Paulina Poleska

Celtic Pottery Workshop in the Settlement of Kraków-Pleszów (Site 20)

Site Kraków-Pleszów 20, including Pit 72 discussed here, is located in the eastern section of the vast settlement complex spreading along the edge of the Vistula loess terrace (high terrace), about 1 km west of the buildings of the village of Pleszów (now a rural residential estate of Kraków). It was examined in 1954-1956. Several out of over a hundred prehistoric structures recorded here are related to the La Tčne settlement. Pit 72 is located in the SE section of the site and is one of the structures of the Phase III, i.e. the youngest phase of the Tyniec group, discovered in this area.

Artefacts of the La Tčne period found in Kraków-Pleszów 20, including the discussed structure and pottery recovered from it has already been mentioned in the relevant literature (Kulczycka 1960; Poleska 1996). A thorough analysis of materials has shown that the artefacts found in the pit display a number of distinct features, which suggests that they were made in a workshop producing painted pottery located in the settlement. The analysis was conducted as part of research done on Celtic settlements around Kraków. This workshop would be the third of this kind located in the Małopolska region.

The inventory of Structure 72 consists almost exclusively of pottery (moreover, scores of pugging lumps, e.g. with imprints of constructions, and several little pieces of animal bones). The number of vessels from which most of the shards come from has been estimated at about 40-42 items. 25-26 specimens are wheel-made vessels while the rest represents hand-made pottery of the Przeworsk culture ("tableware" and "kitchenware") and "crude" vessels corresponding to the Púchov-Dacian tradition.

Wheel-made pottery includes mainly painted vessels (approximately 20 items), however, a jar has also been identified. In terms of technical features, the design of the flask is similar to the painted vessels, but is was not painted. Instead it was decorated with a slip and engraved motifs. A large number of these vessels have various defects which appeared at different stages of production during the preparation of paste (poor clay washing), throwing (walls are not equally thick), drying or firing (deformations, blowholes, excessive vitrification of the outer surface of paint, darkened with smoke). It some cases it is even possible to determine the reasons why a given vessel was destroyed or damaged so badly that it could not be further used (sold). Based on such observations, we may assume that the structure contained mainly production waste, i.e. crushed pottery, a large amount of which is produced in pottery making. This structure might originally have been used for an unknown purpose during the process of production and eventually served as a waste pit not only for destroyed ceramic vessels but also, for example, pieces of hand-made vessels utilized in the same times as well as single pieces of wheel-made pottery of the "grey", graphite and terra sigillata type.

The thesis of the location of the pottery workshop in Kraków-Pleszów has been confirmed by the frequent differences observed with respect to the technical characteristics of painted pottery recovered from the structure in question (and also some pieces of pottery of this type discovered in the layer and other structures of Phase III from Kraków-Pleszów 20 and located in the vicinity of Kraków-Pleszów 17) as compared to most pottery found in other settlements of the Tyniec group (e.g. from Kraków-Krzesławice and Podłęże). Such differences have been distinguished with respect to the degree of paint adhesion (especially white and grey) which cover the surface of vessels and quality of firing. It has been established that Pleszów vessels are better fired than painted pottery from Krzesławice or Podłęże. Macroscopic examinations have confirmed the results of the technological analyses carried out by M. Wirska-Parachoniak (1980, 50n., Table 6, Item 159-166). They revealed obvious differences in the chemical composition of potshards, and mainly paints applied in the decoration of the series of vessels discussed here (Wirska-Parachoniak; 1980, 88, Table 2, Item 11-12).

The painted vessels analysed here include items popular in other settlements of the Tyniec group where more numerous series of this type of pottery have been discovered. Only the overall structure of the assemblage is unusual, i.e. the presence of vessels of particular types. Sixteen out of nineteen items which have been classified are flasks or flask-like pots. Moreover, there are two barrel-like vessels and a hemispherical bowl of the "bol Roanne" type. The assemblages of other settlements (e.g. at Podłęże and Kraków-Krzesławice) include mainly bowls while flask-like vessels are much less numerous.

What should be emphasized is the lavish decoration of the painted pottery discussed here, and in particular, a large number of vessels decorated with additional abundant geometrical ornamentation. Similarly to other larger collections of painted pottery found in late La Tene settlements in the Małopolska region, there are both items painted monochromatically (in red) and painted in many colours (red-white-grey) here. General Celtic motifs predominate in decoration. As many as sixteen vessels were decorated with geometric ornamentation painted in black (sepia). They are found on painted pottery within the whole area where it was produced, however, some motifs (small geometrical elements small rhombuses and concentric circles etc.) are limited to a certain region, and most likely also to a particular period. The most similar vessels have been discovered at the late La Tene sites situated in the northern zone of the Carpathian Basin (Budapest, Zemplin).

