O biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra:
Gespeichert in:
| 1. Verfasser: | |
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| Format: | Buch |
| Sprache: | Romanian |
| Veröffentlicht: |
Bucureşti
Ed. Acad. Române
2013
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| Schlagworte: | |
| Online-Zugang: | Inhaltsverzeichnis Abstract |
| Beschreibung: | Zsfassung in engl. Sprache u.d.T.: A biography of the neolithic pottery from Vădastra |
| Beschreibung: | 168 S., [32] Bl. Ill., graph. Darst., Kt. |
| ISBN: | 9789732723562 |
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| 245 | 1 | 0 | |a O biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra |c Radu-Alexandru Dragoman |
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Datensatz im Suchindex
| _version_ | 1804152100734631936 |
|---|---|
| adam_text | CUPRINS
Lista tabelelor
................................................................................................... 7
Lista ilustraţiei
.................................................................................................. 7
Mulţumiri
.......................................................................................................... 11
Prefaţă (acad. Alexandru Vulpe)
..................................................................... 13
1.
Introducere:
situi
neolitic de la Vădastra
................................................. 17
Localizarea
............................................................................................... 17
Cercetările arheologice
............................................................................ 17
Corneliu
N.
Mateescu: un arheolog aparte
.............................................. 23
2.
Stadiul cercetării
......................................................................................... 27
Istoricul unei practici dominante: demersul cultural-istoric în arheologia
română
............................................................................................ 27
Ceramica Vădastra în texte
...................................................................... 34
Premise teoretice. Structura lucrării
......................................................... 45
3.
Tehnologia ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra
.......................................... 48
Introducere
............................................................................................... 48
Olarii
........................................................................................................ 48
Sursele de materii prime
.......................................................................... 50
Degresarea
............................................................................................... 53
Modelarea
................................................................................................ 54
Tratarea suprafeţei
................................................................................... 55
Arderea
.................................................................................................... 58
Epilog
....................................................................................................... 61
4.
Către determinarea funcţionalităţii vaselor
............................................. 63
Introducere
............................................................................................... 63
Despre funcţie şi utilizare
........................................................................ 64
Catalog cu vase întregi/întregibile şi
profile
complete de la Vădastra
.... 71
5.
Despre recipiente, corp uman şi circulaţia substanţelor
......................... 94
Introducere
............................................................................................... 94
Studiu de caz: vasele incizate şi excizate Vădastra ca persoane....
.......... 95
Despre recipientele antropomorfe
............................................................ 100
Epilog
....................................................................................................... 103
6.
în pământ
..................................................................................................... 106
Introducere
............................................................................................... 106
Despre noţiunea de „resturi menajere
.................................................... 107
Trei contexte
............................................................................................
HO
Epilog
.......................................................................................................
П8
7.
Concluzii şi perspective
.............................................................................. 119
O poveste
................................................................................................. 119
Despre „efectul-în-istorie al vaselor Vadastra
....................................... 121
Cercetări viitoare
..................................................................................... 124
Bibliografìe
....................................................................................................... 127
Contents............................................................................................................ 139
Abstract
............................................................................................................. 141
Anexă: Groapa
і
(„de pe rund ), Vadastra,
1946,
Măgura Fetelor
-
raport
arheozoologic (Valentin Dumitraşcu)
...................................................... 167
Ilustraţii
............................................................................................................ 169
ABSTRACT
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE NEOLITHIC POTTERY
FROM
VĂDASTRA
(1)
INTRODUCTION: THE NEOLITHIC SITE FROM
VĂDASTRA
SITE LOCATION
The Neolithic settlement of
Vädastra-Magura
Fetelor
lies in the south of
Romania, in the Oltenian Plain, part of the Romanian Plain,
14
km north-west of
the town of
Corabia,
on a hill named
Dealul Cişmelei
by locals.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH
As resulted from the excavations reports, the main goal of those who
conducted the excavations in the settlement of
Vadastra-Măgwra Fetelor/Dealul
Cişmelei
was establishing and later checking the relative chronology of the site
(Christescu,
1927-1932: 169-205;
Berciu,
1934: 75-79; 1937: 1-9).
So far, the
most extensive excavations have been carried out by Corneliu
N.
Mateescu, between
1946-1974,
with some interruptions (Mateescu,
1949; 1955;
1959a; 1959b; 1961a;
1962a; 1962b; 1970a; 1970b;
1973;
Protopopescu-Pake
et al,
1969: 136-149)
(Figure
1.2).
The anthropogenic deposits are about three meters thick in the center
of the hillock, getting thinner and thinner (till
0.50
m
thick) as the hillock gets
farther. C.
N.
Mateescu provided the following
stratigraphie
sequence (Figure
1.3):
(1)
Paleolithic layer with a maximum thickness of
0.60
m
and no archaeo¬
logical features;
(2)
Medium layer with no archaeological material
-
with a maximum
thickness of
0.45-0.50
m;
(3)
Vadastra I layer (Neolithic) with a thickness of
0.40-0.04
m, pervaded by
many later pits; in this layer C.
N.
Mateescu uncovered pit-houses , pits,
as well as a ditch suposed to have surrounded the settlement (Mateescu,
1961b; 1970c;
1972);
(4)
Vadastra II layer (Neolithic): with a thickness of
0.80-0.06
m; it could
have had more levels, that were not noticed; in this layer C.
N.
Mateescu
uncovered a two-room house with a verandah built of a pole skeleton
142
________________________________________
RADU-ALEXANDRU
DRAGOMAN
with wattle bound with clay, remains from other destroyed houses built in
the same way, many pits, a kiln etc. (Mateescu,
1965; 1978;
Lichter,
1993: 139-140,
catalogue number
107;
Comănescu
and Mateescu,
1971;
Comşa,
1976:355);
(5)
Sălcuţa
layer (Copper Age) with a thickness of
0.65-0.05
m; on
Măgura
Fetelor,
the upper part of this layer has been destroyed by ploughing and
erosion; in this layer, several inhumation graves have been investigated;
(6)
Layer with Mediaeval Age dwelling traces: XIV-th, XVII-th and XVIII-th
centuries; the lower part of this layer has been preserved on
Dealul
Cişmelei;
in this layer several pit-houses, kims and pits have been invest¬
igated (Mateescu,
1960; 1963; 1968;
1970d; Mateescu and
Comănescu,
1972; 1973;
Comănescu
and Mateescu,
1970; 1970-1971).
Based on the pottery imports found in the two
Vădastra
layers (Mateescu,
1959a:
66
and 65-Fig.
2/2;
1959b:
112
and
113 -
Fig.
6;
1961a:
58
and
59 -
Fig.
1/2
and Fig.
2),
it has been argued that the Neolithic site was chronologically
contemporary with the Linear Pottery with Musical Notes/
Notenkopf, Boian-
Bolintineanu and
Boian-Giuleşti
sites. Based on the data on the relative and
absolute chonology of the site and and the existing 14C data for other Neolithic
traditions,
Vădastra
culture was dated between
5200
and
4900
CAL.
ВС
(Mantu,
1999-2000:
101-table2).
С.
N.
Mateescu divided the
Vădastra
pottery in two chronologic phases,
corresponding to the two identified Neolithic layers. In his opinion, the
Vadastra
I
layer is characterized by burnished black/greyish pottery decorated with
channellings or with incised bands with dots filled with white paste (the so-called
Vinca
style), while the Vadastra II layer is characterized by burnished black/brown
pottery decorated with excised motifs {e.g. Mateescu, 1961b;
1965).
According to
C.
N.
Mateescu, on some fragments found only in the upper part of the
Vădastra
I
layer the decoration made up of channellings is associated with excised decoration
(Mateescu, 1961b:
533; 1965: 260-261).
The surface-roughened pottery occurs in
both layers {e.g.
Gâţă
and Mateescu,
1992).
However, some archaeologists claimed
that the Neolithic materials from
Vădastra
can be divided in four phases and not
two
(Nica,
1971: 32).
