Approaching the Unification and Diversity of Pottery Assemblages

The Case of Western Tripolye Culture Ceramics in the Southern Bug and Dnieper Interfluve, 4100–3600 cal BC

Abstract

This paper questions the cycling nature of the unification and diversity of pottery forms through a case study of ceramics of the Western Tripolye culture in the Southern Bug and Dnieper interfluve in modern Ukraine. We identified the cultural cycle representing the transition from more unified ceramic assemblages to more diverse ones, and then back to more unified assemblages. This cultural cycle is disturbed by the increase in the diversity of pottery sets at three of ten subsequent time periods we have analysed. The obtained results are discussed in frames of deterministic explanations and the dynamic behaviour of complex systems.