TRADITIONAL UKRAINIAN POTTERY:

FORMS AND FUNCTIONS

When looking at old Ukrainian pottery, it may initially seem quite easy to understand: a pot was used in the oven, a jug held liquids, and a bowl was meant for the table. But a closer look reveals many forms that are not so easy to distinguish from one another. One vessel has a taller neck, another a wider mouth; some have handles, others spouts, while others stand on three legs.
What interests us about these objects is the reason behind these differences. Why was a vessel made in one particular shape rather than another? Why do the walls flare outward widely in some cases, while in others the opening remains narrow? Why do some vessels have small handles or spouts, while others have no need for them?
Today, such details may seem unusual or insignificant, but in the past they were perfectly familiar. We know which remote control operates the television and which one operates the air conditioner. We know which battery fits a particular device, and so on. For our ancestors, the differences between ceramic vessels were just as obvious, and their structural features were easy to understand.
Many of the answers lie not in the names of these objects, but in how they were used. A vessel's shape was related to the task it performed: cooking food in the oven, grinding ingredients, storing milk, carrying water, straining liquids, or serving food at the table. Studies of Ukrainian clay pottery reveal this direct connection between form and function.
That is why we will approach these vessels in precisely this way, by looking at what they were designed to do. The name is only a starting point. What matters more is understanding what the shape itself offered to the person who used the object.

How to Read the Shape of a Vessel
To understand this, we need to look a little more closely at the vessel itself. Not just at its overall silhouette, but at how it is constructed. Where is the widest part of the body? How does it narrow toward the base and the top? What is the shape of the opening, and how are the rim and lip formed? Does it have a handle, small side handles, a spout, legs, or holes through its walls?
The shape of a cooking pot's body is related to its use in the oven and the way it was heated. The narrower lower section made it easier to handle with a pot lifter, while the rounded body helped heat the contents. A makitra, by contrast, has walls that flare outward widely, providing easy access to its contents during grinding, mixing, or kneading. In a colander, the defining feature is the presence of holes passing through the walls or base, while the legs of some shallow cooking vessels raise the bottom above the fire or hot embers.
When we begin to examine pottery in this way, individual features no longer seem accidental. A wide opening, a narrow neck, a handle, or legs become part of how the vessel was intended to be used. The differences between similar forms then become easier to understand not through their names, but through the tasks for which they were made.
This provides the starting point for the next step: exploring the different tasks performed by Ukrainian ceramic vessels and how their forms corresponded to those tasks.

If we look at Ukrainian ceramic vessels in terms of their intended use rather than their names, the differences between their forms become easier to understand. In everyday life, pottery served many different purposes at every stage of working with food, from preparation and cooking to storage, transport, and serving.

To better understand the variety of forms and uses of traditional Ukrainian pottery, it helps to know how food was prepared at the time. Meals were cooked in the traditional Ukrainian stove, where heat was used differently from cooking over an open fire. The stove was first fired and allowed to heat thoroughly. The embers could then be pushed aside or removed, and cooking pots were placed inside using a long-handled pot lifter. Some dishes were cooked at a higher heat, while others were left inside the hot chamber to simmer or stew slowly. Even after the flames had died down, the heat stored in the walls and vaulted ceiling continued to cook the food, while lids helped retain moisture. These cooking conditions played an important part in shaping the forms, sizes, and construction of the vessels used in everyday life.
The vessels can then be divided into several main groups.
Cooking — pots, shallow cooking pans (rynky), as well as large specialized vessels for baking or stewing.
Food preparation — makitras, colanders, straining vessels, and other utensils used for grinding, mixing, kneading, or straining ingredients.
Storage and transport — jars, storage crocks, tykvy, small barrels, flasks, and large storage vessels known as korchahy. This group also includes vessels designed specifically for carrying prepared meals, such as twin pots (dviiniata).
Dairy use — gladyshky, milk jugs, and other pitchers in which milk was stored, left to settle, and, in some cases, gently heated in the oven.
Water and beverages — pitchers, large jugs (dzbanky), spouted jugs (kushyny), mugs, kumanets vessels, and other containers adapted for carrying, storing, or serving liquids.
Table service — bowls, plates, platters, shallow serving bowls, and other tableware.
Ritual and festive use — paskivnyky (vessels for baking Easter bread), perepiitsi (ritual wedding jugs), triichatky (three-part drinking vessels), and certain jugs and bowls intended for specific purposes or governed by particular rules of use.
This classification is not intended to sort every vessel into a separate box. In everyday life, the boundaries between these groups were flexible: the same form could serve different purposes depending on its size, construction, and the particular circumstances. This will become clear as we examine individual objects in more detail.

POT

1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The pot is one of the oldest and most widespread types of Ukrainian clay pottery. It became so deeply rooted in traditional domestic life and pottery-making that the word “pot” could be used more broadly as a generic term for clay vessels and even for pottery-making itself. In its narrower sense, it refers to a specific functional form primarily designed for cooking food in a traditional oven.
The pot illustrates one of the fundamental principles of traditional Ukrainian ceramics: its shape was not arbitrary. It was determined by the method of heating, the construction of the oven, the use of a pot lifter, the type of food being prepared, the required capacity, and the vessel’s subsequent use. Over time, its form evolved alongside developments in pottery-making technology and heating structures.
At the same time, the pot was more than a cooking vessel. It was used to store food and liquids, transport prepared meals, heat water, perform certain household and medicinal tasks, and serve purposes associated with festive occasions and ritual practices. It is therefore more accurate to understand it not as a single standardized vessel, but as a group of related forms sharing a common structural basis and a broad range of applications.
2. SHAPE
In its narrower sense, a typical pot has a rounded body, its greatest width at the point of maximum bulge, an opening somewhat narrower than the widest part of the body, and a relatively low rim. The lower part tapers inward, while the upper part also narrows slightly toward the opening.
The rim is usually vertical and straight, though it is sometimes flared outward. A pot could have one or two handles, or none at all. Its overall shape ranged from squat and wide to tall and more slender.
The characteristic form was not fixed. Even within a single pottery-making center, wider and narrower, taller and shorter pots could exist simultaneously. Folk names such as “pukaty” (bulging), “ploskun” (flat and broad), and “stovbun” (tall and upright) directly reflect the attention paid to the proportions of the body.
Archaeological evidence shows that certain local traditions of pot formation have a much longer history. In the Poltava region, for example, researchers have documented eighteenth-century pots with squat, rounded bodies and low rims.
3. CONSTRUCTION
The main parts of a pot are the base, body, bulging section, upper part of the body, rim and, where present, handles. The lid was a separate structural component.
The pot's lower section was tapered for reasons beyond its silhouette. Its shape was adapted to the pot lifter used to place the vessel in the oven and remove it. In traditional households, pot lifters of different sizes could be used for pots of corresponding dimensions.
The rounded body provided substantial capacity while allowing the vessel to occupy a relatively compact space inside the oven. The narrowing of the upper section suited the way food was heated and reduced excessive evaporation. The rim was shaped to accommodate the lid, so the pot and lid formed a functional pair rather than two independent objects.
When present, the handles were added by hand. Most often, one end was attached to the rim and the other to the bulging section of the body. They made the vessel easier to handle, particularly when it was hot or large.
4. VARIATIONS IN FORM
The main differences between pots concerned their height, width, body shape, the proportions between the opening and base, the construction of the rim, and the presence or absence of handles.
In some localities, tall pots were called “stovbuny,” low and wide ones “ploskuny,” and those with prominently bulging sides “pukaty.” Barrel-shaped forms with a spherical central body and one or two handles were widespread in the Hutsul region.
Chahunets
A clay chahunets belongs to the broader family of pot forms. It was designed to imitate the shape of a cast-iron cooking vessel. Its characteristic features include a narrow base and a short, thick rim; the body could be cylindrical or resemble a truncated cone. Some local descriptions, by contrast, emphasize forms without a clearly defined rim. The primary purpose of the chahunets was to cook thick dishes, particularly porridge.
Large Pots
Very large pots formed a separate group. Their shape depended directly on the technological feasibility of making a vessel of that size and on how it was intended to be used. In Opishne, vessels known as “zolilnyky,” with capacities of up to 40 liters, have been documented. In other pottery-making centers, large vessels could be considerably smaller.
Such pots were not necessarily used in the oven. When they were too large to fit inside it, food was prepared outdoors, with the vessel placed over an open fire.
Twin Pots
A distinctive structural variation consisted of twin pots, known by local names such as “dviiniata,” “dviiniatka,” “parka,” and “blyzniata.” These were two small pots joined together. They had a ring-shaped handle positioned where their rims met and could share a common wooden or clay lid. Three-part versions, known as “triiniata,” also appeared later.
5. SIZES AND CAPACITY
Pots formed an extensive system of capacities rather than a single standardized size.
The smallest, holding approximately 0.5–1 liter, were used mainly for preparing children's food; they could also hold butter and sour cream. Pots with capacities of approximately 1–4 liters were associated primarily with porridge, kulish, and other thick dishes. Medium-sized pots, holding approximately 3–5 liters, were used for borshch, cabbage dishes, fish or other broths, and, later, soup.
Large pots could hold several dozen liters. The largest forms varied substantially between pottery-making centers, ranging from approximately one bucket to 30–40 liters. These figures therefore represent a range of documented local forms rather than a standard applicable throughout Ukraine.
Capacity was the basis of a significant part of traditional pottery terminology. A vessel's name often made it possible to identify immediately the type or quantity of food for which it was intended.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING
For a cooking pot, the ability of the clay to withstand heat was particularly important. Different regions had terms for clay suitable for making pots, including “horsch echna” and “horshkova” clay; in Right-Bank Ukraine and western Ukraine, such clay was often called “hlei.”
Heat resistance determined whether the raw material was suitable for cooking. Where natural clay lacked the necessary properties, additional materials were incorporated. The use of sand has been documented, while some pottery-making centers employed mixtures of different clays and hlei. Unsuitable raw material could cause the vessel to crack during heating.
Pots were generally formed on a foot-powered potter's wheel. After the body had been shaped, the handles were added by hand. A corresponding lid could be made for each vessel, with its size determined by the diameter of the opening.
Firing took place in kilns. The firing technique largely determined the color of the ceramic body: oxidizing firing produced yellow, red, or reddish-brown tones, while reduction firing produced gray, ash-gray, and smoke-darkened shades.
Preparing a New Pot
Before its first use, a new pot was often subjected to preliminary treatment. It could be boiled with water or milk, seasoned by heating porridge, a flour solution, or a potato or beet decoction in it, or coated with lard, rendered pork fat, or oil before being placed in the oven.
In some localities, more complex procedures combined cleaning, impregnation, and subsequent heating. These actions formed part of traditional practices for preparing new pottery for use.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
A pot could be unglazed, partially glazed, or fully glazed.
Glaze was applied to the rim, the interior surface, or the entire vessel. For a cooking pot, interior glazing served not only a decorative but also a practical purpose: it made the surface less permeable and facilitated use.
Terracotta, smoke-fired, and burnished pots also existed. Their appearance depended largely on the combination of raw materials, surface-treatment techniques, and firing technology.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
The decoration of a pot was subordinate to its form and varied across regions.
On pots fired in an oxidizing atmosphere, straight and wavy lines were common, applied or incised along the rims and shoulders. Smoke-fired pottery was characterized by impressed and burnished ornamentation, which could cover a substantial portion of the exterior surface.
Researchers have documented painted decoration on eighteenth-century Poltava pots featuring lines, wavy motifs, “fingers,” “combs,” “hooks,” “splashes,” and dots. This suggests that decoration should be understood not as arbitrary embellishment, but as an established system of local techniques associated with the form of a particular vessel.
In the Polissia tradition, gray, steel-gray, and blue-black vessels could be decorated through burnishing and incising, producing vertical, horizontal, and diagonal bands, grids, serrations, spirals, circles, and other geometric compositions.
Decoration, therefore, was not an essential characteristic of the pot. A simple unglazed vessel and an elaborately ornamented one belonged to the same functional group.
9. PRIMARY FUNCTION
The primary function of the pot was to cook food in a traditional oven.
Its shape made it possible to place the vessel in the hot embers, heat the contents evenly, reduce excessive evaporation, and remove the prepared dish using a pot lifter. The pot was therefore not simply a container placed in a fire, but a vessel whose construction was adapted to a specific method of thermal food preparation.
This was one of the reasons the form remained in use for so long. The pot was so well suited to the traditional oven that it continued to be used in Ukrainian households for centuries. Sources characterize it as one of the most versatile types of traditional clay pottery.
10. SPECIFIC USES
The size of a pot was directly related to the type of food being prepared.
Small pots were used for children's food, while medium-sized ones were used for porridge, kulish, and milk-based dishes. Larger pots were used for borshch, cabbage dishes, broths, and other liquid foods. A household might have separate pots for a liquid dish and for porridge.
Large pots were used to prepare substantial quantities of food for weddings, christenings, funeral meals, and other major gatherings. When a vessel was too large for the oven, food was cooked outdoors over an open fire.
Pots were also used to store water, salted meat, grain, and other foodstuffs and liquids. Certain pot-shaped forms served specialized domestic, medicinal, or sanitary purposes.
The Pot as a Portable Container
Twin pots illustrate another use of the form. Prepared food was carried in the two connected vessels: one might contain a liquid dish and the other porridge. They were used during fieldwork and haymaking.
Thus, the pot form was adapted not only to cooking but also to transporting food that had already been prepared.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
A pot could acquire a festive or ritual status without any alteration to its basic form.
On Christmas Eve, pots were used to prepare and serve kutia and uzvar. In some traditions, new pots were used for these dishes; in others, it was sufficient to follow a specific rule whereby a particular vessel was reserved exclusively for kutia or for uzvar.
Twin pots were also used in Christmas traditions: children could carry kutia and uzvar in them to their godparents. Museum records explicitly document these vessels as ritual pottery used during religious and folk celebrations.
A particularly striking example is “babyna kasha,” or “grandmother's porridge.” A pot containing ritual porridge was brought to a christening and then deliberately broken as part of the ceremony itself. Ethnological records document this custom, including the treatment of the porridge and the fragments of the broken pot.
Pots could also play a role in wedding rituals, where they were used to prepare and serve food and were sometimes involved in ceremonial acts of breaking vessels.
It is important to distinguish between the vessel's form and its ritual status: in these cases, the pot was not necessarily a specially designed “ritual form.” More often, an ordinary vessel acquired a special status through the particular way it was used.
12. NAMES AND TERMINOLOGY
The terminology associated with the pot is among the most highly developed systems in traditional Ukrainian pottery-making.
Names could describe a vessel's size, capacity, shape, the type of food it held, or its intended use.
Documented names for small pots include “horshchia,” “horshchechok,” “horshchochok,” “makhitka,” “makhotka,” “drobyna,” “varyshka,” “kashnenia,” and “pytun.” Pots used for porridge were called “kashnyk,” those for liquid dishes “borshchivnyk,” those for milk-based dishes “moloshnyk,” and very large vessels “zolilnyk” or “zolinnik.”
The same name could refer to different capacities in different pottery-making centers. Even the system of names based on capacity was local: Opishne, Khomutets, Olesh nia, Bilyky, Kaniv, the Kharkiv region, and other localities had their own scales.
Some names described morphology, such as “pukaty,” “ploskun,” and “stovbun,” while others indicated suitability for oven use, including “varivnyi,” “varivnyk,” and “nevarivnyi.”
There was therefore no universal system in which a particular name corresponded to one specific shape or capacity in liters.
13. REGIONAL VARIATIONS
The Ukrainian pot does not have a single silhouette shared throughout the country.
In the Poltava region during the eighteenth century, squat, rounded pots with low rims and painted decoration were characteristic.
In the Hutsul region, barrel-shaped forms with a rounded central body and one or two handles were common.
In Polissia, the traditional pot belonged to a broader tradition of gray, steel-gray, and blue-black pottery, in which burnishing, incising, and local variations in form played an important role. Within Polissia itself, distinct historical and cultural zones can be identified by their differences in shapes, technologies, and terminology.
In Podillia, large pots could be made “na okazii,” meaning for major occasions. In Bubnivka, such vessels could hold up to three buckets of water and be used for outdoor cooking. In everyday household life, large pots could also serve as containers for storing grain.
In the Hutsul region, large pots holding approximately two to two and a half buckets were used to prepare substantial quantities of food for weddings, christenings, and funeral meals.
Regional differences therefore involved several aspects simultaneously: shape, capacity, raw materials, technology, decoration, terminology, and function.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
The pot has a much longer history than the ethnographic forms documented in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. At the same time, forms closely resembling those well documented in traditional Ukrainian domestic life have been recorded in Ukraine from at least the second half of the sixteenth century.
By the eighteenth century, pots had become an established part of the production of individual pottery-making centers, each with its own morphological and decorative characteristics. Materials from the Poltava region dating to this period reveal a well-developed system of forms and ornamental patterns.
Most ethnographic information dates from the late nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century, when the clay pot remained the principal vessel for cooking food in the traditional oven.
During the twentieth century, the pot's functions gradually narrowed as metal and glass vessels became more widespread, oven designs changed, and homes were increasingly connected to gas supplies. Nevertheless, the pot did not disappear completely. It continued to be used wherever traditional cooking methods survived and later found a place in contemporary decorative and culinary practices.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
The greatest difficulties arise when a modern observer attempts to identify a vessel solely by its overall silhouette.
The pot and the chahunets are functionally similar, but the chahunets usually has a more compact, often cylindrical or conical body and is associated with a metal prototype.
The pot and the rynka may overlap in their local names and uses, but the rynka has a fundamentally different morphological structure: it is low, more open, and often equipped with a handle and legs.
The pot and the makitra have different structural principles. The makitra is considerably more open and is adapted to working with ingredients inside the vessel, whereas the pot is designed to heat and contain food in the oven.
The pot and the jug differ primarily in the proportions of the body, opening, and neck. The jug is characterized by an upright form with a neck, while the pot holds most of its volume in the body and has a wider opening without a tall neck.
For this reason, name, form, and function must be analyzed together.
16. ATTRIBUTION
Identifying a specific pot requires examining a combination of features rather than relying on a single characteristic.
The most important features to consider are the proportions of height and width, the shape of the body, the diameters of the base and opening, the character of the rim, the presence and construction of handles, the forming technique, the material, the firing method, the surface treatment, the decoration, the capacity, and the region of origin.
The shape of the lower section and the opening is particularly important, as these features may indicate whether the vessel was designed for use with a pot lifter and lid.
For a glazed or painted object, decoration can also help establish its local attribution, but it should not replace morphological analysis.
Very large or unusual pots require additional investigation into their possible specialized purposes, such as preparing large quantities of food, storage, seasonal use, or ritual activities.
It is also important to establish the precise meaning of a name in the particular region and period under consideration. The highly developed local terminology associated with pots demonstrates that the same name could refer to vessels of different capacities or functions in different pottery-making centers.
17. MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
The pot is one of the oldest and most widespread types of Ukrainian clay pottery, primarily intended for cooking food in a traditional oven. Its typical form has a rounded body that reaches its greatest width in the middle, a tapered base, a relatively wide opening, and a low rim. It could have one or two handles or none at all. Its construction was adapted to the use of a pot lifter and lid and to the thermal preparation of food. Pots were made from heat-resistant clays on a potter's wheel, with handles added by hand, and were subsequently fired. They could be terracotta, smoke-fired, burnished, engobe-coated, or glazed, with simple or elaborate local decoration. Their size and capacity determined their uses, ranging from preparing children's food and porridge to cooking borshch, preparing large quantities of festive food, and storing household supplies. In specific circumstances, pots and pot-shaped vessels were also used to transport prepared food and in festive and ritual practices. Local names, forms, and capacities varied considerably, so an individual object should be identified through a combined analysis of its morphology, construction, function, technology, dating, and region of origin.

Rynka (ceramic cooking vessel). Polish example, 14th century. Source: Museum of the History of the Tithes Church, Facebook post published on 10 April 2021

Fig. 4. Rynkas from 17th-century archaeological complexes in Kyiv (1, 2); an Old Rus’ latka (3) (after Makarova 1967, pl. XV.31); a Polish example, 14th century (4); a Czech example, 15th century (5); depictions in Czech and Polish early printed books of the 15th–16th centuries (6, 7) (after Stredoveka, 1979, pl. 5; Gardawski and Kruppe 1955, figs. 32, 37, 38).

Source: Museum of the History of the Tithes Church, Facebook publication, 10 April 2021.

RYNKA

1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The rynka is a traditional type of Ukrainian clay cooking vessel for which it is particularly important to distinguish between the name, the form, and the manner of use. In its modern dictionary definition, a rynka is a low clay bowl that widens toward the top. However, historical and ethnographic evidence reveals a much wider range of forms, from a bowl-shaped vessel with three legs and a tubular handle to a low vessel with a flat base, a pot-shaped vessel, or a cylindrical variant.
A rynka therefore cannot be identified solely by its external silhouette. In different regions and historical periods, the same name could refer to vessels with different structural characteristics. Identifying a particular object requires consideration of its shape, handle, legs, rim, heating method, function, and the place and period in which it was used.
The primary purpose of the rynka was related to the thermal preparation of food, especially frying, but also boiling, stewing, and baking. Its construction was therefore not simply that of a low container, but of a vessel adapted to working with hot embers or an open fire.
2. SHAPE
In its most characteristic historical form, the rynka has a low, open body that may be bowl-shaped, pot-shaped, or similar to a shallow frying pan.
The bowl-shaped type is considered the most widespread among finds from the Middle Dnieper region. It may have rounded or hemispherical sides, a flat base or three legs, and a widely open rim. Another form is closer to a pot, with a more enclosed body and a less open top. A third type resembles a shallow frying pan, with short sides and a broad, flat base.
Later ethnographic examples also include low cylindrical forms, deeper bowl-shaped vessels, and variants resembling a makitra, a traditional Ukrainian vessel used for grinding and mixing ingredients.
Thus, the rynka is characterized not by one specific geometric model, but by a range of low, open forms associated with food preparation.
3. CONSTRUCTION
The construction of the rynka clearly reflects its function.
In early forms, an important feature was the hollow tubular handle. A wooden shaft was inserted into it, allowing the vessel to be handled near the fire without bringing the user's hands close to the hot ceramic surface. In different localities, this tubular fitting was called a tuliika or rulochka, while the wooden shaft was known as an odzhuh.
Another characteristic feature was the presence of three legs. These could be small and conical, approximately 2–3.5 cm long. Their purpose was functional: they raised the base above the surface, making it possible to place the rynka directly on hot embers.
Not all rynkas had legs. Some forms had a flat base.
Later forms could have one or two small side handles, as well as other types of conventional handles. Rynkas with lids are also documented.
The handle, legs, and method of support were therefore not incidental details. They directly determined how the vessel could be used.
4. VARIATIONS IN FORM
Several main morphological types can be distinguished among rynkas dating from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
Deep Bowl-Shaped Rynka
This is one of the most characteristic types. The body may have an angular break in its profile, horizontal rims, or rims sharply flared outward. Examples occur both without legs and with three legs.
The three-legged forms have small conical supports. Examples without legs could feature dark green glaze, while later forms could be smoke-fired, incised, or burnished.
Pot-Shaped Rynka
This type is less common. Its body is more enclosed than that of the bowl-shaped form. Examples are known with a handle but no legs, as well as with both a handle and three legs.
Hemispherical Rynka
This is a bowl-shaped form with a hemispherical body and inward-curving rims. Archaeological examples have ancient parallels among vessels used as early as the Kyivan Rus period.
Rynka-Frying Pan
This type closely resembles a shallow frying pan. It is characterized by short, straight or slightly concave sides, a short rim, broad, flat legs, and a handle.
Some early forms show a clear connection with cooking directly over hot embers.
Rynka for Roasting Piglets
A distinct, large variant of the rynka was used for roasting small piglets. A documented eighteenth-century museum example has an elongated, rounded shape, low sides, a handle at one end, and a specially designed recess at the other for draining fat.
This example demonstrates how strongly function could influence the size and configuration of a vessel.
5. SIZES AND CAPACITY
The rynka had no single standardized size.
Archaeological and museum collections reveal a wide range of dimensions. A small museum example with three legs measures approximately 16.3 cm in diameter and 6.2 cm in height. A considerably larger rynka designed for roasting piglets measures approximately 48 cm in length and 24 cm in width.
These measurements represent the range found among specific documented objects rather than a standard size.
The size of a rynka depended directly on the task performed in it. A small vessel could be suitable for frying pork fat, onions, eggs, or a small portion of food. A much larger form could be used for roasting meat or preparing another substantial dish.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING
The primary material was pottery clay.
Rynkas were generally formed on a potter's wheel, after which individual structural details could be finished by hand. Museum examples show evidence of wheel-throwing, hand-building, incising, glazing, and firing.
The manufacturing technique depended on the specific type. Early three-legged forms required the additional shaping of the legs and tubular handle. In simpler, later forms, the construction could be much closer to that of an ordinary shallow bowl or pot.
The color and characteristics of the ceramic body depended on the clay composition and firing method.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
Rynkas could be terracotta, glazed, smoke-fired, burnished, or finished using a combination of surface-treatment techniques.
Early archaeological examples include white-clay rynkas with green glaze on the interior.
Glaze could serve a practical purpose as well as a decorative one. This is particularly evident in descriptions of food preparation: a well-smoothed or glazed interior was more convenient when working with ingredients that might otherwise stick to the ceramic surface.
Later forms included terracotta surfaces, brick-red glaze, and brown glaze.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
The decoration of the rynka was directly related to its form and construction.
On early examples, ornamentation could be very restrained. Recessed lines were sometimes applied to the tubular handle. On certain vessels, decoration was placed on the rim, shoulders, or central part of the body.
In later Hutsul and Lemko traditions, rynkas could combine glazing with incising, burnishing, and raised bands.
The handles are particularly illustrative. Raised decoration on a handle could make the vessel easier to grip while also creating a decorative rhythm.
Decoration was therefore not separate from the construction of the rynka. It could emphasize the handle, rim, change in the body's profile, or the vessel's principal proportions.
9. PRIMARY FUNCTION
The primary function of the rynka was the thermal preparation of food.
Written sources most frequently mention frying, and less often boiling and baking. Some descriptions explicitly state that rynkas were used “over hot embers,” “on charcoal,” or “over a fire.”
The open form offered a practical advantage: food remained easily accessible from above and could be stirred, turned, added to, or removed quickly from the heat.
The rynka differed from the pot not only in appearance, but also in its adaptation to a different method of cooking.
10. SPECIFIC USES
The rynka was used to prepare a wide variety of dishes.
Pork fat, onions, eggs, pampushky and other foods were fried in it.
Broths, lentils, vegetables, meat, fish, cabbage, mushrooms, and dumplings were boiled in it.
Fish, cabbage, mushrooms, kidneys, and other combined dishes were stewed in it.
Noodles, veal, eggs, baked puddings, dumplings, and other dishes were baked in it.
An especially important feature was that the rynka could be used at several stages of a single cooking process. An ingredient could first be fried, then transferred or left in the same vessel to be stewed or baked, and the finished dish could be served directly from that vessel.
Rynkas were also used for certain methods of salting and storing food. Their function was therefore broader than simple frying.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
The special uses of the rynka did not constitute a single, universal system.
A large rynka could be used to prepare food for major gatherings. Large forms were used for roasting meat, including piglets.
In some regions, a rynka or rynochok was used for dyeing Easter eggs.
In other Easter traditions, the name “rynka” could refer to a vessel used for baking paskas, traditional Ukrainian Easter breads. This does not mean that the rynka was inherently an Easter vessel; the specific local context is essential.
Festive and ritual uses of the rynka should therefore be distinguished from its primary culinary function.
12. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY
The name “rynka” has a complex history.
In older Ukrainian material, a vessel of similar construction, with a tubular handle and three legs, could be called a latka. Such forms are known from the period of Kyivan Rus.
The form reappears in the archaeological record of the fifteenth century. Its spread in Ukrainian ceramics is associated with broader European influences. Similar forms are documented in Central European ceramics of the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.
The name “rynka” is traced through the Polish word rynka to older German names for shallow cooking vessels associated with pots or sauté pans. In the available documentary evidence, the Ukrainian term is securely attested in writing from the eighteenth century, although its use in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is considered possible.
An important distinction in historical sources is that “rynka” referred specifically to a clay vessel. Different names were used for metal cookware, including skovoroda for an iron frying pan and panva for a copper one.
Regional dialects included forms such as ryncha, rynchyna, and other variants.
13. REGIONAL VARIATIONS
Regional differences in the rynka concern not only decoration but also its morphology.
Middle Dnieper Region
Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century examples include bowl-shaped and pot-shaped rynkas. Archaeological material from Baturyn documents both types. Among the bowl-shaped examples are forms with flat bases and hemispherical forms with three legs. Some of these vessels were made from white clay and glazed green on the interior.
Hutsul Region
Late nineteenth-century examples include three-legged rynkas, forms with flat bases, vessels with small side handles, and examples with other handle types. Terracotta, smoke-fired, and glazed examples are documented. Their uses included rendering pork fat and frying onions.
Lemko Region
The name ryncha is documented here. Forms included vessels with three legs, flat bases, long handles, or a small side handle. Their surfaces could be terracotta or glazed. They were used for frying onions, pork fat, and eggs.
Dniester Region and Neighboring Dialects
The names rynka and rynchyna could refer to cooking vessels, but their precise meaning depended on the local tradition.
Boyko Region
In dialectal usage, rynka could refer to a low cooking vessel resembling a saucepan.
Podillia
In local dialects, the name could acquire other meanings, including referring to vessels used for plants. This further demonstrates that a dialectal name cannot automatically be assigned to a single archaeological form.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
The history of the rynka encompasses several stages.
Ancient parallels for a three-legged vessel with a tubular handle are known from the Kyivan Rus period under the name latka.
After a period in which this form is less frequently represented, similar vessels reappear in the fifteenth century. By the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, rynkas had become part of the established range of Ukrainian clay cooking vessels.
Several rynkas dating from the second half of the seventeenth to the early eighteenth century have been documented at Baturyn. They were used for frying and baking and occurred in several morphological variants.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the form became even more diverse. Three-legged vessels existed alongside rynkas with flat bases, cylindrical and pot-shaped forms, and examples with one or two small side handles.
During the twentieth century, traditional rynkas gradually lost some of their functions as metal cookware and new kitchen appliances became more widespread. However, the form continued to be produced in ceramics and, in some localities, survived as a decorative object or a locally significant traditional vessel.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
Rynka and Pot
The pot was primarily adapted for cooking food in a traditional oven. The rynka was designed for working with a more open surface and a different method of heating, often directly over hot embers.
Rynka and Bowl
A bowl-shaped rynka can indeed resemble an ordinary bowl. The distinguishing features are structural: legs, a specialized handle, the method of support, and the functional context.
Rynka and Makitra
Both forms can be low and open, but the makitra is primarily adapted for working with ingredients inside the vessel, including grinding, rubbing, and mixing. The rynka is associated with the thermal preparation of food.
Rynka and Frying Pan
Their functions may overlap, but historically and materially they are not the same object. Ukrainian sources distinguish between the clay rynka and the metal skovoroda. Some forms of the rynka are, in fact, morphologically very close to a shallow frying pan.
Rynka and Chahunets
The chahunets is a more enclosed vessel, related in form to the pot and to cast-iron cookware. The rynka has a more open construction, allowing direct access to the food during frying or stewing.
16. ATTRIBUTION
The rynka should not be identified solely by its name or general silhouette.
The following features should be examined when identifying an individual object:
- Body shape
- Proportions of height and width
- Shape of the rim
- Presence or absence of legs
- Handle construction
- Presence of a tubular handle fitting known as a tuliika
- Type of base
- Presence of one or two small side handles
- Lid
- Surface characteristics and glaze
- Decoration
- Traces of heating
- Size
- Place and period of origin
  It is particularly important to distinguish the rynka from a bowl, a makitra, and a shallow pan-shaped vessel.
If only a fragment survives and the handle and legs are missing, a confident attribution may be impossible. In such cases, the name should be used cautiously as a provisional identification, with the source of the identification explicitly stated.
17. MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
The rynka is a traditional Ukrainian clay cooking vessel whose primary function was the thermal preparation of food, especially frying, but also boiling, stewing, and baking. Its characteristic historical form has a low, open body and may be bowl-shaped, pot-shaped, or similar to a shallow frying pan. Some early forms are characterized by three small legs and a hollow tubular handle designed to accommodate a wooden shaft. Other examples have flat bases, one or two small side handles, and different types of handles. Rynkas were made from pottery clay on a potter's wheel, with individual details supplemented by hand-building. Their surfaces could be terracotta, glazed, smoke-fired, burnished, or decorated with incised patterns and other techniques. Their size and shape depended on the specific task, ranging from small vessels for frying pork fat, onions, or eggs to large forms for roasting meat. The name “rynka” has a complex history and could refer to different vessel forms in different regions. An individual object should therefore be identified through a combined analysis of its morphology, construction, function, manufacturing technology, dating, and region of origin.