Even more, others suggested that the material from the
Vădastra
I layer is actually part of a later phase of
Dudeşti
culture , and the
material from the
Vădastra
II layer belongs either to the actual
Vădastra
culture ,
or to a local version of the Boian culture ,
Giuleşti
phase {e.g. Dumitrescu VI,
1974;
Comşa,
1998-2000).
Instead of the stylistic-typological analyses which
produced such a confused image, I believe that more secure informations regarding
the chronological positions of the various pottery categories could be obtained by
direct dating of the Neolithic pottery {e.g. Bonsall
et al,
2002;
Cosma
et al,
2006;
Benea
et al.,
2007),
or
by relating the pottery analyzis with the I4C data from the
same contexts.
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM
VĂDASTRA
____________________^
CORNELIU
N.
MATEESCU: A PARTICULAR ARCHAEOLOGIST
Of all those who conducted field research at
Vădastra,
the name of
C.
N.
Mateescu is the one most tied to this site. For
20
years he returned to
Vădastra,
spending long periods in the field. Even though his endeavour is part of
the positivistic-empiricist research model (see for example Mateescu,
1971: 649),
in many ways his approach was different from his
collegues ,
going beyond the
rigid and artificial boundaries of the existing disciplines at that time. He initiated
geomorphological (Mateescu and Protopopescu-Pake,
1968—1969;
Protopopescu-
Pake
et al.,
1969),
palynological
(Leroi-Gourhan
et
ah,
1967),
archaeozoological
(Mateescu,
1975;
Gheţie
and Mateescu,
1970-1971; 1971; 1974; 1977; 1978)
or
pottery technology studies
(Gâţă
and Mateescu,
1987;
1992a; 1992b;
1999-2001).
Such topics were perceived as a frivolous loss of time by the dominant paradigm,
which was obsessed with chronology. C.
N.
Mateescu has also co-authored the
invention of a method of measuring the volume of archaeologically researched pits
(e.g.
Comănescu
and Mateescu,
1971).
(2)
STATE OF RESEARCH
THE HISTORY OF A DOMINANT PARADIGM:
THE CULTURAL-HISTORICAL ENDEAVOUR
IN THE ROMANIAN ARCHAEOLOGY
In the archaeological practice from Romania, in spite of the critical voices
(e.g. Niculescu Gh.
ΑΙ.,
1997; 2000;
Vulpe,
2001;
Anghelinu,
2003;
Palincaş,
2006),
the cultural-historical approach has retained its dominant status: for example, from
the inter-war period up to present, in the syntheses dedicated to an/some
epoch(s),
the material culture is presented by cultures (Nestor,
1932;
Berciu, 1939a;
1961;
1966;
Petrescu-Dîmboviţa,
1978;
Dumitrescu VI. and
Vulpe,
1988;
Ursulescu,
1998;
Maxim,
1999;
Petrescu-Dîmboviţa
and
Vulpe,
2001;
Luca,
2006;
Pătroi,
2013).
In
contrast with the scientific and allegedly objective discourse, the cultural-historical
archaeology has ignored the materiality of objects and interpretated the remote past
in the terms of modernity. Moreover, consciously or not, it has served political
ideologies. An example of this is represented by the case of the
Vădastra
pottery.
VĂDASTRA
POTTERY IN TEXTS
Since the excavations carried out at
Vădastra-Mîgwra Fetelor
by the middle
of the
1920s
(Christescu,
1927-1932),
the
Vădastra
pottery has been the focus of
interest only from a cultural-chronological perspective. The ultimate aim of the
ШЅШ^Жг&ШШѕЏѕШЧ,^^
•■Ví
144_______________________________________
RADU-ALEXANDRU DRAGOMAN
excavations in a series of Vadastra sites was resolving the issue of the origin and
development of the Vadastra culture
(Nica,
1970: 32)
and the success of the
archaeological excavations allegedly consisted in clarifying the issue of the
evolution of the Vadastra culture by phases
[...]
(Nica,
1971: 31).
That reflects
also in the manner of publication: a current practice in Romanian archaeology is
presenting the archaeological finds selectively, according to the cultural phases to
which they were attributed and not on the archaeological contexts they were found
in. The result consists in developing different, often contradictory periodization
systems for Vadastra culture , comprising two, four, or five phases (Mateescu,
1961; 1965;
Berciu,
1966: 93-98;
Nica,
1971).
The very emergence of the
Vadastra excised pottery is a debated topic: while some authors consider that the
excised pottery develops from the
Dudeşti
incised pottery
(Nica,
1970; 1971;
1976),
others consider that its emergence north of the Danube is the result of a
southern cultural
demie
impulse whose area of origin might be north-west
Anatolia and south-east Thracia (Pandrea,
1999: 21, 25).
During the 2000s, the
culture s dispersal area, the origin and the synchronisms continued to be the
most important topics for the Romanian archaeologists (e.g. Mirea,
2009).
The
notable exceptions regarding the analysis of the Vadastra pottery came from
foreign archaeologists, whose working agenda was radically different, focusing on
topics ranging from the pottery technology or functionality to the manners of
pottery deposition (van As
et al,
2005;
Thissen,
2008).
As they were interested in clearing up the origin and the evolution of the
Vadastra culture , the archaeologists from Romania used two types of discourse
that (often) coexist in the framework of the same text. In the first type of discourse
the language used is one borrowed from biology: the Vadastra culture is born,
lives, reaches maturity, mingles with another culture , generates a new culture
and dies out, either from natural causes or its death is triggered by another
culture . In the second type of discourse the Vadastra culture plays on the stage
of prehistory the role the nations play on the stage of history, as the social and
political reality specific of modernity is projected into the past. The fact that the
archaeologists regard an archaeological culture as a modem nation with an ethnic
base is proven by the frequent use of expressions such as Vadastra culture
bearers ,
Vădastrian
populations etc. In the end, Romanian archaeologists used
Vadastra pottery as raw material for building historical narratives (see Table
2.1).
Another characteristic feature of the way Vadastra excised pottery has been
interpreted consists in including in the category of ritual , either explicitly or
implicitly, everything that does not correspond to the common sense outlook of
the archaeologist. The separation that modernity makes between the sacred and
profane is projected by archaeologists into the past, taking for granted that people
in Neolithic thought and behaved the same way: thus, it is considered that the pots
with human figures reflect the spiritual life of the Vadastra culture bearers
(Nica,
1980: 27),
while, implicitly, the pots without human faces had only an utilitarian
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM
VÀDASTRA
____________________
j45_
function.
Vădastra
excised pottery has always fascinated Romanian archaeologists,
as proven by the fact that in various texts we encounter the statement that Next to
the painted pottery of the Eneolithic Cucuteni culture,
Vădastra
culture pottery
undoubtedly constitutes the highest expression of the pottery making art in the
entire European Neolithic
[...]
(Dumitrescu VI.
, 1974: 53-54;
see also
Nica,
1971: 19;
Mirea,
2009).
Consequently,
Vădastra
excised pots are present in works
on prehistoric art in Romania, such as those written by Vladimir Dumitrescu (e.g.
Dumitrescu VL,
1974).
Hence, although the pots are attributed a utilitarian function,
their decoration might be the result of a preoccupation relating to the domain of
art .
Last but not least, through the type of narratives developed, many archaeo¬
logists served/are serving, consciously or not, the dominant ideologies. For example, as
noticed in the accounts on
pre-
and protohistory, from the interwar period to the
present (Nestor,
1932;
Berciu,
1966; 1968;
Petrescu-Dîmboviţa,
1978;
Dumitrescu
VI. and
Vulpe,
1988;
Ursulescu,
1998;
Petrescu-Dîmboviţa
and
Vulpe,
2001),
the
Vădastra
culture , with the capital in the eponymous settlement, became a link
into a chain of archaeological cultures by which
-
explicitly or implicitly
-
the
origins of the Romanian nation are pushed far back into the past.
