Dictionary of clay dishes. Ancient Greece

MILKER (MILKER, MILKER)

A milk pan is a milking utensil that is a wooden, clay, or copper vessel with an open wide neck, a spout located in the upper part, and a bow. Clay and copper vessels had the shape of a pot, while wooden vessels followed the shape of a bucket with walls widened upward. The milk pan was usually made without a lid. Freshly milked milk was protected from dust by a thin linen cloth tied around the neck of the vessel. Milk that was capped immediately after milking could turn sour. The milk pan was always bought together with the cow. However, it could not be taken with a bare hand. It was passed from floor to floor, from mitten to mitten, it was lifted from the ground, blessed. If the cow did not milk in the new place, the sorcerer baptized the animal’s horns, hooves, and nipples with a milk pan filled with water, whispered a spell and sprayed it with water from the milk pan. For the same purpose, all other milk pans were filled to the brim with water. Milk pans were distributed throughout Russia under different names, derived from the word “milk”.

POLEVIK POT

Polevik pot - polevik, raspberry, polnik, polyukh, polelyushek, jug - a ceramic vessel for carrying drink in the field.

ROLLER

Rilnik - a vessel for churning and melting cow butter, was a clay vessel with a wide neck, a round body, slightly tapering towards the bottom. At the top of the body there was a short spout - a “stigma” or a small hole for draining buttermilk and melted butter. On the side of the body opposite the spout there is a long straight clay handle. When churning butter, sour cream (cream, slightly sour milk) was poured into the firebox, which was churned together with a whorl. The oil that had clumped together was pulled out, washed, and placed in a clay basin. The buttermilk was poured into the tub for drinking water for the cattle. When reheating, a firebox filled with oil was placed in a well-heated oven. The melted butter was poured into a wooden tub. The buttery curd mass remaining at the bottom of the firebox was used to make pies and pancakes.

WASH BASIN

Washbasin - ceramic dishes for washing. Suspended on a leather strap. It was made in two versions: with one neck and with two.


SKULL

The skull is a small ceramic bowl. Intended for secondary dishes - salads, pickles and seasonings in ancient Rus'.

