Comparative Archaeology Database, University of Pittsburgh
URL: http://www.cadb.pitt.edu
Email: cadb@pitt.edu

Zingeyka River Valley Settlement Dataset
Denis V. Sharapov

Ceramic Inventory from Surface Collection Units

The data files CERAMICCU.TXT and CERAMICCU.XLS provide context, temper, and decoration information for every ceramic sherd recovered through surface collection. CERAMICCU.TXT is a comma delimited ASCII text file; CERAMICCU.XLS contains the same data in the form of an Excel spreadsheet. Each line in the ASCII file corresponds to one ceramic sherd. There are 497 lines, each with 82 variables separated by commas. The variables are listed in the following order:

1 Collection unit number. The number of the collection unit where the sherd was recovered. These correspond to the ID numbers provided in the COLL_NUMBERS layer of the Map of Collection Units page of this dataset.
2 Collection unit name. Provides the Russian site registry name and number that correspond to each collection unit. For sites encompassing more than one collection unit, a second sequential number is provided to uniquely identify each collection unit. Site names are provided for references purposes only, as the concept of "site" did not play any meaningful role in analysis.
3 Sherd ID. The unique identification code for each sherd gathered through surface collection begins with the letter "c", followed by an alphanumeric code specific to each collection location, followed by the sequential number of each individual sherd in the batch after the slash.
4 Archaeological culture assigned to the sherd.
5 Vessel number (for sherds that belong to a single vessel).
6 Period.
MBA=Middle Bronze Age
LBA=Late Bronze Age
FBA=Final Bronze Age
7 Sherd type (body, rim, neck, shoulder, base, bottom, or unclear).
8 Weight (g).
9 Presence of decoration.
1=Yes
0=No

Temper

10 Talc temper.
1=Yes
0=No
11 Mica temper.
1=Yes
0=No
12 Quartz temper.
1=Yes
0=No
13 Grog temper.
1=Yes
0=No
14 Shell temper.
1=Yes
0=No
15 Organic temper (grass, manure).
1=Yes
0=No
16 Temper density (%).
n/a=No temper.
17 Temper sorting.
1=Very poor
3=Fair
5=Very good

Outer surface

18 Smoothing.
1=Yes
0=No
19 Burnishing.
1=Yes
0=No
20 Striations left by scraping. Striations could have been applied by the following techniques: stamp (shtamp), wood chip (shepa), grass, or pebble (galka).
1=Present, but unable to tell the technique.
0=Absent.
n/a=Sherd is badly damaged.
21 Relief of striations (deep, average, or shallow).
0=Striations absent.
n/a=Sherd is badly damaged.

Dominant color of outer surface

22 Light-brown.
1=Yes
0=No
23 Reddish-brown.
1=Yes
0=No
24 Grayish-brown.
1=Yes
0=No
25 Grayish-black.
1=Yes
0=No
26 Brownish-black.
1=Yes
0=No

Inner surface

27 Smoothed.
1=Yes
0=No
n/a=Inner surface is badly damaged
28 Striations left by scraping. Striations could have been applied by the following techniques: stamp (shtamp), wood chip (shepa), grass, or pebble (galka).
1=Present, but unable to tell the technique.
0=Absent.
29 Relief of striations (deep, average, or shallow).
0=Striations absent.
n/a=sherd is badly damaged.
30 Cloth imprints.
1=Present
0=Absent
n/a=Sherd is badly damaged

Vessel type

31 Pot (gorshok).
1=Yes
0=No
32 Jar (banka).
1=Yes
0=No
33 Miniature vessel.
1=Yes
0=No

Vessel parameters

34 Orifice diameter (cm).
35 Percentage of the total vessel orifice circumference present.
36 Wall thickness (mm).
n/a=Sherd was badly fragmented.
37 Bottom thickness (mm).
38 Vessel height (cm).

Rim

39 Flat (ploskiy).
1=Yes
0=No
40 Rounded (okruglyi).
1=Yes
0=No
41 Flat with smoothed appendage (ploskiy s naplyvom).
1=Yes
0=No
42 Beveled (kosoi srez).
1=Yes
0=No
43 Width of the bevel (mm) (if present).
44 Presence of ornament on the bevel. See "Ornamentation elements and their position on the vessel" section below for information on code numbers.