Summarizing, in Romanian archaeological literature
Vădastra
excised pots
are still reduced to the status of guide fossils , strictly functional objects, works
of art and/or propaganda objects. In the particular case of
Vădastra
pottery, an
example that undoubtedly can be extrapolated to the entire positivist-empiricist
archaeological approach, there is a double discourse. On the one hand, a discourse
deemed scientific turns the pots into types , guide fossils , chronological
indicators; from that point of view, even the archaeological contexts are understood
similarly, the layers being defined as simple containers of types , equivalent to
cultural phases. On the other hand, there is a discourse turning the pots into works
of art , cultural goods meant for the general public , the cultivated one. Put
together, the element linking these two discourses becomes clearer: the decon-
textualization of objects. From my point of view, by tackling objects this way,
archaeologists do nothing but to bring about common knowledge deguised in
scientific appearances. Due to this approach, archaeologists learn nothing from the
past, and only model it after the image of the present. The interpretations produced
by cultural-historical archaeology
anihilate
the complexity of people in the past
(their material culture), reducing them to the status of a collective character made
to act in a historical play. I consider this type of approach a form of colonialism: in
the name of an allegedly scientific and, implicitly, objective mission, archaeo¬
logists have appropriated the past; they have organized it in accordance with their
contemporary common sense. Ultimately, the way the people in the past were
tackled by the archaeologists whose research philosophy is positivist-empiricist
represents an act of symbolic violence.
146 _____________________________
RADU-ALEXANDRU
DRAGOMAN
It should also be stressed that, in contrast with the official discourse of
cultural-historical archaeology, the overwhelming majority of materials (especially
pottery) remain unpublished, and for a significant part of these materials the
contextual data has been lost, as the packages have deteriorated either in storage or
during the various relocations.
THEORETICAL PREMISES AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK
The universe of the people from the Neolithic is fundamentally different from
the contemporary (post-)modem world
(Olsen, 2001).
Emmanuel
Lévinas
(2000;
2006)
draws attention to the uniqueness of human beings and to the fact that we are
responsible for others beyond our intentions. Pretending that we can know every¬
thing about an Other, we take him/her into our possession. However, the reduction
of The Other s alterity to The Same, the annihilation of the differance, is an act of
violence which contains in it the seeds of domination (ibid). Following others
(Hegardt,
1996 11-13; 2000, 96-99,
Thomas, 2004a:
238;
2004b:
31),
I think this
otherness must be respected, that between the archaeologist and the people from
the past that (s)he studies should be an ethical relation and not one of domination, a
relation which would not claim that, sooner or later, we will get to know everything
about the other. Otherwise, the archaeologists attitude towards the human beings
of the past, analogous to the attitude towards the people of today can be
categorized as an insult or degradation , to use two of the terms discussed by
Axel Honneth
(1992).
As in the case of humans, the archaeological objects should be treated with
respect: to be given attention and not to be considered merely a means or a tool to
understand a more important reality . A respectful attitude towards objects not
only involves the manner of the analysis and interpretation, but also the attention
with which they are brought to light: from the archaeological context in which they
are discovered, to their publication, from the way they are displayed in exhibitions,
to their storage in optimum conditions. Finally, bringing to light the otherness of
people and objects coming from Prehistory constitutes itself in a political act that
opposes globalization and the policies of the destruction of traditional societies
from the recent or contemporary past, policies promoted by the communist or
neoliberal
ideology.
The research philosophy adopted in this paper can be well summarized by
one of the comments made by St. Gregory
Pålarnas
in the dispute with Varlaam
regarding the knowledge of things: The wisdom of sciences
[...]
even if it has
some truth in it, is uncertain, volatile, often warring with itself
(Stăniloae,
2006:
38).
The archaeological approach, including this one, is an interpretative one due to
the fact that it operates in a particular academic, social, economic, political and
personal context from the present, a subjective one; any archaeological discourse,
even the most dry is interpretative and subjective, whether the fact is admitted or
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM
VĂDASTRA
___________________147
not (e.g., Shanks and Tilley,
1987;
Tilley,
1993;
Shanks and Hodder,
1995).
For
this reason I support the idea that any action should be explicitly interpretative. As
it has been said before, this does not imply that any interpretation is as valid as any
other: the archaeological data opposes resistance to the interpretations constructed
by archeologists; one cannot say anything about the archaeological objects (e.g.,
Tilley,
1990;
Shanks and Hodder,
1995;
Lampeter
Archaeology Workshop,
1997).
Moreover, as shown by
Håkan Karlsson,
the interpretative horizon and pre-
understanding are not just influenced by the context (academic, sociopolitical, etc.)
in which the archaeologist produces such interpretations, but also by the objects
themselves, by their effect-in-history
(Karlsson,
2000).
In other words, as
I showed in the last chapter, the interpretations of the
Vădastra
pottery are partly
the result of the fusion between the vessels historical effect and the contextually
circumscribed pre-understanding.
The intention of this text is not that of analysing the vessels as a means to
address issues such as chronology, communities economy or social structures,
although these are topics that deserve attention. A monograph of the excavations
conducted so far at
Vădastra
is envisaged for the nature, as part of a collective
endeavor, one that would include analyses of all types of materials, including a
representative sample of the excavated pottery. For now I just wanted to counter¬
balance the simplifying and standardizing discourse of the cultural-historical
archeology and to bring the vessels themselves into the spotlight. Therefore,
I turned my attention to the materiality of the vessels, trying to understand what
they did, what roles they played in the lives of people from the Neolithic settlement
at
Vădastra-Mogwra Fetelor/Dealul Cişmelei.
Following
Björnar
Olsen (2003),
I assumed that the objects (in this case the
Vădastra
pots) are not mere passive
tools available to people to be used and to which these users assign different
meanings, but rather objects with power, which can help, influence and change
people s lives.
From a methodological point of view, in the analysis of
Vădastra
pottery
Ï
adopted a biographical perspective. Introduced at first by Igor Kopytoff
(1986),
and then widely used in Archeology and Anthropology, this method provides
information about the relationship between people and objects (Joy,
2009
with
references). The biographical data of an object is found in the object itself and can
be identified by analyzing the characteristics embodied in the object when
manufactured, the manufacturing technology
ofthat
object, the possible uses or by
analyzing the deposition context (Joy,
2009: 545).
Just as with humans, the
biography of an object is relational, therefore, in order to understand it, one needs
to consider also those objects that make up this relationship (Joy,
2009).
The
biographical approach can be applied both to individual objects and to a class of
objects. Consequently, Chapter
3
refers to the process through which
Vădastra
pots
are born (the selection of clay, tempering, shaping, the surface treatment and
firing); in Chapter
4
1 refered to the primary function of vessels and possible uses,
J48
_____________________
RADU-ALEXANDRU DRAGOMAN
and in Chapter
5
I discussed the status and role of pots, both chapters being
dedicated to the life of vessels; Chapter
6
is focused on the moment when the
Vădastra
pots reached the ground, referring to the death or afterlife of the
containers. However, the life cycle of the
Vâdastra
vessels does not stop with their
deposition in the Neolithic times, but continues with their discovery, and also with
what has been written and is going to be written about them (see articles about the
life cycle of objects, for example Shanks,
1998),
including this text (see last
chapter).
(3)
THE
VĂDASTRA
POTTERY TECHNOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
This chapter is an interpretative summary of the available data on the
technology of the
Vădastra
pottery
(Gâţă
and Mateescu,
1987;
1992a; 1992b;
Gâţă
and Dragoman,
2004-2005; 2010-2011;
ms.), data regarding a total of ca.
1172
fragments of pottery and
43
figurines.
THE POTTERS
Frequently, in the archaeological literature in Romania, the information on
the Neolithic and Copper Age potters is either missing entirely or consists of
contemporary prejudices projected onto the past. The women are associated with a
production at household level, a simpler one, while men are associated with
specialized production, one involving superior technology (Comsa,
1987: 101;
Anghel,
1999: 40).
