engleski

On a variety of clay matrices of prehistoric pottery from the megalithic cemetery of Petit‐Chasseur site (Sion, Western Switzerland) – the tool to investigate cultural identities?

Pottery is of high importance in archaeology because once produced it is virtually indestructible and is often found in great quantities at archaeological sites. Thus, it readily serves as a chronological marker allowing scholars to investigate important aspects of ancient populations such as cultural identity, economy, religious beliefs, technological know‐ how, object circulation, and movements of people. The last few decades saw the application of various analytical techniques into the study of archaeological ceramics, which has continuously enhanced the accuracy of material characterization. Hence, the use of natural sciences in archaeology made an impressive research impact serving nowadays as invaluable tool in the study of specific traits of past societies. Current research on the pottery from the Petit‐Chasseur site allowed one to address the problematics of cultural identity of prehistoric societies that had erected the megalithic funerary monuments during the 3rd millennium BC. The cemetery is located in the middle of the Upper Rhône valley that was formed by the glacial and riverine erosion in the Western Alps. To some extent, the Rhône river separates the Helvetic and Penninic nappes dividing the valley in two. Peculiar lithology typical for the above‐mentioned tectonic units has likely generated clay‐rich sediments whose mineral composition may significantly differ. In this contribution we present a variety of ceramic compositions of the pottery from the Petit‐Chasseur site, putting an accent to the make‐up of clayey matrix. Its characterization, performed by X‐ray diffraction and Scanning electron microscopy, revealed the use of different clay‐rich sources to produce vessels which, in a way, have analogue typological and stylistic features. Moreover, the pottery that belongs to particular material culture and that was recovered from the same collective grave was shown to have been manufactured using various clay raw‐materials. In brief, the evidences from the Petit‐Chasseur cemetery permit a question to be posed on whether the utilization of diverse plastic materials was a deliberate economic and/or social choice or is rather related to the raw‐material availability in the Upper Rhône valley. The study of ceramic grave goods from the Petit‐Chasseur site revealed its potential in identifying and defining the cultural identity of prehistoric communities that dwelled in this part of Switzerland during the 3rd millennium BC.

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