ЕДИН НЕОБИЧАЕН СЪД ОТ РАННАТА ЖЕЛЯЗНА ЕПОХА ОТ СЕЛО ПОЛСКИ ГРАДЕЦ
AN UNUSUAL EARLY IRON AGE VESSEL FROM THE VILLAGE OF POLSKI GRADETS

Summary/Abstract: The paper focuses on the ceramic fragments from an Early Iron Age pit found in the course of explorations in the Gradishteto locality near the village of Polski Gradets, Stara Zagora region. The fragments are of handmade vessels and approximately half of them have technological characteristics of wheel-turned grey monochrome vessels. The peculiarity of the set stems from an almost entirely preserved vessel: a cup that has no parallels among Early Iron Age ceramic finds in Thrace. Analogous vessels are found in monochrome grey ceramic vessels in Aeolia (Smyrna, Mytilene, Larissa, etc.). The similarities in the morphology and the identical dimensions presuppose that a concrete prototype had been followed when the vessel was made and its shape did not acquire popularity with the subsequent adoption of that pottery in Thrace. On the basis of the other fragments of vessels found in the pit the production of the cup can be dated after the 8th century BC, which is confirmed by the dating of the parallels from Aeolia as well. That shape, which is not found in the repertoire of the grey monochrome ceramics penetrating into Thrace, probably reflected an early stage that still lacked imports of wheel-turned vessels into the interior of the lands. It is possible that this was a case of borrowing or reproduction of a prototype seen elsewhere (in Troy or in some of the colonies along the Northern Aegean coast).

• Details
• Contents