ROLE OF NATURAL SCIENCES METHODS IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH OF CERAMICS IN KARELIA

• Published in: Proceedings of the Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Tatyana Khoroshun, Irina Summanen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Russian
• Published: Karelian Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2015
• Subjects: керамика; древнее гончарное производство; неолит; средневековье; физико-химические методы; петрографический и геохимический анализы; метод электронно-зондовой микроскопии; icp-ms; Science; Q; White Sea; Onega; karelian
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.17076/hum88; https://doaj.org/article/3f8254c0620648c29c35cfa1783d03fa

Ceramics is the first artificial material ever created by a human and it allows to expand the variety of methods that applied to ancient pottery research. The article concerns data on physical, petrographic, chemical and geochemical analyses of Neolithic and medieval ceramics. Complex analysis of ancient pottery using natural sciences techniques aimed at solution of clearly defined research questions is essential in tackling actual problems of archaeological study. Considering the data acquired by the conduction of physical and chemical analysis of Neolithic ceramics of Karelia and petrographic analysis of comb-pit and rhomb-pit ceramics of White Sea, Ladoga and Onega basins we managed to identify and characterize main components of ceramic pastes, its quantitative relation and to define conditions of firing procedure. The latest techniques of geochemical analyses were applied to study of medieval pottery of ancient Karelian hillforts. New data on chemical and mineralogical composition of ceramic paste was obtained; moreover there were identified imported vessels in Karelian ware and also the place of production for some of them.