Particular Types of Bowls as Heralds of a New Age in the Balkans

Abstract

Slightly biconical bowls, the rims or entire upper cone of which are decorated with facets or channels, as well as semi-globular bowls of inverted rim, of identical ornamentation, are characteristic of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages sites within the territory of the Balkan Peninsula. This very indicative bowl shape is the main topic of this paper, as it could be connected with possible ethnic and cultural movements in the Balkans at the transition from the second into the first millennium BC. The first part of this paper deals with bowl typology in order to survey the genesis, evolution and distribution thereof, followed by given indicative sites from Moravia in the north, down to Greece in the south. The closing part of this paper deals with an analysis of problems concerning origin, chronology and distribution of the mentioned bowls, as well as with possible chronological and regional differences between individual types or varieties