The resistance of fired clay dough to the destructive forces of soil water and wind contributed to the preservation of almost all ceramic material of antiquity. The widespread distribution of clays and the ease of making products provide great opportunities to use this material for extensive historical research. Most often, shards from broken dishes survive to this day; less often, whole vessels are found.
Stone Age pottery has its own characteristics. Imperfect materials and production techniques resulted in poor preservation of ceramic products. Only fragments of pots made of coarse clay dough with a characteristic pit-comb ornament have survived to this day. From the early Iron Age era, on the territory of the Tver Volga region, utensils of the tribes of the so-called Dyakovo culture have been preserved. The pots were still sculpted without the use of any technical devices (by hand). However, from this era, archaeologists have found almost completely preserved vessels.
The most active use of ceramic products began in the Middle Ages (VIII-XVI centuries). It is this period that will be discussed further. The products of Old Russian potters included a variety of dishes, children's toys, bricks, and facing tiles. The main most widely used ceramic dishes of Ancient Rus' were kitchen stove vessels - pots, jars, jugs, bowls, frying pans. All kinds of lamps, washstands, pots, amphorae and a number of similar products were also made from clay.
Ceramic production, whose technological traditions go back thousands of years, until recently was based on a fairly elementary technical basis. The ceramic production process consisted of four sequential operations.
1. Preparation of raw materials for the production of products, i.e. preparation of a special clay mass.
2. Molding, i.e. making the mold of the product itself.
3. A variety of surface treatments, having both technical and decorative purposes.
4. Firing, which ensures physical and chemical transformations in the material and completes the production of a ceramic product.
Gradually gaining experience in the production of pottery, the ancient craftsmen came to the conclusion that in order to give the pottery strength and practicality, it was necessary to add various impurities to the clay: sand, crushed stone, mica - in order for them to be durable; grass, straw, chaff - so that during drying and firing the vessels retain their shape and do not crack. People's production skills were passed on from generation to generation, and now it is possible to reconstruct all stages of tableware production using ethnographic data.
Modern experimental archaeologists make numerous attempts to make pottery using ancient technologies. Numerous methods of processing clay are used. The material is subjected to ripening (for a long period, several months, stored in special pits), weathering in the open air. The clay is crushed and sifted, water is added. It becomes soft and flexible. Then the clay dough is kneaded, adding various impurities to it.
Now you can directly begin sculpting the vessel. The technique of forming a vessel gradually went through a complex process from hand sculpting to the use of the most complex device - the potter's foot wheel. Slavs of the Tver Volga region in the 11th-13th centuries. The pots were partially sculpted by hand and finished on a light hand potter's wheel. They begin to sculpt the pot from the bottom. The master formed the bottom of the vessel from a clay “cake” on the palm of his hand. Then he sculpted walls from clay bundles 1-2 cm thick and up to 20-30 cm long, attaching them in a spiral or in a circle to one another. Having formed the body, the pot was placed on the stand of the potter's wheel. The stand was first sprinkled with sand to make it easier to remove the finished product. Quite often traces of this stand can be found at the bottom. This is the so-called edge - a small protrusion (up to 2-3 mm) along the diameter of the bottom. Then, using special wooden knives, hands or a bunch of grass, they smoothed the walls of the vessel from the outside and inside, removing unevenness and roughness. This method of producing ceramics is called the tape-tow method. On a potter's wheel, the artisan gave the vessel its shape, modeling the shoulder, neck, and rim.
So, the vessel is ready. Very often, craftsmen made marks on the bottom of pots. To do this, various signs were carved on a wooden stand. The purpose of the marks is not completely clear. There are numerous points of view on this matter. Brands carry a certain meaning, being the personal seal of the artisan: 1) stamps - signs of the potters who made the vessels; 2) stamps - signs of customers; 3) the marks had religious and symbolic meaning; 4) brands at first had only a symbolic meaning, and then turned into signs of artisans, and they could be both personal signs of potters and signs of the feudal lord who owned the craft workshop. Based on the symbolic meaning of the marks, we can assume that the marks were applied to the vessels to protect them from damage by evil forces. Each of the symbols has its own specific meaning.
The cross is an ancient magical symbol that existed long before Christianity among a variety of peoples. Initially, the shape of the cross imitated the most ancient tool for making fire, so it became a universal religious emblem of fire, and then of the sun as heavenly fire. Like fire, the sun is reborn and dies as it moves across the sky. The cross as an emblem of the solar deity becomes a pagan purifying symbol of resurrection and immortality long before Christianity.
The swastika is a symbol of fire and the sun. In origin and content it is close to the cross. In appearance, it is distinguished by the processes ending each ray, which initially symbolized the rotational movement of the ancient device for making fire, and then, when the swastika became a symbol of the sun, denoted its movement across the sky.
Triquest is a sign of fire, a home, the three curved branches of which resemble flickering tongues of flame.
The cross in a circle is the idea of ​​​​the inextricability of the connection between heavenly (sun) and earthly fire, then the ideogram of the sun.
Wheel - "the sun rolls across the sky."
The rosette is the emblem of the solar gods. The connection between the life-giving rays of the sun and the abundant growth of flowers and herbs.
A circle with rotating divisions is a rotating wheel-sun. On Izbrizh dishes you can see marks in the form of a swastika, a circle, various modifications of keys, and a rosette. On the bottom of two vessels, identical imprints in the shape of a crescent with a diameter of about 1 cm are visible. Apparently these pots were made on the same potter's wheel, by the hand of the same master.
The next stage of vessel sculpting is surface treatment. The pot is smoothed with wet hands, a bunch of grass or a piece of animal skin. Allow it to air dry for a while and then apply the ornament. Depending on what kind of ornament the master decorates the vessel with, special tools are used: a sharp stick, various stamps, combs, a stick with a wound rope; sometimes there are nail impressions. The ornamental pattern of Izbrizh ceramics usually consists of elements including the simplest geometric shapes: triangles, rectangles, horizontal or wavy lines.
Several of these elements are found on one vessel. For the most part, this is the so-called linear-wavy pattern. Most vessels have an ornament on the upper part of the body (on the shoulder), but there are vessels both without ornament and almost completely ornamented. Now the dried and decorated pot must be fired in a fire to give it the necessary strength. According to ethnographers, the pots that were made in each peasant family were fired in ovens that were used for cooking. In cities, in craft workshops, there were special furnaces for firing ceramics - furnaces, in which very high temperatures were reached, and as a result, ceramic dishes were of higher quality. How the vessel was fired can be judged by the fracture of the shard and the color of the vessel. A light and uniformly colored shard in a fracture indicates good firing of the dishes and a high and stable temperature in the forge. Often, ancient craftsmen could not create such conditions, because they had to fire the dishes in Russian kilns. Therefore, a fractured shard can have two or three layers of color. The darker, unheated layer is located in the center of the fracture.
To give greater strength to the finished product, and partly for the sake of visual appeal, ancient craftsmen carried out chemical-thermal treatment of the surface of fired dishes. This is heating, scalding, blackening.
Heating is a method of giving products greater strength. The essence of the operation is as follows. When the vessels are heated red-hot and their firing is considered complete, they are removed one by one from the furnace with a stick or special tongs and dipped into a barrel of clean water. After holding the pot in it for less than a minute, it is removed and left to cool in the air. As a result of hardening, the surface and fracture of the vessel darken slightly, becoming not brick-like, but brownish-red.
Scalding is a processing technique that changes the color of the vessel and gives greater strength by reducing porosity. The point is this. The red-hot vessels are taken out of the oven one by one and “bathed” in a trough or barrel with warm bread solution. When the entire batch of fired vessels has been processed in this way, it is put back into the oven. First, the coals in the stove are raked to the side. The oven is closed with a damper and only the next morning the vessels are removed from it. Another method is to leave the pots to cool in the air.
Blackening is a method of giving products a dark color. When the firing of products in a forge or oven is completed, the vessels are not removed from it, as during scalding, but are left there. Having thrown any flammable materials capable of emitting a large amount of smoke into the furnace or furnace, the furnace is tightly “walled up” - all the cracks are covered with earth or clay, creating conditions for the fuel to smolder. As a result, the finished product acquired a characteristic black, and more often gray, color.
After a fairly detailed story about the technology of making pottery, you can go directly to the characteristics of the ceramics collections in our museum.
The shape of Izbrizh pottery is typically Slavic: wide-necked pots with a high shoulder and a rim bent outward. The height of the vessels ranges from 9 to 13 cm, although there are also very large ones - 21 cm. The diameter of the widest part of the body is from 12 to 18 cm. All vessels are made of red clay, widespread in the Tver Upper Volga region.
Utensils of the rural population of the second half of the 10th - early 12th centuries. had different functional purposes. First of all, it should be noted that all the dishes presented in our collection are ritual. Each of these vessels was located at the feet of the deceased, in the mound, and served as a container for funeral food. One typical example is a clay pot found in the burial of a little girl. On the neck of this small vessel (up to 10 cm) an iron torch, placed there for sacred purposes, is clearly visible.
However, these dishes could also be used in everyday life. Thus, pots - the most numerous group of vessels - were used both as kitchen and tableware. Their use as kitchen utensils is indicated by the presence of burnt food on the inside of nineteen vessels. Crinkle-shaped vessels were used to store liquids, particularly milk. Korchaga was used for storing grain and other bulk products. It can be assumed that the vessel on the pallet was used to store honey or vegetable oil.
The majority of vessels (about 60%) have carbon stains on the body, which indicates their active use in cooking. There are also absolutely clean pots. Perhaps they were made specifically for a funeral ritual or for storing cold foods.
From the food remains found in the pots, we can conclude what our ancestors ate many centuries ago. Most often these are the remains of burnt plant food - all kinds of cereals made from wheat, millet, beans, peas and many other crops. Sometimes bones of domestic animals are found next to the ruins of pots: goats, sheep. In all likelihood, these are the remains of a funeral feast - a commemoration of the deceased.
Thus, pottery can tell us a lot of new and interesting things about the lives of people many centuries ago.

