«TERRACOTTA» ITEMS FROM THE TRYPILLIAN SETTLEMENT-GIANT TALYANKI (COMPLEX «CERAMIST’S FAMILY 1», EXCAVATIONS 2011—2017)
Authors: Ovchinnikov E. V. 
Published: November 2021

During 2011—2017 Trypillian expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of NASU carried out research of the residential-industrial complex «Ceramist’s Family 1» on the trypillian settlement-giant Talyanki (3800 BC, Tomashivskaia locally-chronological version of the culture). This complex was located in the western part of the northern sector of the settlement. Its boundaries determined by gaps in the built-up of a single line of the houses. As a separate structure of the settlement, this complex consisted from five houses, three kilns, a production pit, consisting of several depressions, and two small pits.
This article is devoted to analysis of ceramic items that are usually associated with ritual and ceremonial activities and foundon the territory of the designated complex, primarily their planigraphic distribution. The collection consists of 67 items and includes 17 anthropomorphic and 9 zoomorphic figurines, 2 models of dwellings, 18 models of sledges, 4 models of vessels, 6 small geometric objects (balls, cones, chips), 3 ceramic ornaments and 8 small relief pieces that are not part of ceramic vessels. Most of the items found in the pit (46 items), a smaller number of them are associated with the residential sector of the complex (20 items) and only half of them (12 items) originate directly from houses, the rest are distributed in the adjacent territory within a radius of 1—4 m from residential buildings. Only one item found in the kiln «D».
The vast majority of «terracotta» items are fragmented. Its disposal, like the ceramic dishes, went the same way — the debris taken out of the houses. Most of them fell into the pits; a smaller part of the ceramic broken used as a building material for the construction of kilns. Overall, the ratio of vessels fragments and fragments of «terracotta» items at different objects of the complex is close. Therefore, for 20 units of «terracotta» items found in houses and the adjacent territory, there are about 11 thousand ceramic fragments of vessels. Forty-six of «terracotta» items from the big pit oppose for about 13 thousand of ceramic fragments of dishes. Only one fragment of the sledge model comes directly from the kiln construction. Unique «terracotta» items, high quality wares, did not lose their importance, probably even after the breakdown. They either put in special places or disposed of in a special way. Thus, entire models of sledges was found on the podium in house 47, and a model of a uniquely shaped found in the lowest ash layer in one of the depressions of the large pit near the kiln «D». In rare cases, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines founded in the deepest parts of the pit.
The difference in the technical and technological characteristics of various «terracotta» items may indicate that the need to make sculptures sometimes arose spontaneously and was far from always associated with the specialized work of the kiln. We assume the likelihood of a wide range of participants in the «terracotta» making process, in which, in addition to potters, there could be «non-professionals» — children, apprentice, etc.