Bronze age handmade ceramics from the Il’ich-1 settlement: results of technical and technological analysis

The paper reports on the results of the studies conducted with the use of the technical and technological analysis of handmade ceramics dating to the Bronze Age at the Il’ich-1 settlement (Bereg-IV excavation trench) on the Taman peninsula. It was established that ceramics from the main ceramic assemblage coming from constructions identified in horizon III that were made from clay were dated to the Late Bronze Age and attributed to the Sabatinovka and the Belozerka cultures. Rare types of two-handled black polished vessels made from silty mud were recorded at earlier sites or at permanent constructions. Analogies to some of such vessels were discovered in the dolmen and North Caucasus cultures of the Early and Middle Bronze Ages.