Russian potter production in the Tomsk province of XVI - early XX c., based on written sources materials

Pottery until recently was one of the major crafts in Russia. In the past pottery was an essential part ofnational household items. Today there are enough archaeological ceramic material which allowed to start detailed studying of the separateparties of traditional material culture of Russian population of Siberia XVI-XVIII centuries. Research of archaeological ceramics isinterfaced in the literature. Studying of late medieval ceramics as historical source extend at the expense of attraction of the additional data:written, graphic, ethnographic. The goal of this paper is the analysis of written sources containing information about potter's manufacture ofTomsk province Russian population. Each period of existence of the Siberian cities is characterized by certain groups of written sources. Thepottery has appeared at an early stage of Tomsk existence and occurred basically in the form of a house craft that didn't exclude existence ofthe qualified potters. Potter's manufacture was appreciably caused by agriculture conducting. To provide requirements for dishes a potter'scraft arose everywhere, and finally has caused different levels of development of the craft and formation of the craft centers. Thetechnological level of a potter's craft in Western Siberia was the same as in the center of the country. With the advent of better and cheapfactory dishes demand for potter's production has fallen, having led to degeneration of this craft. Written sources contain not enoughinformation about potter's manufacture in Tomsk and its district in XVII - the beginning of XX century and don't allow to generate acomplete picture, owing to loss of a huge number of documents and by specificity of reflection in them of historical realities. The scientificcriticism of written materials, its comparison to the information of other kinds of sources is necessary: first of all, with the data ofarchaeological researches where the ceramic material is the most mass and allows to do important historical conclusions about the Siberiancities as the craft centers with rather high technology of ceramic manufacture continuing traditions of the European Russia. The analysis ofan archaeological ceramic collection of Tomsk kremlin of the middle XVII - XVIII centuries and comparison of the received information tothe materials of written and ethnographic sources for reconstruction of a level of Tomsk ceramic manufacture are the following stage of ourresearch.

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