Introduction

The authors of quite a number of studies on West Balt pottery from north-eastern Poland have rarely paid attention to the methods of pottery manufacturing. Only Małgorzata Karczewska, in her doctoral theis on the pottery of the Bogaczewo Culture, made a comprehensive attempt to reconstruct the way the vessels were made. Technological traces left on earthenware by ancient manufacturers can tell us how the vessels were built and indicate the sequence of individual activities. Similar pottery traditions in different cultures may be due to their common origins and mutual connections.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss more than a dozen vessels with manufacturing traces from the Late Roman Period and the Migration Period, recovered during the excavations of the cemetery at Czerwony Dwór near Gołdap.

The text makes use of analyses and interpretations of vessel making methods presented in Polish literature by Włodzimierz Hołubowicz. As far as foreign literature is concerned, Alexander Bobrinsky’s work on the western regions of the former Soviet Union (excluding the Baltic republics) is significant.

Pottery from the Czerwony Dwór cemetery. General remarks

The cemetery of the Sudovian Culture at Czerwony Dwór in north-eastern Masuria (Fig. 1) was established at the beginning of the Late Roman Period and was in use until phase E2 of the Late Migration Period, i.e., it functioned from the end of the 2nd to the end of the 6th century CE. To date, the cemetery has yielded about 205 vessels, most of which have been preserved in their entirety or have been fully reconstructed in a drawing.

The medium- and large-sized vessels, such as pots and vases, which were most abundant in the cemetery, were mainly used as urns. The urns themselves were covered with other vessels in relatively few cases; vessels or their fragments were usually placed over the bones inside the urns. Occasionally, accessory vessels (small bowls, beakers and mugs) were found placed inside the urns or next to them. The Late Roman Period pottery from Czerwony Dwór is identical to that of the Bogaczewo Culture and consists mainly of slender flask-shaped specimens and wide-mouthed vases (Fig. 2).

The forms of the vessels from the Migration Period are less varied. Dominant are vessels with biconical and, less frequently, slightly rounded bodies, similar in proportion to wide-mouthed vases or pots with a narrower neck. Most of them have a similar height of 15–25 cm, although there are single specimens with a height of about 10–11 or 35 cm. Relatively small flowerpot-shaped or biconical bowls and beakers are less common.

Traces of the shaping technique on the Czerwony Dwór pottery

The methods of shaping the vessels from Czerwony Dwór have been deduced mainly on the basis of the marks (seams) where the individual parts of the vessels were joined together and the mutual relations between them. The bodies of the vessels sometimes cracked at the seams, revealing the original surface of the clay band. The carefully smoothed joints were not visible on either the outer or inner surface of the vessel.

Of the more than two hundred vessels found in the cemetery, manufacturing traces have been recorded on 12 specimens (see the list at the end of the text). Two of these can be dated to the Late Roman Period (Fig. 2), i.e., generally to subperiod C (grave 98b in barrow 36) and to phase C2 (grave 54a in barrow 30), and ten—to the Migration Period (Fig. 3–12).

The seams on the vessels from Czerwony Dwór were always horizontal (Figs. 3:2, 5:1–3, 6:2, 9:2–4, 10:1–3, 11:3.4, 12:2–4) with a sloping surface. In each case, the edge on the inner side of the vessel was lower than the outer edge (e.g., Fig. 7:1b–d). The difference in height between the lower and upper edge of the seam was about 2–4 cm (most often about 2.5 cm) with a standard wall thickness of about 0.8–1.2 cm.

A single vessel usually had several seams separating individual bands of clay. The biconical vessels from the Migration Period usually had two seams: one at the mid-height of the lower part and the other always at the largest circumference of the body (Figs. 3:1, 4:3, 6:1, 9:1, 10:4, 12:1). Such vessels were therefore shaped by joining three parts together. In a few cases, there were three seams, indicating that four bands of clay were used. It should be emphasised, however, that not all of the seams were always visible on the vessels; some bands were joined so tightly that their joining did not break.

Additional technological traces were found on the urn from grave 326 from barrow 7 (Fig. 11). On the upper negative of the seam at the largest part of the body there is a visible vertical fold of clay (Fig. 11:5b.6b), formed where the two ends of a coiled roll (strip) were joined; a similar mark was also recorded on a vessel from grave 274 (Fig. 8:4a). In addition, the upper surface of the seam was smeared with thin clay (Fig. 11:5c; remnants of such a procedure were also found on a vessel from grave 111d).