"Gray" and graphite wheel-made pottery, single pieces of which have been discovered in the filling of Pit 72, probably was not made in the workshop discussed here. The workshop executed mainly painted and fine pottery. This pottery, due to its well-worked shapes and decoration, has to be treated as artistic craft. If we compare this series to the collection of vessels of this type found at other sites of the Tyniec group, we may assume that these vessels were very luxurious, thus probably expensive. Unlike the centres at Podłęże and Kraków-Krzesławice, the Kraków-Pleszów workshop did not, as it appears, produce other categories of Late Celtic wheel-made pottery ("tableware" and storage vessels).

The assemblage discussed here can be dated based on pottery only. This is because the structure has not yielded other artefacts (metal, glass, etc.) whose features would indicate the age of these items. The "bol Roanne" bowl, which first appeared in a collection of vessels painted within the area of the Celtic culture during the younger period of LTD1, suggests that the inventory dates to the younger period of Celtic painted pottery. This bowl and other painted vessels discovered alongside (flask-like and barrel-like) represent varieties recognised as late within the types to which they are classified (bulging, solid, without clear tectonics, with wide openings, with short necks). Flasks with "bell-like" spouts in some Celtic areas (Basel-Münsterhügel, Magdalensberg) appeared only after the Roman conquest and probably imitated imported pottery. Another argument is a piece of a terra sigillata vessel. If this item, as it is assumed, represents a section of a jug or flask, then one may date this collection to the time of the Augustus reign or to a later period. Vessels of this type produced in workshops in central and northern Italy have been dated to the last decades BC; such vessels also include items with "bell-like" spouts which may have served as prototypes for painted Celtic jars (compare Item K 19 C o n s p. e c t u s 1990, 189n.). What should be emphasized is that the discovery of such an early vessel of terra sigillata is unique in the Tyniec group and in Poland in general.

Due to technological analyses of the painted pottery of the Tyniec group, some time ago it was assumed that in the Małopolska region there had been several (at least three) workshops producing this type of vessels (Wirska-Parachoniak 1980, 96; Woźniak 1990, 30). One of them probably operated in the Podłęże settlement (the oldest one), where a kiln for firing late Celtic wheel-thrown pottery, also painted, has been discovered. Another workshop of this type probably operated at Kraków-Krzesławice. As yet no ceramic kilns have been identified there, however, pieces of painted vessels have been found which are undoubtedly production waste (Poleska, Toboła 1987, 32; Poleska, Toboła 1988, 96n). Another workshop might have been located in the settlement of Pleszów 20. Structure 72 provides some evidence to support this assumption. Even though there are distinct differences between the products of the three workshops, all the collections bear some resemblance. They represent the eastern Celtic ceramic style and are similar to items found at sites in the northern zone of the Carpathian Basin.

The origin of the Małopolska workshops producing late Celtic pottery has long been discussed in the relevant literature (e.g. Točik 1959; 866; Woźniak 1970, 123; Woźniak 1990, 30n.). The high quality of vessels produced in those workshops, especially with respect to painted pottery, indicates that the potters came from highly developed centres of ceramic industry. At that time such centres were located in the central section of the River Danube (Budapest, Bratislava) and in southern and eastern Slovakia (Zemplin). There is much evidence that the Zemplin centre provided incentive and inspiration for Małopolska potters. For instance the practice of painting zones of grey, common for Małopolska and eastern Slovakia and used occasionally in the Púchov culture. Alongside painted pottery in the assemblages of the III phase a new category, unknown in the previous phase, of hand-made "crude" pottery representing the Púchov-Dacian tradition, which may cast some light on the origin of the youngest pottery workshops of the Tyniec group. An interesting collection of vessels of this type has been also been found in the structure discussed here. Of special importance in this group are items whose shape or decoration are regarded as a continuation of the Dacian pottery tradition, i.e. pot decorated with knobs, and primarily pieces of three lavish "Dacian potshards".

It is assumed that the pottery of the Tyniec group was affected by the Dacian culture not as a result of direct interaction with this culture but due to indirect contacts. Elements of the Dacian pottery, i.e. some characteristic shapes and decoration appeared in the 1st century BC within almost the whole zone of the Carpathian Basin. The relevant literature claims that the Púchov culture was the indirect link enabling the import of such designs and decoration by the Tyniec group (Woźniak 1990, 56, 76; Madyda-Legutko 1996, 65). This process may have been initiated by Celtic centres (Celtic and Dacian) from the area of the central section of the River Danube, directly, and most likely through the Zemplin centre in eastern Slovakia, and this phenomenon occurred also when new ceramic production centres were set up (Točik 1959; Pieta 1982, 103n.; Woźniak 1990, 79). Another solid argument to support this thesis is the assemblage of Kraków-Pleszów 20, where beside a series of wheel-made painted pottery which is probably production waste from a local workshop, an unusually abundant collection of pottery of the Dacian type and pieces of an early terra sigillata vessel have been found. It is thus no coincidence that other finds of early pottery imported from the South come from Devin from the youngest layers of the oppidum in Bratislava and Budapest.