POT - a cooking utensil in the form of a clay vessel with a wide open top, a low rim, a round body, smoothly tapering towards the bottom. The pots could be of different sizes: from a small pot for 200-300 g of porridge to a huge pot that could hold up to 2-3 buckets of water.
For many centuries it was the main kitchen vessel in Rus'. It was used in royal and boyar cooks, in the kitchens of townspeople, and in the huts of peasants.
The shape of the pot did not change throughout its existence and was well suited for cooking in a Russian oven, in which the pots were on the same level with burning wood and heated not from below, as on an open hearth, but from the side. The pot, placed under the stove, was lined around the lower part with firewood or coals and thereby became engulfed in heat from all sides. The potters successfully found the shape of the pot. If it had been flatter or had a wider hole, then boiling water could have splashed out onto the stove. If the pot had a narrow, long neck, the process of boiling water would be very slow.
The pots were made from special potting clay, oily, plastic, blue, green or dirty yellow, to which quartz sand was added. After firing in the forge, it acquired a reddish-brown, beige or black color, depending on the original color and firing conditions. Pots were rarely decorated; they were decorated with narrow concentric circles or a chain of shallow dimples and triangles pressed around the rim or on the shoulders of the vessel. A shiny lead glaze, which gave an attractive appearance to a newly made vessel, was applied to the pot for utilitarian purposes - to give the vessel strength and moisture resistance. The lack of decoration was due to the purpose of the pot: to always be in the stove, only briefly on weekdays to appear on the table during breakfast or lunch.
In the peasant house there were about a dozen or more pots of different sizes. In some they cooked liquid stews, in others - porridge, in others - potatoes, in others they were intended for boiling water, etc. They were purchased from potters who transported goods to villages, and were bought at fairs. They treasured the pots and tried to handle them carefully. If a pot cracked, it was braided with birch bark and used to store food. There was a riddle about such a potty in the Russian village: “There was a child - he didn’t know diapers, but he got old - he began to wear diapers.”
A pot is a household, utilitarian object; in the ritual life of the Russian people it acquired additional ritual functions. Scientists believe that this is one of the most ritualized household utensils. In popular beliefs, a pot was conceptualized as a living anthropomorphic creature that has a throat, a handle, a spout, and a shard (skull). Pots are usually divided into pots that carry a feminine essence, and pots with a masculine essence embedded in them. Thus, in the southern provinces of European Russia, the housewife, when buying a pot, tried to determine its gender: whether it was a pot or a potter. It was believed that food cooked in a pot would be more tasty than in a pot. It is also interesting to note that in the popular consciousness there is a clear parallel between the fate of the pot and the fate of man. This is expressed in riddles that tell about the birth of a pot, its life and death, as well as in such parallels as “a broken pot is an abandoned wife,” “girls are terrible dishes: you won’t see how they break,” etc. The pot found quite wide application in funeral rituals. Thus, in most of the territory of European Russia, the custom of breaking pots when removing the dead from the house was widespread. This custom was perceived as a statement of a person’s departure from life, home, or village. In Olonets province. this idea was expressed somewhat differently. After the funeral, a pot filled with hot coals in the deceased’s house was placed upside down on the grave, and the coals scattered and went out. In addition, the deceased was washed with water taken from a new pot two hours after death. After consumption, it was taken away from the house and buried in the ground or thrown into water. It was believed that the last vital force of a person was concentrated in a pot of water, which was drained while washing the deceased. If such a pot is left in the house, the deceased will return from the other world and confuse the people living in the hut.
The pot was also used as an attribute of some ritual actions at weddings. So, according to custom, the “wedding party”, led by groomsmen and matchmakers, came in the morning to break pots to the room where the first wedding night of the newlyweds took place, before they left. Breaking pots was perceived as demonstrating a turning point in the fate of a girl and a guy who became a woman and a man.
In the beliefs of the Russian people, the pot often acted as a talisman. In Vyatka province, for example, to protect chickens from hawks and crows, an old pot was hung upside down on the fence. This was done without fail on Maundy Thursday before sunrise, when witchcraft spells were especially strong. In this case, the pot seemed to absorb them into itself and receive additional magical power.
IN AND. Dahl
POT m. (from gornshek, gornchek, gornets. diminish. from forge) a round, hollow clay vessel of various types, scorched on fire. Korchaga, south. makitra, the largest pot, a turnip, with a narrow bottom; melting and glass pots or pots are more or less the same; pot shchanoy, tamb. estalnik, ryaz. egolnik, the same type, is the same as kashnik, -chek, but only smaller. The pots are called: makhotka, potshenyatko, baby. Tall pots, narrow-necked, for milk: glek, balakir, krinka, gornushka, gorlach. A pot entwined with birch bark, swaddled, for dry supplies, molosts. Pot with sock, milk pan; with two socks and handles, washstand or ram, for hanging. Flower pots are usually made with a straight crown, wider at the top, with a tray or patch. Sugar pots, watered jugs for draining molasses, they are also cubans, stands. The pot of cabbage soup is big. Mountains don't meet mountains, pots will collide with pots. The pot is small, but it cooks the meat. Small pot and saint. The pot and cauldron will not boil over. Don't hit the pot with the cauldron. It’s not our job to sculpt pots, it’s our business to smash pots. Fill the edge with flour, and so does your pot, from the custom of buying pots this way. The pot is empty (bad, thin, small), but it is big. The market is bad, but the pot is not empty. You will be in heaven, where pots are fired. The mansions that the pots cost neither a stake nor a yard are not fenced. It’s not good to pray to God, it’s good to cover pots, they’re teasing the Suzdal godmen. If only there was a pot, there would be a tire. There's a tire for every pot. If there was a pot, it would be in the pot, but we’d find a tire. The cricket is small, but it will spoil the pot. The pot is large, but there is not much space. A blind man cannot find his way in a pot. He has a head made from a tobacco pot. He drives like he's carrying pots. It’s like he’s bringing pots to auction. Like pots upon pots! Angry doesn't get along with pots because he will interrupt. It’s not so much the husband who’s in the bag as the wife who’s in the pot, saving it and bringing it into the house. The husband drinks, and the wife breaks pots. The grandfather broke the village, and the woman destroyed the pot. You can break many pots with one stone. It is not the gods who burn the pots, but the same people. Not a pot pleaser, but a cook. A wife is not a pot, you can’t break it (but if you break it, you can’t twist it with birch bark). The women across the street are passing pots from window to window, the street is so narrow. Whatever you don’t cook, don’t put it in a pot. What is not cooked is not put in the pot. Place the pot or throw it over your stomach, the same as dry jars. Place a pot on your stomach, everything will heal. The pot won't spoil the belly. Pots easily boil over, leading to bad weather. Does iron boil in a meat pot? horse, bit. Light of Koschey, Mr. Koschey, fed a hundred people, went for walks, broke his head, threw away the bones, and the dogs didn’t sniff? pot. Carpenters without axes cut down a mountain without corners? pot. It's born, spins, grows, rages, dies - that's where it goes! pot. There was a child, he didn’t know diapers, he became old, he began to diaper? Same. Not born, but taken from the earth, like Adam; received baptism of fire to overcome the waters; he fed the hungry, he fed himself while working, under the hands of the old midwife he saw the light again; lived in retirement until another death, and his bones were thrown away at a crossroads? pot. Taken from the earth like Adam; thrown into the fiery furnace like three youths; seated on a chariot like Elijah; He was brought quickly into the market place, like Joseph; bought by a wife for a coppersmith, lived as a toiler in the fire of hell and got fed up; He was quickly clothed in colorful vestments, and began his second century of life; due to his decrepitude, does he crumble away, and the earth of his bones does not accept him? pot. || Pots, empty, light wedge bricks, for laying vaults. Potted, related to a pot, belonging to; sometimes used potted Potted beer, korchag beer, home-brewed beer, mash, mash. Pot vault, folded for lightness, from empty bricks, pots. Pot tar, expelled in pots or pots; bad. Beautiful are the maidens, craftswomen of cakes, and destructive potters! wedding the friend says. Gorshovik, perm. a rag, a rag used to take a hot pot from a stove; hard bitter, bitter, bitter. Potter, potter, m. working pots and clay goods, craftsman, potter; || selling it. || Novg. nickname of the Demyanites. Pottery woman a potter's wife or woman who sells pots. Gorshenin or potters, -tsyn, belonging to him, her; potter, a title or skill inherent in this. To potter, to engage in the craft of potting, to potter, to potter. Pottery Wed. this is a craft.
M. Vasmer.
pot
genus. n. pot. In any case, reduce it. from glory *gъrnъ, forge, gornets "pot". Sobolevsky (Lectures 137) gives the plural form of a pot. (Domostr.), Ukrainian, blr. pot. Bernecker (1, 371) suggests a formation similar to stone: pebble, deer: doe, ram: lamb
Concise Encyclopedia of Slavic Mythology
A POT, a jug are the most ritualized household utensils, associated with the symbolism of the stove and earth and perceived as a container for the soul and spirits. The pot for brewing was the end point of a number of actions of objects and sections of nature that ensure the well-being of the farmer: plow, plowed land, seeds, sprouts, dew and rain, sickle, “kosh” for carrying sheaves, millstones for grinding, oven and pot for making food. From time immemorial, porridge and bread were considered ritual food and an obligatory part of sacrifices to various fertility deities (women in labor, Rod, etc.). There were even special types of porridge that had a special ritual purpose: “kutya”, “kolivo” (made from wheat grains), etc. Kutya was cooked in a pot, and in the pot or in a bowl it was served on the festive table, or taken to the cemetery in the “domovina” "When commemorating the dead.
