Studying the origin of some traditions of making Saltovo-Mayatsk culture vessels

This paper analyzes the shapes of table vessels from the early medieval cemetery of Mokraya Balka. The author compares these forms with the tableware forms of various traditions from the Saltovo-Mayatsk sites on the Middle Don. This analysis employs a methodology developed based on the historical and cultural approach to the studies of ceramics which was earlier used to examine the Saltovo-Mayatsk vessels. The analysis provided an opportunity to describe specific traditions of making Saltovo jugs and mugs which show the greatest similarities with the traditions of the people who buried their dead at Mokraya Balka as well as provide quantitative assessment of the degree of this similarity. It is quite likely that the cultural roots of these Saltovo-Mayatsk traditions are related to the early medieval population of the Kislovodsk Depression that had inhabited this region before it moved to the Middle Don region.