MAKITRA
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The makitra is one of the most widespread types of traditional Ukrainian clay pottery. It is a large or medium-sized, deep vessel with a wide, open top. Its shape is adapted to work performed directly inside the vessel: ingredients were ground with a makohon, a wooden pestle traditionally used for grinding poppy seeds and other foods, crushed with a pestle, dough was kneaded, and food mixtures were stirred. In certain local traditions, makitras were also used for stewing, baking, fermenting, salting, and storing food.
The defining feature of the makitra is not a single method of use, but the combination of a wide opening, a substantial interior working surface, a stable base, and a range of capacities. These characteristics made it a versatile vessel for many household tasks. The object's name alone is not always sufficient for attribution, as vessels of similar shape could have different names in particular regions, while the same name could encompass several distinct morphological variants.
Traditionally, makitras were most commonly made of clay, although the name could also refer to a wooden vessel of similar shape and function. Material is therefore an important, but not absolutely decisive, identifying feature.
2. SHAPE
The basic silhouette of the makitra is wide, deep, and open at the top. The most common forms have a rounded, hemispherical, or conical body. Their sides widen toward the top, while the lower part gradually narrows toward the base. The base is usually flat or relatively flat, allowing the vessel to stand securely on a table, bench, floor, or other surface.
The makitra did not have a single standardized silhouette throughout Ukraine. Museum and archaeological collections contain broad-based forms with relatively straight sides, tall vessels with bulging sides, conical makitras, forms resembling large bowls, and examples whose overall outline resembles that of a large pot. The proportions between height, rim diameter, and base diameter varied according to the period, local tradition, and intended use.
The wide opening is not merely an external characteristic. It provided unrestricted access to the entire interior with a hand or a makohon. The shape of the makitra is therefore directly related to the manual tasks for which it was used.
3. CONSTRUCTION
The main structural components of the makitra are the base, body, walls, and rim. The lower part of the body narrows toward the base, the middle section provides the main volume, and the upper section opens widely outward.
The rim could be simple or substantial, thickened and flared outward. Some vessels have an additional clay band attached to the edge of the rim. Museum collections also contain makitras reinforced with wire beneath the rim or around the lower part of the vessel. Such reinforcement was a practical repair for a damaged vessel rather than an essential structural feature.
Lug handles were not obligatory. Small and medium-sized makitras could be made without them. Larger vessels sometimes had one or two lug handles near the upper section. On very large makitras, handles had a practical purpose because they made it easier to carry a heavy vessel.
The treatment of the rim varied across historical forms. Archaeological research documents thickened, substantial rims, protrusions, and changes in profile at the transition from the wall to the rim on some sixteenth- and seventeenth-century makitras. In forms dating from the second half of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, rims could become thinner, while the transition from the wall to the rim became more gradual. These features are important for chronological attribution.
4. VARIATIONS IN FORM
Several morphological types can be distinguished within the traditional form, but they should not be treated as a rigid classification applicable throughout Ukraine.
Broad-based, relatively low makitras have straight or slightly outward-flaring walls and sharply everted rims. These forms are particularly characteristic of earlier archaeological assemblages.
Taller makitras with bulging walls and narrower bases represent another historical development. Their vertical proportions are more pronounced, and the transition to the rim may be emphasized by a distinct structural element.
Conical makitras with convex sides and flat bases are well represented in nineteenth- and twentieth-century museum collections, particularly those from Podillia.
Wooden vessels of similar shape were also used in mountainous regions. This demonstrates that the functional type represented by the makitra was not exclusively associated with ceramic pottery.
Very large makitras form a separate group. Their overall shape retains the main characteristics of the ordinary makitra, but the strength of the rim, the presence of two lug handles, and the construction of the base must accommodate the considerably greater weight of the vessel.
5. SIZES AND CAPACITY
Makitras were made in a wide range of sizes. According to ethnographic records from Opishne, their capacity ranged from approximately 1 to 40 liters, with the most common capacities being around 3 to 15 liters. Makitras holding more than 15 to 20 liters were made much less frequently, often to order for specific purposes.
For very large vessels, size was directly related to the practical challenges of making, carrying, and storing them. Large makitras therefore often had two lug handles and might not have been used every day. Instead, they were intended for preparing large quantities of dough, making festive baked goods, or storing household provisions.
Individual museum objects demonstrate the considerable range of dimensions. Documented examples include makitras approximately 16 to 19 cm in diameter and 11 to 20 cm in height, larger vessels approximately 26 to 38 cm in diameter, and large examples measuring around 40 cm across. Some historical objects from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have rim diameters of approximately 32 to 36 cm and heights of approximately 10 to 21 cm.
These figures do not represent standardized sizes. They illustrate the range of objects documented in specific museum and ethnographic collections.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING
Clay was the principal material used to make traditional makitras. Most museum examples were formed on a potter's wheel, with subsequent hand-finishing of the shape, rim, handles, and other details. Sources describing certain historical examples record well-kneaded clay bodies containing sand or other mineral temper.
The color of the ceramic body depended on the clay and firing conditions. Museum collections contain red-bodied, brown, grayish-yellow, and gray makitras.
Manufacturing technology influenced not only the appearance of the vessel, but also the proportions and structural strength of large examples. Makitras of substantial capacity were particularly difficult to make. In some pottery-making centers, only certain craftspeople produced them, or they were made exclusively to order.
Wooden makitras are also documented in some regions. One museum object from the second half of the nineteenth century, originating from the Ivano-Frankivsk region, was made by hollowing, hewing, and carving. This example is important for understanding the makitra as a functional and morphological type, rather than merely as a name for a clay vessel.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
The surface of a makitra could be unglazed, partially glazed, glazed only on the interior, or glazed throughout. Smoke-fired, burnished, and painted surfaces are also documented.
Surface treatment was related to the work performed in the vessel. For makitras primarily intended for grinding and crushing ingredients, a somewhat rougher interior was useful because it provided more friction than a smooth glazed surface. Unglazed makitras were therefore well suited to working with a makohon or wooden pestle.
By contrast, smaller glazed makitras used for stewing, baking, or serving prepared food offered practical advantages. Glazing reduced the absorption of fat and made cleaning easier. Ethnographic records from Opishne specifically mention the use of small glazed makitras for stewing and baking.
The interior surface is therefore an important feature for both attribution and functional interpretation. It should not be described merely as a decorative choice.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
The decoration of a makitra could be absent or very restrained, but in certain pottery-making centers, large vessels became prominent examples of painted pottery.
Nineteenth- and twentieth-century museum objects feature horizontal lines, wavy bands, incised elements, pinched details, burnishing, and painted ornament. Makitras from Opishne are particularly well known for their botanical and zoomorphic motifs, including flowers, grapevines, birds, and fish.
Earlier and archaeological forms generally have more restrained decoration associated with the construction of the vessel. Ornament could be concentrated around the rim, on the upper part of the walls, or arranged in horizontal bands.
The decorative system often emphasizes the shape of the makitra. Its wide upper section provides ample space for an ornamental band, while horizontal lines can visually balance the broad body. Decoration was not, however, an essential feature. Alongside painted examples, large numbers of plain, unglazed makitras were used primarily for practical household work.
9. PRIMARY FUNCTION
The primary function of the makitra was to serve as a wide working vessel for operations carried out inside it by hand or with a wooden tool.
These tasks included:
- Grinding ingredients
- Crushing and mashing ingredients
- Kneading dough and allowing it to rise
- Mixing food preparations
- Preparing and serving certain dishes
- Stewing and baking in certain local traditions
- Fermenting, salting, and storing food
  The wide opening explains the versatility of this form. The makitra was not specialized for only one culinary operation.
  10. SPECIFIC USES
The best-known operation performed in a makitra was grinding poppy seeds. This activity is directly associated with both the vessel's name and its use together with the makohon. However, historical and ethnographic sources document a much wider range of ingredients.
Poppy seeds, millet, salt, garlic, cheese, potatoes, dried fruit, and other ingredients were ground in makitras. Small unglazed examples were also used to mash boiled potatoes, beans, peas, and cheese with a wooden pestle.
Another important use involved dough. Dough was kneaded in the makitra and left to rise there before being used for bread, pies, paskas, traditional Ukrainian Easter breads, and other baked goods. In large makitras from Opishne, this was one of the principal functions.
Small glazed makitras were used for stewing and baking meat and vegetables, including potatoes, cabbage, beetroot, and pumpkin. Prepared dishes were also served directly in them.
Specific dishes documented as being served in makitras include varenyky, Ukrainian filled dumplings, pancakes, holubtsi, cabbage rolls stuffed with a filling, and buckwheat patties known as hrechaniky.
In different households, a makitra could change its function over the course of its working life. A vessel used for grinding could later become a container for dough, food storage, or serving.
Makitras were also used for fermenting and salting vegetables and fruit. Their large, open interiors made them convenient for handling substantial quantities of produce.
As storage containers, they held flour, salt, sugar, grain, cereals, bread, pies, jam, fruit preserves, canned foods, fats, water, and whey. Some sources also describe the makitra as a general-purpose household container suitable for storing a wide variety of provisions.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
The makitra was not a specialized ritual form in the way that certain types of paskivnyk, vessels used for baking festive Easter breads, were. Nevertheless, an ordinary working vessel could acquire a special status through the way it was used.
This is particularly well documented in wedding customs from Opishne. A new or specially purchased makitra could be used to knead the dough for a wedding korovai, a traditional ceremonial bread. In some cases, the vessel was marked beforehand with an inscription and tied with a red ribbon during the work. Two makitras of different capacities could be used, one for the korovai and the other for honey cakes.
After the wedding bread and honey cakes had been put into the oven, the makitra was taken outside the gate and broken in certain local practices. This act marked the completion of the corresponding ritual task. Sometimes a vessel that was already damaged or unsuitable for ordinary use was chosen for breaking, meaning that the ritual did not necessarily require the destruction of a good makitra.
Some accounts from Opishne describe a large makitra that stood separately for almost the entire year and was reserved for kneading dough for paskas. The same large vessel could also be used to prepare dough for memorial pies following a death. Here, it is important to distinguish the ritual status of the vessel from its function: the makitra remained an ordinary household form but became part of a specific festive or ritual context.
Museum collections also contain seventeenth-century objects cataloged as Easter makitras. This indicates that the form could be associated with festive practices as early as the early modern period. However, such catalog descriptions do not justify treating all makitras as specialized Easter vessels.
12. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY
The principal modern name is makitra. Historical sources and dialect records also document forms such as makotra, makutra, makoter, makoter t, makiter, and other phonetic or morphological variants.
The etymology of the name is generally associated with the combination of the roots mak, meaning poppy, and terti, meaning to grind or rub. This explanation corresponds well with the vessel's best-known traditional function, grinding poppy seeds. Nevertheless, etymology should not be used as the sole evidence for identifying the origin of a particular object.
An early written record of a related form, “makortie,” appears in a document from 1583. This indicates that the name, or an older variant of it, was known in the Ukrainian linguistic environment by the sixteenth century.
The name must be considered in relation to the specific region and period. A dialectal form may differ from the modern dictionary form, and a related word used elsewhere does not necessarily refer to precisely the same object.
13. REGIONAL VARIATIONS
Opishne in the Poltava region provides a particularly well-documented example of the long-standing use of the makitra. Vessels of various capacities are known here, ranging from small to very large examples. The tradition includes makitras with two lug handles, painted glazed vessels, and a broad combination of culinary, household, festive, and wedding functions.
In Podillia, nineteenth- and twentieth-century museum objects often have a conical body with convex sides that narrow toward a flat base, together with thickened, flared rims. According to museum descriptions, these makitras were used for grinding poppy seeds, garlic, cheese, potatoes, and cooked dried fruit, as well as for kneading dough and serving pies and varenyky. Wire reinforcement has been documented on some examples.
Volyn has several closely related variations in form. Researchers note that Volyn makitras tend to be shorter and more squat than some examples from the Left Bank of the Dnieper, but may be more elongated than examples from Western Polissia. At the same time, local differences make it impossible to define a single, uniform “Volyn form.” Rim profiles, proportions, and capacities vary between pottery-making centers.
Chernihiv-region material includes both conical makitras with relatively straight walls and taller vessels with bulging sides and wide openings. These differences demonstrate how the broad general model of the makitra could take on different local silhouettes.
In the Precarpathian region and mountainous areas, both ceramic and wooden makitras are documented. A wooden object from the second half of the nineteenth century, originating from the Ivano-Frankivsk region, has a rounded body, flat base, and geometric carved decoration. This further demonstrates that the name is associated with form and function more broadly than with pottery technology alone.
Regional differences are best identified through a combination of features: proportions, rim shape, base, lug handles, surface treatment, decoration, manufacturing technology, and the specific range of functions documented for the vessel.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
The makitra has a long history in Ukrainian domestic life. Its forms are documented in archaeological assemblages from the early modern period, and some studies trace the use of makitras back to the mid-sixteenth century. Earlier forms tend to have relatively broad bases, straight walls, and wide rims sharply flared outward. In later seventeenth- and eighteenth-century forms, vessels become taller, with narrower bases and more convex walls, while rim construction also changes.
Museum objects from the second half of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries demonstrate that the makitra already existed in a variety of proportions during this period, ranging from low, deep vessels to considerably taller forms. Some objects have ornament around the rim and on the upper part of the walls, while others feature localized glaze patches or bands.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the makitra became one of the most enduring forms of traditional pottery. It was widely used in many pottery-making centers, adapting to local proportions and decorative traditions.
In the second half of the twentieth century, its range of functions began to narrow. Metal, glass, and plastic vessels took over many tasks involving liquid storage and some other household activities. In Opishne, however, the makitra continued to be used, primarily for kneading dough and grinding poppy seeds, especially in households belonging to older generations.
The history of the makitra therefore illustrates not the simple disappearance of a form, but the gradual transformation of its core functions. As some practical tasks were transferred to vessels made from new materials, the functions for which its wide shape remained particularly convenient continued.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
The makitra is often compared with the pot, bowl, rynka, and dizha. Its main difference from the pot lies in its wide, open top. The makitra is intended for working inside the vessel by hand or with a tool, whereas the pot has a more enclosed body and a form adapted for boiling and cooking in an oven.
Compared with a bowl, the makitra is generally deeper, has a greater capacity, and is suited to a different type of work. However, a large bowl and a small makitra may overlap morphologically, so the external silhouette alone does not always provide sufficient grounds for identification.
The makitra shares the open-body construction of the rynka, but the latter often has a different structure: a low body, a handle or tubular handle fitting, and sometimes legs. Its primary function is cooking food over hot embers or in an oven. In some regions, the names rynka and makitra could overlap in meaning, making it particularly important to consider the vessel's shape, construction, and function together.
The makitra and the dizha, a traditional vessel specifically used for preparing dough, share a connection with bread-making. However, the dizha is more specialized for kneading dough and allowing it to rise, whereas the makitra remains multifunctional and can be used for grinding, mashing, serving, stewing, or storage.
Distinguishing between related forms therefore requires more than identifying a particular silhouette. Morphology, size, construction, surface treatment, and documented function must be considered together.
16. ATTRIBUTION
Identifying a particular museum or collection makitra requires examining a combination of features.
The first step is to assess the overall profile: the width of the opening, height, proportions between the rim and base diameters, curvature of the walls, and shape of the lower section.
The rim should then be examined in detail, including its thickness, the degree and direction of its flare, and the presence of an internal ledge, angular break, rebate, or additional clay band.
The presence of one or two lug handles should be recorded separately, together with their attachment points and any evidence of repair or wire reinforcement. These features are particularly informative when assessing large makitras.
Technological and surface characteristics are also important. These include the color of the ceramic body, clay composition, firing method, presence or absence of glaze, and evidence of burnishing, engobe application, painted decoration, incising, or other surface treatments.
For dating, the rim profile, transition between the rim and wall, body proportions, decorative techniques, and manufacturing technology are all relevant. Regional attribution should additionally consider characteristic local proportions, decorative systems, and comparisons with museum objects from the relevant pottery-making center.
An object's provenance based on oral attribution or its name alone should be treated as provisional. A more reliable identification rests on a combination of morphological, technological, functional, chronological, and regional evidence.
17. MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
The makitra is a traditional, predominantly clay, deep vessel with a wide, open top and a stable base. Larger forms may have one or two lug handles. It is primarily adapted for manual work performed inside the vessel. Its principal functions included grinding and mashing ingredients and kneading dough. Depending on local tradition, it could also be used for stewing, baking, serving, fermenting, salting, and storing food. Its shape, capacity, interior surface, rim construction, and additional features varied across regions and historical periods. A particular makitra should therefore be identified through a combined assessment of its morphological, technological, functional, and contextual characteristics.