The most important feature of the pot and dishes in general is anthropomorphism, which is manifested both at the level of vocabulary (throat, handle, spout, etc.) and in beliefs that attribute birth and death to dishes. Pots and utensils in general in the popular imagination were distinguished by “gender” and “sex,” and housewives, when buying a new pot, tapped it and listened to the sound, believing that if the sound was dull, then it was a pot - borscht would not work in it; if the sound is thin, sonorous, it’s a gourd: everything cooked in it will be delicious.
The stove and the space around it, where pots and other utensils were located, were in folk tradition closely associated with the cult of ancestors, with “the other world.” According to legend, pots from the stove cannot be wiped with a “cloth” or a “spare tire”, otherwise the deceased parents will leave the hut, the house-elf will leave the hut, etc. In some places, it was customary, after visiting a deceased person or meeting a funeral procession, to touch a pot or stove upon returning home, which was a cleansing rite (the peasants said that if this is not done, then “death will be in your sight”, “the deceased will follow” , etc., i.e. death may overtake someone else in the family).
Pots were once used in funeral rites and in general in rites associated with the cult of ancestors. Thus, ancient farmers had three burial options: burial mounds, a burial structure in the form of a human dwelling (house) and burial of ashes in an ordinary food pot. A pot for cooking, as a symbol of goodness and satiety, was considered a sacred object, which allows us to build the following semantic connection: a deceased ancestor contributes to the harvest and the well-being of his descendants; his soul rises with the smoke of the funeral pyre to the sky, on which the harvest depends; the ashes are placed in a “mal vessel”, which was either already used for preparing ritual porridge on the day of first fruits, or was similar to one. The pot with the ashes of the ancestor was buried in the ground and covered on top with a house or mound, i.e. the ashes were in the ground, on which the Slav’s harvest also depended; Thus, there was a kind of splitting of the magical power of the deceased relative: the soul went to heaven, and the body to the earth (cf.: “And the Radimirichi and Vyatichi and the North have the same custom - to live in the forest, like any other animal... And if anyone Having died, I made a feast over him. and other abominations, who do not know the law of God, but create the law for themselves").
Ancient pots for funeral rites were stove-vessels, small pots of a simplified shape, to which was attached a cylindrical or truncated-conical stove tray with several round smoke holes and a large arched opening at the bottom for burning with wood chips or coals. The arch was sometimes decorated with three sharp protrusions. The entire structure as a whole was given the appearance of a humanoid monster: the firebox turned out to be a fire-breathing fanged mouth, the smoke holes from which flames should burst out were perceived as eyes (the monsters had two and three eyes), the side handles - like ears; and the steam rising from the brew in the pot and mixing with the smoke made the monster shaggy. Such a pot was a connecting link between the god of the sky and fruitful clouds and the cremated ancestors, whose souls could no longer incarnate into living beings on earth (as in earlier times, when the funeral rite was supposed to ensure reincarnation, the rebirth of the soul), remaining forever in heaven.
The fire-breathing head, shrouded in steam, in which the first harvest was cooked, was, as it were, a synthesis of the image of the sky god in his thunderstorm form (represented by the oven) and the image of the ancestor, whose symbol was a simple pot embedded in this oven, a receptacle for ritual food. The newly emerged ritual of corpse burning to some extent lifted the dead from the ground; the cult of ancestors bifurcated - some actions were associated with new ideas about the invisible “dziads” hovering in Irie and called by living people for family holiday meals, while other magical actions were still confined to the cemetery, to the place of burial of ashes and the only point, really associated with the deceased. The new ritual of burial in a pot-urn combined the ideas of this new period: the idea of ​​a disembodied soul (burning), the spell power of the pot for the first fruits (urn-pot with the ashes of the patron ancestor), the spell of the fruit-bearing power of the earth (burying the urn in the ground) and the creation models of the house of a given family (a house above a buried urn with the ashes of an ancestor of family members). In the Proto-Slavic territory (in its western half), the ashes of an ancestor began to be poured into a pot in the 12th-10th centuries. BC, and before that, throughout the ancestral home of the Slavs, there were vessel-shaped conical objects with a large number of holes, shaped like stove-pots.
Obviously, echoes of this ancient funeral rite were such ritual actions of later funeral rites as placing a vessel with food in the coffin, breaking pots when taking the deceased out of the house, or leaving an overturned pot on the grave. Along with the pot, bread, porridge (in a pot), etc. were often placed in the coffin with the deceased; A jug of milk was placed in the coffin for a child, and a pot of water for adults. Sometimes a pot of blessed water was carried behind the coffin, with which they sprinkled the grave; the remaining water was poured out there, and the pot itself, turned upside down, was placed in the head of the deceased on top of the grave, so that in the “other world” he would have something to drink water from. A pot of coals in some places was an indispensable attribute of a funeral procession; after the funeral, the pot was placed upside down on the grave, and the coals scattered (cf. the custom of “warming the dead”).
The pot from which the deceased was washed, like other objects associated with him (soap, comb, straw), was considered an “unclean” and dangerous object, so after the funeral it was taken to a crossroads, to the border with other villages, to someone else’s field, and buried in courtyard, in the house, thrown into the river, hung on a high fence stake, etc., i.e. they removed the pot outside the house, yard, village, etc., in order to protect themselves from damage, misfortune, “return to the house of death.” If the owner (“bolshak”) died, then the pot from which he was washed was buried under a red corner so that in the hut “the brownie does not turn out”; if a “secondary person” was washed from the pot, then the pot was then taken to the edge of the field, “so that the deceased would not appear and frighten.”
A custom was also associated with the cult of the dead, due to which in new houses in ancient times pots filled with various objects were buried in different corners of the house, including behind the stove, in honor of the “household gods.” For example, in some places there was a custom of burying pots and other dishes with the remains of ritual meals under the foundation of a house, as well as in holes in the yard and garden; in some places, pots with the remains of the “three-chicken” chicken were buried in the ground or drowned. A pot of porridge-kutya was buried here and there in the place where the hut was later erected. The girls also buried pots of porridge in the place where the village “street” gathered so that boys would be “attracted” there.
In many places, pots with leftover food, especially after a ritual meal (on days of remembrance of the dead, on major annual holidays, etc.), were left on the table overnight so that the souls of the dead, house spirits, etc. could be eaten from them. But at the same time, with Negative beliefs were sometimes associated with dishes at night: it was believed, for example, that if you leave spoons in a pot or bowl, you will suffer from insomnia at night; In order to sleep well, the pots were turned over on a table or shelf.
A pot, jug or parts thereof (neck) were often used in household magic as amulets for poultry. For example, Ukrainians and Belarusians believed that a pot hung on a fence or turned upside down would protect chickens from hawks. In many East Slavic villages on Maundy Thursday, before sunrise, the mistress of the house, naked, ran with an old pot in her hands to the garden and overturned the pot on a stake, where it remained throughout the summer; it was believed that it protected chickens from birds of prey, the evil eye and other troubles. The broken neck of a jug or a pot without a bottom served as the embodiment of the chicken god among the Russians; They were usually hung in the chicken coop so that the kikimora or brownie would not disturb the chickens, and also to help the chickens lay eggs better. In addition, a broken pot or old clothes and a hat, put on a stick, in some places were intended to protect chickens from hawks, and crops from sparrows, the evil eye, damage, etc.
In popular beliefs, pots and other vessels were often associated with precipitation and celestial bodies. For example, witches were credited with the ability to steal the month, stars, as well as dew and rain from the sky and hide them in pots or jugs (cf., for example, the story about a woman who, accidentally looking into a witch’s pot, discovered rain there; after opening the pot has ended a long drought); in general, it was often believed that a witch could “store abundance” in a pot. They put things and hair of a person who was far from home into a new pot, and baked the pot in the oven so that the person would get homesick and come back. When moving to a housewarming party, the owners used the pot to transport the brownie to a new place: the pot transferred the heat from the old house, inviting the brownie to the new hut; there they poured coals into the stove, and the pot itself was broken and at night the shards were buried under the front corner. Sometimes, instead of coals, they carried kutia in a pot, which was left overnight on the table or near the stove, perceiving this ritual as an invitation to the brownie for a housewarming party.
In some cases, pots were also used as a talisman against evil spirits. For example, in some tales a new pot was placed on the head to deceive the demon or devil. In the Russian North, there were also stories about how, with the help of pots, girls were protected from the pursuit of a deceased ghoul, an unclean spirit, etc. (cf., for example: “Here they are coming, and he (“the evil spirit”) is chasing them. The girls jumped into the last hut... The hostess put pots on their heads and said: “Sit, don’t move.” So he jumped in in the hut, he broke the pots and disappeared. And if they hadn’t put the pots on, they would have been without heads...").

