Paleoethnobotanic Identification of Prints on Clay Products from the Excavations at Kyiv Arsenal

Abstract

In 2005—2010 Architectural and Archaeological expedition of the IA NASU headed by H.Yu. Ivakin carried out archaeological excavations on the territory of the Kyiv Arsenal. This note is the publication of paleoethnobotanical find from the 2005 excavations. Among the products of clay, which were found in the pit 19a (fig. 1) there was a bottom of a pot with imprints of cultivated plants seeds (fig. 2). This vessel is a work of a professional potter on a potter’s wheel. According to definition of O.V. Onohda, ceramic complex from the pit 19a can be dated by the sixteenth century. The identification of grain prints is 1 grain of proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) and the rest as barley (Hordeum vulgare) (fig. 3). Mostly they were on the bottom; there were also three imprints of barley on the outer wall of the bottom part. A spike also imprinted on the bottom. For the control verification, synchronous ceramics has also been viewed. The comparison of the bottoms shows that only one of them, with imprints, had no traces of cutting from the stand, which ensured the preservation of clear imprints. Despite the fact that almost certainly the potter was not a farmer, presumably, he was close enough to such a random symbolism, in which one can see the remnants of agricultural beliefs.

The find is unique for this period.