Sioni Cultural Tradition

208 Far-Flung Networks

of ceramic containers built from slabs that were not firmly pressed together can fracture at the core, revealing textile impressions sandwiched between two layers of clay.These impressions suggest that certain pieces were either manufactured around a mould covered in cloth, or more likely that slabs of clay were laid out on a mat base before being shaped. Other vessels have mat-impressed bases (Figure 4.28(2)).

The range of shapes is restricted and undistinguished: ovoid-bodied jars with a short neck attached to a high shoulder, holemouth jars (a carryover from the Neolithic) and hemispherical bowls constitute the most common forms.When chaff was introduced in the late phase, it coincided with a slight increase in variants of these forms. The decorativeness of rims, on the other hand, is quite striking: oblique incisions that occasionally extend down over the interior and exterior; oblique combed impressions; circular impressions on the top of the lip; serrated edges; and an unusual pie crust rim that is wavy when viewed from the top. Apart from decorative rims, Sioni pottery is not elaborately ornamented.A few vessels bear single knobs or ledges of varying sizes attached to the rim that may have also functioned as handles. Surfaces are usually burnished or smoothed and hardly ever left plain. In many cases, the exterior surface is combed with a haphazard series of incised lines that suggest flint-scraping.The purpose of this treatment is not so much a form of ornamentation as a means of smoothing the lumpy surface.

In the southern Caucasus, close parallels with the Sioni repertoire can be drawn with ceramics from Tsiteli Sopeli and Jinvali, where potters impressed and incised the lips of vessels. Alazani III (Kviriastskali) has similar pieces, as well as a series of novel elements – perforations around the rim, solid knobs, tab handles, small loop handles linking neck to shoulder, and a finger-impressed relief band around the body. The Tsopi and Grmakhevistavi repertoires are particularly important.Their chaff-tempered fabric clearly places them within the Late Chalcolithic period, yet serrated and incised lips, solid knobs, and perforations placed below the rim clearly suggest continuity with the Early Chalcolithic. Indeed, this type of hybridity can be found at several transition points in south Caucasian late prehistory.

Chipped Stone Tools and Other Technologies

Most of the chipped stone tools were manufactured from obsidian, except in the Mugan Valley (for example, Alikemek Tepesi).The site of Sioni has a rich lithic industry. Of the 1,253 fragments collected, about 94 per cent were obsidian; the rest were manufactured from flint, basalt, chalcedony, and argillite.216

216Menabde and Kiguradze 1981: 18, table 1. For a different interpretation on the chronology and cultural affiliations of the Sioni tradition, see Nebieridze 2010.

Although no precise quantitative analyses have been carried out on lithics, the broad trend indicates that there was a move from an assemblage with some retouched blades in the early phases to one that was overwhelmingly fl akes. Delisi, on the other hand, is represented by an amorphous fl ake tradition.The general impression of the stone-tool assemblage from Sioni is one of an expedient tradition in which cores were almost fully reduced with some signs of rejuvenation.

Owing to the lack of clear settlement plans it is not possible to determine where the reduction sequences (chaîne opératoire) took place at Sioni. Just under half of the assemblage comprised debitage – chips and fl akes, about half of which show traces of retouch and are worn out. Straight-sided blades were either used as knives or modified to produce burins, scrapers, and chippings or pièces ecaillées (Figure 4.28(12–19)). Of the 100 or so blades, half are well retouched or partly retouched, a practice that either blunted or sharpened the edges. Only a few blades were backed, mostly for use as sickles. Importantly, only one microlith has been reported.217 A small number of the formal pieces in the early period, knives and scrapers in particular, display fish-scale pressure fl aking over most of their backs. A number of scraper types, some fashioned from flint, are represented – such as end scrapers with ovoid, oblique or straight working edges. Another sub-group has been defined by its squamous (fishscale) retouch on the back. Other rare types include the trapeze-shaped tool with retouched longitudinal edges and a pressure-fl aked upper surface and a denticulate blade.

Edge-ground axes (only one fragment was found at Sioni), saddle querns and mortars are amongst the basalt ground-stone objects, which are not as plentiful as in the Neolithic farming communities. Likewise, the bone industry is nowhere as refined and diverse as the Neolithic repertoire. Nor are bone tools plentiful. At the site of Sioni, only five bone tools were found.218 Typically, the Sioni horizon is represented by awls and spatulae, and some spindle whorls. Picks and shaft-holed hoes were produced from antler, and from Sioni and Damtsvari Gora comes a chopper fashioned from the shoulder blade of cattle, whereas Nachivchavebi yielded a horn tool from its burial. At Alikemek Tepe, excavators found numerous circular beads made from shell (150 from one pit in Horizon 1) and pendants from perforated teeth; about twenty perforated mother of pearl shell pendants were found at Sioni.219 A few stone beads, including carnelian and turquoise, and a copper bead were also found.

217Menabde and Kiguradze 1981: 18. For a different view on the quantity of microliths, see Nebieridze (2010: 157), who is of the view more were found than has been reported.

218Menabde and Kiguradze 1981: 26.

219Menabde and Kiguradze 1981: 26.