Toothed stamps of the Urals and some aspects of their use

Stamps are a fairly rare group of finds. But as tools for the spraying ornament on ceramic vessels they always interested and continue to interest archaeologists. Most often reconstructed technology of application of ornament on vessels, which are sometimes supported by materials of experimental modeling of ornament. In the literature there is no consensus about the nature of the use of toothed stamps. There are no clear criteria for the difference between a stamp with a hole and a pendant with a serrated edge. It is not clear what the findings of 50% of the stamps on the sanctuaries are connected with. There is no reliable data on the repeated use of one stamp for ornamentation of different vessels. Also, many researchers note that it is almost impossible to establish the connection of the stamp with a specific vessel. There is no logical correlation between hundreds of toothed stamps and tens of thousands of ceramic vessels on the archaeological sites of the Urals. The predominance of polished stone stamps remains unclear, although their grinding is not dictated by production necessity. Many questions are raised by the analysis of metric indicators of toothed stamps: what could have ornament stamps with the tines of a width of 0,4-0,7 cm. There are no impressions of this width on the vessels. Unfortunately, the stamps almost not been investigated by professional tracers. The author's tracological analysis of 26 tooth stamps from the collections of the N. Tagil Museum showed, that in most cases stamps were used to process the skin, sometimes were used as actually stamps, spatulas, polishes and even original files.