Approaching the Unification and Diversity of Pottery Assemblages

Abstract

This paper questions the cycling nature of the unification and diversity of pottery forms through a case study of ceramics of the Western Tripolye culture in the Southern Bug and Dnieper interfluve in modern Ukraine. We identified the cultural cycle representing the transition from more unified ceramic assemblages to more diverse ones, and then back to more unified assemblages. This cultural cycle is disturbed by the increase in the diversity of pottery sets at three of ten subsequent time periods we have analysed. The obtained results are discussed in frames of deterministic explanations and the dynamic behaviour of complex systems. IZVLE∞EK – V ≠lanku se spra∏ujemo o cikli≠ni naravi poenotenja in raznolikosti kerami≠nih oblik s pomo≠jo ∏tudijskega primera lon≠enine iz zahodne tripoljske kulture na obmo≠ju ju∫nega medre≠ja Buga in Dnepra v sodobni Ukrajini. Prepoznali smo kulturni cikel, ki predstavlja prehod iz bolj poenotenih kerami≠nih zbirov k ve≠ji raznolikosti ter prehod nazaj k bolj enotnemu zbiru. Ta kulturni cikel zmoti nara∏≠anje raznolikosti lon≠eninskih zbirov v treh od desetih zaporednih ≠asovnih obdobjih, ki smo jih analizirali. Dobljene rezultate obravnavamo v okviru deterministi≠nih razlag in dinami≠nem vedenju kompleksnih sistemov.