GlAZED ClAY POTTERY IN EASTERN GEORGIA OF THE MIDDlE AGES

Abstract

In this article, we will limit ourselves to discussing ceramics painted with engobe, metal rust, salts, transparent and colored glazes. Their typological classification is based on technology, painting methods and decor types, which in all its diversity reaches its highest development in the Middle Ages. Products are represented mainly by painted bowls and dishes of local production, mainly sums.

       All products are made of different-temperature red clays and kaolin clays. They belong to different periods, IX-X and XI-XIII centuries. The material is mainly obtained from the old towns of Dmanisi and Rustavi, the old fortresses of Rustavi and Ujarmi, in the territory of the old monastery of Gudarekhi. Artifacts have also been recovered from a medieval Tbilisi ceramic workshop and other accidental finds.

        Among bowls decorated with plant motifs, bowls painted with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images stand out. Such bowls are characterized by a self-sufficient design (shape) and a high technological level of production, which clearly shows the uniformity of the clay structure. The graphic design of their surface, color, characteristic stroke, favorable location of the decor, compositional solution, semantics (content) differ in expressiveness.

        According to the specified properties, painted bowls form an original typological group in the developed  Eastern-Georgian glazed ceramics of the Middle Ages. It is significant that each of the ceramic hearth  had their own specific features, which kept each of them individual.  

        Key words: archaeology; glass; clay; sum; ceramics.