CHAGA

CLOVE

HOLE VALVET

HOLE

BALAKIR
BULL - a cup in the shape of a bull.
BARREL - a barrel with a spout, neck and handle.
PUDOVIK
OINOCHOYA - a ceramic jug with an original shaped spout, used for pouring liquids at feasts, usually wine. The process was accelerated by three drains on the neck, which made it possible to fill three bowls at once.
OKRIN - church ceramic vessel, bowl; jug, bottler, vase
TOPNIK

OIL CAN

STOMP

MILK - a large pot with a spout and a handle on the side.
MILKING

MILKER

EGOLNIK, yagolnik m. Ryaz. a pot of cabbage or a pot. Tamb. small kashnichek (from Polish jagli, millet?). Yagolnik, ardent, two-tailed, take the tsupyznik, and kill the yago! The pot is boiling over, daughter-in-law, take a ladle and halve it. Egol, Egol m. will belittle. its wood, a shard from broken dishes, and vern, a string.
DISKOS - a church saucer with a tray on which a lamb taken from the prosphora is placed. A veil-disco cover was supposed to be placed on the paten.
GORNSHEK
GORNCHEK
GORNETS
MAKHOTKA, GORSHENYATKO, KID- tall pots, narrow-necked, for milk: glek, balakir, krinka, gornushka, gorlach

"O strict bride of silence,
A child in the obscurity of times gone by,
Silent woman, on which antiquity
An eloquent trail captured! ".......

