Bylany.com >> Bylany >> LBK
LBK pottery
The LBK pottery corpus consists of two technological units: coarse ware (CW) and fine ware (FW). In previous studies, however, analogous interpretive division into table and utility pottery groups was applied. Both pottery groups can be characterized by the way how the ceramic fabric was treated. The coarse ware really represents ‘coarse’, thick-walled pottery with high ratio of tempering grits. Decoration of vessels’ surface is another characteristic marker. The coarse ware is mainly decorated with technical decoration elements such as impressions of fingers or nails into the wet clay, and plastic applications (projections – knobs, catches, eyelets). On the other hand, the fine ware is decorated with incised linear patters, whose style changes depend on chronology.
Interpretations of presence of numerous plastic applications on the coarse ware indicate that the vessels were probably for safety reasons tied round with strings. The strings secured the vessels from breaking, and enabled their better handling. Thus, the coarse pottery was very probably used mainly for common operations such as preparation of food, its storage, and it could also serve as containers of various objects. It is also possible that the incised linear decoration on fine ware represents visualisation of this binding; thus, the so-called notes on lines would imitate small bundles. Question whether the linear decoration had some symbolic significance such as self-identification of regional communities interconnected by kinship, has remained so far unsolved (BYLIFE).
