Gray-clay Fish Plates from the Maeotian Burial Grounds on the Right Bank of the Kuban River

Abstract

In the 4th cent. BC, under the influence of ancient cultural and pottery traditions, new forms and types of vessels appeared among the Maeotians, including fish plates. In this work, 26 fish plates from three Maeotian sites are collected — burial grounds of the Elizavetinskaya settlement, Prikubansky and Lebedi 3. The plates are divided into three groups according to the main method of design of their rim: I — with an overhanging rim; II — with a finely trimmed rim; III — with a rounded rim. Within these groups, variants of rims of various modifications are distinguished. The narrow dates of most plates are determined by the context of the finds: Greek amphorae, local gray clay and imported red clay vessels. The general chronology of the existence of fish plates among the Maeotians from the right bank of the Kuban covers the period from the 4th — the beginning of the 1st cent. BC. Moreover, the early samples of the 4th — beginning of the 3rd centuries are accurately copied Greek imported vessels, and the later ones, basically, are presented by the variants, remade by the Maeotian potters, adapted to the local needs.