Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 42 (2) 2014

Annotation:  Pleistocene Environments of the Northwestern Altai: Vegetation and Climate Early Upper Paleolithic Assemblages from the Japanese Islands: A Case Study from the Musashino Uplan Studying the Forms of Ancient Ware: Theoretical and Practical Aspects A Morphological Analysis of Vessels from Middle Bronze Age (Early 2nd Millennium BC) Burials at Veng Dendrochronological Dating of Buildings in the Central Part of the Residential Area at the Staroturu Bronze Age Animal Figurines from the Taiga Zone of the Ob Region Kurgans of the Yenisei Kyrgyz at the Chineta II Burial Ground in the Altai The Origin of A-frame Carts in the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia The Dolgaya-1 Site and the Novoromanovo Rock Art Gallery: A Tentative Interpretation with Regard to Cultivated Plants of the Bohai Population of Primorye According to Archaeobotanical Data Wood Painting Tradition of the Upper Vychegda Komi in the Late 19th – First Quarter of the 20th Cent Wedding Food of Germans Living in Siberia: Symbols and Signs Buccal Dental Microwear and Diet of the Sunghir Upper Paleolithic Modern Humans Dental Palaeopathological Analysis of the Eneolithic-Early Iron Age Populations from the Minusinsk B   

Studying the Forms of Ancient Ware: Theoretical and Practical Aspects

L.N. Mylnikova.

The methodology of studying the form of ancient earthen vessels, based on approaches suggested by G.D. Birkhoff, A.O. Shepard, H.-Å. Nordström, and others, is discussed with reference to the transitional Late Bronze/Early Iron Age ceramics from Western Siberian sites: Linevo-1, Om-1, and Mylnikova. Most specialists focus on the proportions of vessels. V.F. Gening’s statistical approach is shown to be helpful, and the same is true of A.A. Bobrinsky’s and Y.B. Tsetlin’s methods of evaluating the form of earthen vessels by separating traditional types from imitations. Both shared and distinctive features are revealed, and various analytical techniques as applied to specifi c research objectives are compared.

Keywords: Ceramics, vessels, forms, ceramic studies, form indexes, proportions.