To the Question of the Duration of Use of Black-Glazed Tableware (on Materials from Panticapaeum and Tanais)

Abstract

Despite of the existence of closed complexes, which include earlier Black-Glazed pottery, it is considered that with rare exceptions, the time of existence of Black-Glazed products is limited to a short period. If the interval between the production of such vassals and their delivery to the consumer really cannot be significant, the duration of the use of vessels depends on several factors. An analysis of the ceramic complexes from Panticapaeum and Tanais, containing a certain percentage of Black-Glazed dishes with traces of long-term use and repair, allows us to conclude that the time of its existence largely depended on the distance of the settlement from the distribution centers of ceramic products and its status. The percentage of products that were repaired and used longer than usual is noticeably higher in Tanais, located at a considerable distance from the capital of the Bosporian kingdom. In Panticapaeum this percentage is so insignificant that it is comparable with the data for Athens, one of the main centers for the production of black pottery ceramics. Unlike Olbia, where the relationship between periods of prosperity and the economic crisis of the polis and changes in the volume of repaired vessels was revealed, for Panticapaeum and Tanais, this dependence is not traced.

Keywords

• black-glazed pottery
• bosporan kingdom
• panticapaeum
• tanais
• repairing of ancient vessels