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.

Multidisciplinary Researches of Nebyshino 1 Site at the Upper Reaches of the Berezina River in 2018–2019

Comprehensive multidisciplinary research was held in 2018–2019 at Nebyshino 1 site located in the Dokshitsky district, Vitebsk region, Belarus. The analysis archaeological materials obtained during excavations made along the mineral edge of the butte and in the peaty part of the settlement were supplemented by archaeobotanical study, analysis of the osteological materials, and radiocarbon dating of wood and bone remains from the cultural horizon. The analysis of Nebyshino 1 flint artifacts and synchronization with the dating of the osteological samples made it possible to consider the preboreal and boreal periods as the main stages in the functioning of the settlement. The flint collection of Nebyshino 1 displays similarities with the flint inventory of the Zamosh’e settlement (Verkhnedvinski district, Vitebsk region), located in the basin of the Western Dvina. The cultural attribution of the archaeological materials of Nebyshino 1 presupposes that the site is related to the Kunda culture. At present time the absolute chronology of Nebyshino 1 site can be considered within the framework of the Preboreal — Atlanticum, since the lower chronological boundary (the second half of the Alleroid — Late Dryas) requires archaeological and palynological confirmation. The upper boundary of the settlement is determined by two dates corresponding to the second half of the Atlantic period, and by the presence in the cultural horizon a small number of fragments of Early Neolithic pottery of the Narva culture.

Pot baking: revisiting an ancient analogy

In 1990, Chazan and Lehner published a paper in which, based upon several similarities suggested an analogy between the Mesopotamian bevelled-rim bowl dated to the Uruk Period and the Old Kingdom Egyptian bedja. They concluded that, as most surely verified for the bedja, the bevelled-rim bowls could have also had the function of a container for baking. To enhance this hypothesis, the two authors pointed out that also a Late Neolithic pottery shape of the Near East, the so-called husking trays, were supposedly used for baking. In recent years, studies related to ancient baking thanks to the adoption of new ad hoc methods, have received an impressive impulse. New discoveries about ancient bread production, husking trays and bevelled-rim bowls interestingly all seem to go in the same direction. Although it is not currently possible to retrace an uninterrupted sequential line throughout the time, all of these discoveries could mutually strengthen one another, suggesting the possible existence of an ancient pot baking tradition in the Near East.

Ulucak Höyük

It has been increasingly clear that pottery was adopted as a continuous technology during the first quarter of the 7th millennium BC in a wide region, from Upper Mesopotamia through Central Anatolia and the Lakes District region. However, the absence of pottery in the basal level at Ulucak Höyük shows the presence of a pre-ceramic sequence in western Anatolia, before c. 6600/6500 cal BC. This article discusses the earliest pottery assemblage from Ulucak (6600/6500–6200 cal BC) and compares it with the later ceramic sequences at the site. Ultimately, the functional and typological developmental sequence of Neolithic pottery at Ulucak Höyük and its temporo-spatial relations with other Neolithic sites in Anatolia will be assessed.

Understanding Diversity in Early Neolithic Pottery Production

By recovering and interpreting the hidden technological variability in the first pottery at Ilindentsi-Massovets, this paper reveals the innovative adaptations to local conditions that the adoption of pottery production, as a new technology, must have involved. Seventy-one samples were analysed using low-resolution binocular microscopy and high-resolution petrographic and scanning electron microscopy. The variety established within each of the major components in pottery production at the site is interpreted in the context of the local raw materials (availability) and technological approaches (decision making), thus reaching beyond the traditional interpretative models that suggest large-scale uniformity in Early Neolithic pottery production across extensive European regions.

How do they fit together? A case study of Neolithic pottery typology and radiocarbon chronology

The object of the paper is to update the current concept of the chronology of the Neolithic (c. 5400–3300 BC) of the Czech Republic and northern Lower Austria by comparing the typo-chronological development of pottery and modelling the corresponding radiocarbon dates. Up until now, pottery and its style have often been perceived in Central Europe as “basic indicators” of archaeological cultures or pottery traditions, which are then further divided into chronological stages and phases. And yet, an analysis of the relationships of all three levels of these entities in the context of four types of models of radiocarbon dates indicates that changes in the original material culture do not necessarily occur on a time axis. While it is true that archaeological cultures have proven to be the robust materialisation of primarily chronological trends valid in larger geographic areas, at the level of general and more detailed pottery groups, development can be manifested in other ways (regionally, socially or in a way that is difficult to interpret). Central Europe – Neolithic – pottery typo-chronology – archaeological culture – radiocarbon dating