COLANDER / STRAINER
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
A colander is an open ceramic vessel with numerous holes passing through its body, designed primarily to drain excess liquid from solid or semi-solid foods. Certain forms were also used to purée cooked vegetables, fruits, berries, and other soft ingredients, allowing juice or soft pulp to pass through the holes while retaining the firmer parts inside.
The defining feature of a colander is not its particular silhouette but its system of perforations. Its shape is often similar to that of a bowl, but the holes transform an ordinary open vessel into a functional filtering device. For this reason, the colander is best understood not as a distinct decorative type, but as a vessel adapted to a specific food-processing operation.
Across different regions of Ukraine, this object was known by various names and could have noticeably different structural features. Particularly striking differences can be observed between eastern and central forms, which tend to follow the local bowl tradition, and western Ukrainian forms, some of which resemble metal colanders.
2. SHAPE
Colanders most often have a rounded, bowl-shaped body with a wide rim and relatively low walls. Conical, spherical, rynka-like, and more cylindrical forms are also documented. In Volyn, conical and spherical forms, as well as examples with an angular change in the wall profile, have been recorded.
The proportions are directly related to the method of use. A wide rim provides convenient access to the contents and facilitates stirring or puréeing. The height of the walls depends on the quantity of food and the way the vessel is positioned. Forms perforated only in the lower part could fit partially inside a receiving vessel, while colanders with holes extending across the full height of the body were placed over a wider bowl, pot, or other container.
In some examples, the transition between the interior walls and the base was abrupt rather than gradual, as in an ordinary table bowl. This feature is explained by the vessel's function: there was no need to scoop anything out of a colander, so the smooth transition that is important in an ordinary bowl was unnecessary.
3. CONSTRUCTION
The main structural components of a colander are the base, walls, and rim. The most important constructional feature is the presence of perforations passing through the ceramic body. The holes were most commonly located in the base and lower part of the walls, although examples with perforations extending across almost the entire height of the body are also known.
For colanders used primarily for draining, leaving the upper part solid offered practical advantages. It preserved the strength of the walls, while the perforated lower section performed the filtering function. When a colander was also used for puréeing, this construction made it possible to apply pressure to the food without creating an excessive risk of damaging the walls.
The rims could be straight, thickened, flared outward, or turned inward. An inward-curving edge had a functional purpose in vessels used for puréeing: it held the food in place and prevented it from spilling over the rim during use.
Handles were not essential. In central and eastern Ukrainian traditions, colanders were often made without them. Small colanders from Opishne could have a single vertical handle for lifting and carrying. Western Ukrainian forms were characteristically equipped with two horizontal lug handles. These could serve as handles for carrying the vessel or act as supports when it was placed on another container.
In some western Ukrainian forms, one of the two lug handles was replaced by a small projection on the opposite side, known locally as a “dzobushok.” The colander rested on this projection during use.
Transcarpathian vessels known as “syrovky” are also documented in forms resembling the rynka, with three legs. Their construction differed from that of bowl-shaped colanders. According to one research-based interpretation, they may have been associated with allowing whey to settle and then draining it.
4. VARIATIONS IN FORM
No single standardized colander form developed throughout Ukraine. Several recurring morphological types can be distinguished.
Bowl-shaped forms are closest to ordinary deep bowls and are particularly characteristic of central and eastern Ukraine.
Conical forms have walls that gradually widen toward the top.
Spherical forms have a rounded body and a more gradual transition from the base to the walls.
Forms with an angular change in the wall profile are characteristic of some examples from Volyn.
Low, widely flared forms represent later western Ukrainian variants in which the walls became lower.
Legged strainers constitute a distinct local construction documented in Transcarpathia under the name “syrovka.”
Colanders can also be distinguished by the distribution of their perforations: some have holes only in the base, others in the base and lower walls, and still others across the full height of the body. These differences were related not only to regional traditions but also to the intended function.
5. SIZES AND CAPACITY
Colanders were made in different sizes according to the quantity of food to be drained or puréed.
Two main sizes are documented in Opishne: small colanders with a capacity of approximately 1.5–2 liters and large examples holding around 10 liters. Small ones were used for everyday kitchen tasks, while large ones were intended for processing substantial quantities of food, such as plums, tomatoes, or noodles.
Museum objects demonstrate a wider range of physical dimensions. Documented examples include a colander measuring 31 cm in diameter and 13 cm in height, as well as a small vessel measuring 11 cm in diameter and 11.5 cm in height. These measurements describe individual museum objects rather than standardized sizes.
For large colanders, not only capacity but also structural strength and the method of support on the receiving vessel became important considerations.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING
The principal material was pottery clay. Colanders were often made using the same basic bowl-shaped form that was common in a particular pottery-making center. Museum objects provide evidence of wheel-throwing.
The holes were made before firing by piercing the raw clay. According to ethnographic descriptions, potters in Podillia used a large nail for this purpose. The holes could be round, irregular in diameter, or arranged without strict regularity.
The number and distribution of perforations varied according to the intended function. When rapid drainage was required, the holes could cover a substantial portion of the body. When the colander needed to withstand mechanical pressure during puréeing, the perforations were concentrated in the lower part, leaving the upper section solid.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
Colander surfaces could be unglazed, glazed, smoke-fired, or burnished. The choice of treatment depended on local traditions and on whether the object was regarded as a purely utilitarian vessel or as an object combining practical and decorative qualities.
In Left-Bank Ukraine, researchers have documented colanders that were usually glazed on the inside but generally left undecorated. This treatment combined the practical requirements of an open interior surface with the local tradition of glazed pottery.
In Right-Bank Ukraine and western Ukrainian pottery-making centers, smoke-fired and burnished colanders are also documented, along with vessels glazed on the interior or over the entire surface.
In Bubnivka, Podillia, ethnographic descriptions record that colanders made during the 1920s were glazed; their surfaces could also be painted.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
Decoration was not an essential feature of the colander. Some examples were entirely utilitarian, while others differed little in shape and ornament from decorative bowls.
In Right-Bank Ukraine and western Ukrainian pottery-making centers, potters used bowl-style ornamentation, painted decoration, burnishing, and other traditional surface treatments. Glazed examples are documented with flandering and dipping techniques.
The system of holes itself constitutes a special case. In some colanders, the perforations were arranged in concentric rows or circles, while in certain examples they formed star-shaped compositions. In these cases, functional perforation also became part of the vessel's visual appearance.
The relationship between decoration and function is particularly evident in regions where colanders were made to resemble bowls. There, they could inherit not only the general shape but also the decorative system of the local tableware or ornamental pottery tradition.
9. PRIMARY FUNCTION
The primary function of the colander was to separate the solid or semi-solid portion of a food product from excess liquid.
Unlike a sieve or cloth, which can be used to allow liquid to pass through while retaining finer material, a colander is designed primarily for handling food that remains inside the vessel. The liquid passes through the holes, while the solid mass is retained.
A second important function was puréeing. In this process, the softer part of the food or its juice passed through the holes, while skins, seeds, or coarser particles remained inside the colander.
Thus, the colander combined two related but distinct food-processing functions: draining and puréeing.
10. SPECIFIC USES
Colanders were used to drain varenyky, Ukrainian filled dumplings, noodles, dumplings, and other dishes after boiling. They were also used to remove excess liquid from vegetables after washing or cooking.
Historical sources document their use for draining curd cheese and bryndza, a traditional brined cheese, as well as peas, plums, apples, tomatoes, mushrooms, legumes, fruit, and foods fried in oil. A colander could also be used to process grated raw potatoes during starch production.
When puréeing food, the softer mass of cooked vegetables, berries, fruit, or tomatoes passed through the holes. Wide rims with inward-curving edges were particularly useful for these operations because they helped keep the food inside the vessel.
Field research in Opishne reveals a clear functional distinction between large and small colanders. A small colander was suitable for draining dumplings, tomatoes, and other small portions. A large one was used for substantial quantities of plums, tomato pulp, or noodles. It could be placed over a makitra or pot so that the liquid or processed food collected in the vessel below.
In certain traditions, colanders were also used in systems associated with preparing medicinal remedies. In such arrangements, the colander served as an intermediate filter between an upper vessel containing the raw ingredients and a lower container for collecting the finished product.
In more recent practice, the colander form acquired another use: some contemporary potters made ceramic colanders for steaming varenyky. This involved a different cooking process, although the underlying principle of perforation remained the same.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
The colander was not a specialized ritual vessel in the same sense as forms created exclusively for particular ceremonies. Its use in festive or commemorative contexts was primarily associated with a specific cooking operation.
For example, colanders used for noodles served at memorial meals have been documented in Opishne. This did not transform the form itself into a “memorial colander.” Rather, an ordinary kitchen utensil acquired a special context through the dish prepared and the circumstances of its use.
It is therefore important to distinguish the colander's enduring functional purpose from its occasional use in festive or ritual settings.
12. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY
The name “drušliak” has a long written history. An etymological dictionary records the forms “drušlakъ” in 1597 and “rušlakъ” in 1570. The word is associated with the German “Durchschlag,” meaning a punch, sieve, or colander, which entered Ukrainian through Polish mediation. The German term is related to a verb meaning “to pierce” or “to let pass through.”
Different localities used forms such as “drušliak,” “drušlak,” “drušliаchok,” “trušliak,” and other phonetic variants. Related terms included “tsidylok,” “tsidylnyk,” “tsydylky,” “dirchava myska” (perforated bowl), “syrovka,” and “syrovnyk.”
These words should not automatically be treated as exact synonyms. “Tsidylnyk” and “tsidylok” can refer to the broader category of straining equipment, including sieves, cloths, or other filtering devices. In some regional traditions, however, they refer specifically to a ceramic colander.
The term “dirchava myska,” meaning “perforated bowl,” is particularly revealing. It emphasizes that in some pottery-making centers, the colander was understood as a bowl structurally adapted to a different task by piercing holes through its body.
13. REGIONAL VARIATIONS
In eastern and central Ukraine, the colander developed primarily from the form of the local bowl. In the Kharkiv region, the name “dirchavi myski,” meaning “perforated bowls,” has survived. In Left-Bank and central Ukraine, colanders were often placed over a pot or makitra so that the drained liquid could collect below.
In Podillia, colanders took the form of large bowls. In Bubnivka, the holes were pierced in the unfired clay using a large nail. The vessels could be glazed and painted. Their resemblance to bowls extended beyond shape to include decorative treatment.
In the Cherkasy region, colanders without lug handles have been documented. In some localities, they were made from red clay, unlike other types of locally produced pottery.
In Volyn, conical and spherical forms, as well as examples with an angular change in the wall profile, have been described. They had straight or flared rims and one or two lug handles.
In western Ukrainian regions, colanders more often resembled metal examples. Forms with two horizontal lug handles have been documented in the Ternopil, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions and in Transcarpathia. Later variants could combine a single lug handle with a small projection known as a “dzobushok.”
Transcarpathian “syrovky” constitute a distinct local variety. They have been described as three-legged forms resembling the rynka. Their possible use for allowing whey to settle and then draining it is a research-based interpretation and should not be presented as a universal characteristic of all Transcarpathian examples.
Opishne stands out for its wide range of sizes, from small to large colanders, and for the use of a single vertical handle on some smaller examples. Here, the functional differentiation of vessels according to the scale of the task is particularly evident.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
Ceramic vessels with holes passing through their bodies are known in the territory of present-day Ukraine from periods considerably earlier than the ethnographic colanders of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Archaeological evidence documents similar forms in the Trypillia culture, as well as in a number of Bronze Age cultures, pre-Scythian and Scythian-period contexts, and Slavic archaeological assemblages.
These archaeological strainers should not, however, automatically be identified with the later Ukrainian household colander. The archaeological designation “strainer” is often a functional interpretation based on analogy with modern vessels, and a direct connection between particular ancient forms and their later counterparts has not always been established.
Several morphological types of strainers have been identified in forest-steppe contexts dating to the Scythian period. The most common resembled small bowls with holes in the base. There were also rounded-base forms perforated across the entire body and conical forms without a base, with holes in the walls. Such vessels were uncommon in archaeological assemblages.
Different interpretations have been proposed for the function of ancient strainers, ranging from straining and puréeing berries to cheese-making. Some researchers have also suggested that certain forms may have served as incense burners, but this interpretation requires additional evidence, such as traces of soot or carbon deposits.
The ethnographic history of the colander in Ukrainian cooking appears to be more recent. In many nineteenth-century descriptions, tasks later performed by colanders were carried out using sieves, screens, or cloth. However, a literary text from 1878 records the use of a colander to drain varenyky filled with strawberries, although the material from which the vessel was made is not specified in that account.
According to research by Olena Shcherban, the use of colanders for puréeing cooked foods expanded during the 1910s. This development has been linked to changes in dietary practices, including new methods of preparing tomato pulp, jam, and fruit preserves. Clay colanders became widely used over approximately the following half-century.
From the 1930s onward, metal versions began to replace them. The reasons included the lower weight and greater durability of metal, as well as broader changes in the range of pottery products being manufactured. From the mid-twentieth century, plastic, steel, and other industrial materials also became widespread in household use.
The clay form did not disappear completely. Some contemporary variants continue to be made, although some have acquired new functions, including steaming varenyky.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
The form most closely related to the colander is the ordinary bowl. In many regions, the colander effectively developed from a bowl-shaped vessel. The distinguishing feature is not the silhouette but the perforations and the function associated with them.
A sieve and a screen work according to a different principle. They are designed for sifting or filtering through finer holes or mesh and for handling liquids and fine, loose materials. Cloth could also be used for certain straining operations, particularly when smaller particles needed to be retained.
A colander is best suited to draining food that has already been cooked or washed and remains inside the vessel. Its holes are therefore usually larger than those of a sieve, and its body takes the form of an open bowl or another container.
“Tsidylnyk” is a more complex term. In some regions, it refers to a colander, but in a broader sense it can describe any device used for straining. When attributing a ceramic object, the term should be checked against its shape, construction, perforations, and local usage.
16. ATTRIBUTION
When identifying a particular ceramic colander, it is advisable to examine a combination of features rather than relying on a single characteristic.
First, establish the shape of the body: bowl-shaped, conical, spherical, rynka-like, or another form. Then examine the proportions between height and diameter, the character of the base, the profile of the walls, and the shape and position of the rim.
The perforations are crucial: their diameter, shape, number, density, arrangement, and vertical extent should all be recorded. It is particularly important to establish whether the holes occur only in the base, in the base and lower walls, or across almost the entire body.
Next, examine the structural features, including lug handles, the “dzobushok,” legs, support arrangements, and the possibility of placing the colander on a pot, makitra, or another vessel.
For regional attribution, consider the surface treatment, glazing, smoke-firing, burnishing, and decorative system. Local manufacturing practices and the characteristics of the clay are equally important.
The final identification should be based on a combination of morphological, structural, technological, functional, chronological, and regional features. The names “drušliak,” “tsidylnyk,” “syrovka,” and “dirchava myska” are not sufficient on their own for precise attribution.
17. MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
A colander is an open ceramic vessel with numerous holes passing through its body, usually bowl-shaped, designed primarily to drain excess liquid from solid or semi-solid foods and, in some forms, to purée soft food. Its construction, the distribution of perforations, the presence of lug handles or legs, the surface treatment, and the decorative system varied according to regional tradition and the specific function.

JAR / SLOIK
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
A jar or sloik is a tall ceramic vessel designed for storing food supplies. In ethnographic and art-historical sources, this form is most consistently associated with fruit purée preserves, jam, honey, rendered pork fat, and cereals. Unlike a cooking pot or a rynka, its primary function generally began after the food had been prepared or processed: the vessel was intended to hold a supply and preserve it until it was needed again.
At the same time, the name “banka” is not sufficient on its own to identify an object. In different regions, it could refer to other types of clay vessels, including narrow-necked containers for water, oil, or strong alcoholic beverages. The term “sloik” was also not restricted to ceramics and later became widely used for glass containers. An individual historical object must therefore be identified by considering its shape, construction, material, function, region, and period together.
2. SHAPE
The most characteristic sloik has an elongated, vertically oriented body. In most documented examples, the body is egg-shaped or approaches a rounded cylindrical form. Its widest section is located around the middle or lower part of the body, after which the walls gradually narrow toward the top.
The upper part ends in a short neck and a relatively wide opening. The rim most often flares outward, although its specific profile may be simple, roll-shaped, or formed in another way. The combination of an elongated body, short neck, and open top is one of the most reliable morphological indicators of the classic sloik form.
Sources emphasize that the sloik does not exhibit as pronounced a range of local silhouette variations as some other traditional vessel types. Proportions, body width, and rim profiles varied between pottery-making centers, but the general structural principle remained similar.
3. CONSTRUCTION
The main components of a jar are the base, body, shoulders, short neck, and rim. The base must provide stability in an upright position. The rounded or egg-shaped body provides substantial internal capacity while occupying a relatively small amount of space on a shelf or in another storage area.
The shoulders gradually narrow the body toward the short neck. A wide or flared rim makes filling and emptying the vessel easier, particularly when it contains thick foods such as fruit preserves, jam, honey, or rendered pork fat.
A handle is not a defining feature of the classic sloik. In this respect, it should not automatically be equated with a banyka, a different type of vessel in many dialect descriptions: a narrow-necked container with a handle, used for water, oil, or carrying liquids.
A lid was not essential, although large jars could be made with a separate ceramic lid. A documented vessel from Opishne, dating to the first quarter of the twentieth century, is approximately 46 cm high and 29 cm in diameter and is described together with its lid. This example demonstrates that the traditional range included not only small sloiks for household provisions but also large containers intended for longer-term storage.
4. VARIATIONS IN FORM
Several recurring variations can be distinguished within this vessel type without imposing an artificial classification applicable to all of Ukraine.
The egg-shaped sloik is the most characteristic variant, with a rounded body, short neck, and flared rim. This is the form described for most regions in art-historical literature.
The rounded cylindrical sloik has a less pronounced bulge and straighter walls. Poltava-region material includes a tall vessel of almost cylindrical shape with a slightly narrowed upper section.
Large jars could have an enlarged body and a lid. Their dimensions directly affected how they were handled and where they were stored.
A later development was the decorative jar-vase. The traditional sloik silhouette was retained, but its function changed: the painted vessel came to be regarded as a decorative object.
5. SIZES AND CAPACITY
There was no single standardized size for jars. Available museum and collection records demonstrate a considerable range.
Documented examples include a jar from Opishne dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, measuring 7.5 cm in diameter and 11.5 cm in height; a sloik from the Luhansk region dating to the first quarter of the twentieth century, approximately 15 cm high; a jar, identified as a “sloik,” from Zhornyshche in the Vinnytsia region, dating to the 1910s–1920s and measuring 27.2 × 19.2 cm; and a large jar from Opishne with a lid, dating to the first quarter of the twentieth century and measuring approximately 46 × 29 cm.
These figures describe specific historical objects rather than standardized dimensions. They demonstrate that the same functional group encompassed both small vessels and very large storage containers.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING
Pottery clay was the primary material. Jars were formed on a potter's wheel, after which individual details could be finished by hand.
Documented sloiks combine wheel-throwing with incising, glazing, and, in some pottery-making centers, underglaze painting. The specific manufacturing process depended on the pottery-making center and its artistic tradition.
A museum object from Opishne dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century was made from clay on a potter's wheel, glazed, and decorated with incised ornament. A jar from Zhornyshche dating to the 1910s–1920s was also made from clay, wheel-formed, glazed, and decorated with incised designs.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
Glazing is one of the most characteristic technological features of the traditional sloik. Art-historical descriptions of nineteenth- and twentieth-century pottery record the use of colored or colorless glaze, primarily on the interior and partly on the exterior. This treatment combined the practical requirements of the interior surface with decorative finishing of the body.
Objects with glaze covering a larger portion of the surface are also documented. Glazing could be combined with engobe, underglaze painting, or incised decoration.
A terracotta, unglazed surface should not automatically be ruled out for every vessel called a “banka,” since the name could refer to different forms in different localities. When attributing an object, its surface treatment must be considered in relation to its specific form and region.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
Originally, the jar was a utilitarian vessel, but its simple silhouette was also well suited to decorative treatment. The most characteristic techniques included incising, painted decoration, and underglaze painting.
Incised bands and lines could emphasize the neck, shoulders, or overall horizontal rhythm of the body. In some pottery-making centers, decoration covered a substantial part of the body without disrupting its unified egg-shaped silhouette.
Painted sloiks resembling vases are documented in Opishne, Dybyntsi, and Vasylkiv. Plant motifs were common. Specific museum objects from Opishne feature pomegranate flowers, grape clusters, colorful painting against a dark background, and decorative treatment of the neck.
It is particularly important to note that decoration was not an essential feature of the vessel. The same form could exist as a restrained, utilitarian sloik or as an elaborately painted object.
9. PRIMARY FUNCTION
The primary function of the jar or sloik was to store food supplies.
It was intended for products that had already been prepared, collected, or processed. Its construction was not designed for cooking directly over a fire, as with a pot, or for active mechanical processing, as with a makitra.
Its principal advantage was the combination of a capacious vertical body with a sufficiently wide opening. Thick, fatty, or loose ingredients could be placed inside, and the vessel could then be used to store them.
10. SPECIFIC USES
Fruit preserves and jam were the most common foods stored in sloiks. This is why pottery terminology included the name “jam pot.”
Honey was another consistently documented product. In some dialects, the word “sloik” is directly associated with a jar used for honey.
Jars were used to store rendered pork fat and lard, as well as cereals and other dry provisions. Sources also document the storage of sour cream, butter, fruit, salt, and oil. These functions, however, belong to a broader range of regional meanings and should not automatically be attributed to every vessel called a banka or sloik.
The essential principle was storage: the vessel had to accommodate a supply and remain suitable for repeated opening and use.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
The sources reviewed do not reveal a distinct, consistently defined ritual form of the jar or sloik comparable to specialized vessels such as the paskivnyk or certain wedding vessels.
A sloik could contain foods associated with festive meals, including jam, honey, rendered pork fat, and other provisions. However, such use did not make it a distinct ritual vessel.
It is therefore more appropriate to describe the jar or sloik in terms of its domestic storage function and possible use in festive contexts, rather than assigning it a specialized ritual status.
12. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY
Sources record the names “sloik,” “sloi,” “sloiok,” “banka,” “jam pot,” and various local phonetic variants.
Historically, the word “sloik” was not restricted to pottery. Dictionaries define it as a tall, nearly cylindrical vessel made of glass, clay, faience, or other materials, with a slightly narrowed upper section. In modern usage, the word is particularly strongly associated with glass jars.
The etymology of “sloik” is most likely connected with the Polish words słoik, meaning “jar,” and słój, meaning “large jar.” There is no basis for explaining the name through the Ukrainian word “sloi,” meaning “layer.”
Terminological ambiguity is particularly important when studying historical ceramics. In Poltava-region dialects, “sloik” refers to a tall, nearly cylindrical vessel; in Eastern Polissia, it can specifically mean a honey jar. In other regions, the same word could refer to a glass jar or even to other forms of clay pottery.
The word “banka” has an even broader range of meanings. In different dialects, it could refer to a tall vessel for cereals, a narrow-necked container for water or oil, a vessel for strong alcoholic beverages, or even other cylindrical forms. The name alone, without a morphological description, is therefore insufficient for attribution.
13. REGIONAL VARIATIONS
Ceramic jars and sloiks belong to a group of forms that do not have a single sharply localized silhouette. The general principle—an elongated body, short neck, and relatively wide rim—recurs in many regions.
Poltava Region and Opishne. Tall jars with almost cylindrical or egg-shaped bodies are well documented here. Examples from Opishne dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century feature glaze and incised decoration. Decorative painted jars are also known, with forms that approach those of vases.
Middle Dnieper Region. In this area, the name “sloik” is also documented for a cylindrical glass jar with a wide opening. This demonstrates how the name continued to be used after the material changed.
Podillia and the Vinnytsia Region. In Podillian sources, “sloi” is recorded as a vessel for jam. A specific sloik from Zhornyshche, dated to the 1910s–1920s, has a clay body, glaze, and incised decoration. At the same time, in Podillian dialects the word “banka” could refer to other narrow-necked vessels, so the term should not automatically be applied to the entire group.
Slobozhanshchyna. A painted sloik dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century is documented in this region. This demonstrates that even a utilitarian form could become part of a local tradition of elaborately decorated pottery.
Northern Odesa Region. In museum and ethnographic sources, a local ceramic vessel known as a “banka” is referred to as a “sloik.” These objects have a cylindrical body, short neck, and wide rim and were used for jam, rendered pork fat, cereals, and other foods. This is an important example of how a single name could encompass a form closely resembling the more widely recognized Ukrainian sloik within a particular local tradition.
Regional differences here are expressed less through the creation of distinct local types than through the relationship between name, form, decoration, and function.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
Documented objects show that the sloik was well represented in the range of Ukrainian pottery by the late nineteenth century. One object from Opishne dates to the late nineteenth century, while other museum examples belong to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Both ordinary jars and large vessels with lids are known from the first quarter of the twentieth century. A sloik from Zhornyshche in the Vinnytsia region is documented from the 1910s–1920s, while another sloik from the Luhansk region dates to the first quarter of the twentieth century.
The development of this form coincided with a period of considerable activity in Ukrainian pottery-making. More broadly, researchers identify the second half of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century as a period of flourishing pottery production, followed by a marked decline from the late 1920s and early 1930s. The jar or sloik formed part of the traditional range of vessels during this period.
The gradual spread of factory-made glass and other industrial materials changed not only the vessels themselves but also the scope of the term. Increasingly, “sloik” came to mean a glass jar, allowing the name to survive the transition from ceramic to glass storage containers.
During the twentieth century, some painted jars began to serve a decorative purpose, and the traditional sloik silhouette became a basis for the design of vases. The form thus survived a transformation of its original domestic function.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
The pot is primarily associated with cooking, especially in a traditional oven. Its body and construction are adapted to heating and use near a fire. The sloik has a different primary function: storing prepared food.
The rynka is lower, wider, and more open. It is better suited to frying, stewing, and baking. The jar or sloik, by contrast, is designed to store provisions in a vertical vessel that is easy to open.
The jug is primarily intended for liquids and has structural features associated with pouring, including a narrower neck, often a handle, and a spout. The sloik has no spout because it is not intended for pouring liquids from the vessel.
In some regional traditions, the banka is a narrow-necked vessel, often with a handle, used for water, oil, or carrying liquids. However, the names may overlap, so the decisive factors in a particular region remain the shape and function.
16. ATTRIBUTION
A ceramic jar or sloik should be identified through a combination of features.
First, examine the height and width of the body, its curvature, the position of its widest point, the shape of the base, the profile of the shoulders, the height of the neck, and the configuration of the rim. For the classic sloik, the combination of an elongated egg-shaped or rounded cylindrical body, a short neck, and a flared rim is particularly important.
Next, consider the material, wheel-forming technique, glaze, incised decoration, painted ornament, and other surface characteristics. For large objects, the presence of a ceramic lid may provide additional evidence.
The functional context must also be considered: was the vessel intended for jam, honey, rendered pork fat, cereals, or another product? The name recorded in a museum description should be compared with local terminology, since “banka” and “sloik” can refer to different types of vessel in different dialects.
The most reliable identification of a particular museum or collection object rests on the combined evidence of morphology, construction, technology, surface treatment, decoration, dimensions, function, region, and date, rather than on its name alone.
17. MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
A jar or sloik is a tall ceramic vessel designed for storing food supplies, most often characterized by an egg-shaped or rounded cylindrical body, a short neck, and a flared rim. Traditionally, it was used primarily for fruit preserves, jam, honey, rendered pork fat, and cereals. The terms “banka” and “sloik” have regionally variable meanings, so an individual object should be identified by considering its shape, construction, function, material, decoration, region, and period together.

