State of Research on the Typology and Chronology of Chernyakhiv Wheeled Pottery

Wheeled pottery is the most common type of finds on settlements and cemeteries of the Chernyakhiv culture. It is one of the main markers differentiating the Chernyakhiv material complex from other cultures of the late Roman to early Great Migration period in Eastern Europe. Some works on the typology, classification, and chronology of wheeled pottery cover the full spectrum of ceramic artifacts from the entire area of the Chernyakhiv culture, while others focus on individual regions, sites, or categories of wares. Early research on the Chernyakhiv culture produced generalized groupings of ceramic material. The 1960s saw first forays into the classification and typology of wheeled pottery. It was at this time that the main categories of vessels were defined: pots, bowls, vases (bowl vases), beakers, mugs, and jugs. Since the 1970s, with the accumulation of a large mass of finds, works began to be published on the classification and chronology of individual categories and types of wheeled pottery. The 1990s were marked by efforts to rethink the methodological approaches to the typology and classification of ceramic material. Attempts were also made to use ceramic materials in developing a system of relative chronology for the Chernyakhiv culture. Unfortunately, so far such attempts have not been successful — perhaps due to the abundance of centers for the production of wheeled pottery across the different regions and micro-regions of the Chernyakhiv culture, where technology transfer and evolution of forms may have proceeded with varying speed and intensity. In our view, the most promising way forward here may lie in using a microregional approach that would focus on individual pottery production centers and their vicinities. This kind of research requires not only the availability of a well-studied microregion of the Chernyakhiv culture, but also a well-developed methodology for working with ceramic material.