Archaeologia Austriaca 101/2017, pp. 205-268, 2017/12/21
Zeitschrift zur Archäologie Europas
Journal on the Archaeology of Europe
This study represents the first publication of a complete find assemblage from a Late Bronze Age house at Ada Tepe. The inventory of House 7 offers a preliminary insight into the everyday life of the Ada Tepe gold-mining society in the 15th century BC. Detailed study of the pottery shapes and fabrics shows that there was a homogeneous spectrum of nearly standardised types and wares. Their functional and contextual evaluation demonstrates that House 7 was used principally for storage and to a lesser degree for consumption. The shapes that clearly dominate the material, amphorae and narrow-mouthed jars, seem to have been used mainly for the storage of food and liquids. The less common table ware, belonging to a set of shallow bowls, deep bowls, cups or beakers and kantharoi, probably relates directly to the consumption of food and drink inside the storage building, in which various household activities are also attested, such as grinding, cutting and sawing. On the basis of these analyses, House 7 can be interpreted as a separate space for storage and craftwork which allows us to assume that the gold miners organised their supply and storage systems. This assessment of the pottery assemblage in a regional and supra-regional setting indicates a society that was principally embedded in the local culture of the Rhodope mountains, but has recognisable links to the regions of central and north Bulgaria and also, to the south, with the north Aegean.
Keywords: Ada Tepe, Late Bronze Age, settlement, pottery, contextual analysis, everyday-life.