MILK JUG
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The milk jug is a tall ceramic vessel designed primarily for receiving, temporarily storing, and allowing milk to stand after milking. In traditional household practice, it formed part of a sequence of dairy-processing tasks: milk was strained, poured into the jug, left to stand, and skimmed to collect the cream. The cream was then used to make sour cream, while the soured milk could be processed into cheese.
The most common general name is hlechyk (jug), but ethnographic and dictionary sources record many local names, including hladyshka, hladysh, hladush, hladun, hladunets, hladushchyk, molochnyk, moloshnyk, ml ichnyk, and others. Their meanings do not always coincide: a name could refer to a vessel of a particular shape, a jug without a handle, or a vessel intended for a specific dairy product. Identifying an object therefore requires comparing its name with its shape, construction, function, region, and period.
2. SHAPE
The most characteristic milk jug has a rounded or elongated, egg-shaped body that transitions into a tall neck. The lower part usually narrows toward a relatively small base, while the widest part of the body lies around the middle or slightly above it. Some forms have a distinctly bulging body, while others are more elongated and less voluminous.
The neck may be long and cylindrical, straight, or slightly wider toward the top. In some jugs, it accounts for a substantial proportion of the vessel's total height. The rim is generally not particularly massive: its edge may be simple, thickened, shaped into a roll, or slightly flared outward.
There was no single silhouette shared by all Ukrainian milk jugs. The proportions of the body, shoulders, and neck varied according to local pottery-making traditions and the vessel's specific purpose.
3. CONSTRUCTION
The main parts of the jug are the base, body, shoulders, neck, rim, and, where present, a lug handle or handle. The narrow base supports the tall body, the rounded body provides capacity, and the neck forms the upper section of the vessel. Its width affects how easily milk can be poured, how accessible the contents are, and how easily the vessel can be cleaned.
A handle or lug handle was not essential. Some jugs were made without one, while others had a single lug handle attached to the body and neck. Later forms, or variants intended for different functions, sometimes combined a handle with a spout for pouring liquid. Such features should be treated as structural characteristics of individual objects rather than universal properties of milk jugs.
Some jugs have a small protrusion on the interior of the base, known in folk terminology as a pup or pupok. This feature has been documented in material from various regions of Ukraine. The protrusion itself is a morphological characteristic of the vessel, whereas traditional explanations of its influence on cream formation reflect customary household beliefs and should not be treated as a universally established property.
4. VARIATIONS IN FORM
Several recurring, though not universal, variants can be distinguished within this functional type:
Tall-necked jugs with rounded bodies and long, almost cylindrical necks. This configuration is well represented in material from Left-Bank Ukraine.
Elongated, egg-shaped jugs with relatively wide necks. These are known, among other places, from collections in Podillia.
Jugs without handles, known in some localities as hladyshkas or hladushchyks.
Jugs with a single lug handle, which facilitated carrying.
Variants with a spout and handle, structurally more closely related to vessels used not only for storage but also for pouring liquids.
Jugs with a pup on the interior of the base, documented in certain local traditions.
These groups describe recurring features of museum and ethnographic objects rather than a complete typology applicable throughout Ukraine. They could overlap: a tall, egg-shaped jug, for example, could have both a handle and a protrusion on the base.
5. SIZES AND CAPACITY
Milk jugs had no single standard size applicable throughout Ukraine. Among the museum objects examined, heights commonly range from approximately 21 to 26 cm. Documented examples have body diameters of around 12–19 cm, although some descriptions record wider vessels. Collections include, for example, a hladushchyk from Podillia approximately 25 cm tall, with a body diameter of 16 cm and a neck opening of about 9 cm, as well as a jug from Podillia measuring 26 cm in height and having an elongated, egg-shaped body.
Dialectal and ethnographic sources mention milk jugs with capacities of approximately 1–1.5 liters, while some descriptions from Podillia record vessels holding up to 5 liters. These figures are not standard dimensions for all Ukrainian milk jugs. Capacity depended on household needs, local traditions, and whether the vessel was intended for individual daily use or for handling larger quantities of milk.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING
Pottery clay was the principal material. Jugs were generally formed on a potter's wheel; when a handle or lug handle was required, it was attached separately. The vessel was then dried and fired. The color and texture of the finished object depended on the composition of the clay, surface preparation, firing method, and any coating applied.
Museum collections include examples made from red clay, light-colored clay, and smoke-fired ceramic bodies. The material alone did not determine the vessel's function as a milk jug. Its shape, the characteristics of its interior surface, and local practices of use were also important.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
Milk jugs could be unglazed, terracotta, smoke-fired, or glazed. On some vessels, glaze was applied only to the interior, while on others it also covered the rim or selected areas of the exterior. Fully glazed jugs are also documented.
Local traditions could prescribe different distributions of surface coatings for different types of vessels. For example, a nineteenth- to early twentieth-century hladyshka from Olesh nia in the Chernihiv region is described as having glaze primarily on the interior. Other types of jugs within the same tradition could also be glazed on the exterior. This example demonstrates regional specificity in surface treatment, but it is not a rule applicable to all Ukrainian ceramics.
Surface treatment should not be explained solely in decorative terms. The interior and exterior could be treated differently, and the significance of such a choice must be established for each particular object, taking local technology and intended use into account.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
A utilitarian purpose did not preclude decoration. Milk jugs feature incised lines, burnishing, engobe painting, geometric bands, wavy motifs, and botanical compositions. Some examples from Podillia have white-painted decoration on a darker body, including motifs resembling clusters of viburnum berries and wavy lines around the upper and lower parts of the body.
Decoration could be placed on the body, shoulders, or neck, or arranged in bands running around the vessel. Its character depended on the pottery-making center, surface treatment, and period of manufacture. Ornament, however, was not an essential feature of the milk jug: many examples remained plain working vessels.
9. PRIMARY FUNCTION
The primary function of the milk jug was to receive, allow the standing of, and store milk. It was not merely a container for liquid, but a vessel integrated into the sequence of traditional household dairy production.
After milking, the milk was strained and poured into the jug, where it remained for a period of time. Once the cream had risen to the surface, it was skimmed off and used to make sour cream or butter. After the milk had soured, it could be used to produce cheese. The jug was therefore associated with several stages of milk processing, although an individual vessel was not necessarily used for all of them.
10. SPECIFIC USES
Sources and museum descriptions document the use of milk jugs for:
Storing fresh milk after milking.
Allowing milk to stand and collecting cream.
Storing sour cream, soured milk, and whey in certain regional contexts.
Storing dairy products after processing.
Warming or heating milk in a traditional oven when the shape and evidence relating to a particular object support such an interpretation.
Storing other liquids in certain vessels classified as jugs according to local terminology or museum cataloging.
Museum records from Podillia specifically document jugs in which milk was not only left to stand but also warmed in an oven. Other objects are recorded as having been used to store sour cream and uzvar, a traditional Ukrainian drink made from dried fruit. These examples demonstrate that vessels could be reused or put to broader purposes, but they do not justify attributing every listed function to every milk jug.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
In the material used for this entry, the milk jug appears primarily as an everyday household vessel. No separate, specialized festive or ritual form has been established. Traditional beliefs concerning the pup on the interior of the base relate to the expected quality of milk settling and cream formation. These beliefs alone do not demonstrate that the jug had a ritual purpose.
12. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY
The most general name is hlechyk, meaning jug. Local names varied by region and sometimes referred not only to the vessel's shape but also to its specific function.
Hladyshka referred in a number of localities to a milk jug or a jug without a handle. In Poltava and certain northern and western dialects, the absence of a lug handle could be an important characteristic underlying this name.
Hladushchyk is often associated with a wide-mouthed milk jug. In some local descriptions, the name refers to a vessel for sour cream or soured milk.
Hladysh, hladush, and hladun could refer to a large jug or a vessel for milk, but their meanings varied from one locality to another.
Hladunets is documented as a diminutive form of hladun and is grouped with hladyshka in some dictionary sources.
Molochnyk is a name directly associated with milk, but no single shape or capacity has been established for all regions.
Moloshnyk and mlichnyk could refer to a milk jug or, in some localities, to a different vessel, including a small pot for preparing dairy-based foods.
In Bukovyna and Transcarpathia, additional local names are documented, including hladun, hladush, hladushchyk, dovzhanka, duzhanka, dovzhak, kuplianka, shupliа, shuflia, molochnyk, and others. These terms should not be reduced to a single list of exact Ukrainian-wide synonyms without checking the specific source.
13. REGIONAL VARIATIONS
Left-Bank Ukraine and the Poltava Region. Many forms are characterized by a rounded body and a tall neck. In Poltava, the term hladyshka could refer to a jug without a handle. In Slobozhanshchyna, less bulbous jugs with tall, straight, or upward-tapering necks are documented. Some villages also produced vessels with a pup on the base.
Right-Bank Ukraine and Podillia. Museum collections include elongated, egg-shaped bodies, wide necks, flared rims, and variants with a single lug handle or no handle. In Podillia, jugs intended for allowing milk to stand are documented, along with individual examples used to warm milk in an oven. Interior glazing and exterior decoration occur in various combinations.
Polissia, Volyn, and the Chernihiv Region. In some local dialects, hladyshka referred to a jug without a lug handle. Sources also record local distinctions between names for vessels used for milk, sour cream, and larger quantities of liquid. Olesh nia has a documented local tradition of applying glaze to the interior of the hladyshka.
Bukovyna. Several variants of the name are documented, including hladun, hladush, and hladushchyk. One field record distinguishes a milk hladushchyk from a zbanok, a vessel associated with water or berries. This is a local terminological distinction, not a universal rule for all of Bukovyna.
Transcarpathia. A wide range of local names is documented for tall jugs associated with milk: dovzhanka, duzhanka, dovzhak, kuplianka, shupliа, shuflia, as well as molochnyk, molochancha, and moloshancha in certain localities. The meaning of each name must be verified against the specific settlement and source.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
Ceramic vessels for dairy use have been known in Ukrainian lands long before the nineteenth- and twentieth-century ethnographic descriptions. Archaeological studies of materials from the Kyivan Rus period associate tall-necked vessels of the krynka type with storing milk, heating it in an oven, and preparing riazhanka, a traditional fermented baked milk product. Corresponding forms are documented from at least the eleventh century. However, the Kyivan Rus krynka should not automatically be equated with every later jug locally known as a hladyshka or hladushchyk.
For nineteenth- and twentieth-century ethnographic objects, regional differences in proportions, handles, necks, and surface treatment are well documented. Some museum examples date to the first half of the twentieth century, while certain later objects demonstrate that the form and its name continued to exist into the second half of the century. The history is best described as the development of functionally related forms rather than the uninterrupted survival of one unchanged type.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
Krynka. This is the closest functionally related form: a tall-necked vessel used for milk storage and, in some traditions, for heating milk in an oven. In ethnographic sources, the names krynka, hladushchyk, ladushchyk, and hladushka could partially overlap. These types should therefore not be distinguished by name alone. The body profile, neck, rim, base, dating, and local terminology must also be considered.
Zbanok and pouring jug. In some regional descriptions, the zbanok is associated with water or berries, whereas the hladushchyk is associated with milk. However, jugs with a handle and spout could be used both for storage and for pouring liquids. A spout and handle therefore indicate the structural possibility of pouring, but do not by themselves determine the vessel's name.
Moloshnyk. Depending on the locality, this name could refer to a milk jug or a small pot for dairy-based foods. The morphology and description of the particular object should be the primary basis for distinguishing these forms.
16. ATTRIBUTION
When identifying a museum or collection object as a milk jug, it is important to examine a combination of features:
The proportions of the body, shoulders, and neck.
The rim profile, shape of the base, and presence of an interior protrusion known as a pup.
The presence or absence of a handle, lug handle, or spout.
The interior and exterior surface treatment, including glaze, smoke-firing, burnishing, or painted decoration.
Documented dimensions and capacity.
Place of origin, date of manufacture, and history of domestic use.
The precise local meaning of the name in a catalog, field record, or dictionary source.
No single feature is sufficient on its own. A tall neck, for example, does not prove that a vessel was intended for milk, and the names hladushchyk and hladyshka do not have the same meaning in every region. The most reliable attribution combines morphology, technology, local terminology, and documented function.
17. MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
A milk jug is a traditional ceramic vessel with a rounded or elongated body and a relatively tall neck, intended primarily for receiving, allowing the standing of, and storing milk and forming part of household production of cream, sour cream, and cheese. Local names, body proportions, the presence of a handle, base construction, and surface coatings varied; an individual object should therefore be identified through a combination of morphological, technological, regional, and functional features.

HLEK / DZBANOK / KUSHYN
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Hlek, dzbanok, and kushyn belong to a broad group of tall, pitcher-shaped vessels designed primarily for water and other beverages. They were used to collect liquids, carry them, store them temporarily, and serve them at the table. The basic principle underlying this form is a capacious body and an upper opening wide enough to facilitate filling and cleaning, yet narrower than the body itself.
These names do not form a unified, nationwide Ukrainian system in which each term corresponds to a distinct form. Dictionaries may treat them as synonyms, whereas within a particular local tradition a name could denote a specific vessel type or function. Hlek, dzbanok, and kushyn are therefore best understood as closely related, partially overlapping types distinguished by a combination of morphological, functional, and regional characteristics.
Within this group, it is important to distinguish vessels for water and beverages from simpler milk jugs, known as gladysh, gladyshka, gladush, and gladushchyk. In a number of descriptions, vessels for water and beverages have a handle and more elaborate decoration, whereas milk vessels are often simpler and may lack a handle. This is a typological tendency rather than an absolute rule applicable to every object.
2. SHAPE
The overall silhouette of a pitcher-shaped vessel is vertically elongated: its height is generally greater than its maximum diameter. Most of its volume is concentrated in the body, which widens in the lower or middle section and narrows toward the neck. The base is usually narrower than the body, giving the vessel a compact supporting surface.
Museum and typological materials include elongated egg-shaped, oval, rounded, biconical, almost cylindrical, and spherical bodies. The shoulders may transition smoothly into the neck or form a more pronounced break in the silhouette. This diversity means that no single geometric model was obligatory for all hleks, dzbanky, and kushyny.
The shape depended on local pottery-making traditions, capacity, and intended use. A vessel that was frequently filled and emptied was designed to provide convenient access to its contents. The elongated body provided capacity, while the narrowing toward the top facilitated pouring and reduced the area of the open mouth.
3. CONSTRUCTION
Base. The lower supporting section could be relatively narrow and slightly distinct from the walls. Its diameter, proportions in relation to the body, and the nature of the transition into the body help characterize an individual object, but do not determine its name on their own.
Body and shoulders. The body provides the vessel's main volume. It may be rounded, egg-shaped, elongated, or almost cylindrical. In some forms, the shoulders taper smoothly toward the neck; in others, the transition between the body and the neck is more pronounced.
Neck and mouth. The neck is taller and narrower than the body, although its proportions vary according to the region and type of vessel. It may be cylindrical, slightly tapered, or widen gently toward the top. The openings of dzbanky and kushyny are generally wide enough for frequent use, whereas tykvy, baryla, and baklahy have narrower necks.
Rim. The upper edge may be plain, thickened, profiled, shaped into a roll, or slightly flared outward. On some objects, the rim flares widely; on others, it is barely distinguishable from the neck. The rim profile is a useful feature for attribution, but it is not a universal marker of any single vessel type.
Handle. A handle was not essential to every hlek. Dzbanky and kushyny intended for carrying and serving beverages could have a large handle. It often connected the upper part of the neck to the shoulder or body, providing a vertical grip. Handles varied in size, cross-section, and profile; their attachment and proportions should be assessed alongside the shape of the body.
4. VARIATIONS IN FORM
Several variants within this group can be distinguished by silhouette, construction, and use, without imposing a rigid typology applicable throughout Ukraine.
Elongated egg-shaped hleks have an elongated body that tapers gradually toward the base and transitions into a relatively tall neck. This silhouette is well represented in a number of pottery-making centers in Right-Bank Ukraine and Podillia.
Hleks with rounded bodies and tall cylindrical necks are characteristic of some Left-Bank forms, particularly those from the Poltava region. Their necks contrast distinctly with the rounded bodies, while the transition toward the base may be gradual.
In ethnographic materials, kushyn is a regional term for pitcher-shaped vessels used for water and beverages. The descriptions often refer to capacious vessels with broader bodies, narrower necks, handles, and decorative finishes. However, the term did not have the same meaning everywhere.
Dzbanky are particularly characteristic of western Ukrainian traditions, including those of Podillia, the Precarpathian region, Pokuttia, and the Hutsul region. They could be simple household vessels or elaborately glazed and painted objects. Small dzbanky with tall, narrow necks and a single handle are also documented in the Boyko region.
5. SIZES AND CAPACITY
Typological studies of Ukrainian clay pottery dating from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first third of the twentieth century give a general capacity range of approximately 0.5 to 6 liters for pitcher-shaped vessels used for water and beverages. This should be understood as the range documented for the group studied, not as a standardized range for all hleks, dzbanky, and kushyny.
Museum objects demonstrate considerable variation in size. Documented dzbanky include an early twentieth-century example measuring 19.5 cm in height and 12.5 cm in width, as well as a dzbanok from the 1930s measuring 36.5 cm in height, with a diameter of 13.5 cm and a maximum body width of 24 cm. A small dzban measuring 15.5 cm in height and 10.6 cm in diameter is preserved in a Boyko-region collection.
These examples illustrate the actual range of dimensions but do not define the limits of the entire tradition. When describing an individual object, it is necessary to distinguish between height, base diameter, maximum body diameter, overall width including the handle, and actual capacity, if measured.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING
Pottery clay was the principal material. The body was generally formed on a potter's wheel, and the handle was attached separately after the basic shape of the body and neck had been formed. Museum descriptions include objects with flat bases, smoothly rising walls, tapered shoulders, and vertically oriented handles attached by hand.
After forming, the vessel was dried and fired. Depending on the technological tradition, its surface could remain terracotta, become dark through smoke-firing, or receive an engobe, glaze, or painted decoration. The specific sequence of manufacturing operations cannot be reconstructed from appearance alone; an accurate conclusion requires examination of the object itself or its museum documentation.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
Pitcher-shaped vessels were made both unglazed and glazed. Unglazed examples include terracotta and smoke-fired forms; some surfaces could also be burnished or decorated with incised lines. Other objects were treated with engobe, colored glaze, or a combination of several techniques.
Glaze could cover the interior, the exterior, or both. Museum collections document dzbanky glazed on both sides, as well as objects with underglaze painting on a light background. In some cases, the interior and exterior surfaces differ in color and texture.
During the nineteenth century, glazed pitchers continued earlier traditions of form-making. However, from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, decorative coverage often became more compact, with ornament concentrated mainly on the shoulders and neck. This tendency should be understood as an observation based on particular collections and pottery-making centers, rather than as a universal change in Ukrainian pottery.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
Decoration depended on the region, technique, and character of the vessel. Hleks and dzbanky feature geometric bands, diamonds, triangles, rosettes, trefoils, heart shapes, and cross-shaped motifs. Botanical ornament could include flowerpots, garlands, leaves, flowers, and branches; some objects also feature birds.
Decoration was often arranged according to the different parts of the vessel. Horizontal bands and geometric compositions could be placed on the neck, while large botanical motifs adorned the body. This arrangement emphasized the vessel's construction and helped visually distinguish the neck, shoulders, and main body.
Particularly elaborate decoration is characteristic of nineteenth-century Hutsul dzbanky. Museum objects demonstrate combinations of light backgrounds, green, yellow, and brown colors, botanical compositions, geometric bands, and ornamented handles. Despite their elaborate decoration, these dzbanky could remain functional household vessels rather than purely decorative objects.
Cross-shaped motifs on some Hutsul dzbanky and pitcher-shaped vessels have been associated with religious symbolism and use in calendrical ritual practices, particularly during the winter festive cycle. However, a cross alone does not prove that a particular vessel was intended for holy water. This must be established from a combination of features, provenance, and documented object history.
9. PRIMARY FUNCTION
The main function of hleks, dzbanky, and kushyny in this group was handling liquids: collecting, carrying, temporarily storing, and serving water and beverages. Unlike more enclosed vessels with narrow openings, the pitcher-shaped form provides easier access to the interior and is suitable for frequent filling and emptying.
The vessels differed in their functions. In one research-based typology, decorated pitcher-shaped vessels with handles intended for water and beverages are classified as kushyny, while simpler jugs without handles are often associated with dairy use. This generalization is based on specific ethnographic materials and should not be applied mechanically to every museum object.
10. SPECIFIC USES
Water. Dzbanky and kushyny were used to carry water, including during fieldwork, and to store water in the household. After being carried, a vessel could also be used to serve water to another person.
Everyday beverages. Pitcher-shaped vessels were used to hold and serve kvass, beer, uzvar, and, in certain contexts, wine and horilka, a traditional Ukrainian spirit. Not every vessel served as a universal container for all these drinks. Its specific use depended on local practice, size, shape, and history.
Table service. A dzbanok could be used not only for carrying beverages but also for serving them. Its body held a supply of liquid, while the neck and rim allowed it to be poured into mugs, bowls, or other tableware.
Uzvar for festive occasions. Ethnographic materials mention uzvar among the beverages served in clay jugs and dzbanky in the context of Christmas celebrations. This is an example of an ordinary functional vessel being used on a festive occasion, rather than evidence of a separate vessel type designed exclusively for uzvar.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
In the Hutsul region, some decorated jugs and dzbanky were used for holy water. In such cases, the vessel was taken to church during the blessing of water, after which the water was carried home and stored. Both ordinary pitcher-shaped vessels and more elaborately decorated examples could be used for this purpose.
Crosses and other Christian motifs on some Hutsul vessels emphasize their connection with a religious context. Nevertheless, ritual use cannot be established from ornament alone. The most reliable evidence is a museum description, an ethnographic record, or other information documenting how the object was actually used.
Dzbanky and jugs also formed part of the domestic setting of Christmas and Jordan's Feast, serving as containers for beverages and holy water. In these contexts, their special status was determined not necessarily by a distinctive morphology, but by their use within a particular calendrical practice.
12. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY
Hlechyk is the most widespread general Ukrainian term for a tall vessel of this type. Hlek is a closely related name; dictionary sources define it as a pitcher-shaped vessel, particularly one used for liquids. However, the relationship between the words hlek and hlechyk in everyday speech and historical sources depends on the period and locality.
Dzban, dzbanok, zban, and zbanok are related variants of the name. Etymological sources link dzban with the Polish word dzban. The written form dzbanokъ is documented as early as the seventeenth century. This history demonstrates the long-standing use of the term, but it does not mean that all vessels called dzbany had the same silhouette or function.
Kushyn is a regional name documented, among other places, in the Poltava region and in typological materials concerning vessels for water and beverages. In these descriptions, a kushyn may refer to a pitcher-shaped vessel with a handle, sometimes decorated, but the word did not have an entirely consistent meaning across all regions.
In museum and ethnographic descriptions, the terms hlechyk, hlek, dzbanok, zbanok, and kushyn may partially overlap. Other names specifically associated with milk jugs include gladysh, gladyshka, gladush, gladushchyk, molochnyk, and mlichnyk, while Transcarpathia has additional local terms such as dovzhanka. These names should not automatically be applied to vessels for water and beverages simply because their silhouettes are similar.
13. REGIONAL VARIATIONS
Left-Bank Ukraine and the Poltava Region. Some unglazed jugs are characterized by rounded bodies, tall cylindrical necks, and a gradual narrowing toward the base. The shoulders transition smoothly into the neck, while the rim may be barely distinguishable or end in a softly formed roll. The Poltava region is also one of the areas where the name kushyn is documented for vessels used for water and beverages.
Right-Bank Ukraine and Podillia. Elongated egg-shaped bodies, sloping shoulders, and relatively wide, slightly flared necks are known here. In Podillia and the Precarpathian region, dzbanok and zbanok are documented as local names for glazed pitcher-shaped vessels. In several pottery-making centers, these forms have predecessors among seventeenth- and eighteenth-century objects, although specific lines of continuity must be established by comparing the objects themselves.
The Hutsul Region and Pokuttia. Dzbanky are distinctive forms within the local range of pottery. They are characterized by handles, glaze, and multicolored underglaze painting. Decoration may combine geometric bands on the neck and shoulders with botanical compositions on the body. Museum collections preserve both small dzbanky and tall examples exceeding 30 cm in height.
The Boyko Region. Small dzbanky are documented in museum collections with flat bases, smoothly rising walls, tall narrow necks, thickened, slightly flared rims, and a single rounded vertical handle. On one particular object, the shoulders are decorated with incised horizontal lines and a wavy band, while the surface is covered with light brown glaze and green spots. This describes an individual museum object rather than a universal representation of all Boyko ceramics.
Transcarpathia. Local terminology separately records names for tall milk jugs, including dovzhanka. Because of this functional specialization, a tall Transcarpathian vessel should not be identified as a dzbanok or kushyn without supporting evidence.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
The names of pitcher-shaped vessels have a long written history. The form dzbanokъ is documented in seventeenth-century sources. Historical materials from that and the following century also record dzban, zban, kushyn, and names related to the word kuvshyn. Written evidence demonstrates the long-term coexistence of these terms, but does not, by itself, prove that their forms or domestic functions remained unchanged over the centuries.
The period from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first third of the twentieth century is particularly well documented in ethnographic and museum collections. Materials from this period make it possible to compare silhouettes, the proportions of necks and bodies, handle construction, surface treatment, and local decorative systems.
During the nineteenth century, Hutsul dzbanky became one of the distinctive forms of local glazed pottery. From the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, some Ukrainian pottery-making centers show a tendency toward more compact placement of ornament, concentrated mainly on the shoulders and neck. This change did not occur uniformly across all regions.
During the twentieth century, pitcher-shaped vessels continued to be used for water and beverages, while decorated examples increasingly came to be regarded as decorative ceramics. Changes in the role of particular objects did not eliminate their original functional form.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
Milk jug. Milk vessels often had simpler surfaces, could lack a handle, and were primarily intended for allowing milk to stand and for handling cream. Hlek, dzbanok, or kushyn vessels for water and beverages more often had handles and could be decoratively finished. These are tendencies, however, rather than sufficient grounds for attribution without additional evidence.
Tykva, barylo, and baklaha. These forms have narrower openings and more enclosed interiors. They were better suited to storing or transporting liquids that did not need to be accessed frequently through the top opening. A pitcher-shaped vessel with a wider neck is more convenient for regular filling, emptying, pouring, and cleaning.
Hlechyk, hlek, and dzbanok. Dictionaries may treat these names as closely related or synonymous, but ethnographic sources sometimes distinguish them according to their purpose, handle, neck shape, or decoration. There is therefore no reliable universal correspondence in which one name always denotes one silhouette.
16. ATTRIBUTION
When identifying a particular hlek, dzbanok, or kushyn, a combination of features should be assessed:
- The proportions of the body, shoulders, and neck.
- The base diameter and maximum body diameter.
- The height and shape of the neck, and the profile and flare of the rim.
- The presence, shape, and method of attachment of the handle.
- The surface treatment: terracotta, smoke-firing, engobe, glaze, burnishing, or incising.
- The technique, colors, and placement of decoration.
- Traces of use, repair, and domestic wear.
- Dimensions and capacity, where these can be measured.
- Dating, place of origin, museum description, and information about the vessel's history of use.
The name in an inventory record should be compared with the vessel's shape and function rather than accepted as definitive proof. A cross-shaped motif may be important evidence of context, but does not by itself confirm use for holy water. Likewise, a handle or glaze cannot reliably distinguish a kushyn from a dzbanok in every region.
17. MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
Hlek, dzbanok, and kushyn are closely related, partially overlapping types of tall pottery vessels intended for water and other beverages and adapted for filling, carrying, temporary storage, and serving liquids. They are distinguished not by a single name or feature, but through the proportions of the body and neck, rim and handle construction, surface treatment, intended function, local terminology, and historical context.

