About the ways of clay vessels modelling in the Eastern part of the Gulf of Finland in the early metal period (end of IV-III millennium BC)

Early Metal Period (the end of IV-III millennium BC) in the Eastern Baltic region is of an interest for investigation because this was the time when the first signs of metallurgy and productive economy and also different pottery traditions, related probably to the groups of newcomers, appeared there. The purpose of the study was to analyze the skills of ancient potters, carriers of these traditions, in modeling of the vessels - the most conservative stage of ceramic production. Studying of modeling skills helps to reconstruct those aspects, which lie in the base of pottery traditions, and which play a great role in the reconstruction of contacts among different groups of people and the processes, which took place there in the Early Metal Period. As the aim of the study all the information about the stated ways of modeling the first and the rest parts of the vessel (from the rim to the bottom, from the bottom or from the bottom and the lowermost part of the walls). Here is mentioned the information about the size and configuration of the structural elements for vessel modeling, the ways in which they were prepared and fastened. On the base of 146 reviewed ceramic vessels from the archaeological sites in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland there were described two pottery traditions, based on modeling vessels from coils or from patches. The first tradition is common for the Late Comb Ware and is well described for the region of Eastern Baltic from the Neolithic. The second way of modeling - from patches - is typical only for the Corded Ware tradition, which has spread here in the Early Metal Period, and has the closed analogies in fatjanovo pottery tradition in Volga-Oka region. On Rosson-9 archaeological site the was discovered a vessel, modeled in a "hybrid" technique, when it's whole body was made from patches and the rim - from the additional coil - such combination of the two techniques is common in Fatjanovo culture and also for Corded Ware in Sweden. As a result of the investigation one can conclude, that on the one hand ancient potters of the Corded and the Late Comb Ware traditions were very conservative in the ways of modeling the vessels, and on the other hand there probably took part hybridization of these traditions - probably on the latest stage of their existence. It seems likely, that the way of modeling of the ceramic vessels could be seen as the first and basic criterion for separation of different pottery traditions. On the base of this criterion in the Early Metal Period in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland region can be distinguished two main traditions, which, according to a number of researchers, belonged to two culturally various groups of people. Further investigation to correlate the way of vessel modeling with the other stages of pottery technology could confirm or deny mentioned results and produce new data for reconstruction of processes, which took part on this territory in the Early Metal Period.

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