A different opinion, but still biased, is that the variety of
pottery shapes and decoration, sometimes extremely sophisticated and executed
with outstanding precision, requires specialization, and hence the existence of
skilled craftsmen (more likely men)
[... ]
(Dumitrescu VI. and
Vulpe,
1988: 27).
However, none of these authors felt the need to bring forward any arguments to
support their interpretation.
Several pottery fragments from
Vădastra
bear men s fingerprints (Mateescu,
1965: 260).
Most probably, taking into account the ethnographic examples, in
various stages of vessel manufacturing participated both men and women (Wright,
1991: 198).
THE SOURCES OF RAW MATERIALS
C.
N.
Mateescu interpreted some of the discovered Neolithic pits to have
been dug for the extraction of clay used for the shaping of vessels (Protopopescu-
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM
VÁDASTRA
_____________________149^
Pake
et al,
1969: 151, 152;
Mateescu,
1965: 260;
1970a:
56, 58;
1970b:
70, 71).
Therefore, analyzes were performed on samples taken from possible sources of
clay used at
Vădastra
in the Neolithic. It seems that the raw material varies from
clayish sand to clay, with a content of clay ranging from
8
to
28%,
quartz content
between
20
to
55%
and carbonate content from
1
to
54%.
The distribution of the
clay and pottery samples according to the height of the X-ray diffraction quartz and
calcite
lines indicated that the most used has been the clay from the
Obârşia
stream,
with
74%
of the pottery fragments (Figures
3.1
and
3.2).
These findings are
supported by experimental studies conducted at
Vădastra
(Gibson,
2002;
Gheorghiu,
2000—2001)
(Figure
3.3-3.4).
Some of the fragments seem to have belonged to
vessels that have not been made in the settlement of
Vădastra:
two
Vinca
type
fragments and three fragments with spiral channellings
(Gâţă
and Dragoman,
2004-2005: 13-14, 15).
Though they had multiple sources of clay available, the potters from
Vădastra
used primarily the clay from the
Obârşia
stream, while the dwellings have been
built with clay extracted from the pits dug in the settlement. These choices might
have a symbolic meaning, and not just a utilitarian one: while the clay from the
water relates to the idea of the element which contributes to the regenaration of
life, the one taken from the settlement might be in connection with the world of the
ancestors.
During the excavations there have also been discovered frgaments of ochre
and white paste (Figure
3.5).
The white paste (used for decorating the pots) has a
local source and studies suggest that the raw matter was selected so that a high
quality white could be obtained
(Gâţă
and Mateescu,
1987;
1992b). The red ochre
was obtained from multiple sources: the central and southern parts of
Oltenia
and
possibly
Muntenia
too, and, less frequently, the Danube Gorge, but also sources
from downstream or south of the Danube
(Gâţă
and Mateescu,
1999-2001).
The
presence of ochre among the exchange goods might suggest its symbolic value for
the Neolithic people from
Vădastra.
TEMPERING
AH sherds were tempered with vegetal material. The paste always contains
quartz granules and flakes of white mica (both inside and outside) resulting from
the clay sources. Some potsherds contain shells which seem to come from the clay
sources. The quartz grains are evenly spread in the pottery mass. In the case of the
surface-roughened ( common ) potsherds, millimeter sized quartz, pebbles and
mica granules can be observed. Some surface-roughened pottery fragments contain
sherds pounded into paste, which might be intrusions from the
Sălcuţa
layer (which
overlaps the
Vădastra
ones).
The porosity indices and their relationship with the wall thickness and
diameter also showed that, compared with other types of vessels, the potters from
RADU-ALEXANDRU
DRAGOMAN
the Neolithic settlement at
Vădastra
paid more attention to the tempering of the
incised and excised pottery
(Gâţă
and Dragoman,
2004-2005: 19, 21; 2010-2011).
This might indicate the importance these pots had in the life of the community.
MODELLING
Shaping pots was made by hand, by the coiling technique (Figures
3.6-3.8).
At first, the bottom of the vessel was shaped, in one piece, and then the vessel was
built by partialy overlapping strips of clay. The footed vessels were made of two
parts that were united after modeling. In the case of vessels with legs, these were
added. Some vessels appear to have been modeled from several segments, as the
case with the large size storage pots. Small vessels (for example, the miniature
ones) have been molded from a single piece of clay.
A number of vessel bases have vegetal impression which were interpreted as
the result of putting the vessel on a mat to dry
(Gâţă
and Dragoman,
2004-2005:
24)
(see Figure
3.9: 1-2).
However, it is also likely for the imprints to have actually
originated from the woven baskets that were used to model the bottom of these
vessels (Godon,
2010: 699).
Through calculating the modeling index, we could highlight that the potters
kept the same thickness of the vessel walls. In the same time, it seems that they
paid greater attention to the modelling of the incised and excised pots
(Gâţă
and
Dragoman,
2004-2005: 22-23),
a fact which indicates once again that these vessels
played an important role in the life of the Neolithic community from
Vădastra.
SURFACE TREATMENT
Based on the surface treatement, the pottery was divided in three categories:
A. Plain burnished pottery (Figure
3.10: 1);
B. Decorated burnished pottery , with chanellings (Figure
3.10: 2-5
and
Figure
3.11);
grooved, incised and excised (Figure
3.12: 1-5);
incised (Figure
3.12:
6-8);
and incised bands filled with dots
-
the so-called
Vinca
type (Figure
3.13);
С
Surface-roughened pottery ( common ): undecorated or decorated
(barbotine stripes, fingers and nails impressions, impressions with an object,
incisions, plastic decoration or combinations of the above techniques) (Figures
3.14-3.15).
For burnishing the vessels were used: smooth rounded or triangular shaped
stones (Figure
3.16: 1-2),
pottery fragments (Figure
3.16: 3),
and possibly
perishable materials which haven t survived. The burnished vessels are deliberately
made to be bright.
For decorating pottery the potters used different tools, which can be seen
from the appearance of the impressions made on pots. At
Vădastra,
decorating with
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM
VÀDASTRA
__________________151
white colour took place before firing, the potters using a kind of brushes whose
traces are sometimes left preserved in the white colour
(Gâţă
and Mateescu, 1992b:
241-242).
The red ochre was applied both before and after firing, the latter being
the most common technique. Ochre was applied with a kind of brashes or ceramic
fragments
(Gâţă
and Mateescu,
1999-2001: 193)
(Figure
3.16: 4).
The preference of the potters from
Vădastra
for aplying the red ochre before
firing was explained in strictly technological terms
(Gâţă
and Mateescu,
1999-
2001: 188, 195).
However, in my opinion, the technological choice is imbued with
symbolism. The fact that ochre turns redder during firing, due to the gradual
transformation of geotite into hematite (ibid:
188
and note
51),
might have been
considered in the Neolithic to be a manifestation of the magical properties of ochre,
but also of the supernatural power of fire.
FIRING
The vessels were fired in open spaces (pits) with varying temperature,
between
400
to
550°
C, so that the outer ceramic mass reached temperatures up to
600°
C, while the temperature inside the vessels with thick walls barely reached
200°
C. The surface-roughened cooking vessels underwent secondary uneven firing,
in an oxidising atmosphere, at temperatures above
550°
С
(Gâţă
and Dragoman,
2004-2005: 24).
When it comes to firing installations, Mateescu discovered at
Vădastra
a kiln and several pits for firing pots, all in the
Vădastra
Π
layer (Mateescu,
1959a:
68-69;
1970a:
58)
(Figure
3.17).
To date we have gathered information on
10
firing installations.
The pottery firing technology is confirmed also by the colour of the analysed
fragments: usually they do not have a uniform exterior colour
(Gâţă
and Dragoman,
2004-2005: 9, 11).
Also, one can not talk about a dedicated area in the settlement
for the firing of pottery (Figure
3.18).
