Mikhail I. Loshenkov
Yakub Kolas Central Scientific Library, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk (Loshenkov_mihail@mail.ru)
Keywords: hatched pottery culture, archaeobotanic collections, organic inclusions, plant species, palaeoethnobotanic spectrum.
The article deals with man-made admixtures of biological substance in handmade tableware of the bearers of the hatched pottery culture unexplored so far. Organic additives of grains and weed seeds were uncovered at eight main sites, i.e. two unfortified and six fortified settlements. These settlements are located in middle course of the Berezina basin and in the north part of Polesye in the Pripyat basin (fig. 1) spanning the period between the last quarter of the 1st millennium BC and the 4th century AD.
From 19430 examined fragments of tableware and pottery items 162 fragments with grains and various seeds were chosen. Laboratory research at the Institute of Experimental Botany identified 206 seed and grain additives. It was determined that pottery makers introduced grains, e.g. millet (Panicum miliaceum L.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) or, more rarely, beans (Vicia faba L.), into bodies/pastes. The addition of grain into clay dough was found in 95.6% of cases. Additions of weeds amount to 4.4%. Spring crops and beans were combined with eight types of weeds. On the whole, organic additives are found in one per cent of pottery made by the bearers of the hatched pottery culture in the region under study.
