Capabilities of dating of glazed ceramics with monochrome glaze

Abstract

Excavations of Kazan Kremlin conducted in 1994-2005 yielded diverse material in the form of numerous fragments of monochrome glazed ceramics. The fragments of glazed dishware originate from layers dating back to various epochs starting with the Kazan Khanate and ending with the Post Medieval period. This article is concerned with the research of the chemical composition of the glaze and paste of ceramics dating back to the late Middle Ages. Natural scientific research has allowed to identify two primary types of glass-forming components - sodium and lead. Groups differing in the elemental composition of paste and glaze were identified as a result of statistical processing of the analytical data. This distribution significantly corresponds to dating of artefacts on the basis of their stratigraphic chronology and comparative morphological analysis. A comparison of the obtained materials allows to identify samples of glazed ceramics from the excavations of Kazan Kremlin with unknown or speculative dating.