EPILOGUE
It has been customary to interpret the Neolithic pottery technology from
Romania in practical terms. The symbolic component is completely ignored. A
number of ethnographic examples highlight however that the production techno¬
logy of a vessel or the selection of raw materials may also contain this component.
In this respect, some supporting evidence can be the preference for utilising clay
from the
Obârşia
stream bed, the search for the purest white, the procurement of
some of the red ochre from some distance, the preference for applying red ochre
befire firing and the atention paid to the incised and excised pottery.
152________________________________________________
RADU-ALEXANDRU DRAGOMAN
(4)
TOWARDS DETERMINING THE VESSELS FUNCTIONALITY
INTRODUCTION
An important element in understanding the roles that these vessels played in
the life of the Neolithic community from
Vădastra
is to determine their functionality.
Taking the definitions established by
Zoi
Tsirtsoni
(2001: 1),
it should be mentioned
that by the function of a vessel I understand the action for which it was destined.
The term is different from that of use , which refers to using the vessel in one way
or another; use can coincide with function or can be radically different (Tsirtsoni,
2001: 1-2).
In several cases, the function of a vessel, based on the archaeologist s
typological criteria has been contradicted by laboratory analysis (see, for example,
the case of the Copper Age
Milchtopf
from Hungary
-
Craig
et al> 2003).
Therefore, content analysis (as gas cromatography and mass spectometry) are
needed when trying to establish the functionality of vessels.
FUNCTION AND USE
In my attempt of realising a typology of
Vădastra
vessels, I have taken as a
starting point for detremining their functionality the following materials:
(1)
whole/
restorable and complete profiles from the collections of the Institute of Archaeology
Vasile
Pârvan ,
Bucharest, from the National History Museum of Romania,
Bucharest, and from the Museum of
Oltenia,
Craiova;
(2)
drawings from the I.A.B.
archive, C.
N.
Mateescu archive, and from publications of some vessels which
could not be found;
(3)
for the
Vinca
type pottery, I have used fragments which
were the subject of the technological analysis of Gheorghe
Gâţă.
The main charac¬
teristics taken into consideration were: shape, size and the treatement of the vessels
surface. Based on these criteria, the vessels have been divided in the following
categories:
A. Open shapes
I. Cups (Figure
4.1: 1)
II. Goblets (Figure
4.1: 2-Ю;
Figure
4.2: 1-3)
III. Beakers (Figure
4.2: 4-6;
Figure
4.3)
IV. Bowls (Figures
4.4-4.6)
V. Dishes (Figures
4.7-4.8)
VI. Plates (Figure
4.9: 1-3)
VII.
Trays (Figure
4.9:4)
VIII.
Small size vessels (Figure
4.10)
IX. Pedestaled vessels (Figure
4.16: 11)
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM
VÀDASTRA
____________________153
B. Closed shapes
X. Holemouth pots (Figure
4.11)
XL Jars (Figure
4.12: 1-4)
XII.
Large size vessels (Figure
4.13)
C.
Varia
XIII.
Sieves (not illustrated)
XIV.
Lids (Figure
4.14)
D. Special shapes
XV. Footed plates (Figure
4.15: 4-5)
XVL Vessels with small legs (Figure
4.15:2-3)
XVII.
Miniature vessels (Figure
4.15: 1)
XVIII.
Anthropomorphic vessels (see Chapter
5)
The plain burnished pottery comprises of a goblet, three bowls, a dish and a
drinking bowl (Thissen,
2008: 106, 108),
all burnished inside, which would
indicate that this category would be destined to consumption and presentation of
liquids. The pottery decorated with chanellings comprises of a cup, goblets,
beakers, bowls, pedestaled vessels (open shapes) and jars (closed shapes)
-
all
related with the consumption and presentation of liquids. The size of some of the
vessels suggests they have been used in common , as in several persons were
drinking from a container. Frequently, just the superior part of the vessels is
decorated with channellings: they cover the area between the neck and the
maximum diameter, and sometimes the neck of the vessel. It should be stressed
that in order to observe the chanellings one needs either to touch the vessel with
ones fingers opposed to how the channellings are oriented, or to be positioned at a
close distance, with the vessel in light, or to bring the vessel closer to ones face and
move it in light. In other words, the chanellings become visible only as a
consequence of an act of bringing close the vessel. Therefore, the chanelling
decoration addreses touch and sight as well. The same conclusions apply for the
plain burnished vessels: the finesse of the luster can be felt just by touch, and it is
the same luster which makes the vessel to shine in the light. Therefore, it is
possible for this type of vessels to have been involved in events marking the
closeness and connection between people, moments in which liquids were probably
consumed.
Regarding the so-called
Vinca
pottery, in the analysed sample there is not a
single whole/restorable vessel or complete profile, with the exception of a lid
published by C.
N.
Mateescu. Even so, several diagnostic fragments have been
included in the sample studied from a technological point of view by Gh.
Gâţă.
Many of them belong to burnished plates, decorated both inside and outside.
Understanding the
Vinca
type plates might shed some light to the role played by
the
Vinca
type vessels in general. The size of some of the specimens suggests
that these types of vessels were involved in events in which several people served
themselves from them. If plates are full, as they get empty, the decoration makes its
154
___________________________
RADU-ALEXANDRU
DRAGOMAN
appearance gradually until it is fully disclosed. Regardless of how these vessels are
handled, the decoration is always in sight , a permanent presence. Thus, the
Vinca
type decoration functions as a means of catching the eye, of focusing the
attention on the interior/content. Even though these vessels are burnished on the
interior, they do not appear to be suitable for containing liquids. Instead, they might
have been used for the presentation and/or consumption of solid substances
important in certain events. In the same time, the close shaped vessels could have
been used for the storage of these substances.
The vessels from the incised and excised category are intricately decorated,
incrusted with white paste and painted with red ochre, while their inner surface is
either burnished or smoothed. The effect of these vessels on the onlooker is created
by the effect produced not only by the colour contrast (between the red and white
on the one hand, and the background colour on the other), but also by the
burnishing of the surface. Some of the open shaped vessels can be manipulated
with just one hand (the footed goblets, small size bowls or some of the dishes) and
might have been used for the consumption of liquid and solid substances; others
need both hands (the large bowls and dishes) and might have been used for
communal serving. A similar functionality might have had the pedestaled vessels
and the trays. Close shapes, such as the large size storage vessels, are also present.
When it comes to understanding the use of the incised and excised decorated
vessels, an important part is played by the red ochre painting. This doesn not have
an aesthetic value,
ramer
it needs to be put in relation to the gestured involved in
the handling of the vessels. The ochre is applyed in such a way as to come into
direct contact with the body of the person who is handling the vessel: when grasped
or held, ones fingers or palms are touching the ochre applied on the undecorated
registers. Therefore, the data from
Vădastra
can be interpreted as the existence of a
symbolic relationship between the consumption out of the vessels painted with
ochre, on the one hand, and the therapeutic and/or apotropaic characteristics of the
ochre, on the other hand (as known from ethnographic data). In this relationship,
the common element is given by the contact with the human body. We might
speculate that the act of consumption out of the incised and excised vessels occured
on certain occasions, related to the protection of the living and the dead, and also to
the healing and strengthening of those individuals who used them on those
occasions.
The surface-roughened pottery comprises of a varied repertoire of open
(goblets, plates, small vessels, bowls, dishes) or closed (jars, holemouth pots, large
vessels) shapes. The holemouth pots have been used for cooking, several copies
displaying evidence of a smoked interior (grey-blackish colour), in the upper part.
The bowls and dishes were used for eating and drinking as well, while the goblets
were destined for drinking. The relatively large size of some of the holemouth pots
or bowls suggests shared meals. The large vessels, with cylindrical necks and
curved bodies could have been used for storing supplies.
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM
VÀDASTRA
____________________155
In conclusion, based on the analysed sample, it seems that each of the
Vădastra
vessels categories played a specific role. However, as I have mentioned
before, all the above interpretations must be verified and nuanced through pots
content analysis.
