Peculiarities of Firing Vessels of the Beloyar and Kalinkina Cultures on the Barsova Gora in the Surgut Ob River Region (according to termal analysis)

Abstract

The article presents the results of a of the features of firing hand-made pottery of the Beloyar and Kalinkinа cultures, collected during excavations from eight settlements of the first half of the Early Iron Age in the Barsova Gora tract near the western outskirts of the city of Surgut. In the course of production, the vessels of both cultures were subjected to heat treatment of a low degree of intensity. With the exception of a few containers, they were fired under approximately the same conditions. Among the Beloyar ceramics, the complex from the fortified settlement Barsov gorodok I/3 stands out. It presents three groups of pots and jars, differing in the degree of firing intensity: intensive, medium and least. It was established that the difference in the intensity of firing ceramics was due not to temperature fluctuations in the fires and hearths, but to differences in the skills of the craftsmen. These differences could manifest themselves in the temperature and / or duration of firing, the time spent by containers in fires and hearths, the design features of heat engineering devices, etc. In terms of the intensity of firing, a group of vessels from the settlement Barsova Gora III/20, made of highly sanded clays, stands out in the collection of dishes from the Kalinkina culture. On the clay component preservation diagram, the values for such samples are located closer to its center. This is especially characteristic of vessel 32, which was fired more intensively than all the other items of this group. The corresponding characteristics of the three vessels from the settlement Barsova Gora III/12 on the same diagram are at the maximum distance from the origin of coordinates. This also distinguishes them from the rest of the pottery from this site and testifies to less intense firing. It is not yet possible to reconstruct specific types and design features of devices for firing ceramics used by potters of the Beloyar and Kalinkina cultures. One can only assume that the dishes were fired in bonfires and hearths.