John Keats "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (Translation by G. Kruzhkov)

Why I fell in love with Greek vases, I once told you a long time ago in this entry http://liorasun55.livejournal.com/126036.html But, realizing that ancient vessels are not only household items, but also works of ancient art, I decided to take an interest them in more detail, and, as is usually the case, everything turned out to be very difficult. It turns out that vases are very different from each other, depending on the period, and on the place where they were made, and on the method of applying the design, and on the forms, and accordingly, they also have a lot of names. In general, as usual: what seems simple to an amateur turns out to be a whole science! :)

And, in order to dot the i's and to understand the matter, look at the photographs from the Berlin Altes Museum, which I brought from the last edition, I decided to organize the information that I managed to collect on this topic.

The variety of forms can be demonstrated by this picture:

Actually, if you look at it, vases are dishes. Utensils are always needed in the household; the need for them, apparently, appeared when ancient man realized the need to store food... And then he learned to cook food in them. Once upon a time, in the Neolithic era, someone thought of throwing an object molded from clay into the fire. It became hard and ceramics were born. Even today we readily use ceramic tableware and, it seems, humanity will not give it up for a long time, despite the fact that we have an abundance of other materials for the production of tableware of all forms.

Anyone with even the slightest interest in history and archeology knows that ceramics are an important marker for dating the cultural layers revealed during excavations. Precisely because it accompanied man for many millennia and because scientists know how it developed and changed over all these centuries depending on its location on earth.

Why did the ancient Greeks come up with so many shapes for their vases? The shape of the vessel was determined depending on what products it was intended for storing. And the ancient Greeks stored mainly olive oil, wine and water, as well as bulk products. Of course, there was a need to serve drink and food to the table, and to pour wine, and the forms of ancient ceramics multiplied and improved.

But in order to describe how different vessels differ from each other, you first need to master how the parts of a vase are usually called. This picture is very convenient for this:

Perhaps the most famous of the Greek vases is amphora. There is hardly a person who has not heard of her.
Amphora (from ancient Greek ἀμφορεύς "vessel with two handles"- an egg-shaped vessel, sometimes with a narrowed lower part and widened upper part, with a narrow neck, with two vertical handles, used for transporting wine and oil. Amphoras both decorated the life of the ancient Greeks and were practical in everyday life. It was convenient to store wine in amofras: close the narrow neck with wax or resin, and the wine located in the lower wide part did not evaporate and was preserved longer. The sediment accumulated in the lower narrow part and was not agitated when the wine was poured from the amphora. Thanks to its cone-shaped lower part, the amphora was easy to bury in the ground and thereby preserve the wine at lower temperatures.

Thanks to the elongated, rounded shape of the amphora, they were easy to fan out into the holds of ancient ships. Actually, amphorae were ancient containers.

This is an amphora from the Berlin Old Museum (it is not prohibited to photograph there, but all exhibits are under glass). Images on vases are a separate, very fascinating and extensive topic, since understanding what plot is depicted by the artist on each of them, delving into the reading of the Myths of Ancient Greece at the same time is an incredibly interesting activity, but this is material for many books, and not for one story)

It would be a mistake to believe that amphorae were used exclusively by the Greeks. They are found during excavations over a very vast territory, quite a few of them in the Black Sea region and in the Crimea, for example... and thisbecause Greek amphoras were very valued by the Scythian kings.(while looking for information for an article, I saw such facts mentioned many times. If you remember, recently even Putin was lucky enough to dive and - oh, miracle! - emerge with an ancient amphora in his hands :))

Amphoras were often sealed with a clay stopper, which was fixed with resin or plaster. The Greeks placed a mark on the handle of the amphora indicating the city of manufacture (Sinope, Tauride Chersonesos), and the Romans hung a label on the handles, for example, indicating the type of wine.

Hydria(lat. Hydria), otherwise Kalpida (lat. - Kalpis) - a vessel for water with three handles: two small horizontal on the sides and one vertical, as well as a long neck. They are similar to amphorae, but hydria have a more rounded body.

The girls went with them to the source for water. Hydria were worn on the head or shoulder, holding them with the hand. Images of such scenes from life can also be seen in the drawings depicted on the vases themselves.

Sometimes hydria were also used as urns for storing the ashes of the dead.

Personally, I really liked the idea of ​​three handles: two are convenient for carrying water, as well as placing a vessel under a stream of water, and the third is needed when tilting the vessel, pouring water out of it, and it is also convenient to carry an empty vessel, holding it by the vertical handle.

Here is a hydria from the Hermitage collection, dating back to 510 BC.

And here is a hydria from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which depicts a scene of the hydria being filled from a source :)

As we can see from the painting on the vase, nothing has changed since the sixth century BC: women, having come for water, use the occasion to chat to their heart's content :)

Kanfara- wide drinking vessels with two handles, something like a goblet. Most often on a high leg. The graceful handles of the canfar protrude beyond the top line of the vessel. Canthar was considered an attribute of Hercules and especially Dionysus: the Greek God of wine was often depicted with canthar in his hands.

Kanfar from the Athens Archaeological Museum

This is a drawing depicting the god Dionysus with a canthar in his hands. It was painted in 500 BC on a plate that is kept in the Louvre.

Kilik (Greek kylix, Latin calix - “round”)- a vase from which they drank wine. This is a vessel that looks like a flat bowl on a foot or low tray with two horizontal handles. Kiliks were very common. The kylikas were decorated with paintings outside and inside.On many kylixes there is an inscription:“Chaire kai piei eu” (Greek, “Rejoice and drink happily”). Narrative scenes were depicted in a circle on the outside of the bowls (in the intervals between libations, the kylixes were hung by the handle from the wall and such paintings were clearly visible)

Here is a kylix from Greece, dating from the first quarter of the 6th century BC and is an exhibit of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

The same kylix from the inside

and he's the one below

CRATER(Greek krater, from kerannymi - “mix”) - an ancient Greek vessel for mixing wine with water. According to customs, the ancient Hellenesthey mixed one part of wine with two parts of water - drinking undiluted wine was considered a manifestation of wildness, immoderation, although drunkenness was common (remember Bacchus).Craters are large vessels with a wide mouth, like cauldrons, and two handles on the sides.

