Ceramic Raw Material Analysis From Kyiv Post-Medieval Pottery Centers

According to written and archeological sources, there were 12 pottery-making sites in the nowadays territory of Kyiv. During the last 50 years, seven pottery production sites have been archaeologically discovered (kilns, clay pits, outbuildings, warehouses, semi-finished product stocks, etc.). In general, we have information on at least about 27 pottery kilns and a stock of semi-finished products. All of them can be dated to different times from the turn of the 16th—17th centuries to the middle 19th century. Pottery production sites were rather big, with high-quality production using various decoration and glazing techniques, and a wide selection of products; some of them used underglaze painting. Numerous potsherds, both ready-to-use and semi-finished products, were discovered in the filling of kilns and related structures. Used for ceramic paste clay was exceptionally good, mainly light — from white to yellowish or pinkish colors, but sometimes the examples of darker colors can be met, like reddish or brownish. The red color was used for the decoration of unglazed white ware; white, green, and red colors were applied for underglaze painting ceramics. We have analyzed the chemical composition of 38 samples from five sites with the PIXE and XRD methods. According to the analyses, not all clays are pure kaolinite, some are a mixture of hydromica and kaolinite. Iron can be present in different clays. Components that are present in small amounts are characteristic of clays from the Ukrainian Shield. The presence of phosphorus in pigments is associated with the addition of bone meal. Calcium in those cases, where it is insignificant, is part of the clay, and where there is a lot of it, it is obviously associated with lime plaque on the surface of the watering. Some of the products were decorated with paintings. Red paint was used for it on the unglazed ware and white, green, brown, red — for glazed paintings. These paints were also analyzed. Fragments of ceramics after the first firing are covered with a white engobe, over which the painting is applied, but they do not yet have a covering layer of glaze, which made it possible to determine the composition of dyes without the admixture of glaze. For the painted dishes white kaolin clay was used as an engobe base for painting. Probably red iron clay was used as pigments for painting non-painted ware (erratum). For glaze painting, additional iron oxide was added to brown and black paints — possibly bog ore. The paints with the addition of copper after the first firing have a gray color with a greenish tint, and when re-fired under watering, they acquire a bright green color

Archaeology · Geography · Kiln · Mineralogy · Pottery · Raw material · Archaeological Research and Protection · Chemistry · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis · Mineralogy and Gemology Studies · Geology

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