Matt-painted pottery from the Late Bronze Age cultural group Ulanci (Vardar valley) – forms, decorative motifs and chronology

Matt-painted pottery constitutes a significant category of archaeological material and represents one of the primary indicators of a strong Aegean influence in the Late Bronze Age within the territory of the Ulanci group in the Republic of North Macedonia. This pottery tradition emerges as an innovation and as a defining characteristic of the Late Bronze Age across the broader southern Balkan Peninsula. A distinctive feature of this pottery, in addition to its handmade production, lies in its decoration, executed through matt painting that diverges from both Mycenaean and Geometric motifs. Research on the Ulanci cultural group is still in its formative stage. To date, its principal characteristics have been established almost exclusively through the study of cemeteries, while investigations of settlements remain limited and unsystematic. The adoption of this pottery tradition had notable cultural and social implications for the communities of the Ulanci group. The present analysis has expanded the number of documented vessel forms within the matt-painted rep ertoire to seven, identified two developmental phases, and established a clearer chronological framework. At this stage of research, these results allow us to propose two developmental stages in the evolution of the Ulanci group.