(5)
ON CONTAINERS, HUMAN BODY
AND THE CIRCULATION OF SUBSTANCES
INTRODUCTION
As B.
Olsen
points out, following Bruno
Latour,
modernity created two
totally different ontological zones, one of humans and one of non-humans (objects
and animals), which lea to the emergence of a border between us, the modern, and
the rest, the pre-modern
(Olsen, 2003: 95).
According to modernist philosophy,
only humans can be considered to be persons, not also the objects. Many
ethnographic examples (see for example Bird-David,
1999)
show us that the above
mentioned division between persons and objects is not at all universal and we do
not find it in pre-modern societies.
The
anima
of an object is not an attribute ascribed by people to an inert
matter, it is not a simple anthropomorphisation, but rather it is ontologicaliy prior
to the distinction (Ingold,
2006: 10).
This ontology has been named relational , as
the
anima
of an object does not reside in it, but in the fact that it takes part, similar
to people, in social relations. As a consequence, in contrast to the modern
taxonomic
(scientific) systems, which are
epistemologic
instruments for ordering
an
empirist
reality , the pre-modern
taxonomie
systems are ontological, helping
people to
undersand
their place in relations to the entities and objects with which
they interact
(Zedefío,
2009).
With these considerations in mind, taking for an example a defining ceramic
category for the so-called
Vădastra
culture , namely the incised and excised one,
in the present chapter I tried to demonstrate that these pots might have been
perceived as persons. I mention that such an interpretation is not new, as it was also
proposed, for instance, in the case of the Funnel Beaker elaborately decorated
pottery from Sweden (Tilley,
1996: 318
ff.) or the Neolithic and Copper Age antro-
pomorphic vessels from south-eastern Europe (Fowler,
2004: 63).
I am convinced
that my interpretation is not the only possible one, but nevertheless I think that
there is a series of empirical data supporting it.
CASE-STUDY:
VĂDASTRA
INCISED AND EXCISED POTS AS PERSONS
Within the incised and excised ceramic category, archaeologists have paid a
special attention to the antropomorphic or anthropo-zoomorphic vessels. In the
Neolithic
Vădastra
settlement have been discovered several such vessels, whole or
156______________________________________________
RADU-ALEXANDRU DRAGOMAN
fragmentary: vessels with human faces painted in red ochre, an rectangular anthro¬
pomorphic vessel with human heads in corners, vessels with anthropomorphic or
zoomorphic heads (Figures
5.2-5.5).
From my point of view, the pots with human faces rather indicate the
existence of a metaphorical link between the human body, on one hand, and the
excised pots in general, on the other (on metaphor and materiality see Tilley,
1999;
2002).
The fact that in the
Vădastra
tradition there are no pots in the shape of the
human body (at least until now) but only mthropomorphic depictions on common
pots, makes me believe that we deal with a deliberate ambiguity. The human face
on the vessel can be noticed if the observer is positioned at a distance and in an
angle enabling him/her to recognize it. From other angles or from a greater
distance, the vessel might seem a common one, but still, the human face is there,
even if concealed. At the same time, anthropomorphized lids, like the one dis¬
covered at
Măgura-Buduiasca/Teleor
003,
on which there is a human face covered
by red ochre (Figure
5.6: 3),
indicates that also the pots without human faces can
be perceived the same way as the human body: together, the anthropomorphized lid
and the vessel on which it stands, make up a whole. Moreover, it is not necessary
for the objects to have antropomorphic characteristics in order for them to be
considered animate (see
Sillar,
2009: 370).
A further argument consists in the fact that in the
Vădastra
tradition the
excised pots are decorated in the same manner as some of the anthropomorphic,
female figurines. Several authors compared the decoration of these figurines either
with a certain garment,
fota ,
or with clothing in general (e.g.
Nica,
1980: 41;
Voinescu and Mateescu,
1980: 189, 194).
Even the decoration of the pots was
compared with an embroided cloth (Dumitrescu VI.,
1974: 55).
From this
perspective, the decoration covering the body of the excised pots might represent
the clothing, as the clothing might be considered to be a second skin (Warmer,
2006: 193;
Tilley,
1996: 318).
The painting of the excised pots with red ochre and the incrustation with
white paste should also be taken into consideration. In south-east Europe, during
the entire Neolithic period, the association between ochre and the human body is
frequently documented in graves, under the form of depositions of lumps of ochre
in the funerary pit or of powdering the deceased with ochre (e.g.
Lazar,
2009).
There are also examples of associations between ochre, skeletons, disjointed human
bones and pots.
It was often said by archaeologists that red ochre symbolized blood and life.
As a matter of fact, red ochre prepared under the form of a viscous paste or of a
more fluid suspension, for the painting of the
Vădastra
excised pots, is similar to
blood. Furthermore, in terms of a symbolic association between the colour red and
blood is advocating
a Vădastra
female figurine found at M&gam-Buduiasca. The
incisions which make the pubic triangle are not filled with white paste, but with a
red substance (Mirea,
2009: 289).
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM
VĂDASTRA
_________________157
Regarding the colour white, it is interesting that during the Neolithic the
limestone paste have been used both for decorating pottery and for making objects
for the adornment of the human body (Alaiba,
2007: 33).
In the Boian tradition, bones
have been used for preparing the white paste used to decorate some of the incised
and excised vessels found at
GMaţai-Movila Berzei (Niculescu
Gh., 2003);
according to the author of the excavation, the bones might be of humans (Marian
Neagu,
pers.
com., Bucharest, September
2006).
Therefore, the white colour, irrespective
of the matter of which is made, might symbolize the bones (of the ancestors).
If we give credit to the symbolic associations proposed for red and white
colours, then, it might be said that like the human body, the excised pots are made,
in their turn, out of blood/flesh and bones: red ochre is applied on the surface of the
vessel (on the undecorated parts), while white paste is introduced in the surface of
the vessel (in the grooved, incised and excised decoration).
Most excised pots are functional. However, there are vessels that are not
functional , such as some pedestaled pots, with a hollow pedestal and bottomless,
the pedestal communicating with the vessel s body (Figures
5.7-5.8).
It is possible
that these vessels have been designed to give offerings to the spirits of the
ancestors: put into these vessels, the offerings go directly on/in the ground. At
Hotărani,
one such vessel was deposited in Pit no.
2,
with a human skull inside
(Figure
5.8: 3)
(according to the data from Museum of
Oltenia,
Craiova). This type
of vessels was modelled in the same manner as the anthropomorphic figurines with
inner pipe (Voinescu and Mateescu,
1980)
(Figure
5.9).
To sum up, the
Vădastra
excised pots and the human body are metaphorically
connected: both are containers with orifices through which substances enter in or
flow out (Tilley,
1996: 318;
Warnier,
2006).
Taking into account the effort made to
produce them, the meticulous execution of the decoration (like a second skin ),
the white incrustation carefully selected and the painting with red ochre sometimes
obtained from a long distance, as well as the association of these colours on the
same vessel (i.e. are made of blood/flesh and bones), it might be said that the
Vădastra
excised pots are not only objects to which human characteristics are
attributed, but I think that, for the people in the Neolithic, they actually were
persons mediating between the world of the living and the world of the dead. In
other words, the excised pots make possible the link between people and their
ancestors. In certain contexts they might become containers for the spirits of the
ancestors. From that perspective, the excised pots might be, to borrow a term used
by Andy Jones, vehicles of remembrance (Jones,
2004: 174).
However, far from
me the intention of maintaining that these pots, unlike the other ceramic categories,
had only a funerary function : i.e. they might have contained the spirits of the
deceased, possibly various substances as offerings for these, etc; that could mean I
might perpetuate the same dichotomies between the domestic and the ftmerary, the
profane and the sacred. I think that the role played by the excised pots consists in
more than that. At the same time, the excised pots might have had transformative
powers: their content, no matter what it was, turns into ancestral substances
158_____________________
^
_____________________
RADU-ALEXANDRU
DRAGOMAN
necessary for the life of the community. The excised pots might be containers of
life , to use Silvia
Forni
s
term
(2007).