HLEK / DZBANOK / KUSHYN

TYKVA / BANYKA / KORCHAHA
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The tykva is a narrow-necked ceramic vessel with a rounded or broadly egg-shaped body. Its primary purpose was to store and carry water and other liquids, particularly during fieldwork. Some forms were used for oil, wine, other beverages, and serving liquids at the table.
The defining feature of the tykva is the relationship between its broad body and very narrow neck. A handle made it easier to carry, while the narrow opening helped prevent splashing during movement and allowed the vessel to be temporarily closed with a simple stopper.
In different regions, related forms were known as tykva, banyka, korchaha, kanta, kubushka, or bunka. These names were not always exact synonyms: some referred to vessels with similar silhouettes, while others could denote forms with additional structural features. An object should therefore be identified not by its name alone, but through its shape, construction, function, provenance, and dating.
2. SHAPE
The most characteristic tykva has a spherical or broadly egg-shaped body, with its greatest bulge approximately halfway up its height. From this widest point, the body tapers gradually toward both the base and the top. At the top, it transitions into a short or moderately low, very narrow neck.
The silhouette is generally smooth, without a sharp break between the body and shoulders. Individual objects differ in their proportions: some are almost spherical, while others are more elongated, egg-shaped, or closer to a cylindrical form. The base is usually narrower than the body, although its profile and finish may vary.
The essential feature of this form is not any single geometric characteristic, but the combination of a capacious rounded body and a restricted opening. This distinguishes the tykva from more open pitchers and dzbanky, although transitional forms exist between these types.
3. CONSTRUCTION
Body. Most of the vessel's capacity is concentrated in its broad central section. The rounded body held a sufficient quantity of liquid without requiring a wide neck.
Neck and mouth. The neck is short or moderately elongated, and the opening is narrow. On some objects, it is so small that it is difficult to insert a hand into the vessel. This makes cleaning more difficult but suits the handling of liquids that are collected, carried, and poured without needing to reach inside by hand.
Rim. The edge could be rounded, slightly thickened, or flared outward. On a number of tykvas from Opishne, the neck is finished with a tall, profiled rim; some vessels also have a spout incorporated into the upper section. The rim profile is useful for attribution, but there was no single standardized form.
Base. The base is considerably narrower than the body and must provide stability when the vessel stands upright. Museum objects include bases with a distinct projecting foot or raised support.
Handle. The handle is often positioned on the side, connecting the neck or its middle section to the body. It could be rounded, oval in cross-section, vertical, or of another configuration. Tykvas without handles and forms with two side handles are also documented. The handle could serve an additional purpose if a stopper was attached to it with a cord.
Spout and pouring lip. A spout is not essential. It facilitates pouring and sometimes indicates that the vessel was adapted for oil or another liquid. The presence of a spout does not, by itself, make the tykva a separate vessel type: it must be assessed together with the overall proportions of the body and neck.
Closing the opening. A ceramic lid was not typical for the tykva. The opening could be plugged with cloth, a corncob, or a small wooden stopper. The stopper could be tied to the handle to prevent it from being lost during transport. This practical solution is consistent with the vessel's use in the fields, although it did not necessarily apply to every local variant.
4. VARIATIONS IN FORM
Tykvas varied in body proportions, neck height, handle shape, and the presence or absence of a spout. Several descriptive variants can be distinguished, but they should not be treated as an exhaustive typology applicable throughout Ukraine.
Spherical tykva. It has an almost spherical body, widest around the middle, and a short, narrow neck.
Egg-shaped tykva. The body is more elongated and sometimes noticeably narrower toward the base. Similar forms are documented, among other places, in material from Podillia.
Tykva with a spout. The additional pouring lip makes pouring easier. This variant may represent a transitional form between the tykva and pitcher-shaped vessels.
Tykva with two handles or additional projections. These constructions represent local variants and should be described with reference to the individual object.
Tykva-shaped pitcher. This transitional form combines a broad, rounded body and a narrowed neck with more pronounced features of a pitcher or dzbanok. A painted tykva-shaped pitcher dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century is documented in the Opishne museum collection.
Korchaha with an integrated strainer. This is a distinct Transcarpathian structural variant in which a perforated plate is fitted into the lower part of the neck. It retained foreign particles when water was collected or poured. This vessel should be distinguished from an ordinary tykva without a strainer.
Kanta. In some descriptions, this name refers to a vessel similar to the tykva, while other sources emphasize additional pouring spouts in the upper section. Because the term is ambiguous, it should not replace a morphological description.
5. SIZES AND CAPACITY
There was no single standardized size for the tykva. Typological studies of pitcher-shaped vessels for liquids dating from the nineteenth century to the first third of the twentieth century give a general capacity range of approximately 0.5 to 6 liters. This characterizes the broader group of vessels, not the standardized capacity of every tykva.
Museum objects demonstrate considerable variation in proportions. For example, a tykva from the first half of the twentieth century in a museum collection measures 29.3 cm in height, with a rounded body approximately 22 cm in diameter, a base diameter of 11 cm, and a narrow neck approximately 3.7 cm in diameter. It has a handle, a triangular spout, and incised lines on the shoulders. This example illustrates the construction of the form but does not establish a standard for the entire group.
Size depended on the quantity of liquid, the method of carrying, and local tradition. When attributing an object, it is important to distinguish between overall height, body diameter, neck diameter, and base diameter. Brief museum descriptions that give only a “diameter” do not always specify which part was measured.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING
Pottery clay was the principal material. Tykvas were generally formed on a potter's wheel, while the handle, spout, and other additional elements were attached or finished separately. Catalog entries sometimes record wheel-forming alongside hand-building, incising, and painted decoration.
After forming, the vessel was dried and fired. Depending on local technology, its surface could remain unglazed, take on a terracotta or smoke-darkened appearance, or be coated with engobe or glaze. The name “tykva” alone is insufficient to establish a technological variant or firing method.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
Tykvas were made unglazed, in terracotta, smoke-fired, engobe-coated, and glazed forms. Glaze could cover the entire surface or only selected areas. Opishne examples include green, yellow, brown, and other colored glazes.
Museum descriptions of individual tykvas document colored glaze on the upper part of the body, while the remaining surface has a different texture. Other vessels combine engobe, glaze, and incised lines. These differences are important for attribution and help relate an object to a particular technological tradition.
Surface treatment should be described separately from function. Glaze or painted decoration does not automatically change the primary purpose of a tykva, while an unglazed surface alone does not prove that the vessel was used specifically for fieldwork.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
Decoration on the tykva could be restrained or elaborate. Documented motifs include horizontal bands, incised lines, geometric patterns, dots, brushstrokes, botanical compositions, and grape motifs. Lines often emphasize the shoulders and the transition from the broad body to the neck, working together with the vessel's silhouette.
Particularly distinctive examples are known from Opishne. Some Opishne tykvas have rounded bodies, profiled rims, incised bands, and colored glaze. The museum collection also contains a tykva-shaped pitcher dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, decorated with engobes, glaze, incising, and painted ornament. Its botanical decoration is associated with the local decorative tradition.
Grape motifs are mentioned on some small tykvas from the Chernihiv region. This is a regional observation and should not be generalized to all tykvas from Chernihiv or Ukraine. Nor can a ritual purpose be inferred from a single motif without additional evidence.
9. PRIMARY FUNCTION
The primary function of the tykva was to store and carry water and other liquids. It was convenient in situations where liquid had to be taken along, carried to a work site, and used over a period of time.
The rounded body provided capacity, the narrow neck reduced the likelihood of splashing while the vessel was being carried, and the handle made transport easier. The vessel could be set aside for storage, temporarily closed with a simple stopper, and reopened when needed.
Unlike the more open dzbanok, the tykva was not primarily designed to provide unrestricted access to its contents. Unlike the barylo or baklaha, it did not always have such an enclosed construction and could be more convenient for pouring liquids regularly.
10. SPECIFIC USES
Water for fieldwork. In summer, the tykva was filled with water and taken into the fields. It could be carried by its handle or transported together with other household equipment. Field use is one of the most consistently documented functions of this vessel type.
Water storage. The narrow neck allowed the opening to be temporarily closed with cloth, a corncob, or a small wooden stopper. The stopper could be tied to the handle to prevent it from being lost.
Other beverages. Sources mention wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverages; the broader group of pitcher-shaped vessels was also used for kvass and uzvar. Specific uses must be established for a particular region or object rather than attributing all these beverages to every tykva.
Oil. The narrow neck made it possible to store liquid in a more enclosed vessel. Tykvas with a spout were more convenient for pouring oil because the spout directed the flow.
Carrying and serving. Some forms were used not only as containers for transport but also for serving beverages. This applies particularly to objects with a spout or a shaped pouring lip.
Field and museum descriptions mention that water kept in a tykva remained cool throughout a hot day. This should be understood as a documented perception of the vessel's properties rather than a uniform effect in every example. The result depended, among other things, on the porosity of the ceramic body and the nature of its surface coating.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
The available material primarily documents the domestic functions of the tykva: carrying, storing, and handling liquids. There is insufficient evidence to classify the form itself as specialized ritual pottery.
A vessel could be used in different circumstances, including during festivals, but this alone does not change its typological classification. Establishing a ritual function for a particular object requires direct ethnographic evidence or a clearly documented context of use.
12. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY
The word “tykva” has a dual meaning: it referred both to a vessel made from a dried gourd and to a clay vessel with a similar silhouette, rounded body, and narrow neck. In the ceramic context, the term primarily denotes a shape, but the material must be identified separately when describing an individual object.
“Banyka” is a regional name particularly documented in Podillia and the Precarpathian region. It refers to a related narrow-necked vessel with a convex or egg-shaped body, narrow base, and often a handle. Volyn examples have been described with varying proportions, ranging from more spherical to heart-shaped forms.
“Korchaha” has a more complex history. In historical written and archaeological sources relating to Kyivan Rus, the term referred to large amphora-shaped vessels used to store and transport liquids. In the ceramic tradition of Transcarpathia, however, the name may refer to a rounded, narrow-necked vessel functionally similar to the tykva. The Kyivan Rus korchaha and the later Transcarpathian type should not automatically be regarded as the same form.
“Kanta” is documented within the western Ukrainian, particularly Transcarpathian, terminology. In some descriptions, it resembles the tykva; in others, it has distinctive pouring spouts. The meaning of the name should be verified against the source and the construction of the object.
“Kubushka” is used in Slobozhanshchyna as a name for a rounded, narrow-necked vessel. “Bunka” is also documented in local sources, including as a name for a small tykva in the Chernihiv region. The geographical boundaries of these names should not be regarded as absolute.
13. REGIONAL VARIATIONS
Poltava Region and Middle Dnieper Region. The name “tykva” is widespread here. The tradition of Opishne is particularly distinctive, featuring spherical bodies, elongated lower sections, short necks, tall profiled rims, incised bands, and colored glaze. Tykva-shaped pitchers also existed alongside typical tykvas.
Podillia and the Precarpathian Region. The name “banyka” is well established here. Forms could be rounded or egg-shaped, with a narrow base, neck, and a single handle. Specific proportions varied, so “banyka” does not correspond to one unchanging silhouette.
Transcarpathia. The names “korchaha” and “kanta” appear in the sources. One structural variant of the korchaha had a perforated strainer fitted into the neck. This type should not be equated with an ordinary tykva lacking this element.
Slobozhanshchyna. The name “kubushka” is documented for related narrow-necked vessels.
Chernihiv Region. Sources mention the name “bunka” for a small tykva, as well as examples decorated with botanical or grape motifs. These characteristics belong to specific local descriptions and do not apply to all vessels from the region.
These regional correspondences are indicative rather than absolute. Even within a single pottery-making center, several structural variants could coexist, including forms similar to those made in other regions.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
Ethnographic and museum materials provide the best documentation of tykvas and banykas from the nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century. During this period, they remained part of everyday domestic life, especially for carrying water during fieldwork. Different regions developed their own established names and surface-treatment variants.
The Opishne museum collection contains a tykva-shaped pitcher dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century and measuring 26.3 × 23 cm, decorated with engobes, glaze, incising, and painted ornament. Another museum example, a tykva from the first half of the twentieth century with a rounded body, handle, spout, and incised lines, illustrates how functional and decorative features could be added to the basic silhouette.
Archaeological literature mentions occasional narrow-necked vessels from the late medieval period that researchers associate with tykvas or banykas. Such attributions should be made cautiously: similarity of silhouette does not prove complete equivalence between an archaeological form and the ethnographic type of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Throughout the twentieth century, changes in fieldwork practices and the spread of industrially manufactured containers gradually reduced the original practical role of the tykva. Nevertheless, the form remained part of pottery production, including as decorative or souvenir ceramics. Contemporary production of tykvas in Opishne demonstrates the continuation of the form under new conditions, but does not imply that its domestic function has remained unchanged.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
Hlek and dzbanok. These vessels generally have wider mouths and provide freer access to their contents. The tykva has a more distinctly rounded body and a considerably narrower opening. The tykva-shaped pitcher is an intermediate variant combining features of both forms.
Barylo and baklaha. These are more enclosed vessels for carrying or storing liquids. The tykva also has a narrow neck, but is generally distinguished by its rounded body and often by a vertical handle. Precise differentiation depends on the local typology.
Tykva with a spout and dzbanok with a pouring lip. The spout alone does not determine the vessel type. The proportions of the body, width of the neck, handle construction, and local name must also be considered.
Kyivan Rus korchaha and Transcarpathian korchaha. In Kyivan Rus material, “korchaha” primarily denoted a large amphora-shaped vessel for storing and transporting liquids. In Transcarpathian ethnographic material, the name may refer to a rounded, narrow-necked vessel related to the tykva. These are different attributional contexts and should not be conflated merely because they share the same name.
16. ATTRIBUTION
When identifying an individual vessel, it is necessary to assess a combination of features:
- The shape and maximum diameter of the body.
- The width, height, and profile of the neck.
- The shape of the rim and base.
- The presence, position, and construction of the handle.
- The presence of a spout, pouring lip, or integrated strainer.
- The surface treatment: terracotta, smoke-firing, engobe, glaze, or burnishing.
- Incised lines, painted decoration, and the placement of ornament.
- The object's dimensions, material, date, and provenance.
- The local meaning of the name in the relevant museum or ethnographic source.
Particular caution is required with the names “korchaha” and “kanta,” as well as in cases where a museum record gives only the general name “tykva.” A narrow neck is an important identifying feature, but it is not sufficient for a definitive attribution. The entire silhouette and all structural details must be considered.
17. MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
The tykva is a traditional narrow-necked ceramic vessel with a rounded or egg-shaped body, intended primarily for storing and carrying water and other liquids. Its principal morphological features are a broad body, narrow neck, and often a handle; a spout, surface coating, and decoration create local and individual variants. The names “banyka,” “korchaha,” “kanta,” “kubushka,” and “bunka” refer to related forms in certain regional traditions, but their meanings must be established from the specific source and the object itself.

BARILO / BARILTSE
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The barilo is a traditional clay vessel used for storing and carrying beverages. It is characterized by a barrel-shaped body, elongated predominantly along the horizontal axis, bulging in the middle and narrowing toward the ends. The pouring opening, known as the ryltse, was located in the central or upper part of the body. One or two handles, or lug handles, could be positioned nearby. Some barila had short legs and a lid.
Unlike an open pitcher, the barilo was primarily designed to contain liquid within a body with a relatively small opening. In traditional domestic life, it was used to store fruit liqueurs, wine, mead, kvass, and other beverages. In fieldwork settings, it could serve as a container for carrying water. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the barilo was predominantly a utilitarian vessel, while throughout the twentieth century this form increasingly became part of decorative and applied ceramics.
2. SHAPE
The most distinctive morphological feature of the barilo is its rounded, barrel-shaped body, bulging in the middle and narrowing toward the ends. Unlike the vertically oriented pitcher, the barilo has a horizontal or nearly horizontal axis. The body may be cylindrical with rounded sides, short and broad, or more elongated.
Its silhouette resembles that of a wooden barrel or small cask. This resemblance is important for understanding the form, although it does not in itself prove that every ceramic barilo directly copied a specific wooden model. On some vessels, incised, raised, or painted bands further emphasized the barrel-shaped construction.
3. CONSTRUCTION
The main components of the barilo are the body, end sections, pouring opening known as the ryltse, and, where present, a neck, lid, lug handle or handles, and legs.
The ryltse could be positioned approximately in the center of the body, in its upper section, or closer to one end. The location of the opening influenced how the vessel was filled and emptied. On some examples, the upper section was formed as a short, narrow neck that could be closed with a lid. Others had a simpler construction, with a small opening and no clearly defined neck.
A lug handle positioned near the ryltse made the vessel easier to carry. Some objects had two handles. Four short legs allowed the vessel to stand on a surface without its rounded body rolling; they also raised it above the supporting surface. However, handles, legs, and lids were not essential features of every barilo.
4. VARIATIONS IN FORM
Several constructional variants can be distinguished, but they should not be treated as an exhaustive typology applicable throughout Ukraine.
- Barilo with a central ryltse. The opening is positioned on the bulging part of the body, with handles sometimes located nearby.
- Barilo with a short neck and lid. The upper section forms a more enclosed pouring assembly.
- Barilo on four legs. The body rests on small projections. This variant is documented in museum collections from Opishne.
- Barilo with one or two handles. These are used for carrying or supporting the vessel.
- Large barila with several openings or handles. These are more structurally complex vessels whose features must be assessed individually rather than generalized to the entire group.
During the twentieth century, the barrel-shaped form could be combined with modeled animal figures or figural and narrative decoration. In such objects, the traditional body became the foundation of a decorative composition.
5. SIZES AND CAPACITY
There was no single standardized size for the barilo. Museum descriptions of objects from Opishne dating to the second half of the twentieth century document, among other examples, a barilo measuring 23.5 × 19.3 × 23 cm, another measuring 29.5 × 29.3 × 20 cm, and a barilo decorated with modeled lion figures measuring 28.6 × 29.7 × 25 cm. These examples illustrate the range of dimensions among individual museum objects rather than the standard dimensions of historical barila.
Capacity depended on the intended use, body proportions, and diameter of the pouring opening. Without measuring an individual object, its capacity should not be estimated solely from its appearance or name.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING
Pottery clay was the principal material. In documented examples from Opishne, the body was formed on a potter's wheel, while additional elements and decorative details could be modeled by hand. Museum descriptions also mention engobe application, glazing, painted decoration, impressed ornament, and incising.
The barrel-shaped form required the rounded body to be coordinated with a relatively small pouring opening. In barila with legs, the projecting supports also had to be formed securely enough to bear the vessel's weight. Handles, necks, lids, and decorative elements should be assessed as components of each individual object; they were not equally common across all pottery-making centers and periods.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
Barila could feature glazed surfaces, engobe-coated backgrounds, painted decoration, or a combination of several surface-treatment techniques. Museum descriptions of objects from Opishne mention clay, engobes, and glaze, as well as incising, impressing, and hand modeling. Combining these techniques made it possible to preserve the legibility of the form while also developing the vessel as an object of decorative and applied art.
The surface and coating of individual barila could vary. The presence of a particular glaze color or decorative technique should therefore not be treated as an essential feature of every barilo or as automatic proof of origin from a single pottery-making center.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
Decoration could emphasize the barrel-shaped form of the barilo. On some objects, incised, raised, or painted bands visually resemble the hoops of a wooden barrel. This formal association helps interpret the decoration, but does not mean that every band necessarily carried symbolic significance.
The Opishne tradition includes documented botanical motifs such as flowers, leaves, scrolls, grape clusters, and other elements. Techniques included engobe application, glazing, painted decoration, incising, and impressing. On some objects from the second half of the twentieth century, the decoration extended beyond ornament: modeled animal figures and narrative compositions depicting aspects of folk life appeared on the surface.
Decoration was not a necessary condition of the barilo as a functional type. Utilitarian examples also existed in which the essential features remained the body, opening, and capacity to store or carry liquids.
9. PRIMARY FUNCTION
The primary function of the barilo was to store beverages. In certain domestic circumstances, it was also used to carry water. The small opening allowed liquid to be poured without exposing the entire body, while the barrel-shaped form provided substantial internal capacity.
In terms of function, the barilo is more closely related to enclosed vessels designed for storing and transporting liquids than to open pitchers frequently used for pouring and serving beverages directly.
10. SPECIFIC USES
Museum and ethnographic descriptions associate the barilo with fruit liqueurs, wine, mead, and kvass. In fieldwork settings, it could serve as a container for water. Its specific purpose depended on its capacity, the construction of the pouring opening, and local practices.
A handle or handles made the vessel easier to carry, while a lid helped enclose its contents. This combination of features was practical for a vessel that needed to be transported or stored while full. However, without specific evidence, it is not possible to determine which particular beverage was stored in an individual museum barilo.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
In the available material, the primary roles of the barilo remain the domestic storage of beverages and its later use in decorative and applied ceramics. There is insufficient reliable evidence to classify the barilo in general as a specialized ritual vessel.
A barilo could be present on a festive table if it was used to store or serve a beverage, but this circumstance alone does not make it ritual pottery. Likewise, ornament or narrative imagery does not in itself constitute evidence of a ritual purpose.
12. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY
The word barilo is associated with the Polish baryła and the Italian barile, meaning a small barrel or cask. Etymological dictionaries indicate that the word was borrowed through Polish from Italian or Medieval Latin. Its more distant origins should be explained cautiously, since the reconstruction of its earliest development is not entirely certain.
An earlier form, baryla, is documented in Ukrainian written records from the sixteenth century. The form barilo became established later. The diminutive form bariltse is also found in museum and domestic descriptions.
The name is connected with cooperage containers, particularly barrels and small casks. However, a ceramic barilo should be identified not only through the etymology of its name, but primarily through the morphology and construction of the individual object.
13. REGIONAL VARIATIONS
The best-documented tradition of barila in the available museum material is that of Opishne in the Poltava region. Known examples have bodies resembling small casks, short narrow necks, lids, and handles for carrying. Some specimens also have four legs. Their decoration includes botanical ornament, glazing, incising, impressing, and modeled elements.
Examples from Opishne dating to the second half of the twentieth century demonstrate different ways of developing the form, from barila decorated primarily with ornament to objects featuring modeled figures and narrative compositions. This evidence documents a local artistic practice, but does not justify attributing specific decorative techniques to all Ukrainian barila.
The available material for other regions does not provide a sufficient basis for establishing an equally detailed general typology. The regional attribution of an individual object should therefore rely on museum documentation, manufacturing technology, decorative characteristics, and comparison with dated parallels.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
The form baryla is documented in Ukrainian written sources from the sixteenth century. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the clay barilo remained primarily a household vessel for beverages. Its form reflects a connection with cooperage containers while being adapted to the properties of ceramic material.
During the twentieth century, some barila gradually became part of decorative and applied art. The Opishne material includes objects from the 1960s–1970s and the 1980s in which the traditional barrel-shaped body was combined with botanical ornament, modeled figures, and narrative decoration. In these objects, the functional form became the basis for artistic reinterpretation.
These museum dates demonstrate the longevity of the tradition within a particular pottery-making center, but they do not establish the exact date when the barilo first appeared in every region of Ukraine.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
The barilo differs from the pitcher primarily in its horizontally elongated, bulging body and relatively small pouring opening. A pitcher is generally vertically oriented, often with a clearly defined neck, and is better suited to frequent pouring or serving of liquids.
The barilo differs from a wooden barrel in its material and manufacturing method: its body is ceramic rather than assembled from staves and reinforced with hoops. Similarity in shape and decorative bands does not imply identical manufacturing technology.
Bariltse may be a diminutive name or the name of a specific small vessel. For attribution, actual dimensions and construction should be considered rather than relying solely on the diminutive suffix.
16. ATTRIBUTION
When identifying an individual object, the following features should be examined:
- The orientation of the body, whether horizontal or nearly horizontal.
- The barrel-shaped silhouette and its widest point in the central section.
- The position, diameter, and shape of the ryltse.
- The presence of a short neck and lid.
- The number and shape of handles or lug handles.
- The presence of legs and the way the body is supported.
- The material, glaze, engobe application, and traces of manufacturing or surface treatment.
- The character of the ornament, incising, impressing, modeling, or narrative decoration.
- Dimensions, dating, provenance, and museum parallels.
Legs, a lid, multiple openings, or elaborate decoration are important features of particular variants, but none of them alone defines the entire type. Geographic attribution should be stated only to the extent supported by dated parallels and the object's documentation.
17. MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
The barilo is a traditional clay vessel with a barrel-shaped body, elongated predominantly along the horizontal axis, a bulging central section, and a relatively small pouring opening. It may also have a short neck, lid, handles, and legs. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it was used primarily for storing beverages and, in certain domestic circumstances, for carrying water. In the twentieth century, particularly in Opishne ceramics, the barilo also developed into a form of decorative and applied art.

Kumanets, kalach, and baklaha from the collection of the Kaniv Museum of Folk Decorative Art. Authors: H. Y. Roshchybiuk and M. I. Borys. Source: Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.

BAKLAHA
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The baklaha is a vessel designed for storing and carrying liquids, most characteristically distinguished by its flattened body and relatively narrow neck. In ceramic traditions, it belongs to the category of closed containers. Unlike a pitcher with a more open mouth, the baklaha was designed less for frequent access to its contents than for keeping them contained and transporting them.
The baklaha is known across different materials and cultural contexts. Ukrainian potters produced such vessels at least from the early modern period, while archaeological finds from the territory of Ukraine also attest to much earlier forms associated with other historical cultures. Similarity in construction does not, by itself, demonstrate direct continuity between these groups.
2. SHAPE
The principal morphological feature of the baklaha is its laterally flattened body. In plan, it may be round or oval; in profile, it resembles a low cylinder with two different surfaces: a convex front and a flat or slightly concave back. In other examples, both sides are more convex, but the overall form remains low and flattened.
The neck is usually short and narrow. In some types, it is positioned off-center, closer to one side of the body. This configuration distinguishes the baklaha from the vertically oriented pitcher and the horizontally elongated barilo.
The flattened body is convenient for carrying: the vessel projects less from the body, and, when fitted with lug handles, it can be secured to a belt or cord. This functional interpretation is consistent with its construction, although the specific method of carrying an individual object should ideally be supported by documentary evidence or structural features.
3. CONSTRUCTION
The main components of the baklaha are the body, neck, rim, and features intended for carrying. The neck is narrow and generally short; the rim may be plain, rounded, or slightly flared outward.
Two small lug handles are often positioned on the shoulders. They could accommodate a belt or cord, allowing the vessel to be carried without using the hands. Some forms have grooves, indentations, or other features on or near the lugs that help clarify how the fastening was arranged. Not every lug handle was necessarily pierced through, and their shapes were not uniform.
The base could be flat, concave, or shaped to help the vessel stand more securely on a surface. Some variants have a foot or four short legs. These features are not universal characteristics of the baklaha and should be assessed only in relation to the individual object.
Some baklahy may have had a lid or a simple means of closing the neck. However, the method of closure should not be assumed to have been the same in every region and period; it must be established through examination of a surviving object or a direct description.
4. VARIATIONS IN FORM
Typological studies of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century ceramics from the Middle Dnieper region identify, among other features, two approaches to constructing the body. In the first, the body was made from two separately formed hemispheres that were subsequently joined. In the second, the body took the form of a low cylinder with one convex surface and another flat or, less commonly, flatter surface. The documented examples have a narrow cylindrical neck and two lateral lug handles.
Archaeological baklahy of the Saltiv culture, dating from the late eighth to the first half of the ninth century, form a separate group. They are described as low cylindrical vessels with a convex outer surface and a flat or concave base, a short narrow neck, and two massive lug handles. However, because few examples have been found and their forms are broadly similar, no established, detailed typology has been developed for this group.
Baklahy with a foot, four legs, or specially shaped lug handles are also documented. These variants broaden our understanding of the vessel's construction but do not justify the creation of separate universal subtypes without systematic comparison of a larger number of objects.
5. SIZES AND CAPACITY
The dimensions of baklahy vary according to period, place of manufacture, and intended use. Scientific publications on early medieval baklahy of the Saltiv culture report a relatively small capacity of up to approximately 4 liters. This figure applies specifically to the archaeological group described and should not be treated as a standard for all baklahy.
A baklaha-like vessel from the Saltiv culture in the collection of the Odesa Archaeological Museum measures 24.7 cm in height, 18.8 cm in diameter, and 10.8 cm in width. This is an individual museum object dated to the second half of the eighth to the first half of the ninth century.
Among archaeological examples from the early modern period, a baklaha from Poltava dating to the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century has been published, measuring approximately 20 × 18.5 cm. An Opishne baklaha from the early 1960s is recorded as measuring 23 × 19.5 cm. Other museum and archaeological examples have different proportions. Attribution should therefore record the dimensions of the specific object rather than infer a single standard from a few finds.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING
The name baklaha is not restricted to pottery: vessels of this type have been made from wood, glass, metal, and other materials at different times. This entry focuses primarily on ceramic examples.
Some archaeological baklahy were formed on a potter's wheel, with the lug handles and certain other details added by hand. Early medieval examples from Crimea and contexts associated with the Saltiv culture are described as wheel-made and fashioned from a dense ceramic body. Wheel-forming, hand-finishing, the addition of lug handles, and incising are also documented on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century baklahy.
These findings should not automatically be applied to every baklaha. The manufacturing technology of an individual object must be established through its surface, body construction, method of handle attachment, ceramic composition, and museum or archaeological documentation.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
Ceramic baklahy could have various surface treatments. Glazed examples, including those with green glaze, are documented among early modern Ukrainian specimens. The glaze could cover the exterior of the body; its precise distribution should be examined on each object.
Baklahy with engobe and painted decoration are also known. Some early medieval archaeological finds had engobe-coated surfaces and painted designs, but these belong to a different cultural and historical context from the baklahy in the Ukrainian pottery repertoire of the seventeenth to twentieth centuries.
Not all baklahy were glazed or treated in the same way. A terracotta, engobe-coated, or glazed surface should be recorded as a characteristic of the individual object, not as an obligatory feature of the form as a whole.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
The decoration of the baklaha often emphasizes the rounded surface of its body. Early modern Ukrainian examples feature incised concentric circles and wavy lines arranged around a central area. Combined with green glaze, the recessed lines created a pronounced contrast in texture and color.
Early archaeological examples sometimes feature a different decorative system: painted geometric compositions of lines and arcs applied to a prepared surface. Such objects should be described separately from later Ukrainian pottery baklahy, without combining different traditions into a single scheme.
Decoration was not obligatory. It could be limited to a few incised lines or cover a substantial portion of the body. The composition should be considered in relation to the vessel's shape: its flattened sides provided a broad surface suitable for concentric, radial, or linear ornament.
9. PRIMARY FUNCTION
The primary function of the baklaha was to store and carry liquids. Sources describe it as a type of household vessel adapted for transporting a small supply of liquid.
The combination of a flattened body, narrow neck, and lug handles suited the task of carrying the vessel while reducing the risk of spilling its contents. In this respect, the baklaha differs from more open pitchers, which are convenient for frequent pouring, and from the horizontally elongated barilo, whose shape resembles cooperage vessels.
10. SPECIFIC USES
Baklahy were used for water and other beverages. Sources on traditional Ukrainian vessel forms document the storage and transport of water, horilka, and other liquids. Pleskanky, which in some regions were closely related to the baklaha in form, are specifically associated with carrying horilka.
Researchers suggest that small baklahy of the early medieval Saltiv culture were used by steppe populations for transporting liquids. The possibility of attaching a baklaha to a horse's saddle or carrying it on the body is an interpretation based on its lug handles and flattened body, rather than a proven method of use for every example.
In later Ukrainian domestic contexts, the baklaha could accompany a person on a journey or during work. However, specific details, such as whether an individual vessel was carried over the shoulder, on a belt, or on a strap, must be confirmed by its fastening features, fieldwork evidence, or historical descriptions.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
In the material examined, the principal functions of the baklaha are the domestic storage and transport of liquids. There are no reliable grounds for classifying it as a specialized ritual vessel. It could have been used on festive or other special occasions as a container for beverages, but this use alone does not establish a separate ritual type.
12. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY
Ukrainian sources record the variants baklaha, baklazhka, baklazhок, baklah, boklah, boklaha, and bókla. The form boklaha is documented in sixteenth-century written sources, while the spelling boklahъ is recorded in the seventeenth century. The earliest known attestations of individual names should not be confused with the dating of the vessel form itself.
The name is associated with Turkic words denoting a water container; related forms include the Tatar baklak and the Polish bukłak. The word may have entered Ukrainian directly or through the mediation of other languages, so its transmission should not be reduced to a single unquestionably established route.
The name baklaha does not automatically mean that an object is made of clay. Dictionary and museum sources use the term for vessels made from different materials. The material must therefore be recorded separately when describing a historical object.
13. REGIONAL VARIATIONS
Materials from the Middle Dnieper region document baklahy in archaeological contexts from Kyiv, Poltava, and Baturyn dating to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. One example from Poltava, dating to the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, measures approximately 20 × 18.5 cm. Kyiv finds from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are described as clay vessels made on a potter's wheel, glazed, and finished with additional modeling and incising.
In western Ukrainian terminology, the name pleskanka is associated with the baklaha. Some sources treat the names as referring to forms similar in shape and function, although the distinction between them was not consistent across all regions. Baklaha and pleskanka should not be regarded as absolute synonyms without checking the specific source.
A separate group consists of baklahy of the Saltiv culture found in Crimea and in steppe and forest-steppe areas. These are important for the archaeological history of the form, but should not be equated with later regional traditions of Ukrainian pottery without additional evidence.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
The baklaha has a long history, but its development should not be presented as a single continuous line. Archaeological baklahy of the Saltiv culture date from the late eighth to the first half of the ninth century. They were made on a potter's wheel and represent a small, distinctive group of vessels associated with the cultural environment of the Khazar Khaganate.
Baklahy are documented in the Ukrainian pottery repertoire of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with archaeological examples known from Kyiv, Poltava, and Baturyn. Broader surveys of Ukrainian ceramics also record the form in later material, extending into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This demonstrates the long-term presence of the vessel type, but does not prove direct continuity between medieval baklahy of the Saltiv culture and later examples.
During the twentieth century, the baklaha could move beyond its exclusively utilitarian role and develop as a form of decorative and applied ceramics. An Opishne vessel from the early 1960s, measuring 23 × 19.5 cm, was made using a potter's wheel, engobes, painted decoration, and glaze. This object demonstrates the preservation and reinterpretation of the form in later artistic production, but does not necessarily indicate the continuation of its original practical use.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
The baklaha and the barilo were both intended for liquids, but their construction differs. The barilo has a horizontally elongated, barrel-shaped body, whereas the baklaha has a flattened, rounded or disk-shaped body, a narrow neck, and often lug handles for fastening.
The baklaha and the pitcher also have different structural priorities. A pitcher generally stands upright and has a relatively open mouth, convenient for filling and pouring. The baklaha has a lower, flattened body and features designed for carrying.
The closest form in name and several morphological characteristics is the pleskanka. In some regional sources, it corresponds closely to the baklaha form; in others, the terms may be distinguished. Within specialized typologies, the pleskanets is regarded as a form that developed from the baklaha and, in certain examples, differs through the presence of legs and painted decoration.
The kumanets belongs to a related functional group of beverage vessels but has its own morphological variants, including the particularly well-known ring-shaped form. There is insufficient evidence to consider every kumanets a derivative of the baklaha.
16. ATTRIBUTION
To identify an individual baklaha, it is necessary to examine the shape and proportions of the body, the degree of flattening, the relationship between the convex and reverse surfaces, the position and profile of the neck, the rim shape, the number and construction of the lug handles, traces of strap attachment, the presence of a foot or legs, the material, forming technology, surface treatment, and decoration.
The findspot or provenance of the collection, dating, and context of use are equally important. Similar flattened forms occurred in different cultures and materials, so morphological resemblance alone does not make it possible to assign an object automatically to a particular region or century.
The name recorded on a museum label should be preserved as source evidence, but it should not be treated as a sufficient attribution. If a source identifies an object as a baklaha, pleskanka, or flask, its construction and historical context should be checked against that designation.
17. MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
The baklaha is a closed vessel designed for storing and carrying liquids, characteristically distinguished by a flattened, rounded or cylindrical body, a narrow neck, and, in many variants, lateral lug handles for attaching a belt or cord. In Ukrainian ceramic traditions, it is documented from the early modern period onward; the same name has also been applied to vessels made from other materials. The relationship between the baklaha, pleskanka, and pleskanets must be established with reference to the region, period, and specific typolo

