Guguev Yu.K., Malashev V.Yu, Rylov V.G. Pottery Import from Central Ciscaucasia at Tanais in the Middle of the 3rd Century Ad (Based on Mineralogical and Petrographic Studies)
Yuriy K. Guguev, Independent Scholar
Prosp. Kommunisticheskiy, 2/55, 344058 Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation,
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Vladimir Yu. Malashev, Candidate of Sciences (History), Senior Researcher, Department of Archaeology of the Early Iron Age
Institute of Archaeology of RAS
Dm. Ulyanova St., 19, 117036 Moscow, Russian Federation,
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Viktor G. Rylov, Candidate of Sciences (Geology and Mineralogy), Associate Professor, Department of Mineral Deposits, Southern Federal University
Zorge St., 40, 344090 Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation,
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Abstract. This paper presents the results of the mineralogical and petrographic analysis of non-classical wheel-thrown grey ware of the early 1st millennium AD from Tanais and Alanian settlements of Central Ciscaucasia. The examined 28 samples were divided into three series. The control series includes fragments of coarse-clay vessels of the most typical early Alanian shapes from Tanais structures destroyed in the mid-third century disaster. Standard series I contains pottery fragments from the same structures of Tanais manufactured in Maeotian technique either in the city proper or in its vicinity while standard series II embraced pottery fragments recovered from the early Alanian settlements of Brut and Zilgi in Northern Ossetia. The investigation involved preparations made by means of a special technique enabling one to observe the objects under study by reflected normal or polarized light under great magnification. To obtain reliable results mineralo-graphic investigations were carried out in conjunction with other methods of the study of the same materials, i.e. the thermic, vacuum-decryptometric and chromatographic analyses. Moreover, important information was yielded by a comparison of petrographic composition of standard pottery samples with those of clays and sands making up the raw materials for pottery-making on the Lower Don and in Central Ciscaucasia. All the samples of the control series showed a relatively close resemblance to both subgroups, i.e. Brut and Zilga, of standard Northern Ossetic series II, in mineralogical-petrographic characteristics. Hence the conclusion that the samples of Alanian manufacture of the mid-3rd century AD were imported from the pottery-making centres of the Vladikavkaz plain and the adjacent territories. The appendix contains the analysis of the recent data on the making of certain types of Early Alanian pottery at Maeotian sites of the Lower Don area.
Key words: wheel-thrown grey pottery, mineralogical and petrographic analysis, ceramic import, Alans, Meotians, Tanais, Lower Don, Central Ciscaucasia.
Citation. Guguev Yu.K., Malashev V.Yu., Rylov V.G., 2017. Pottery Import from Central Ciscaucasia at Tanais in the Middle of the 3rd Century Ad (Based on Mineralogical and Petrographic Studies). The Lower Volga Arhaeological Bulletin, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 45-61. (in Russian). DOI: http://doi.org/10.15688/nav.jvolsu.2017.1.4
Pottery Import from Central Ciscaucasia at Tanais in the Middle of the 3rd Century Ad (Based on Mineralogical and Petrographic Studies) by Guguev Yu.K., Malashev V.Yu., Rylov V.G. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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