A Preliminary Attempt to Reconstruct some Tools and Techniques of Ornamentation of the Comb-Pit Ware from the Site of Hepojarvi (Karelian Isthmus, Leningrad Oblast, Russia)

Abstract

The site of Hepojarvi is located on the northern coast of Hepojarvi lake, near Saint Petersburg, Russia. The site is a multi-layer settlement with different types of Neolithic pottery (from Sperrings to late Comb-Pit Ware); the settlement functioned in 5314 cal BC – 2342 cal BC. It was excavated in 1978 by I. V. Vereschagina. The aim of the current paper is to reconstruct some concrete tools and techniques of ornamentation which were used by the Neolithic people who lived in the settlement. Attention is focused on Comb-Pit Ware. It seems that there were very different techniques of ornamentation, some ornaments were made by ropes, some were made by knife-like stone tools, some were made by shell stamps with teeth; some seem to have been made by fish backbones, and techniques of some ornaments still remain unclear.

Keywords

• methods and techniques
• decoration
• ceramics
• neolithic
• russia