Reconstruction of making the vessels from the Czerwony Dwór cemetery

Relatively low vessels, a dozen or so centimetres high, were probably made from a single lump of clay, such as the small urn from grave 111c in barrow 25 (Fig. 13). The only element added later was a horizontal handle (grip) attached using the ‘pin’ method (the end of the clay roll was inserted into a hole in the wall of the vessel).

The taller vessels were built in ‘storeys’ from several pieces of clay. First, the entire bottom part, i.e. the base and the lower part of the body of the vessel body up to a height of several or a dozen or so centimetres, was shaped from a single lump of clay. The height of the vessel was then increased by attaching further bands of clay to the inner wall. The biconical vessels from the Migration Period usually consisted of three parts: the bottom and two superimposed bands—the middle band up to the level of the largest body circumference and the third, top band, which covered the upper part of the body. A few vessels were built with more bands (Fig. 7:1).

The formation of new bands of clay and their attachment to the lower part of the vessel could have been carried out in several ways, which have already been described by W. Hołubowicz. The edge of the seam surface (sharpening) on a vessel from grave 326 was deliberately wiped with fingers before the bands were joined. Thus, the roll of clay was probably also first shaped appropriately, with at least a part of it flattened into a strip, and only then was it attached to the lower part of the body. The thickness of the clay rolls used to build the individual ‘storeys’ of the vessel, regardless of the method of attachment, ranged from 3.6 cm to 7.7 cm, with an average of about 5.4 cm, which I calculated on the basis of the size of the bands attached. However, taking into account the linear shrinkage of clay during drying and firing, such a roll must originally have been slightly thicker, i.e., about 3.9−8.4 cm (average 5.9 cm) in diameter.

Additional applied elements

Once the shape of the vessel had been formed, the surface was treated and decorated. Only applied decoration can leave traces in the form of seams. In the case of the Czerwony Dwór vessels, the most common decorations were various knobs placed around the largest part of the body and horizontal cordons on the upper part of the vessel. The knobs were usually applied directly to the surface (Fig. 9:2d.3d), but at least in the case of the urn from grave 323, they were applied using the ‘pin’ method (Fig. 10:3c).

Less frequently, horizontal cordons were applied directly to the surface (Figs. 8:1b.2b, 9:2e). Occasional applied elements are grips (horizontal handles) attached to small vessels, either with the help of a ’pin’ (Fig. 13:1a.3a.4a) or directly to the surface of the vessel.

Analogies from north-eastern Poland.

Similar technological traces to those found at Czerwony Dwór, indicating the use of identical manufacturing techniques, have been found on vessels from several sites in north-eastern Poland. In the case of the Sudovian Culture territory, such vessels come from the cemeteries at Jemieliste, grave 4 in barrow 1 (Fig. 14:1.2), at Korkliny, grave 4 in barrow 3, at Bród Nowy, grave 10, burial 3, in barrow 1 (Fig. 14:6), at Bilwinowo, graves 1a and 4 in barrow 1 (Fig. 14:3-5), and at Bachanowo, grave 12 in barrow I (all in the Suwałki County).

The same traces of pottery making were also recorded amidst material from sites attributed to or associated with the Bogaczewo Culture. A pot with well-preserved remnants of several seams was found in the settlement at Tałty, Mrągowo County, feature 975 (Fig. 15), and three more specimens come from the cemetery at Łężany, Kętrzyn County, graves 51, 70 and 91.

The last vessel—from the settlement at Małe Raczki, Suwałki County —can be dated to the end of the Early Iron Age (West Balt Barrow Culture) or the Early Roman Period (beginning of the Bogaczewo Culture). It has a horizontal thickening on the body, about 1−1.5 cm wide, protruding about 2−3 mm above the surface (Fig. 14:7)—an obvious trace of a connection between the lower part of the vessel and the band attached above it.

Conclusions

The analysis of the manufacturing traces on the series of Late Roman Period and Migration Period vessels from the cemetery of the Sudovian Culture at Czerwony Dwór suggests that they were all made using a similar technique. This consisted of using a lump of clay to build the entire lower part of the vessel to a height ranging from about 6.5 cm to 12.5 cm. Then other similar bands of clay, a few centimetres or more wide, were gradually added to the inside of the vessel. The described technique, typical of the Sudovian Culture, presumably originated from the traditions of the Bogaczewo Culture.