BAKLAHA

Pleskanets from the Budy Faience Factory. Author: Berser25. Source: Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Kumanets, kalach, and baklaha from the collection of the Kaniv Museum of Folk Decorative Art. Authors: H. Y. Roshchybiuk and M. I. Borys. Source: Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Large Pleskanets. Traditional Ukrainian vessel for strong alcoholic beverages. Photographer: Berser25. Source: Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Traditional Hutsul clay kumanets decorated with geometric patterns in brown, green, and yellow. Held at the Hutsul Museum in Verkhovyna, Ukraine. Photographer: Viktoriia Pechkina. Source: Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY 4.0.

PLESKANETS/ PLESKANKA
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
A plесkanets is a flattened ceramic vessel for liquids, most often associated with the storage and carrying of water or alcoholic beverages. Its distinguishing feature is a flattened body with a neck and, in many typological descriptions, small feet and painted decoration as well.
The plесkanets belongs to the group of closed vessels for liquids related to the baklaha and the kumanets. However, the term does not have an entirely consistent meaning: dictionaries may list “pleskanets” and “pleskanka” as synonyms, while ceramic studies and museum descriptions may define the plесkanets as a more specific type of baklaha or as a type of kumanets. Therefore, the form must be considered in conjunction with its construction, region, period of manufacture, and the typology adopted by the source.
2. FORM
The main morphological feature of the plесkanets is its flattened body, which does not extend vertically like an ordinary jug but spreads horizontally. The body may be disk-shaped, flat-cylindrical, rounded with convex sides, or approximate an elliptical shape. In some descriptions, the term pleskanka is also used for a flattened, flask-shaped vessel.
Despite its flattened profile, the vessel retains a distinct neck and a small opening through which it is filled and emptied. In some variants, the form is supplemented by feet, a base, a spout, and ear-shaped handles. Thus, the flattened body is the principal, but not the only, defining feature of the form.
3. CONSTRUCTION
The construction of an individual plесkanets may include a flattened body, neck, rim, base or stand, feet, one or two ear-shaped handles, nipple-shaped handles, a spout, and a lid. Not all these features necessarily occur together in a single object.
The neck may be conical, cylindrical, or slightly concave. The transition from the body to the neck may be smooth or distinctly defined, sometimes emphasized by a raised ridge. The rim generally finishes the neck and may flare slightly outward. On vessels with a spout, this feature makes pouring easier; on some pieces, the spout and ear-shaped handle also become the principal elements of the vessel’s sculptural decoration.
Feet and base. Small feet are one of the characteristic features of the plесkanets in the typology that treats it as a form developed from the baklaha. However, the number and shape of the supports were not standardized. Descriptions of Kosiv ceramics mention objects with a single foot formed on the potter’s wheel and others with four modeled feet. In later decorative examples, the body could rest on a prominent base.
Ears and handles. One or two ear-shaped handles could be attached to the body. In some forms, the handles were nipple-shaped; in others, they were elongated or shaped into figures. They made the vessel easier to hold and carry, while certain designs also allowed zoomorphic motifs to be incorporated into the form.
Spout and lid. A spout is not obligatory, but it occurs in some Opishnia and Kosiv examples. Lids are also documented, particularly on museum objects dating from the second half of the twentieth century. Their decoration could be coordinated with that of the body.
4. VARIATIONS IN FORM
Published descriptions allow several structural variants to be distinguished, but these should not be turned into a rigid, universally applicable classification of Ukrainian ceramics.
The flattened, disk-shaped plесkanets has a flattened body and a narrow neck; typological literature associates it with the development of the baklaha.
The plесkanets with feet is distinguished by one or more small supports. A 2021 study identifies the feet, together with painted decoration, as characteristic features distinguishing it from the baklaha.
The plесkanets with a base, spout, and ear-shaped handles is known in decorative ceramics, particularly in Opishnia wares of the twentieth century.
The plесkanets classified as a type of kumanets occurs in museum attributions. Within this typology, its principal difference from the ring-shaped kumanets lies in its disk-shaped rather than ring-shaped body.
Ring-shaped vessels are generally classified as kumantsi or kolachi, although the distinction between the names and types is not consistent across all sources.
5. DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITY
There was no single standardized size for the plесkanets. Available museum descriptions show differences across regions and periods but do not provide grounds for establishing a single capacity range for all vessels of this type.
Among Opishnia objects from the 1920s and 1930s, catalogued plесkanets measure approximately 33.2 × 17.9 × 9.7 cm and 33.3 × 22.8 × 10 cm. These proportions clearly illustrate how the body’s width and height could greatly exceed its thickness. The Volyn Regional Museum of Local History holds a Kosiv plесkanets dated approximately to the 1970s, with a height of 21 cm.
These are measurements of individual museum objects, not standard dimensions for the form as a whole. The capacity of a particular vessel must be established from its measurements or museum description rather than inferred from its name alone.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURE
Traditional plесkanets vessels were made from pottery clay. Museum descriptions of Opishnia pieces from the 1920s and 1930s document the use of the potter’s wheel, hand-modeling of additional details, engobes, glaze, and painted decoration. Thus, the main body could be formed on the wheel, while the feet, handles, spout, and zoomorphic elements were finished or attached separately.
Combining wheel-forming with hand-modeling made it possible to create a body with stable geometry and supplement it with details that altered both the vessel’s practical use and its sculptural appearance. The precise sequence of technological operations for a particular vessel must be established from a description or examination of that object.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
Traditional and decorative plесkanets vessels are documented with engobe application, glazing, and surface preparation before painted decoration was applied. In museum objects from Opishnia, clay is combined with engobes and colored glazes; a Kosiv plесkanets from the 1970s is described as being made of red clay and painted in green and brown against a yellowish-white background.
Surface treatment could cover the entire body or only certain parts, such as the neck, base, sides, or lid. However, the specific combinations of materials and surface finishes were not universal and must be recorded separately for each object.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
Decoration on the plесkanets could include painted plant and geometric motifs, ornamental bands, incised lines, and applied sculptural elements. The composition was often coordinated with the different parts of the form: the neck and base might be decorated with separate bands, the sides of the body framed with branches or other motifs, and the lid treated as an independent decorative element.
Opishnia plесkanets vessels from the 1930s are characterized by a combination of painted decoration and sculptural modeling. The spout could be modeled in the shape of a ram’s head, while an ear-shaped handle might take the form of a small animal. On one museum object, a serpent-shaped applied element combines decorative and structural functions: its head forms the spout, including the opening, while its tail forms the vessel’s ear-shaped handle. Such examples show that, on certain pieces, the distinction between a functional component and sculptural decoration almost disappears.
Complex, multicolored compositions occur in Kosiv painted ceramics. One museum plесkanets, dated approximately to the 1970s, depicts peacocks framed by large flowering and leafy branches; the ornament continues across the neck, base, and lid. This is an example of a particular decorative treatment, not a mandatory scheme for all plесkanets vessels.
9. PRIMARY PURPOSE
The plесkanets belongs to the category of vessels for liquids. The best-documented uses are the storage and carrying of water and alcoholic beverages, especially vodka. Some objects may also have been used for serving drinks.
A flattened body alone does not prove that every plесkanets was carried on a strap or cord. However, a dictionary definition of pleskanka in early twentieth-century materials explicitly describes an earthenware vessel shaped like a flat disk with a small neck, intended for vodka and designed to be carried over the shoulder on a cord. This is important evidence for the history of a related form, but it should not automatically be applied to every plесkanets without further verification.
10. SPECIFIC USES
Storage and carrying of water. In Hutsul sources, pleskanka vessels are associated with carrying water. Their flattened shape made it possible to carry the vessel close to the body; the narrow neck restricted access to the contents, while handles or ear-shaped grips made it easier to hold.
Storage and carrying of vodka and other spirits. This is one of the most clearly documented functions. In Podillia dialect sources, the word “pleskanets” is recorded as meaning an earthenware vessel for alcoholic beverages. Hutsul materials also associate pleskanka vessels with carrying water or vodka.
Serving drinks. Some plесkanets vessels may have been used for pouring or serving drinks. The presence of a spout, lid, or decorative base depended on the particular variant. Without additional information about an object’s provenance and functional context, not every plесkanets can confidently be identified as tableware.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
The association of the plесkanets with alcoholic beverages places it close to the vessels used for entertaining and serving guests. However, not every plесkanets was specifically a ritual form. In the literature, the festive function is most clearly associated with the kumanets, which was used to serve spirits, including at weddings. In several typologies, the plесkanets is regarded as a related form of the kumanets, but this relationship does not justify automatically transferring all the ritual functions of the kumanets to every plесkanets.
Therefore, determining the festive or ritual role of a particular object requires information about the local tradition, manner of use, and provenance of the vessel itself. Its form and decorative character may help with such an attribution, but they do not establish it on their own.
12. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY
The dictionary meaning of the word “pleskanets” encompasses at least two different concepts: a flatbread or another flat food item, and a ceramic vessel. In its ceramic sense, plесkanets is often presented as equivalent to pleskanka—a clay vessel with a flattened shape.
The names are related to the Ukrainian word pleskatyi, meaning “flattened,” which conveys the object’s principal morphological feature. At the same time, in specialist ceramic literature, “pleskanets” may denote a more specific type developed from the baklaha and distinguished, among other features, by small feet and painted decoration.
Borys Hrinchenko’s dictionary describes the pleskanka as an earthenware vessel resembling a large flask for vodka: a flat circle with a small neck, carried over the shoulder on a cord. The Dictionary of the Ukrainian Language also gives an example of “pleskanets” vessels in Hutsul ceramics alongside jugs and kumantsi. These records confirm that the name existed, but they reflect different historical and regional contexts.
13. REGIONAL VARIANTS
Hutsul region and Kosiv region. In the Hutsul tradition, pleskanka vessels are related to baklaha vessels—flattened containers for carrying water or vodka. Sources mention round pleskanka vessels and ring-shaped kolachi. Within this tradition, the terminology and typology may differ from those used in descriptions of Opishnia ceramics.
Opishnia. In the 1920s and 1930s, plесkanets vessels were made here from clay, engobes, and glazes, combining wheel-forming with hand-modeling and painted decoration. On some pieces, spouts and ear-shaped handles were modeled in the form of animals, transforming structural components into the principal elements of the vessel’s decorative appearance.
Podillia. In dialect sources, the plесkanets is directly associated with vessels for alcoholic beverages. This functional record is important for understanding the name, but it does not by itself establish the exact morphology of every vessel from Podillia.
Galicia and later artistic ceramics. Museum collections include plесkanets vessels among examples of Kosiv painted ceramics, particularly objects from the second half of the twentieth century. Some museum descriptions classify them as types of kumanets. This indicates that different regional and museum approaches to typology have coexisted.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
The baklaha vessels related to the plесkanets have a longer history. A study of Ukrainian pottery notes that changes and convergence occurred during the eighteenth century between the forms of small, pumpkin-shaped jugs and baklaha vessels. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the plесkanets developed from the baklaha and, in the relevant typology, is distinguished by small feet and painted decoration.
In the first third of the twentieth century, animal-shaped spouts and ear-shaped handles became widespread in Opishnia. Plесkanets vessels from the 1920s and 1930s demonstrate the combination of a traditional vessel form with more elaborate painted decoration and sculptural elements. In the second half of the twentieth century, the form continued to be produced in decorative and utilitarian ceramics, including Kosiv wares.
Museum collections also apply the name “pleskanets” to certain decorative glass objects from the 1970s. This shows that, in a later artistic context, the name could refer not only to an earthenware vessel but also to a decorative form with a related silhouette. Material therefore remains an important element in attribution.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
Baklaha. The baklaha is the principal form associated with the plесkanets in studies of the type’s development. In the relevant ceramic typology, the plесkanets differs from the baklaha by its small feet and painted decoration. However, historical and regional names may overlap, so the distinction must be verified against the specific source.
Kumanets. In many typologies, the kumanets has a ring-shaped body, a small hoof-like foot, and a spout. In this comparison, the plесkanets has a disk-shaped, flattened body. At the same time, museum attributions sometimes classify the plесkanets as a type of kumanets. This is not necessarily an error: the names may reflect different classification systems.
Kolach. In Hutsul descriptions, kolach may refer to a vessel with a ring-shaped body, whereas pleskanka has a round, flat body. Both forms are related to the group of baklaha vessels, but they should not be treated as identical without considering their morphology.
Hlek and hlehchyk (jug and small jug). These forms usually have vertically elongated bodies and are not flat. By contrast, the plесkanets extends horizontally and is considerably flattened. Sharing the function of storing liquids does not make them the same type.
16. ATTRIBUTION
When identifying a particular plесkanets, the following features should be checked:
- The proportions of the body’s height, width, and thickness;
- The shape of the body—disk-shaped, rounded, elliptical, or ring-shaped;
- The presence, number, and shape of feet or a base;
- The shape of the neck and the profile of the rim;
- The presence and position of ear-shaped handles, other handles, a spout, and a lid;
- The material, forming method, use of engobes and glaze, painted decoration, and modeling;
- The region and date, if known;
- The function recorded in a museum or ethnographic source—water, vodka, or other beverages.
The name recorded on a museum catalogue card should be documented as that institution’s attribution of the particular object, rather than automatically applied to all similar objects. It is especially important not to conflate the dictionary meaning of “pleskanka,” the Hutsul term for a baklaha-related form, the Opishnia typology of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the museum classification of the plесkanets as a type of kumanets.
17. THE MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
The plесkanets is a flattened vessel for liquids, related to the baklaha and the kumanets and documented in Ukrainian ceramics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In specialist typology, it is distinguished by a flattened body, small feet, and painted decoration, but its specific construction and name depend on the region, period, and classification system used by the source. The most reliable attribution is based on a combination of morphological, structural, technological, and contextual features.

Pokutian Ring Flask (Plaskanka). Author: Silar. Source: Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Kumanets with Opishnia-style Decoration. Author: Berser25. Source: Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Kumanets from Opishnia, Poltava region, from the collection of the Krychevskyi Family Museum. Opishnia, 2023. Photographer: Berser25. Source: Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ukrainian postage stamp “Kumanets, 70 kopiyok,” 2007. Stamp artwork by Kateryna Shtanko. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Kumanets at the Sosnovyi Bir Sanatorium in Zinkiv, Poltava region, 2019. Photographer: Mandrivnytsia. Source: Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.

KUMANETS / KUMAN / KUMANCHYK
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The kumanets is a distinctive type of ceramic vessel for beverages, most often glazed and decorated. Dictionary definitions describe it as a shaped vessel associated primarily with alcoholic beverages; museum descriptions characterize it as a vessel for particular types of drinks, with a spout, handle, neck, and support.
The best-known variant has a ring-shaped body with a hole through the center. However, kumantsi could also be disk-shaped, flattened, or figural. Therefore, the name should not be restricted to a “doughnut-shaped” silhouette alone. To identify a particular object, it is important to consider the body, pouring system, handles, supports, decoration, and regional tradition.
The kumanets belongs to the category of closed vessels for liquids. Its characteristic function was serving beverages at the table, particularly during feasts and gatherings; some forms could also be used for storing and carrying drinks. During the twentieth century, some kumantsi became part of decorative and applied ceramics, although this transition did not occur simultaneously in all pottery centers.
2. FORM
The most recognizable form of the kumanets is ring-shaped, or toroidal: the body forms a closed ring with an opening in the middle. Its silhouette resembles a doughnut or a ring-shaped loaf. This construction distinguishes it from an ordinary upright jug, whose main volume is located beneath the neck.
Other kumantsi take the form of a disk, a flattened body, or a figural vessel. Some pieces may resemble an animal figure or combine a ring-shaped body with a prominently modeled base, spout, and handle. These variants should not be mechanically reduced to a single geometric scheme: museum and regional terminology do not always coincide.
The body often has a clearly defined surface or outline around which the neck, spout, and handle are arranged. In ring-shaped forms, the central opening is an important morphological feature, but its specific practical use depended on the construction and local manner of use.
3. CONSTRUCTION
The construction of a kumanets could include a body, neck, rim, spout, handle or ear-shaped grip, foot, or base. Not all these components were obligatory, nor were they all combined in every object.
Neck and opening. The narrow opening was used to fill the vessel. Its height and shape varied according to the particular type. In museum descriptions, the neck often constitutes a separate structural element connected to the spout and handle.
Spout. The spout allowed the beverage to be poured in a controlled manner. It could be simple, elongated, or sculpturally integrated with other elements of the body. On figural pieces, the spout sometimes became part of the decorative design, although this was not an obligatory feature of the kumanets.
Handle or ear-shaped grip. The handle helped support the vessel and tilt it when pouring. Its configuration could be arched, massive, bracket-shaped, or connected to the body by thin sculptural strips. On some pieces, a system of several ear-shaped grips served the same function.
Foot and base. Some kumantsi had a low support or several small feet, allowing the vessel to stand securely. For example, a kumanets dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century in the collection of the Ivan Honchar Museum has four short feet, while its handle, neck, and spout are connected by thin strips. In another type, the base takes the form of a round disk.
Central opening. In the ring-shaped kumanets, the opening is inherent in the construction itself. Ethnographic descriptions from Podillia document a practice of carrying this type of vessel on the left forearm, leaving the right hand free while serving guests. This is evidence of a local practice and should not automatically be generalized to all regions and types of kumantsi.
4. VARIANTS OF FORM
The sources reveal several distinct formal variants. These help describe individual objects but do not constitute a universal classification applicable throughout Ukraine.
Ring-shaped kumanets. The body forms a ring with a through-opening. A neck, spout, and handle are attached to it; some pieces also have feet or a base.
Disk-shaped kumanets. The body takes the form of a flat disk. Some typologies associate this form with the pleskanka, although the names may differ in particular sources.
Kumanets-kolach. The name emphasizes the ring-shaped body. A museum object from the early twentieth century associated with Ivan Levynskyi’s tile-stove factory in Lviv has a round base, a narrow neck, and four loop-shaped bracket grips for carrying it on a strap.
Figural or zoomorphic kumanets. The outline or individual details of the vessel may take on a representational form. Such objects should not be identified solely by their decorative motifs: overall morphology and construction remain decisive.
A regional variant known as “kalach.” In Hutsul sources, this name occurs for a ring-shaped vessel. Within particular local traditions, kalach and kumanets may partially overlap as types, but this does not mean that the names are interchangeable in all sources.
5. DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITY
There was no single standard size for the kumanets. Museum examples show considerable variation in height, width, and body thickness.
Documented objects include a kumanets from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century measuring 29.2 cm in height, 21.2 cm in width, and 9.6 cm in thickness; an Opishnia kumanets from the early twentieth century measuring 27.5 cm in height and 20 cm in width; and a kumanets-kolach from the early twentieth century measuring 21.5 cm in height and approximately 15.2 cm in diameter. A smaller kumanets from the collection in Kuty, locally called a kalach, is known to measure approximately 13.2 × 11.6 × 3.9 cm.
These are measurements of individual museum objects, not a standardized range for the entire form. Capacity is not always provided in catalogues and should not be inferred from external dimensions alone.
6. MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURE
Traditional kumantsi were made from pottery clay. Museum descriptions document forming on the potter’s wheel; some objects are also described as hand-built, molded, or impressed. This indicates a combination of wheel-forming the body with manual finishing of structural and decorative details, although the sequence of operations must be established for each individual object.
The spout, handle, feet, or base could be formed as separate components and attached to the body. In figural variants, hand-modeling made more complex silhouettes possible. It should not be assumed that all kumantsi were made according to a single technological procedure: museum records document different forming and decoration techniques.
7. GLAZE AND SURFACE TREATMENT
Glaze is a widespread, but not absolutely universal, feature of the kumanets. Dictionary definitions describe it as predominantly glazed and decorated ware. Museum objects confirm the use of clay with glaze and, in some examples, engobe as well.
Surface colors vary. A kumanets dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century has a dark green glaze without painted ornament. Another, from Opishnia, combines clay, engobe, and colored glaze. A kumanets-kolach from the Lviv collection is covered with white glaze, which serves as the ground for polychrome painting.
These examples show that surface treatment could serve as the final finish in its own right or provide a base for further decoration. At the same time, the absence of painted ornament does not rule out identifying an object as a kumanets.
8. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
Decoration on the kumanets ranged from monochrome glaze to complex polychrome compositions. Documented techniques include engraving, painted ornament, and the use of engobe and glaze. Specific museum objects feature both vegetal and geometric motifs.
An Opishnia kumanets from the early twentieth century is decorated with multicolored vegetal ornament incorporating flowers of different shapes. On a kumanets-kolach from the Lviv museum collection, a geometric composition is built from concentric circles, geometric elements, and triangular framing. Green, brown, blue, and yellow are used against a white background. By contrast, a dark green kumanets dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century has no painted decoration: its sculptural construction alone defines its visual appearance.
Decoration, therefore, should not be described merely as a list of motifs. It is important to consider how the ornament is arranged across the body, neck, base, and handles; how it relates to the ring-shaped form; and whether it emphasizes the construction. The mere presence of decoration does not establish that an object had a ritual purpose.
9. PRIMARY PURPOSE
The primary function of the kumanets was to hold beverages, especially for serving them at the table. Dictionary sources most often associate it with alcoholic drinks, but historical linguistic examples document the name in connection with other beverages as well, including kvass and mead. It is therefore more accurate to define it as a specialized vessel for pouring and serving drinks, with a strong association with the serving of alcoholic beverages during gatherings.
The kumanets could combine the functions of storage, transport, and serving, but their relative importance depended on the specific construction. The spout facilitated pouring, the handle made it easier to hold and tilt the vessel, and the support allowed it to stand on a surface. The ring-shaped body enabled a distinctive way of holding the vessel that set the kumanets apart from an ordinary jug.
10. SPECIFIC USES
Serving alcoholic beverages. This is one of the best-documented functions of the kumanets. Specialist literature describes it as a vessel for serving alcoholic drinks at a festive table. The spout made it possible to pour a beverage into a mug or shot glass without opening the entire vessel.
Carrying beverages. On some forms, the handle or system of ear-shaped grips was designed for holding and carrying. On one kumanets-kolach, four loop-shaped bracket grips provide grounds for associating the construction with carrying the vessel on a strap. However, this feature belongs to a specific variant, not to all kumantsi.
Serving other beverages. Lexical and literary examples also document the term “kumanets” in connection with kvass and mead. This indicates that the vessel had a broader role in serving beverages, although alcoholic drinks remain its principal specialized purpose in dictionary definitions.
Holding the vessel while serving guests. Ethnographic descriptions from Podillia note that a ring-shaped kumanets could be carried on the left forearm, leaving the right hand free. This evidence helps explain the functional significance of the central opening, but it should be presented as a regional practice.
11. SPECIAL, FESTIVE, AND RITUAL FUNCTIONS
The most clearly documented special purpose of the kumanets is festive hospitality and serving alcoholic beverages at the table. Its form and decoration could make it a visually distinctive object in a festive setting.
At the same time, the kumanets should not automatically be described as ritual ware in the narrow sense. The available sources provide sufficient grounds for discussing its use at celebrations and in hospitality, but not for identifying a single obligatory ritual action common to all regions. Decorative features, an unusual shape, or imagery do not, by themselves, prove a specialized ritual function.
12. NAME AND TERMINOLOGY
The principal names are kumanets, kuman, and kumanchyk. Dictionaries list “kuman” as a less common equivalent of “kumanets.” Regional and museum descriptions also use the term “kumanets-kolach” and the local name “kalach.”
Etymological sources associate the words “kuman” and “kumanets” with borrowing from Turkic languages. The proposed equivalents include Crimean Tatar and Chagatai kumүan, meaning “mug,” as well as Karaim kumgan, meaning “jug, washbasin.” This explanation has stronger dictionary support than an attempt to derive the vessel’s name directly from the ethnonym “Cumans,” the name of the Polovtsian people. Such a connection should not be presented as an established fact.
The meaning of the name has changed over time. Dictionaries record the kumanets as a ceramic figural vessel for alcoholic beverages that, in more recent domestic use, serves primarily as a decorative object. Other dictionary descriptions define its morphology in greater detail: a disk or ring with a handle, spout, neck, and foot-like base. These definitions complement one another but do not establish a single form shared by all local traditions.
13. REGIONAL VARIANTS
Opishnia and the Poltava region. Museum collections document kumantsi from the early twentieth century featuring vegetal painting, engraving, engobe, and glaze. An Opishnia kumanets measuring 27.5 cm in height has a multicolored floral ornament. Opishnia became one of the centers where the kumanets developed into a distinctly decorated artistic vessel.
Zaporizhzhia region. The Ivan Honchar Museum holds a kumanets dated to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century and attributed to the Zaporizhzhia region. It has four small feet, a dark green glaze, and a handle, neck, and spout connected by thin strips; it has no painted decoration. This example cautions against assuming that every kumanets necessarily had multicolored ornament.
Lviv and the western Ukrainian context. A museum kumanets-kolach associated with Ivan Levynskyi’s tile-stove factory in Lviv has a round base, four bracket-shaped grips for a strap, white glaze, and polychrome geometric ornament. It demonstrates a structural and decorative model different from the vegetal ornamentation of Opishnia examples.
Hutsul region and Kuty. In Hutsul sources, the kumanets could have the local name “kalach.” A museum object from Kuty dating from the second half of the twentieth century has an engobe-treated and glazed surface, vegetal painting, and hand-modeled details. This shows that the name and form continued to exist in a decorative and applied context at a later date.
Podillia. Ethnographic descriptions document the practice of carrying a ring-shaped kumanets on the forearm while serving guests. This is important evidence of the functional use of the central opening, but it does not prove that the same practice was widespread throughout Ukraine.
14. HISTORY AND CHRONOLOGY
The kumanets appears in nineteenth-century sources as a distinctive form of glazed ware with a central opening. A publication analyzing the history of museum collections and early ethnographic descriptions cites evidence from the late nineteenth century indicating that, in some localities, ring-shaped kumantsi were already regarded as old vessels whose production was coming to an end. This points to regional variation in the persistence of the form, rather than its simultaneous disappearance from every region.
Museum objects dating from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century confirm that kumantsi continued to be produced in various centers. Their material and technological solutions also vary, ranging from monochrome glaze and simpler bodies to engobe application, engraving, and multicolored painting.
During the twentieth century, the kumanets increasingly became part of decorative and applied ceramics. This does not mean that the form immediately lost all practical significance: museum objects from the mid- and late twentieth century attest to the continuation of the tradition, but under different production and domestic conditions. It is therefore more accurate to speak of a gradual shift in emphasis from practical use in hospitality toward a decorative function, rather than assigning a single date to the end of its use.
15. COMPARISON WITH RELATED FORMS
Pleskanka. The pleskanka usually has a flat, disk-shaped body and, in some traditions, is associated with being carried on a belt or cord. In its most characteristic variant, the kumanets has a ring-shaped body and a construction that includes a spout and handle. However, the boundaries between the terms are not always consistent: some museum and regional descriptions associate the names with one another or classify disk-shaped forms differently.
Baklaha. The baklaha is a related closed vessel for liquids, usually with a flattened body. Its function of storing and carrying beverages connects it with the pleskanka and certain kumantsi. However, the ring-shaped body with a central opening is the most distinctive feature of the kumanets-kolach.
Kalach. In some regional traditions, “kalach” is a local name for a ring-shaped vessel related to the kumanets. The word can also be used more broadly, so its meaning must be checked against the specific source and the morphology of the object.
Jug and carafe. A jug has a vertically elongated body, while a carafe generally has a different arrangement of body, neck, and opening. Sharing the function of pouring beverages does not make these forms variants of the kumanets. The defining features are the ring-shaped or disk-shaped body and the characteristic combination of spout, neck, and handle.
16. ATTRIBUTION
When identifying a particular kumanets, the following features should be checked:
- The shape of the body: ring-shaped, disk-shaped, flattened, or figural;
- The presence and dimensions of the central opening;
- The construction of the neck, rim, and spout;
- The shape and position of the handle, ear-shaped grip, or several bracket-shaped grips;
- The presence of feet or a base;
- The material, forming method, and manual finishing techniques;
- The surface treatment: glaze, engobe, engraving, painted decoration, or relief ornament;
- The relationship between the ornament and the body, neck, base, and handles;
- The dimensions, dating, production center, and history of acquisition;
- The source of the name: dictionary, ethnographic, museum, or local usage.
The name “kumanets” alone does not establish a single geometry, a specific region, or necessarily a festive or exclusively decorative function. The museum attribution of an individual object should be recorded as the identification of that particular piece, rather than generalized to the entire group without verification.
17. THE MOST PRECISE DEFINITION
The kumanets is a traditional ceramic vessel for beverages, most often associated with serving alcoholic drinks during gatherings and hospitality. Its most characteristic variant has a ring-shaped body with a central opening, a neck, a spout, and a handle; some variants also have feet or a base. Disk-shaped and figural forms are also known. Materials, construction, and decoration varied by region and period; during the twentieth century, some kumantsi became part of decorative and applied ceramics. The most reliable attribution is based on a combination of morphological, structural, technological, and contextual features.

