The centre of craft pottery near Suvorovskaya Cossack village among the settlement sites of Saltovo-Mayaki culture in the Lower Don region

This article is devoted to the review of the results which were received during the archaeological excavations on the site of Saltovo-Mayaki culture near Suvorovskaya Cossack village in the Volgograd region. The first archaeological research was carried out in the investigated area in 1951. Later, it was supposed that the site had been wiped out during the construction of Tsimlyanskoe water reservoir. But the results of archaeological excavations in 2011-2012 refuted this data and allowed to discover the objects of ceramics such as kilns and the remnants of ceramic production. This work gives the description of two pottery kilns which were found during the archaeological excavations in 2012 and a short analysis of ceramics. A lot of typical fragments of dishes were discovered at the site such as tablespoon glazed jars, pots with a specific linear ornament and cauldrons with inside handles. It is worth mentioning that the biggest part of dishes had defects and these defective utensils were kept in the certain places. The molted ceramics and amphoras which are often presented at the sites of Saltovo-Mayaki culture were not found. Thereby, during the study of the Suvorovskaya I site the author found a few pottery kilns, the places of ceramics garbage and the household objects which should be workshops of the craftsman. According to the study, the Suvorovskaya I site is a specialized pottery center. If the hypothesis is correct, it will be possible to speak about the allocation of a separate type of archaeological site which can be marked by a highly specialized activity for production of high-quality pottery products. And it also gives the opportunity to talk about craftsman as the specific group of population who did not take part in farming. The following excavations are very important for the reconstruction of social, economical and ethnocultural processes in Khazar Khanate.