Examples of craters:

Both craters are from the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

Continued here (part 2).

CORDED AND Jagged ORNAMENTS OF NEOLITHIC CERAMICS OF KARELIA

Ceramics belongs to a number of the most important archaeological materials and is the subject of diverse research. The typological study of vessels according to their shape, clay composition, type of glaze, coloring, ornament, and method of molding has the main goal of identifying the characteristics of the material culture of ancient tribes, as well as establishing the age of archaeological sites. Studying the technology of ancient pottery production using a typological approach is unlikely to give full results. With the help of ordinary inspection and comparison of different series of ceramic fragments, it is possible to reliably distinguish a vessel made by hand or on a machine, restore it from fragments, roughly determine the composition of the clay and describe the ornament, and assign it to a typological group. Much more difficulties arise with this approach, when it is necessary to distinguish between unique molding methods, the technology of synthetic construction of the mass, the type and temperature of firing, methods of surface treatment by embossing, blackening and polishing, the sequence of various operations in the production process, as well as the economic purpose of each type of vessel in different living conditions, different tribes, methods of cooking food, etc.

Of considerable interest are all kinds of prints preserved on the surface of vessels: fingers, molding tools, fabrics, braids, stamps, seals, plant and animal fibers, grains, etc. Imprints of grain grains on ceramic products often served for archaeologists as documentary evidence of the existence of a certain species agriculture of some sites and entire regions. However, the study of imprints on ancient ceramic products was of a random nature; moreover, it was carried out by very few archaeologists and without any methodological prerequisites. An example of such a random study is the article by A. S. Sidorov “On twisting fibrous substances,” in which the author tried to show the technique of twisting ropes using imprints on ceramics from northeastern Europe. The matter actually came down to very meager descriptions of two types of twisting (from right to left and from left to right), which existed since Neolithic times.

Of significant interest is the work of M. V. Voevodsky “On the study of pottery techniques of primitive communist society in the forest zone of the European part of the RSFSR.” In the work, based on ethnographic and archaeological material, the ancient production of ceramics is examined comprehensively. Methods of surface treatment are properly covered, noting, for example, that a tuft of grass, a rag or leather, and a toothed smoothing iron were widely used as tools. The author successfully compared the ornaments on the vessels with impressions on plasticine of toothed stamps found at the sites.

Traces on ceramic products undoubtedly represent a more extensive source of knowledge than has hitherto been commonly thought. To use it, a functional-analytical approach to the material is required.

The study of numerous imprints - impressions on ancient clay vessels allows us to study methods of molding, processing the surface of vessels and restore the appearance of the tools that served for this purpose.

It must be pointed out that the application of microscopic analysis to the study of imprints on clay products is very limited. The relatively rough, porous structure of the ceramic allows for small magnifications that are within the capabilities of a binocular loupe. Only the determination of the composition of the clay mass, when observations are made from thin sections, requires larger magnifications. When it comes to examining imprints or voids formed from animal or plant fibers, there is a need for a binocular microscope. Often, however, such prints are quite large, well defined, and when studying them you can do without the use of optics.

We studied the techniques of surface treatment and applying ornaments using materials from various eras and regions.

The first work in this direction was carried out on fragments of pottery from the Neolithic site of Kurmoyla on Syamozero in Karelia, excavated by N.N. Gurina in 1949. It was ceramics typical of the north of Eastern Europe with textile and pit-comb designs, quite rough in quality and dough composition. However, the rope and jagged stamp impressions on the surface created an impression of elegance. The ornamentation, based on the combination of elements - pits, rope imprints, combs - was varied, and it seemed that here we were dealing with a relatively complex technique for decorating vessels. The task was to find out the specific technical means by which the ornament was applied.

The observation was carried out using a binocular magnifying glass (12.5 X 1.3). Then plasticine casts were made of the main ornamental details, which showed very simple techniques for working with rope and gear stamps. Based on observations and casts, it was not difficult to recreate these stamps and use them to reproduce similar patterns on plasticine.

The simplest stamp was a piece of cord, 3-4 mm thick, which was pressed onto the outer surface of the vessel. We show an image of a fragment of a vessel with an ornament of round pits, pressed out with a wooden stick on the rim, and below it are horizontal impressions of a two-strand cord in several rows (Fig. 52-1). The lace was twisted from two strands of plant fiber by moving the fingers from left to right. It is twisted relatively weakly, since the prints of the turns did not close to each other (Fig. 52-3).

The second type of cord stamp was a flagellum made from cord. A slightly more tightly twisted strand of fibers was wound onto the same lace, resulting in a flagellum with seven turns. Clutching the flagellum with his fingers, the potter pressed this simple stamp onto the damp surface of the vessel (Fig. 52-8). Proof that the lace was not wound around a stick, but was used in the form of a soft flagellum, can be a plasticine cast of this type of ornament (Fig. 52-6). From the cast you can see, firstly, that the outer turns are poorly imprinted here - and this can only be the case if the axis of the stamp is bent in an arc; secondly, the coils were wrinkled and slightly separated from pressure, which would not have happened if the lace had been wound around a stick.

Rice. 53. Technique for applying the ornament: 1 - fragment of a vessel with an ornament resembling a wickerwork; 2 - plasticine cast of the ornament; 3 - a stamp in the form of a stick wrapped in a cord made of cotton fiber; 4 - stamp imprint on plasticine; 5 - fragment of a vessel decorated with ornaments; 6 - plasticine cast of a cord ornament; 7 - a stamp made of cord wound around a stick; 8 - imprint of a cord stamp on plasticine; 9 - imitation of a “textile” ornament on plasticine using a cord stamp.

