Upon history of population of Rostov the Great according to technological analysis of hand-modeled pottery of the late first - early second millennia

To study the intermingling of various ethnocultural groups inhabitingRostov and its vicinities, the analysis focused on ceramics of the shapes most typicalfor the Merya and the Medieval Russian population. The pottery originates fromthe excavations in Rostov, the Sara hillfort and the open settlements of Shurskol IIand III. The technological examination of the ceramics was based on A. A. Bobrinsky'smethodology within the framework of a historical and cultural approach. It was establishedthat pottery-making traditions of the Merya and Medieval Russian population onthe preparatory production stage consisted in using of red clay that predominantly containedbulk of sand as accessory and using of common recipe of body ‘clay + broken stone +organic materials' and a rare recipe with grog; however, distinctive features were singledout for each group. Chronological changes for the Merya ceramics consisted in increasein the size of broken stone in recipe of body ‘clay + broken stone + organic materials' andin emergence of pots with grog, and for Medieval Russian ceramics - in reduction in thesize of broken stones. The materials analyzed suggest two areas of cultural contracts, i. e.contacts between the indigenous Merya and the newly-arrived Medieval Russia populationwhich possessed skills of hand-modelled pottery, and the contacts between the latter andthe new population groups which started production of wheel-made pottery in Rostovin the second half of the 10th century.