Pottery from Viminacium - a craft product of multipurpose function [apstrakt]

Abstract

The paper will present an overview of the shape, function and structure of cera mic vessels discovered during the decades-long archaeological excavations of Viminacium. These vessels are the product of a local pottery craft complex. The chemical and mineralogical characterization of the pottery production of this wor kshop suggests the presence of several groups of ceramic clays. Several basic clay masses are distinguished in relation to whether the final product was intended for preparing food, its consuming, or ritual laying in the grave of an inhumated or cremated deceased. Mineralogical and chemical examinations were conducted over the raw materials and it was determined that besides this pottery craft cen ter, there had to be another one in which was used the clay from the same loan. This conclusion follows the extensive analysis of the product range from this pottery complex, which is compared with the forms discovered on the necropo lis itself and in the settlement stratums. Forms that do not appear in the pottery range of this center, but are discovered at necropolises or in settlement stratums with the same chemical index in clay mass, must have been the product of another workshop at Viminacium whose production went parallel with the first one. The specificity of the material of this workshop complex is reflected in the fact that craftsmen who have responded to the needs of pottery use in funerary rituals at the necropolises have made these products in poor quality compared to those distribu ted to the living part of the population