The third type of rope stamp, which has a number of options, is a cord wound around a stick with a round cross-section. The imprints of the turns made with such a stamp are arranged in a row in the form of indentations, the shape of which depends on the nature of the lace and the method of winding. In some cases, a slightly twisted strand of fibers is wound around the stick with a small or large interval between turns. If the distances between the turns are significant, then the imprints on the vessel sometimes create a false impression of traces from the “basket” (Fig. 53 - 2). Often, impressions of this type are combined with rows of pits. Stamps made from tightly twisted cord into two strands, with turns closely spaced next to each other on a stick (Fig. 53-3), produce impressions of a more complex pattern, reminiscent of an ornament applied with a “flagellum,” but with a clearer and more regular shape. The number of turns wound on a stick ranges from 4 to 10. This type of stamp is interesting because with its help it is very easy to create the appearance of an imprint of coarse fabric by pressing the stamp evenly in a row so that there is no interval between each imprint. For comparison, here is a snapshot of the “textile” texture from the imprint of our rope stamp on plasticine (Fig. 53 - 9). It is very likely that many samples of Neolithic pottery from northeastern Europe, on which archaeologists have so far seen fabric prints, bear the impressions of a rope stamp obtained by this method.

Thus, the study of rope ornaments on clay vessels allows, in addition to an accurate restoration of the application technique, to provide some insight into such an important issue as the origin of weaving. When and how does it arise in northern Europe? After all, the fact of spinning threads, twisting cords and ropes, which we speak about with certainty, does not mean the existence of even the rudiments of weaving. Weaving should not be confused with weaving, which arose very early, possibly in the Paleolithic.

The simplest rope production is fully justified in the north by fishing, the need for nets, lines for fishing rods, etc. But the population of this region in the Neolithic era and even later continued to dress in large numbers in animal skins, leather and wickerwork.

It is also worthy of attention that the weaving of threads, laces and ropes, judging by the impressions of the studied ceramics, was made from fiber not of animal, but, most likely, of plant origin. Imprints of large fibers, strands and coils show that the fiber was not elastic, the coils easily wrinkled and shifted, and took on a disjointed appearance. Such signs are especially characteristic of plant fibers that have absorbed moisture.

Applying jagged ornaments (pit-comb) to vessels was a very elementary matter, perhaps simpler than decorating dishes using a cord stamp.

At a quick glance at pit-comb ceramics, much seems incomprehensible, since the tools (stamps) are reflected here in a negative form. In addition, some symmetry in the arrangement of ornamental details on the surface of the vessel creates the impression of complex work. But after plasticine casts were taken from the depressed ornament, the shape of the stamp, at least its working part, which is of greatest importance to us, became very clear. In some examples (Fig. 54) you can see that to obtain jagged images you do not even need a bone or stone stamp, similar to those presented in the work of M.V. Voevodsky. A piece of wood, a sliver with light notches or cuts along the end (which can be a matter of one or two minutes) is easily transformed into a stamp that gives very clear and distinct impressions on plastic material. There is no doubt that wooden stamps were used widely, but only stone and bone stamps have survived, from which we make judgments about the technique of applying the ornament.

RECONSTRUCTION OF GEAR TOOLS FOR SMOOTHING SURFACES AND APPLYING ORNAMENTS ON VESSELS FROM ILURATE AND OLVIA

Very often, when making simple vessels, Neolithic hunters and fishermen and potters of relatively developed societies, far advanced from the Neolithic stage, processed the surface of the vessels and applied ornaments with only one tool. The ironer in their hands also served as a stamp, which during ordinary observation escapes the attention of the archaeologist, who believes that in this case two or even several tools could have been used.

Such examples are very numerous. We will limit ourselves to considering first the simplest case, using ceramics from a Neolithic settlement discovered by N.N. Gurina near the city of Narva in 1951. Fragments of vessels were found here, covered with frequent small pits on the outside and furrowed with equally frequent grooves on the inside. At first, the outer surface appears to bear traces of rough fabric or weaving. But upon careful study, one can be convinced that it was simply “stuck” with a bunch of short twigs, with the help of which the inner surface of the vessel was smoothed. The width of the marks-furrows and the diameter of the pits (the impression of the twigs at the end) completely coincide, as do the outlines of the entire bunch, the shape of which is depicted here from different viewing angles. A bundle of thin twigs was quite suitable as a trowel or spatula, representing a flexible tool, very convenient for surface treatment. When pressed, its working end moved slightly to the sides and did not press through the soft walls of the raw vessel. It was especially advisable to use it when processing the internal surface.

A more interesting example of the use of a notched spatula and as a stamp is provided by materials from Olbia, delivered to the laboratory of S.I. Kaposhina from excavations in 1951. The gray-brown surface of the vessels was streaked with thin parallel grooves about 1-1.5 mm wide; The grooves are located in a certain order; these are traces of leveling the surface with a toothed tool (Fig. 55 - 1).

The use of a serrated instrument was not accidental. A spatula with a serrated edge had its advantages: when leveling the walls, the raw semi-liquid mass of clay on the surface was not captured by the edge of the tool, but was evenly distributed over the surface, spreading between the teeth. Here the same thing happened that can be observed when working with a bunch of twigs: the twigs do not remove the clay from the vessel, do not scrape it, but only move it from place to place. This was especially important when making pottery by hand. Consequently, working with a serrated tool or a bunch of twigs or plant stems was not yet the final finishing of the vessels, but only the final stage of shaping, after which smoothing and even polishing could follow. The latter was obviously done after drying.

Often clay products were not smoothed or polished. They went to drying and firing with such a scratched surface. In the case of vessels from Olbia, a serrated tool was also used to apply ornaments. They made impressions with the serrated end (end) along the rim and in other places (Fig. 55 - 5, 6). The impressions were made with the corner of the instrument and the entire serrated edge, but in all cases, in the depths of the impressions, traces of the teeth, the shape and size of which were the same, are very clearly visible. The size of the denticles corresponded to the width of the grooves on the entire surface. The width of the working part of the instrument could also be determined from impressions; in some places (Fig. 55-2) it was about 20 mm. Judging by the end prints, the thickness of the tool did not exceed 1.5 mm.

Thus, the gear tool was a small plate, slightly grooved, on the rectangular end of which light cuts were made in a row, forming small and very low teeth. The material for this tool apparently was animal tubular bone or a piece of shell. The length of the instrument is short, otherwise it would be difficult for them to work inside the vessels. Parallel horizontal grooves are visible on the outer and inner surfaces of the vessels, mainly in the upper part, in the neck. Reconstruction of the instrument, installed according to traces of work, according to impressions, is shown in Fig. 55-7.