Some aspects of pottery technology of begazy-dandybai culture on Dandybai archaeological site (Central Kazakhstan)

Purpose. The article represents the results of analyses of clay paste and temper composition of Begazy-Dandybai ceramics from the burial complex on Dandybai archaeological site. The object was studied by M. P. Gryaznov, under whose supervision several burial complexes of the Bronze Age (Andronovo and Begazy-Dandybai culture) and the Iron Age were excavated. A collection of 12 clay vessels is of special interest. By now, primarily the qualities of clay paste and temper composition have been available for a detailed technical and technological analysis. This analysis was made using a special set of methods, including microscopic analysis of the surfaces and the break sides of the vessels as well as comparison of identified tempers with the base of experimentally made samples. Results. We identified five groups of vessels according to the paste composition: clay + crushed stone (2 samples); clay + crushed stone + organic solution (2 samples); clay + grog + crushed stone + organic solution (1 sample); clay + crushed stone (limestone) + crushed stone (quartzite) (1 sample); clay + grog + sand + organic solution (1 sample). Among the mineral tempers, such minerals as granite, limestone and quartzite were used. Grog temper was identified in two vessels. In both cases it was possible to find temper of grog and small crushed limestone in the grog used. It allows us to conclude that adding these tempers was a stable tradition. Besides, there was identified calibrated middle size sand artificially placed in the clay in the concentration of 1:3. Conlusion. There was a great variety of clay paste and temper composition found at Dandybai archaeological site, with five different recipes used for seven vessels. We assume that all these vessels found in the burial complex belonged not to a single group of people but were brought by members of different «tribes» with different pottery traditions. A temper of crushed limestone was not identified earlier on other Begazy-Dandybai archaeological sites. However, this admixture was found in ceramics of the Eastern variant of the Pakhomovo culture on Tartas-1 and Stary Sad archaeological sites. This fact is an additional argument for the contacts of these two cultural groups. The similarity of not only ornamental and morphological, but also technological features may be an additional argument in favor of contacts (and, possibly, migration) of the population of Begazy-Dandybai culture and the eastern variant of Pakhomov culture that took place at the end of the Bronze Age in the Baraba forest-steppe.