Through Geometry Towards Functionality. Case Study: Noua Pottery from Jijia Catchment, NE Romania
Through Geometry Towards Functionality. Case Study: Noua Pottery from Jijia Catchment, NE Romania

Summary/Abstract: During Late Bronze Age, the evolutions of previous archaeological cultures (from the Middle Bronze Age) are continued and completed, but there are also two important cultural complexes emerging, namely: Noua-Sabatinovka-Coslogeni and Zimnicea-Plovdiv. The subject of interest in the present study is represented by Noua culture, attested in a vast area, from the middle and upper Dniester, to the east of Apuseni Mountains and from the Subcarpathian region of Ukraine to the south of the forest-steppe area between Siret and Prut Rivers. Although, over time, the specific communities of this cultural manifestation have been investigated in numerous specialized studies, the interdisciplinary methods used in recent years can offer new information that contribute to the obtaining of a much clearer picture regarding the behavior of the human groups in question. In this sense, in the present paper, special attention was paid to the ceramic material identified during the archaeological excavations of sites belonging to Noua culture which, unfortunately, in most situations, is still `trapped` in the discourse from the middle of the 20th century. In this sense, there is a continuous perpetuation of the typology created by A.C. Florescu in the ʾ60s, namely: jar-vessels, bag-vessels, bowls, cups, glasses, etc. Thus, using the volumetric typology, developed by Anne O. Shepard almost 70 years ago, and correlating the information obtained with those regarding decoration, context and dimensions, but also with data from the field of ethnoarchaeology, this study aims to identify the intended functions of the ceramic recipients used by Noua communities from Jijia River Basin.

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