Possibilities of using electronic microscopy (SEM) analysis of wheel-thrown pottery samples in study of ancient Karelian pottery production technology used in middle ages

The paper is concerned with the research results of the white and red burned clay wheel-thrown pottery samples from ancient Karelian hillforts in North-Western Priladozhje. The results were obtained with the use of scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques. The tasks of the research implied determination of ceramic paste composition technology used in production of the three earlier emerged types of vessels; identification of kaolinite deposits used for obtaining white-burning clay, and, finally; evaluation of the method's effectiveness in the study of ancient ceramics. Six specimens of ceramic pottery were examined. The method allowed us to determine the chemical and mineralogical composition of clays and admixtures in ceramic pastes' samples of wheel-thrown pottery from the following hillforts: Tiversk, Hameenlahti-Linnavuori and Paaso. Ceramic paste specimens of Novgorod vessels were also studied. White-burned clay vessels, which composed a separate group, different from other ware in chemical composition of ceramic paste according to the ICP-MS analysis [Potasheva, Svetov 2013], are the products of import and most probably came from Novgorod region.