Technological Study of Mesh Ceramics from Umilenye Settlement

Results of the technical and technological study of samples of mesh ceramics (with pockmarked and flamentous prints) from the excavations of V.I. Smirnov in 1927 are considered in the paper. The data obtained showed the similarity of the analyzed vessels in the technology of their manufacture at the preparatory stage of pottery production. Differences in the nature of the treatment of the external surfaces of the vessels did not reveal the presence of relationships with the recipes of the molding masses. Molding masses were mainly prepared on the basis of sanded clays with the addition of artifcial impurities in the form of wood and organic components. The soil was prepared by crushing granite-gneiss rocks of stone to a predominant particle size of 1-2 mm. An organic solution in the fractures of ceramics with pockmarked prints has been tentatively identifed as a squeeze from the manure of ruminants. Such a determination of an organic solution for ceramics with flamentous prints causes diffculties. The combination of mineral and organic inclusions in the composition of the molding mass of mesh ceramics from the Umilenye settlement, in all likelihood, dates back to the Bronze Age. The combination of mineral and organic impurities in the molding mass is observed even among the bearers of the Fatyanoid ceramic traditions. Under the influence of the Fatyanoid technological traditions, mesh ceramics could be formed in the area of lake.