KUKHOL / KUKHLYK / HORNIA / CHASHKA
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Today, kukhоl, kukhlyk, hornia, and chashka can easily be perceived as almost the same thing—a small vessel for drinking. In the history of Ukrainian ceramics, however, this is not the case.
These names refer to different forms, different periods of распространення, and partly different ways of use. Some developed from ancient pot-shaped vessels, while others are associated with European drinking culture, which underwent significant changes in the nineteenth century.
It is therefore important not to replace the historical meaning of a word with its modern meaning. This is particularly relevant to hornia and horniatko: dictionaries link these terms directly to a small pot, although archaeological and regional evidence shows that such vessels could also have been used for drinking.
2. KUKHOL
Name
The word kukhоl belongs to the vocabulary of drinking vessels. Dictionaries define a kukhоl as an earthenware, wooden, or metal vessel with a handle. Its diminutive forms are kukhlyk and kukhlychok.
Thus, the name was never restricted to ceramics alone. A kukhоl could be made from various materials, and its defining characteristics were primarily the vessel’s form and the way it was used.
Etymology
The origin of the word kukhоl is associated with the Central European linguistic environment. Through the Polish kufel, it is related to German forms that initially referred to a barrel-shaped vessel and later came to denote drinking vessels.
This is interesting also because the history of the name extends far beyond Ukrainian pottery.
Form
The historical kukhоl did not have a single standardized silhouette.
Sources describe cylindrical, conical, rounded, and pot-shaped forms. Some mugs have high shoulders, others gradually widen toward the top, while some resemble small jugs.
In Volyn materials, small cylindrical or conical mugs with an ear-shaped handle and profiled rims are particularly distinctive.
The word kukhоl alone therefore provides limited information for attribution. The body, proportions, opening, rim, and handle must also be examined.
Handle
The handle is one of the principal features of the kukhоl.
It could be vertical, flat, massive, loop-shaped, or set high above the body. In early forms, the handle often projected clearly from the body, while in later examples it could also become a decorative element.
However, the handle is not an absolute criterion. In older sources, closely related names could shift from one form to another, so an object is best identified by considering the combined set of its characteristics.
Mugs and Drinking
The primary function of the kukhоl was drinking.
Various sources mention water, milk, kvass, beer, vodka, and other beverages. A large historical mug could look entirely different from a modern coffee cup.
Large cylindrical mugs with capacities of approximately 1.7–1.9 liters are documented for the early modern period. Such vessels may have corresponded to the traditional measure known as a quarta.
A historical kukhоl, therefore, was not necessarily a small vessel intended for individual use.
Glaze and Decoration
In early modern ceramics, mugs often had glazed surfaces.
In the Middle Dnipro region, a combination of brown glaze on the inside and green glaze on the outside is documented. Other types of glazed and painted decoration became widespread later.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mugs were made in terracotta, black-smoked, glazed, engobe-coated, and painted varieties.
Black-Smoked Ceramics
Black-smoked mugs constitute a distinct tradition.
In Volyn and Western Polissia, such ceramics formed part of the local assemblage of domestic vessels. In Rokyta, small mugs for water were produced predominantly as black-polished wares until the twentieth century.
Here, the small mug existed not as an isolated product but alongside jugs, milk pots, makitras, bowls, and other local vessel forms.
3. KUKHLYK
Meaning
Kukhlyk is originally a diminutive form of the word kukhоl.
Initially, it simply meant a smaller mug rather than a distinct form with an entirely different name.
However, within particular pottery traditions, the kukhlyk could gradually come to be understood as an independent type of small drinking vessel.
Form
In Volyn materials, kukhly and kukhlyky share a similar morphology: a cylindrical or conical body, an ear-shaped handle, and an open top.
Particularly interesting are small forms with straight walls and a narrower base. This construction already distinguishes the kukhlyk from some larger mugs.
Function
The kukhlyk was most commonly used for individual drinking.
Depending on the locality, it could be used for water, milk, kvass, beer, and other beverages.
In some regions, its function was more specific. Certain sources explicitly associate the kukhlyk with drinking milk.
Mugs for Water
Materials from Western Polissia are particularly revealing.
In Rokyta, small mugs for water were made until the twentieth century and were called nabyrashi. They formed part of the local tradition of black-smoked pottery.
This illustrates how a single name could relate not only to the vessel’s size but also to the specific way it was used.
Baking Moulds
The kukhlyk was not always used exclusively as a drinking vessel.
Sources document small mugs that could be used as moulds for baking individual items. In particular, a baked product is described that took on a cylindrical shape after cooking.
This function clearly demonstrates the versatility of domestic ceramics. The same form could serve both as an individual drinking vessel and as a small mould for preparing food.
4. HORNIA
Academic Meaning
This is where the greatest terminological trap arises.
Academic dictionaries define hornia primarily as a small pot.
Borys Hrinchenko’s dictionary likewise defines it as a little pot.
Consequently, the modern understanding of horniatko as a cup cannot automatically be applied to historical ceramics.
Origin of the Word
Hornia belongs to a broader group of words that includes horn, horshchyk, and hornets. This group is connected with an ancient Slavic term for a pot and with concepts relating to the stove and kiln.
Thus, in terms of its origin, hornia is more closely related to a small pot than to a modern teacup.
Hornia as a Drinking Vessel
Archaeological materials from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries show that the distinction was not so straightforward.
In Kyiv, horniata became widespread in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. A considerable number of undecorated small vessels identified as horniatka were found at the pottery production site of Honchari-Kozhumiaky.
Researchers associate them with pot-shaped drinking vessels. Historical parallels are also known in which small pot-shaped vessels could be used specifically for drinking.
Historical hornia could therefore occupy an intermediate position between two functions: a small pot and an individual drinking vessel.
Horniatko
Horniatko is the diminutive form of hornia, carrying an affectionate or familiar nuance.
Historically, this word was not a specialized name for a cup either.
In twentieth-century museum materials, horniatka may still refer to small pot-shaped vessels used for food. Examples include objects with an ear-shaped handle, an internally glazed surface, and a semicircular or tulip-shaped body, which were used for cooking or baking.
The term horniatko must therefore be interpreted cautiously in historical descriptions. Its modern meaning does not, by itself, explain the nature of a particular object.
Volyn Typology
In Volyn, mugs and horniata are distinguished as separate typological subgroups.
Mugs are described as small cylindrical or conical vessels with an ear-shaped handle and profiled rims.
Horniata are related to them in terms of their purpose but may be smaller. In one regional tradition, the term referred to small, elaborately decorated cup-shaped objects.
This source is important precisely because it demonstrates a local system of distinction. However, it should not be turned into a rule applicable throughout Ukraine.
5. CHASHKA
Meaning
The modern Ukrainian word chashka means a small drinking vessel, most often with an ear-shaped handle, particularly one used for tea, coffee, and other beverages.
In this sense, the chashka is much more closely associated with the new tableware culture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries than with older pot-shaped vessels.
Etymology
The word chashka derives from chasha, meaning “bowl” or “cup.”
Chasha belongs to the ancient Slavic layer of vocabulary for drinking vessels. Unlike kukhоl, this name has a different linguistic history.
Chashka and the New Drinking Culture
The most significant change occurred in the nineteenth century.
The spread of tea, coffee, coordinated tableware sets, saucers, and specialized table vessels gradually transformed the range of forms used at the table.
Alongside folk ceramics, factory-produced porcelain and faience also developed.
Factory-Made Tableware
As early as the 1830s, the Mezhyhiria manufactory produced small cups and mugs for milk and cream as components of tea sets.
This shows that the names could coexist within the same tableware context, although the specific meaning depended on the form and function of each object.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the range of products made by Ukrainian potters also began to change noticeably.
In his 1905 account of Opishnia potters, Mykhailo Rusov explicitly mentioned teapots, cups, and saucers alongside traditional vessels.
The Cup as a Pottery Form
The chashka did not simply replace older mugs and horniata.
It became part of Ukrainian ceramics together with a new system of tableware.
Alongside traditional pots, bowls, and jugs, forms designed for tea or coffee tables began to appear.
Form
In its modern sense, the chashka has a small rounded or cup-shaped body, usually with an ear-shaped handle.
However, Ukrainian potters did not simply copy factory-made tableware. The new forms were incorporated into local technological and decorative traditions.
A ceramic cup could therefore be glazed, painted, engobe-coated, incised, or made according to the tradition of a particular pottery center.
Rim
On small drinking vessels, the rim could be straight, slightly flared, profiled, or turned outward.
When examining an individual object, it is important to consider not only the diameter of the opening but also the proportions between the body’s width, height, base, and handle.
Handle
The ear-shaped grip or handle remained an important element of small drinking vessels.
On early mugs, the handle was primarily functional. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it increasingly became part of the object’s overall decorative appearance as well.
Glaze and Decoration
Mugs, small mugs, horniata, and cups could feature a wide variety of decorative treatments.
These included glaze, engobes, incising, impressions, comb-pattern ornament, toothed-wheel decoration, flyandrivka (marbled decoration created by manipulating slips or pigments), and underglaze painting.
Green and brown glaze combinations are particularly characteristic of early mugs.
In black-smoked ceramics, surfaces could be polished. In such cases, the vessel’s appearance results not from glazing but from the firing technique and surface treatment.
6. REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
Poltava Region
Opishnia and other pottery centers in the Poltava region produced mugs, horniata, jugs, makitras, bowls, and other tableware.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the range expanded. Teapots, cups, and saucers became more prominent additions.
Volyn
Volyn had a distinctive typology of mugs and horniata.
Mugs could be cylindrical or conical, with an ear-shaped handle and profiled rims. Horniata formed a related but smaller group.
Decoration depended on the local environment. In some areas, the influence of painted ceramics was stronger; in others, more restrained decoration and surface polishing predominated.
Western Polissia
Here, kukhlyky-nabyrashi for water survived as part of the tradition of black-smoked, polished ceramics.
This is one example in which a local name conveys not only the form but also the vessel’s practical function particularly well.
Podillia
Mugs and horniata formed part of the local pottery assortment. Podillian ceramics are characterized by the extensive use of glaze and painted decoration.
Western Ukraine
The terms hornia, horniatko, and kukhlyk have been particularly persistent here.
In some dialects, kukhlyk could specifically denote a vessel for milk. This again demonstrates that one modern name does not necessarily correspond to one historical type.
7. DIMENSIONS
There was no single historical standard for the kukhоl.
Early large mugs could hold approximately 1.7–1.9 liters.
Later museum objects are considerably smaller. Documented examples include earthenware mugs about 12 cm high, small mugs measuring approximately 12 × 8 cm, and horniatka around 10.5 cm in height.
These figures demonstrate not so much a standard as the wide range of forms.
8. MATERIALS
Historically, a kukhоl could be made of clay, wood, or metal.
Glass, faience, porcelain, and majolica were later added to this range of materials.
Material alone, therefore, does not define a kukhоl.
For a museum object, it is more important to consider the material together with its form, manufacturing technique, period, and function.
9. MAIN FUNCTIONS
Drinking was the most consistent function of the kukhоl.
The kukhlyk also primarily served as a drinking vessel, although in some regions its function was specified by the particular beverage.
Hornia and horniatko have a more complex history. They could be vessels for drinking, eating, preparing small dishes, or baking.
The chashka is most clearly associated with tea and coffee culture and with the new system of tableware.
10. WHAT MATTERS IN ATTRIBUTION
A kukhоl should not be identified solely by the presence of a handle.
A hornia should not automatically be considered a cup.
A kukhlyk does not always mean simply a modern small cup.
A chashka is not a universal term for all small drinking vessels of the nineteenth century.
The body shape, rim, handle, proportions, material, decorative technique, region, period of manufacture, and documented use must all be considered.
11. KUKHОL, KUKHLYK, HORNIA, AND CHASHKA
Kukhоl — historically, a drinking vessel with a handle, whose size and shape could vary considerably.
Kukhlyk — originally a smaller kukhоl, but in some regions an independent term for a small drinking vessel.
Hornia — historically, a small pot; in some archaeological and regional sources, also a drinking vessel.
Horniatko — a diminutive form of hornia that has become the usual modern Ukrainian term for a small vessel for beverages.
Chashka — a small drinking vessel particularly associated with tea and coffee culture and with factory-produced porcelain and faience of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This makes one thing clear: the name of a vessel does not always preserve its oldest meaning. Its form may remain while its function changes. The material, size, decorative treatment, and even the culture in which the object is used may also change. An old kukhоl, horniatko, or chashka should therefore be interpreted not by its name alone, but by the object itself and its place in domestic life.

TEAPOT / NOSATKA
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The teapot in traditional Ukrainian ceramics is a relatively late vessel form associated with brewing and pouring tea.
Unlike many older forms of Ukrainian earthenware, the teapot does not belong to the traditional peasant repertoire of vessels. The most reliable dating of its appearance in folk pottery is the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, when tea began to enter the daily lives of broad sections of the population.
The Ukrainian earthenware teapot has a distinctive structural configuration: a rounded or spherical body, an opening, a spout, a handle, and a lid. It is precisely the combination of these components that distinguishes it from older jug-shaped vessels that may have looked similar but served a different purpose.
2. CHRONOLOGY
There is some uncertainty surrounding the dating of the teapot in Ukrainian ceramics.
In his 1993 dictionary of folk pottery terminology, Oles Poshyvailo already defined the teapot as a rounded vessel with an ear-shaped handle, a spout, and a lid, intended for brewing tea.
Olena Shcherban considers this early dating insufficiently substantiated. In her view, the earliest reliably documented earthenware teapots in museum collections, together with documented evidence of their manufacture, date predominantly to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Earlier references may have concerned objects that merely resembled teapots.
For this reason, the late nineteenth century is particularly important in the history of Ukrainian earthenware.
The Emergence of Tea Culture
Tea entered peasant households considerably later than it became known among wealthier social groups.
According to Olena Shcherban’s research, tea became widespread among Ukrainian peasants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Tea brought with it a new group of vessels: the teapot, cup, saucer, and other specialized items for serving the beverage.
In 1905, when describing the potters of Opishnia, Mykhailo Rusov explicitly noted that demand for more refined tableware encouraged them to produce teapots, cups, and saucers alongside traditional pots and bowls.
The emergence of the teapot was therefore part of a broader transformation in table culture itself.
Influence of Factory-Made Tableware
The earthenware teapot emerged in an environment where factory-produced porcelain and faience tableware already existed.
Olena Shcherban regards the Ukrainian earthenware teapot as a form that followed porcelain and faience teapots of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Potters adopted the functional design but did not necessarily copy factory-made objects literally.
Factory-made teapots could have cylindrical, conical, or more intricately profiled bodies. Ukrainian potters generally retained the rounded and pot-like forms familiar from local vessel traditions.
The Ukrainian teapot thus represented a new function adapted to an established pottery vocabulary.
Precursors of the Teapot
The teapot did not emerge in isolation.
Local ceramics already included forms with some of the structural features that would later characterize the teapot.
These included the nosatka, the jug for varena, and the small rynka with a tubular projection.
They could have a spout, a handle or ear-shaped grips, a glazed surface, and a rounded body.
At times, these features alone may be enough to make one form look like another. However, their functions were different.
Morphological similarity therefore does not necessarily indicate direct equivalence.
3. NOSATKA
Name
The nosatka is an older Ukrainian term for a vessel with a long spout.
Borys Hrinchenko’s dictionary defines it as a type of jug with a long spout. Dictionary sources also record the meanings “teapot” and a vessel used for washing.
The word nosatka therefore had a broader range of meanings and was not simply an old name for a teapot.
The Nosatka as a Vessel
Nosatkas were used in different ways.
According to the sources, they could serve as washing vessels, containers for dispensing oil at markets, and vessels for serving strong alcoholic drinks at festive gatherings.
In the Poltava region and the southern districts of Chernihiv Governorate, nosatkas were also part of festive tableware, alongside kumantsi and small barrels.
This was a relatively uncommon type of pottery vessel. A significant proportion of surviving nosatkas from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are associated with Opishnia.
The Nosatka as a Unit of Capacity
In older Ukrainian vocabulary, nosatka could refer to more than just a vessel.
Borys Hrinchenko records nosatka as a unit of capacity equivalent to three or more buckets.
The two meanings must be distinguished: nosatka as the name of an object and nosatka as a measure of liquid capacity.
Hypotheses linking this unit of measure to the ancient korchaha exist, but these remain historical and etymological hypotheses rather than an established equivalence.
Nosatka and Teapot
The structural similarities between the two are indeed considerable.
Both the nosatka and the teapot may have a rounded body, neck, long spout, handle, or ear-shaped grips.
However, the teapot has a different structural configuration.
Its characteristic features include a lid, a specially designed rim, one principal handle, and a spout adapted for pouring tea.
A nosatka could have several ear-shaped grips. Sources specifically mention examples with three.
The nosatka should therefore not simply be described as an old teapot.
4. THE BASIC FORM OF THE TEAPOT
The earliest reliably dated Ukrainian earthenware teapots have a form resembling that of a pot.
They differed from ordinary pots through their more convex sides, lower height, relatively narrow rim, lid, spout, and specially designed handle.
The result was a distinctive configuration:
a rounded or spherical body, a narrow opening, a spout, a handle, and a lid.
It is this combination of features that makes it possible to distinguish the teapot from many similar forms.
Opening
The teapot’s opening should be neither as narrow as that of a vessel intended for long-term liquid storage nor as wide as that of a cooking pot.
According to Olena Shcherban’s observations, the opening in the earliest earthenware teapots was approximately proportionate to the base.
It needed to be large enough to add dry tea, pour in hot water, and work with the vessel’s interior.
The size of the opening was therefore directly related to the vessel’s function.
Rim
On a teapot, the rim does more than simply finish the body.
It must support the lid, establish the required diameter of the opening, and allow the vessel to close properly.
The rims of the earliest earthenware teapots were generally low.
This detail is particularly important for attribution because it helps distinguish a teapot from a vessel with a simple, open neck.
Handle
The position of the handle is one of the characteristic features of the Ukrainian earthenware teapot.
In the typical configuration, the upper end of the handle is attached to the shoulders of the body, while the lower end is attached to the bulging or lateral part.
The handle is thus positioned on the side opposite the spout.
This distinguishes the teapot from some older forms, including nosatkas, jugs for varena, and certain pot-shaped vessels.
Exceptions existed. A teapot from Odesa is known in which one end of the handle is positioned near the spout and the other on the opposite side of the body. This arrangement more closely resembles that of a metal teapot.
Spout
The spout is one of the teapot’s principal functional components.
It must be hollow and tubular so that liquid can flow through a separate channel when the vessel is tilted.
In most documented forms, the spout is relatively long and curved.
Straight spouts also occur, including on vessels from Bar, Odesa, and Kulchyn.
Position of the Spout
The spout was attached to the bulging part of the body.
Its upper edge was positioned approximately level with the rim or slightly above it.
This arrangement had a practical purpose: when the teapot was full, the liquid should not flow out through the spout while the vessel was being carried or tilted in ordinary use.
The Spout as a Decorative Element
In some pottery centers, the spout ceased to be merely a functional tube.
This is particularly evident in Opishnia during the first third of the twentieth century.
Spouts could be modeled in the shape of animal heads. A teapot from Opishnia dating to the 1930s is known with a spout shaped like a ram’s head.
Here, the same part of the vessel performs two functions: it channels liquid and creates a sculptural image.
Lid
The lid is one of the most important identifying features of the teapot.
It closes the vessel, helps retain heat, and protects the tea from foreign particles.
On museum objects, the lid could have its own small handle or another decorative element.
For a teapot, the lid is not merely an additional ornament. It is integral to the process of brewing the beverage.
5. MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUE
Ukrainian earthenware teapots were made from locally available pottery clay.
Terracotta, engobe-coated, and glazed examples are known.
The main body was formed on the potter’s wheel, after which individual components were finished by hand.
Specific objects document modeling, perforation, incising, engobe application, glazing, and painted decoration.
The new form did not therefore require a new technology. Potters incorporated the teapot into an already established production process.
Surface
Most of the old earthenware teapots studied by Olena Shcherban were glazed both inside and outside.
Transparent, green, yellow, and brown glazes were used.
Many objects, however, remained free of elaborate ornament.
Opishnia was one notable exception.
There, teapots could receive elaborate vegetal, geometric, or zoomorphic decoration.
Ornament
Teapots feature vegetal and geometric motifs, floral compositions, underglaze painting, incised decoration, colored glazes, and sculptural zoomorphic details.
In Opishnia, this form moved particularly quickly from a simple functional object toward a product on which the potter could work as an artist.
6. REGIONS
Earthenware teapots dating from the late nineteenth to the first third of the twentieth century are documented in the Poltava, Kyiv, and Chernihiv regions, Volyn Polissia, the Rivne region, and the Sumy region.
Individual objects are also known from the Odesa, Vinnytsia, Chernivtsi, and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.
However, the teapot did not become a universal form in every pottery center.
Even in major centers, sufficient documentary evidence of small-scale production of this form is sometimes lacking.
7. FUNCTION OF THE TEAPOT
The primary function of the teapot is brewing tea.
Its secondary function is pouring the prepared beverage into cups.
This is a fundamental distinction from the nosatka, the jug for varena, and the ordinary jug.
The teapot was designed not simply for storing or carrying liquid. It formed part of the process of preparing a hot beverage.
Boiling and Brewing
In contemporary Ukrainian tea-drinking practices, two teapots may be used: a larger one for boiling water and a smaller one for the tea infusion.
However, this practice should not be directly projected onto all historical earthenware teapots.
The sources do not provide sufficient grounds to conclude that this arrangement was standard for small-scale teapot production in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Capacity
The old earthenware teapots studied had capacities ranging from approximately 1 to 5 liters.
This is a fairly wide range.
It differs from the capacities of many factory-made tea-service teapots of the same period and may indicate a different pattern of domestic use.
Porosity of the Clay
Olena Shcherban suggests that the porosity of the clay may have been important for a teapot used to brew tea, since the walls allow air to pass through and this might promote infusion.
However, this is the researcher’s functional hypothesis.
A detailed ethnographic account of exactly how all small-scale, handmade earthenware teapots were historically used has not been found in the available sources.
This proposition should therefore not be presented as an experimentally established fact.
8. JUG FOR VARENA
Another object closely related in appearance to the teapot is the jug for varena.
Varena was a traditional alcoholic beverage served at weddings.
Such jugs could have a spout, an ear-shaped handle, a glazed surface, and rich decoration.
In appearance, they can indeed resemble teapots.
However, the jug for varena generally had a taller neck. This feature helps distinguish the two forms.
Their similarity is morphological rather than functional.
9. SMALL RYNKA WITH A TUBULAR PROJECTION
Small rynka vessels with a tubular projection also existed in the Poltava region.
They shared a similar structural concept: a container combined with a tubular channel.
However, this was a kitchen vessel associated with a different task.
These objects can be considered one of the local prototypes through which potters had already gained experience in creating vessels with a similar functional component.
10. DURATION OF USE
According to Olena Shcherban’s reconstruction, handmade earthenware teapots were widely used from approximately the 1890s until the late 1920s.
They continued to be produced sporadically afterward.
Some individual craftspeople still work with this form today, but its period of widespread domestic use was relatively short.
11. GEOGRAPHY AND CHRONOLOGY
By the end of the nineteenth century, Ukrainian ceramics already included nosatkas, jugs for varena, and other jug-shaped forms with spouts.
At the end of the nineteenth century, a specialized handmade teapot emerged.
During the 1900s and 1910s, it was produced in Opishnia, Dybyntsi, and other pottery centers.
A specific teapot from Dybyntsi is documented as early as 1905.
The form continued to exist in the 1920s, but gradually faced competition from industrially produced tableware.
By the late 1920s, the widespread domestic use of earthenware teapots was declining.
In the 1930s, the artistic transformation of the form intensified in Opishnia.
Miniature teapots appeared in the 1940s and 1950s.
During the second half of the twentieth century, the teapot became firmly established in industrial porcelain, faience, and ceramic production.
12. TEAPOT AND NOSATKA
The nosatka is the older form.
It could have a long spout, several ear-shaped grips, and different functions: washing, dispensing oil, serving beverages, and, in some dictionary definitions, serving as a teapot.
The teapot is the later form.
It is associated with the spread of tea and has a different structural configuration: a body, opening, spout, handle, and lid.
These two objects should therefore be considered alongside one another but not conflated.
What Matters in Attribution
A teapot should not be identified solely by the presence of a spout.
A nosatka does not become a teapot simply because it has a similar shape.
A jug for varena can also look very similar.
When identifying a specific object, it is necessary to examine the body, neck shape, rim, handle position, spout construction, presence of a lid, material, decorative technique, provenance, and date of manufacture.
The relationship between several features taken together is particularly important.
In this respect, the teapot clearly illustrates a broader principle of Ukrainian ceramics: a new domestic need does not necessarily give rise to an entirely new form. A potter can take a familiar body, add the necessary components, and adapt it to a different task. In the case of the teapot, this happened when a new tea-drinking culture entered the world of local pottery.