Neck

45 Collar (vorotnichek)
1=Yes
0=No
46 Collar height (mm).
+=Collar present but height cannot be measured because of fragmentation.
47 Neck height (mm).
48 Straight.
1=Yes
0=No
49 Slightly bent outward (slegka otognutayta).
1=Yes
0=No
50 Substantially bent outward (silno otognutayta).
1=Yes
0=No
51 Presence of blank strip (svobodnaya polosa).
1=Yes
0=No

Shoulder

52 Ledge (ustup).
1=Yes
0=No
53 Angled (rebrom).
1=Yes
0=No
54 Angled-ledge (rebro-ustup).
1=Yes
0=No
55 Smoothed ledge (peregib).
1=Yes
0=No
56 Smooth (plavnyi perehod).
1=Yes
0=No

Body

57 Truncated cone (usechenno-konicheskoye).
1=Yes
0=No
58 Slightly rounded (slegka razdutoye).
1=Yes
0=No

Ornamentation elements and their position on the vessel

Numbers represent the presence of ornamental elements following the typology and ornament codes developed by Tkachev and Havanskiy (2000) (full citation provided in the dissertation associated with this dataset). For ornament codes above 160 see illustration provided. When more than one element is present, each ornamental code is seperated by a semicolon. "+"=Ornament is present on that part of the vessel but it is difficult to tell ornament type.

59 Position undetermined.
60 Rim.
61 Upper part of the neck.
62 Shoulder.
63 Lower neck.
64 All of the neck.
65 All of the body.
66 Upper body.
67 Lower body.
68 Bottom.
69 Distinct ormanetal zoning (razdeliteli).

Ornamental technique

70 Smoothed stamp (gladkiy shtamp).
1=Yes
0=No
71 Incising (procherchivanie).
1=Yes
0=No
72 Dragging of comb-stamp (protashennaya grebenka).
1=Yes
0=No
73 Fine comb-stamp (melkaya grebenka).
1=Yes
0=No
74 Average comb-stamp (srednaya grebenka).
1=Yes
0=No
75 Coarse comb-stamp (krupnaya grebenka).
1=Yes
0=No
76 Punctation (vdavleniya).
1=Yes
0=No
77 Wedge-shaped punctations (vdavleniya uolkom greb. shtampa).
1=Yes
0=No
78 Fingernail punctation (nogtevye vdavleniya).
1=Yes
0=No
79 Fluting or straight grooves (kannelury).
1=Yes
0=No
80 Wavy grooves (zhelobki).
1=Yes
0=No

Forming techniques

81 Neck as a seprate coil (sheika otdelnoi lentoi).
1=Yes
0=No
82 Visible traces of segmentation (sledy formovki).
1=Yes
0=No

The first line of the ASCII text file, for example, looks like this:

1,katsbah 1 1,c1000/1,Alakul,Vessel 26,LBA,neck,10.3,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,20,1,0,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,1
,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,8.0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1; 6,0,1,0,0,1,0,0,1,0,0
,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

This means that the sherd was recovered from collection unit number 1. The unique name of that collection unit, which incorporates the Russian site name, is Katsbah 1 1. Within this collection unit, the sherd is associated with a collection taken at waypoint 1000 and was the first sherd in the batch of ceramics associated with this particular collection. The archaeological culture is Alakul. The sherd was part of vessel number 26. It is a Late Bronze Age sherd. It is a neck sherd that weighs 10.3 grams. It is decorated. It contains talc temper at a density of 20%. The temper is very poorly sorted. The outer surface of is burnished. The dominant color of the outer surface is reddish-brown. The inner surface of the sherd is smoothed. The vessel type is pot (gorshok). The wall thickness is 8 mm. The rim is rounded, the neck is slightly bent outward, and the shoulder is of the ledge (ustup) type. All of the neck is decorated with ornament types 1 and 6, while the upper body is decorated with ornament type 1. Distinct ornamental zones are delineated with the help of ornament type 1. The ornament is applied using the dragging of comb-stamp (protashennaya grebenka) ornamental technique.

The last, or 497th line of the ASCII text file is:

1,katsbah 1 1,c999/5,?,0,LBA,unclear,3,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,30,3,1,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,
0,0,7,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

This means that the sherd was recovered from collection unit number 1. The unique name of that collection unit, which incorporates the Russian site name, is Katsbah 1 1. Within this collection unit, the sherd is associated with a collection taken at waypoint 999 and was the fifth sherd in the batch of ceramics associated with this collection. The archaeological culture is unknown. The sherd is not part of a reconstructed vessel, thus no vessel number is given. It is a Late Bronze Age sherd. It is unclear what part of the vessel the sherd came from. It weighs 3.0 grams. It is not decorated. It includes talc temper at 30%. The temper is fairly sorted. The outer surface is smoothed. It is of light-brown color. The inner surface is also smoothed. Wall thickness is 7.0 mm.

Download the file CERAMICCU.TXT (95 KB) or the file CERAMICCU.XLS (329 KB).


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