Perhaps that is why, for example, the large
storage vessels (some of them more than
50
cm high) are so intricately decorated;
if we imagine that such pots might have contained grains, for instance, then, all the
activities relating to these cereals (sowing, harvesting, milling, cooking, eating,
etc.) are imbued with the spirits of the ancestors. The lids with or without human
faces do not involve the notion of hygiene ; I consider that such a perspective is
characteristic of contemporary man, not of the Neolithic one. Instead, the lids
might suggest the protection of this transforming process taking place inside the
person-pot. Along the same line of thought, the vessels without a bottom and with
hollow pedestal (with or without human faces) and the anthropomorphic figurines
with inner pipe might be considered to be material metaphors of the circulaiton of
ancestral substances through human bodies. The female body itself is a container
inside of which a transforming process takes place: the birth of children. That
explains also the presence of female figurines in which pregnancy is rendered (e.g.
Voinescu and Mateescu,
1980:
191/fig.
5).
An original reading of the incised/
excised decoration of a female figurine was propused by loan Voinescu and
C.
N.
Mateescu, who considered that certain elements of it represent a woman
giving birth to a child
(1980).
In conclusion, by means of the excised pots, or
better say, with their help, the ancestors are present in all the events in the daily life
of people. Even broken, by depositing the fragments in settlements, the excised
pots might carry on the link between the world of the living and that of the dead,
like the disjointed human bones.
ABOUT ANTHROPOMORPHIC VESSELS
The anthropomorphised containers are a proof that the people from the
Neolithic settlement at
Vădastra
perceived the vessel similar to the human body
and the human body similar to a pot. Moreover, the anthropomorphised vessels
represent one of the elements of the
Vădastra
ontology. Following Benjamin
Alberti
and Yvonne Marshall s statements on the biomorphic vessels from northwestern
Argentina
(Alberti
and Marshall,
2009),
I argue that in the
Vădastra
tradition the
very ambiguity between the vessel and the human or animal body suggests that the
Neolithic people conceptualized matter (and not just the one used for making the
vessels) as being unstable and versatile, able to take various forms (bodies). Similar
to people, the anthropomorphic vessels have their own life and die at some point
during their biography. For example, in a case from
Hotărani,
covering with white
the human face painted in red is a transfigurating event, changing not only the
vessel s appearance, but also its status. By intervening with white paste, the vessel
in question dies , it passes from the world of the living into the world of the dead.
This example shows that sometimes one needed to act on objects so that they
coud
follow the natural course of life.
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM
VĂDASTRA
__________________¡59
EPILOGUE
The various categories of containers can not be understood in isolation, but in
relation to each other (and with their contents). For example, at
Vädastra was
discovered a burnished and channelled decorated fragment of a vessel, on which
had been applied a human face. On other
Vädastra
I fragments red ochre had
been applied
(Gâţă
and Mateescu,
1999-2001: 187).
Taking into consideration that
they were meant for the presentation and consumption of liquids, and the fact that
the chanellings decoration might suggest a liquid content (see Thissen,
2008: 120),
then one might speculate the existance of a link between ochre-blood-life-Iiquids-
plain burnished or chanelled decorated vessels. With or without the human faces,
they might have played a similar role to the incised and excised vessels, being
life/power-giving containers. Even so, I would not jump to the conclusion mat the
users of the
Vädastra
vessels had an animistic religion.
(6)
BENEATH THE GROUND
INTRODUCTION
The sixth chapter explores another moment in the biography of the
Vädastra
vessels, namely their deposition in the ground, either as sherds or as whole pots. To
illustrate this stage, I chose to study materials from three contexts investigated by
С
N.
Mateescu in
1946
on
Măgura Fetelor:
the Pit i, the Complex
α
and the Pit x.
Although the materials from the Neolithic pits and layers from
Vädastra
have
been generally classified as *4vaste the three chosen contexts question this modernist
interpretative notion. Moreover, some
Vädastra
vessels do not cease their life^
when no longer functional (as a result of breakage), while others cease their life
(as it had been up until that moment) even if they are still functional.
For example, the potsherds discovered in the Pit
І
belonged to some vessels
which at some point during their lives were broken and thus were disposed of in
plain air, on the ground. Here, they have been subjected to the weather conditions
and got trampled. Even so, for the people of the Neolithic settlement at
Vädastra
they have not lost power, they have not become useless. Subsequent to the
breakage of the vessels, the fragments were involved once again in the actions of
Neolithic people when a pit was filled
-
occasion with which it is possible for some
buman bones to have also been deposited. The sherds appearance makes me
believe that they have not been individually selected, but that the whole mass
01
sherds and animal bones was important. Therefore, the pots breakage does not
represent a moment of rupture, but a new stage in the vessels biography. Similar to
People, they undergo a process of transformation, their lives taking new appearances. It
is Hkely that the Neolithic people did not view as being fundamentally differently a
sherd or a whole vessel
(Brittain
and Harris,
2010: 589).
Thus, these sherds are not
waste in the modern sense of the term, but the main actors of certain events.
160
________________________________
RADU-ALEXANDRU
DRAGOMAN
Other vessels, such as the antropomorphic container from the Complex a,
ceased their life while still fimctional, as soon as their head is broken. It is possible
that, in some contexts, these vessels have been deliberately fragmented, precisely
to cause their deaths. The manner in which the antropomorphic container from the
Complex
α
got beneath the ground seems to support the interpretation that the
incised and excised vessels were viewed as persons, having their own life, similar
to that of people s.
In turn, a contextual analysis of the whole vessel found in the Pit
χ
suggests
that complete containers were ancestors companions par excellance (see for example
their association with human bones in the Cucuteni tradition), or their messangers
in this world (see as a proof their deposition in the settlement area, the place where
the ancestors continue to live through their material debris).
(7)
CONCLUSIONS AND PERSPECTIVES
A STORY
In
1952,
the German writer
Heinrich
Boll published a short story entitled
The fate of a cup without a handle. The story can be seen as the autobiography of a
cup, transposed in writing by H. Boll. The story expresses best what I have been
trying to say. We learn from it that, like humans, objects are born, they live, grow
old and die, they remain in the memory of those who used them. Different objects
form families of objects that can curdle, dissolve and reunite over time in intimate
connection with people s lives. More importantly, objects affect people s lives and
co-author events.
ABOUT THE EFFECT-IN-HISTORY OF
VÄD
ASTRA VESSELS
The majority of the Neolithic vessels from
Vädastra
settlement were modelled
from the clay taken from the nearby streambed, since these sources were probably
related to the running water and the life which it symbolized. From this clay the
potters made burnished vessels, some of which were decorated with chanellings,
incisions and excisions, and unburnished vessels, undecorated or decorated with
impressions, incisions, alveolar bands and finger trails. From all categories of
vessels, the most attention seems to have been given to incised/excised pottery. To
the tempering of these vessels the potters used a more carefully dosed quantity of
vegetal mass, the modelling was more carefully done, for the encrusting they used
the purest white and for painting they brought the ochre from various sources.
Perhaps the red ochre was perceived as a substance with magical properties given
that in contact with fire it became brighter
-
which is why potters painted the
A BIOGRAPHY OF THE NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM
VĂDASTRA
___________________
161_
vessels before burning them in open pits. Since their creation, each vessel was
meant to have its own role. The plain burnished vessels and those burnished and
decorated with chanellings were probably intended for consumption and presentation
of liquids and were involved in social events. Maybe the incised and excised
vessels played an indispensable role in the practices related to the use of substances
(both liquid and solid) necessary in strengthening or healing people. The so-called
Vinca
type pottery seems to have been used, among others, for the preservation
and presentation of substances necessary to some events, probably more special ;
while surface-roughened vessels have been used in food and cures preparation, as
well as for heating and storing them. To those who have used them, the vessels
were not simply functional objects but people with whom and with whose help
they lived. For example, like humans, the incised/excised vessels were made of
flesh/blood (ochre) and bone (white paste), were dressed (decorated), and some
explicitly had faces. Just like humans, the vessels could lose their lives, accidentally or
induced, as it happened with some anthropomorphic vessels. Families of objects
would gather people together, feed them, make possible the presence of ancestral
spirits in the everyday life of people, and they would mediate for their strength¬
ening and healing. Also, they would transform various substances in food and
medicines, send their offerings to the world of spirits and accompany the deceased
beyond . Even as sherds, the vessels continued to be part of people s lives and
participate in their events. Without the aid of various vessels, the life and the
relationship with the ancestors of whose help their life depended on would not have
been possible.
