but not down) are mostly decorated with comb-imprints. The latter technology, evidently attesting to a blend of traditions, is unusual, and is paralleled by the ceramics with comb-pit, pit-comb, and retreating-pricked-pit decoration distributed from the forest zone of Eastern Europe to the Upper Ob. The closest resemblance is seen with ceramics of the Bairyk and Kiprino types, from Baraba and the Upper Ob respectively. The distinctiveness of the Novoilyinka III pottery may be explained by the peripheral (easternmost) position of the site within this community.

Keywords: Chalcolithic, Western Siberia, ceramics, technological analysis, decoration.