Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 52 (3) 2024   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2024.52.3.067-074

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Raw Materials in the Paste of Ceramics of the Kulaika Culture Surgut Variant (Based on Samples from Barsova Gora)

D.V. Selin¹, A.A. Maksimova², and Y.P. Chemyakin³

¹Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

²Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Koptyuga 3, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

³Yeltsin Ural Federal University, Pr. Lenina 51, Yekaterinburg, 620075, Russia

A multidisciplinary analysis of ceramics from six sites of the Surgut variant of the Kulaika culture at Barsova Gora was made. Technology was assessed using traceological, petrographic, and X-ray phase analyses. At all the sites, the potters used ferruginous clays tempered with grus, grog, sand, and organic material. Fragments in the clay were either rounded, as in sand, or coarse, as in grus. The sand was mainly represented by feldspar and quartz, suggesting that this type of raw material was extracted from nearby non-metallic mineral deposits. The grus consisted of fragments of basaltoids, amphiboles, and pyroxenes, evidencing that it came from igneous common rocks associated with the Surgut volcanic field and spread over a large area. Rocks were probably mined near settlements, perhaps on the floodplain of the Ob. Grog in all the samples was similar to the basic clay in terms of its composition. Three groups of sites were identified, differing in the composition of the clay of which the ceramics were made. This may indicate the presence of several groups within the Iron Age Kulaika population, utilizing various sources of clay.

Keywords: Archaeology, Early Iron Age, Surgut stretch of the Ob, Kulaika culture, pottery, multidisciplinary approach