Following H.
Karlsson
(2000),
I believe that all interpretations proposed in
the past or in the present about the
Vădastra
pottery are the result of the fusion
between their efFect-in-history and the onlooker s pre-understanding. In other
words, the interpretations regarding the
Vădastra
vessels are not the exclusive
product of subjective perspectives of archaeologists from different periods, but also
the actual product of the vessels themselves.
The first interpretations of
Vădastra
pottery are the result between the fusion
of the pottery s different nature (prehistoric/Neolithic) and its subjective pre-
understanding by the excavations author in cultural-historical terms: from the
discovery of the first fragments of
Vădastra
pottery, incised and inlaid with white,
after some research conducted on the surface of
MăguraFetelor
by Ion
Andrieşescu
in
the
1920s
(Gâţă
and Mateescu,
1992: 135),
when these fragments were assessed as
prehistoric, to the first excavations from
1926
made by V. Christescu, who considered
the site a prehistoric cremation necropolis (Christescu,
1927-1932:167),
and continued
with Ion Nestor and
V. Dinu
Rosetti assumption of the existence of multiple
cultural layers
(Gâţă
and Mateescu,
1992: 135)
in the context of the beginnings of
cultural-historical archeology in Romania. In the same line, one can also mention
Dumitru
Berchťs
excavations in
1934
(Berciu,
1934,1937,1939)
and
С
N.
Mateescu s
excavations started in
1946
(Mateescu,
1949:93).
162_________________________________________
RADU-ALEXANDRU DRAGOMAN
Since the first report, C.
N.
Mateescu mentions that Each layer of culture
gave characteristic pieces, many of a technique and an exceptional decorative
conception (Mateescu,
1949: 93).
This fascination with
Vădastra
pottery seems to
have contributed to his interest in the technological analysis of white paste and red
ochre used to decorate vessels; hence the collaboration with Gh.
Gâţă.
In the case
of C.
N.
Mateescu, his interpretative perspective is the result of a fusion between
the fascination power of
Vădastra
pottery and his cultural-historical thinking. The
analyses planned by Gh.
Gâţă
and C.
N.
Mateescu were continued by Gh.
Gâţă
and
me
(Gâţă
and Dragoman,
200Ф-2005).
Other analyses were added to these: a
comparative technological study of the burnished ceramics from
Vădastra
and
Cruşovu (Gâţă
and Dragoman,
2010-2011)
and the biography of a fragment from
Vădastra Bolintineanu (Gâţă
and Dragoman, ms.). The results concerning the
materiality of
Vădastra
vessels were used in the present study, based on a post-
processualist philosophy of research combined with a symmetrical one (e.g.
Olsen, 2003).
Therefore, the content of this volume is the result of the fusion
between a number of technological features of the analysed
Vădastra
vessels and
their pre-understanding as a part of a world where there was no distinction between
sacred and profane, where religion structured every aspect of people s lives (e.g.
Insoll,
2004),
as having their own biography (e.g. Tilley,
1996)
and their own story
to tell (e.g.
Olsen, 2003).
I hope the series of interpretations would continue.
FURTHER RESEARCH
For a better understanding of the roles that vessels played in the lives of
people from the
Vba&sXxb-MăguraFetelor/DealulCişmelei
Neolithic settlement, it
would be necessary to conduct a series of new analyses that could not have been
done so far due to the lack of interested specialists, but mainly due to the lack of
funding: content analysis of vessels,
pétrographie
and chemical analyses of anthro¬
pomorphic vessels, analysis of human bones (diet, objects made of human bones),
the examination of animal bones, drillings for the reconstruction of the paleo-
environment. Besides the analysis of material from
Vădastra,
I think there should
be investigated materials from other
Vădastra
sites or materials belonging to other
(E)Neolithic pottery traditions. For a more nuanced understanding of red ochre and
white paste there should be made analyses of ceramic fragments coming from as
many
Vădastra
sites or belonging to traditions in which the two substances are
used, such as Boian.
Maybe, with all these analyses (and more others even) at her/his disposal,
someone will once be able to write a story of the
Vădastra
vessels as full of details,
beautiful and sensitive as the one of H. Boll. The present volume is just a modest
and far beginning.
|
| any_adam_object | 1 |
| author | Dragoman, Radu-Alexandru 1976- |
| author_GND | (DE-588)104972710X |
| author_facet | Dragoman, Radu-Alexandru 1976- |
| author_role | aut |
| author_sort | Dragoman, Radu-Alexandru 1976- |
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| building | Verbundindex |
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| era | Geschichte gnd |
| era_facet | Geschichte |
| format | Book |
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| geographic_facet | Vădastra |
| id | DE-604.BV041786297 |
| illustrated | Illustrated |
| indexdate | 2024-07-10T01:05:21Z |
| institution | BVB |
| isbn | 9789732723562 |
| language | Romanian |
| oai_aleph_id | oai:aleph.bib-bvb.de:BVB01-027232026 |
| oclc_num | 879305142 |
| open_access_boolean | |
| owner | DE-12 |
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| physical | 168 S., [32] Bl. Ill., graph. Darst., Kt. |
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| spelling | Dragoman, Radu-Alexandru 1976- Verfasser (DE-588)104972710X aut O biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra Radu-Alexandru Dragoman Bucureşti Ed. Acad. Române 2013 168 S., [32] Bl. Ill., graph. Darst., Kt. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Zsfassung in engl. Sprache u.d.T.: A biography of the neolithic pottery from Vădastra Geschichte gnd rswk-swf Neolithikum (DE-588)4075272-0 gnd rswk-swf Keramik (DE-588)4030270-2 gnd rswk-swf Vădastra (DE-588)7738921-9 gnd rswk-swf Vădastra (DE-588)7738921-9 g Neolithikum (DE-588)4075272-0 s Keramik (DE-588)4030270-2 s Geschichte z DE-604 Digitalisierung BSB Muenchen 19 - ADAM Catalogue Enrichment application/pdf http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=027232026&sequence=000003&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA Inhaltsverzeichnis Digitalisierung BSB Muenchen 19 - ADAM Catalogue Enrichment application/pdf http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=027232026&sequence=000004&line_number=0002&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA Abstract |
| spellingShingle | Dragoman, Radu-Alexandru 1976- O biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra Neolithikum (DE-588)4075272-0 gnd Keramik (DE-588)4030270-2 gnd |
| subject_GND | (DE-588)4075272-0 (DE-588)4030270-2 (DE-588)7738921-9 |
| title | O biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra |
| title_auth | O biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra |
| title_exact_search | O biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra |
| title_full | O biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra Radu-Alexandru Dragoman |
| title_fullStr | O biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra Radu-Alexandru Dragoman |
| title_full_unstemmed | O biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra Radu-Alexandru Dragoman |
| title_short | O biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la Vădastra |
| title_sort | o biografie a ceramicii neolitice de la vadastra |
| topic | Neolithikum (DE-588)4075272-0 gnd Keramik (DE-588)4030270-2 gnd |
| topic_facet | Neolithikum Keramik Vădastra |
| url | http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=027232026&sequence=000003&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=027232026&sequence=000004&line_number=0002&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA |
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