MYSKA / TARILKA / TARIL / POLUMYSOK
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
These four names should not be presented as simple synonyms. In the history of Ukrainian ceramics, they overlap to some extent, but they have different histories, morphologies, and regional usage.
Functionally, they are primarily open tableware vessels for serving and eating food. Bowls and polumysky formed one of the main groups of traditional tableware. Deeper bowls could also be used for cooling, drying, and certain household operations.
Archaeological and historical-ceramological evidence shows that the group of open vessels was considerably broader than the modern concept of a “plate.” Sources from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries mention serving dishes, bowls, polumysky, and plates separately.
These forms should therefore be considered as a related group of open vessels that included different morphological types.
2. MYSKA
General Characteristics
A myska is a wide, open, bowl-shaped vessel intended primarily for serving and eating food.
A typical traditional earthenware bowl has a diameter considerably greater than its height and a wide, open rim.
In a ceramological description, several main parts of a bowl can be distinguished: the rim, upper sloping section, profile break, inner well, sides, and base.
The rim is the upper part of the vessel.
The upper slope is the section extending from the rim to the inner “mirror.”
The profile break is the sharp transition between the upper slope and the sides.
The inner well is the internal surface bounded by the profile break.
The sides are the outer surface extending from the upper slope to the base.
The base is the lower part on which the vessel stands.
Some bowls could also have small ear-shaped handles, as well as specially cut sections along the edge of the base.
Importantly, the bowl in traditional pottery was not a single, fixed form. Its profile could be conical, hemispherical, or characterized by a break in the walls, with variations in the shape of the upper slope and rim.
Bowl Forms
Eighteenth-century archaeological materials from the Poltava region reveal several different structural solutions.
Known examples include bowls with straight or slightly inward-sloping upper sections, a sharp profile break, and a conical body. Others had smoothly contoured bodies and thickened edges along the upper section. Forms approaching a hemisphere are also documented.
There was equally considerable variation in Podillia.
In Smotrych, bowls have been described whose walls and bases together approximate a hemisphere. Their rims are thickened, slightly drawn outward, and generally flat or gently rounded.
In Mynkivtsi, the walls were similar to this model, but the rims had a different profile: they lacked pronounced thickening, were rounded and turned outward, and sloped slightly downward.
Conical bowls are also characteristic of Bar, although forms with a distinct profile break were more widespread. Similar construction occurred in other pottery centers of Podillia.
Thus, the word myska does not denote a single, strictly standardized profile.
Functions of the Bowl
The primary function of a bowl was serving and eating food.
The sources document a wide range of foods: borshch, soups, sour milk, sour cream, porridge, varenyky, and other dishes.
Field ethnographic materials from the Lebedyn area distinguish bowls and polumysky even according to the specific foods served in them: certain dishes were poured into bowls, while jellied meat and kissel were served in polumysky.
In materials from the Khmelnytskyi region, bowls are described as ordinary household vessels that were also produced for sale at markets. “Festive” bowls, used on special occasions, are mentioned separately.
A bowl could therefore serve both everyday utilitarian purposes and festive or representational functions.
The Bowl in the Interior
In many western Ukrainian traditions, painted bowls and polumysky could be used for purposes other than serving food after they had been purchased.
This is particularly evident in the Hutsul region and Bukovyna.
In Kosiv and Pistyn, potters produced everyday bowls as well as ritual examples for weddings and funerals, along with mysnykovi bowls intended to decorate interiors.
They were displayed in a mysnyk—a cupboard or rack for bowls—or on a shelf above the door.
In Bukovyna, bowls and polumysky could likewise be displayed on shelves in a bowl rack or above doorways. Factory-made faience plates were also used in interiors alongside them.
Thus, in some regions, the bowl became a utilitarian-decorative object while retaining its association with tableware.
3. POLUMYSOK
Form
The polumysok is a distinct traditional type of open tableware, morphologically intermediate between a bowl and a plate.
It should not be explained literally as “half a bowl.” The polumysok has its own form-defining characteristics.
It is characterized by a relatively narrow base, rounded and outward-expanding sides, and walls that spread widely toward the top. The rim is often not structurally distinct, or is marked only by slight thickening.
In the Podillian tradition, the lower part of the polumysok’s walls is rounded, while the upper part flares widely outward.
This construction places it between the deeper bowl and the flatter plate.
Size
The polumysok cannot be identified solely by a particular diameter.
Ceramological literature contains cases in which it was equated with a “large shallow bowl,” although individual examples could also be small, measuring around 18 cm in diameter.
For attribution, the vessel’s depth and profile are therefore more important than any single absolute measurement.
History of the Name
The word polumysok is documented as early as the 1570s.
In the eighteenth century, the derivative form polumysochok appeared.
A form written as polmyskovъ, meaning a deep earthenware plate with a capacity equivalent to half that of a bowl, is attested in Middle Ukrainian written sources as early as 1575.
The word-forming element polu- is historically associated with the meaning “half,” but in polumysok the name developed into an independent designation for a particular type of vessel.
Polumysky in the Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries
The polumysok was not a late invention of the nineteenth century.
Sources from the late sixteenth century already explicitly mention bowls and polumysky. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they formed part of tableware, including painted ceramics.
A will dated 1678 lists polumysky and plates separately.
The polumysok therefore has a long history in Ukrainian tableware.
4. TARILKA
Form and History
In modern Ukrainian, a tarilka is a round vessel with a broad, flat bottom and a low rim. It is considerably flatter than a typical bowl.
However, the name tarilka existed before the modern plate-shaped form became widespread.
The word “plates” already occurs in historical sources from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
At the same time, studies of traditional ceramics indicate that the modern form of the earthenware plate, which reproduces the shape of porcelain and faience tableware, probably entered the Ukrainian pottery repertoire no earlier than the final decades of the nineteenth century, under the influence of factory-produced porcelain and faience.
The name is therefore considerably older than the widespread adoption of the modern factory-style plate profile.
Did Ceramic Plates Exist Before the Nineteenth Century?
Yes.
Archaeological materials from Kyiv show that plates were already present in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Fragments of molded plates with relief decoration and colored enamels are known. One assemblage from St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery comes from a pit dating from the late seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century.
It would therefore be incorrect to claim that plates appeared in Ukraine only at the end of the nineteenth century.
It is more accurate to make a different distinction: the form and name of plate-like vessels were known much earlier, but the modern domestic earthenware plate, as a mass-produced form within the traditional pottery repertoire, was associated with the later porcelain-and-faience model.
5. TARIL
Taril is a historically related name to tarilka, but the two are not identical.
In its modern dictionary meaning, it denotes a large plate, a round serving dish, or a decorative plate. In some contexts, taril may be a less common variant of the word tarilka.
This name is particularly characteristic of the Hutsul region.
Museum catalogues from the early twentieth century document flat, glazed, painted tarili from Kosiv, approximately 22–26 cm in diameter, with a central composition and ornamented borders.
In the Hutsul context, a taril could serve not only as tableware but also as a decorative object. Large decorative platter-medallions are also known.
6. HISTORY OF THE WORD “TARILKA”
Studies of Ukrainian dialect vocabulary derive tarilka from taril.
Through Polish, the name is linked to Middle High German talier, which in turn derives from the Italian tagliere, meaning “a board for cutting meat.”
The historical linguistic sequence can be represented as follows:
Italian tagliere → Middle High German talier → Polish forms → Ukrainian taril / tarilka.
The form talirka is also found in documents from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.
Other Names
Middle Ukrainian and dialect traditions included a group of related names: taril, tarilka, tarel, talirka, talir, and tarelyk.
Their relationship to specific vessel forms depended on the region.
For example, the southwestern Ukrainian dialect records taril, talyr, and tarelyk. The term tarelyk denotes a round tableware vessel with a flat bottom and a low rim.
The modern rule “tarilka = only a flat plate” should therefore not be mechanically applied to ethnographic material.
7. MYSKA, POLUMYSOK, TARILKA, TARIL
The following scheme can be used as a working morphological distinction:
Name, typical form, depth, primary function, and historical characteristics.
Myska — a broad, bowl-shaped vessel whose form can range from conical to hemispherical. It is generally of moderate or considerable depth. Its primary purpose is the everyday serving and consumption of food. It is an ancient and very widespread type of open tableware.
Polumysok — an intermediate, flatter form with widely expanding sides. It is generally shallow. It was used primarily for serving dishes. It is documented as an independent type as early as the sixteenth century.
Tarilka — predominantly flat tableware with a broad bottom and a low rim. It could be used for serving individual portions or presenting dishes for communal dining. The name is old, but the modern mass-produced form of the earthenware plate became particularly widespread at the end of the nineteenth century under the influence of factory-made porcelain and faience tableware.
Taril — a large shallow plate or serving dish, sometimes a decorative object. It was used for serving and presenting food as well as for decoration. The name is particularly characteristic of western Ukrainian materials.
This is not a rigid typological scheme applicable throughout Ukraine. Regional differences and overlapping meanings are an important part of the history of these names.
Decoration
Bowls were among the most important surfaces for decorative painting in Ukrainian ceramics.
In Opishnia, underglaze painting with colored engobes was characteristic, particularly flyandrivka—a marbled decorative technique.
Museum materials describe bowls with geometric and vegetal compositions applied against red-ochre or light backgrounds.
Eighteenth-century bowls from the Poltava region are known with engobe painting, glaze, concentric lines, wavy elements, and flyandrivka.
Podillia
Podillian bowls and polumysky often feature underglaze painting, geometric ornament, and centrally organized compositions.
Mynkivtsi is characterized by central compositions and predominantly geometric ornament.
Hutsul Region
In Kosiv and Pistyn, bowls, polumysky, and plates became one of the most characteristic groups of painted ceramics.
Techniques included incising, underglaze painting, engobes, glaze, and vegetal, geometric, and narrative motifs.
Here, decoration often became inseparable from the object’s role as a prestige item and an interior ornament.
8. REGIONAL OVERVIEW
Poltava Region
The Poltava region was one of the most important centers for the production of painted bowls.
For the eighteenth century, archaeological evidence documents forms with different profiles and a variety of decorative techniques.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the bowl remained one of the principal types of pottery.
Middle Dnipro Region and Kyiv Region
In the Kyiv region, archaeological materials attest to bowls and plates as early as the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Dybyntsi was an important center for the production of painted tableware.
Museum materials also confirm the use of bowls dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Podillia
Podillia offers exceptionally varied morphological evidence.
Bowls with a distinct profile break, hemispherical forms, different rim types, and polumysky with widely flared sides are all well documented here.
Hutsul Region and Pokuttia
Bowls, polumysky, and tarili were used alongside one another.
They served not only as tableware but also as important elements of festive settings and decorative interiors.
Bukovyna
Thin-walled glazed bowls and polumysky with vegetal ornament are known from Bukovyna.
Alongside traditional pottery, factory-made faience plates were also used in domestic life and interior decoration.
Volyn
In Volyn, bowls and polumysky formed part of the principal traditional repertoire, alongside pots and jugs.
Some local traditions favored gray, black, and blue-black ceramics with geometric decoration.
Late Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
An important transformation in this group of vessels took place at the end of the nineteenth century.
Factory-made faience, porcelain, and metal tableware increasingly competed with locally produced ceramics.
Ukrainian pottery as a whole underwent a decline, although bowls, polumysky, and other traditional vessels continued to be made for a long time in individual centers.
The influence of factory-made tableware was particularly strong on the plate. The traditional earthenware plate increasingly approached the porcelain-and-faience model.
The bowl, by contrast, proved to be a considerably more resilient traditional form. Contemporary potters continue to make bowls, although their decorative function often outweighs their utilitarian use.
The classical traditional polumysok, by contrast, has almost disappeared from modern production as an independent mass-produced form. Contemporary potters sometimes make bowls or plates whose profiles only approximate those of the older polumysok.
Attribution
For this group, old dictionaries and catalogues must be used with particular caution rather than applied mechanically.
Ceramological studies document cases in which a taril was incorrectly identified as a large shallow bowl, or a bowl as a taril.
Some terms may have been misinterpreted because their modern meanings were projected onto historical forms.
Even more importantly, historical documents could use the same name for objects with different shapes, while different names could be applied to similar forms.
The correct principle of attribution is therefore:
Name + description of form + function + dating + region.
The name alone is not sufficient grounds for identifying a particular form.
The Most Precise Distinctions
Myska — the principal broad, bowl-shaped type of open tableware, generally deeper than a plate. It exhibits considerable variation in profile and was used for serving and eating food and, in some cases, for household operations.
Polumysok — a traditional shallow type of open vessel, morphologically intermediate between a bowl and a plate. Its characteristic features are a small base, rounded lower sides, and walls that flare widely toward the top. The term is documented as early as the sixteenth century.
Tarilka — predominantly flat open tableware with a broad bottom and low rim. The name has an old borrowed origin, while the modern mass-produced form of the earthenware plate became particularly widespread under the influence of factory-made porcelain and faience products at the end of the nineteenth century.
Taril — a historically related name that most often denotes a large plate, round serving dish, or decorative plate. In western Ukrainian traditions, particularly the Hutsul region, it is also an independent name for painted open tableware.
Key Point
Myska, polumysok, tarilka, and taril are neither four completely separate forms nor four simple names for the same object.
They constitute a historically related group of open vessels in which form, function, and terminology gradually changed, overlapped, and acquired regional meanings.
A particular object should therefore be identified not by its name alone, but by the combined evidence of its morphological features, function, period, and place of manufacture.

PASKIVNYK / TAZOK / STAVCHYK / POSTAVETS / BABNYK / RYNKA
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
The paskivnyk is one of the clearest examples of how the form of traditional Ukrainian pottery is directly connected to a specific task. It is a specialized vessel for shaping and baking paska, the traditional Easter bread. Unlike bread baked directly on the hearth floor, the paskivnyk held the dough within a defined volume and gave the finished paska a tall, straight, or slightly outward-flaring shape.
It is important, however, not to treat all related names as simple synonyms. In different regions, the paskivnyk could be called a tazok, tazyk, stavchyk, stavets, postavets, babnyk, baboshnyk, babierka, rynka, or by other names. Some of these terms did refer to a paska-baking mould, but in other localities they could designate entirely different vessels. A name alone is therefore insufficient for attribution.
The original function of the paskivnyk is best defined as the combination of three tasks: shaping the dough, baking it, and producing a particular form of ritual bread.
When the Paskivnyk Became a Distinct Type
The earthenware paskivnyk as a specialized vessel type is best documented from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century. It was during this period that it became widespread in peasant households and acquired an important place in the tradition of baking paska.
This does not mean that tall moulds for Easter bread did not exist before the nineteenth century. The bread itself and various methods of shaping it are older. However, there is insufficient evidence to speak confidently of an established, specialized earthenware paskivnyk type in earlier periods.
Surviving earthenware paskivnyk vessels are known from the Hutsul region as early as the 1880s, as well as from the Poltava region in the early twentieth century.
The Paskivnyk Had No Single Pan-Ukrainian Form
Paskivnyk vessels were used across a large area of Ukraine. Research documents their production in various parts of western, central, and eastern Ukraine, from Galicia and the Hutsul region to the Poltava, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions. The list of specific production centers is extensive and is not considered exhaustive.
This broad geographical distribution explains the considerable variation in form. In one region, the paskivnyk might be tall and narrow; in another, lower and wider. It should therefore not be identified exclusively with one familiar silhouette of a tall cylindrical vessel.
2. BASIC CONSTRUCTION
In its simplest form, the paskivnyk consists of a base, walls that flare upward, a rim, and one or two ear-shaped handles. Handles could also be absent.
The bottom is usually smooth, although western Ukrainian examples sometimes have a low, hollow, column-like projection in the center. The rims could be straight or turned outward, and the edge was occasionally shaped into a wavy profile.
The construction was therefore simple, but variations in height, width, and the inclination of the walls produced numerous local forms.
3. FORMS AND PROPORTIONS
Paskivnyk vessels could be:
Tall and narrow; tall and wide; low and narrow; or low and wide.
The walls could be almost straight or more widely flared. Height alone therefore does not determine the type. Accurate attribution requires simultaneous consideration of the proportions, profile, base construction, rim characteristics, and other features.
4. DIMENSIONS AND CAPACITY
Surviving paskivnyk vessels vary considerably in size. Their capacities range from approximately 1 to 6 liters. Large examples can reach 30 cm in height, medium-sized ones up to 20 cm, and small ones approximately 10–15 cm. The diameter of the upper part may range from about 12 to 35 cm.
These figures should not be treated as standards. They describe the range of documented objects, not mandatory dimensions for the paskivnyk.
5. WHY THE INTERIOR WAS GLAZED
The relationship between form and technology is particularly clear in this case. The interior of the paskivnyk was invariably, or at least predominantly, glazed so that the dough would not stick to the walls and base during baking.
Glaze therefore served more than a decorative purpose. It directly contributed to the proper functioning of the mould.
The exterior, meanwhile, could remain simple, retaining the natural color of the fired clay.
6. MANUFACTURE
The principal manufacturing method was forming the vessel on the potter’s wheel, followed by manual finishing of individual details. Historical examples from the late nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century typically combine wheel-forming, hand-finishing, glazing, and, where appropriate, ornamentation.
Paskivnyk vessels made from stoneware are also known from the second half of the twentieth century.
7. DECORATIVE SYSTEM
The decoration of the paskivnyk was directly related to its function. Ornament was most often placed in the upper part, beneath the rim. The lower part could be damaged during work near the oven, while the upper part remained clearly visible.
Techniques included incising, applied relief modeling, burnishing, engobe painting, glazing the rim and selected areas, and, less frequently, underglaze painting.
Incised decoration could feature straight and wavy horizontal lines, bands, and stripes. On some vessels, the surface was worked with vertical or oblique impressed grooves. In the Middle Dnipro region, such forms could be called babnyky z palchy kamy (“babnyky with little fingers”).
Black-Smoked Paskivnyk Vessels
Paskivnyk vessels were not necessarily made from red clay or painted. Black-smoked examples produced by reduction firing are also known.
They could be further decorated by burnishing, most often in the form of parallel vertical bands. The contrast between the glossy burnished areas and the matte background created a distinctive decorative effect.
Such vessels are known from Pistyn, Hai Smolenski, Kotelva, and other pottery centers.
Ornament
Engobe painting commonly featured straight bands, zigzags, dots, circles, ovals, brackets, and ribbon-like compositions. Underglaze vegetal and figurative decoration also occurred.
Some Poltava and Podillian examples had more elaborate compositions. In the second half of the twentieth century, the decorative element became more pronounced in certain cases, and ornamental bands grew considerably richer.
Why the Form Appears “Architecturally” Simple
The paskivnyk does not belong to the group of vessels whose expressiveness derives from complex sculptural modeling. Its aesthetic character emerges from the proportions of the body, the rhythm of the grooves, the shape of the rim, the handles, and the ornamental bands.
A typical paskivnyk should therefore not be regarded simply as a decorative vase. Its visual character arises from its utilitarian construction and the way it was used.
8. TAZOK AND TAZYK
Tazok / tazyk is one of the widespread regional names for a vessel used to bake paska. In Sloboda Ukraine, paskivnyk vessels, also called tazky, are explicitly mentioned among the pottery products of the second half of the nineteenth century.
However, tazok is not a universal name used exclusively for the paskivnyk. The word has a longer and broader history, so its meaning must be determined from the context when attributing a museum or ethnographic object.
9. STAVCHYK, STAVETS, POSTAVETS
Stavchyk, stavets, postavets, and stavnyk are also documented as regional names for paska-baking moulds. This group of words, however, is particularly polysemous.
In older Ukrainian, postavets could refer to different kinds of vessels and other objects. Various sources also associate it with kutia, paska baking, a bowl rack, a ladle, or even a small table. Stavnyk, in turn, had other meanings in Ukrainian vocabulary, including meanings associated with a candlestick.
These names should therefore be interpreted as designations for the paskivnyk only when the local or functional context confirms that meaning.
10. BABNYK, BABOSHNYK, BABIERKA
This group of names is associated with regional traditions in which Easter bread or other ritual bread was called baba or babka.
The corresponding vessels could resemble cylindrical pots and have relief-modeled or impressed surfaces. Some western Ukrainian pottery centers produced low, conical forms with wavy rims.
In the Middle Dnipro region, babnyky z palchykamy (“babnyky with little fingers”) also existed, characterized by vertical grooves.
The term babnyk therefore does not necessarily refer only to a tall cylindrical paskivnyk. It is a regional name whose relationship to a particular form must be established through the local tradition.
11. RYNKA AND RYNOCHKA
Another revealing example is rynka / rynochka. The rynka was an independent type of kitchen pottery with a different function, but in certain regions the name rynochka dlia pasok (“small rynka for paska”) was used for a vessel intended for baking paska.
This clearly demonstrates why a name cannot automatically be equated with a particular form. The same word could designate both an ordinary kitchen vessel and a specialized object associated with the Easter ritual.
12. PASKIVNYK AND RYNKA: RELATED FORMS
A morphological relationship can be traced between the paskivnyk and the older rynka. Rynka vessels with straight or slightly flared walls, a profiled upper section, a broad base, and turned-out rims are known from as early as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
This does not mean that the paskivnyk was simply a large rynka. It is more accurate to speak of a relationship between their formative traditions.
13. THE PASKIVNYK AND THE SHAPE OF PASKA
The geometry of the paskivnyk is directly related to the result of baking. Its tall walls held the dough as it rose and shaped the finished bread into a tall, straight silhouette or one that widened slightly toward the top.
The paskivnyk was therefore not simply a container into which dough was placed. Its form was designed to give the finished paska a particular appearance.
Was a Lid Required?
A lid is not a typical structural component of the paskivnyk.
Unlike certain postavets vessels, for which a lid could be important, the paska-baking mould remained open, consisting of a base, walls, a rim, and one or two handles.
This can be an important feature in attribution.
14. THE PASKIVNYK FOR BAKING AND THE PASKIVNYK FOR BLESSING
Another terminological trap arises here. In some sources, paskivnyk specifically means a mould for baking paska. In other cases, the term refers to a vessel or container used to carry Easter foods to church for blessing.
Wooden and earthenware vessels could be used for the latter purpose. Deep cylindrical forms with a circular handle at the top are also documented.
During attribution, these two meanings must be distinguished:
Paskivnyk — a mould for baking paska.
Paskivnyk — a vessel for carrying Easter foods to church for blessing.
The word alone does not always identify the function precisely.
A Special Case: The Hutsul Region
Hutsul materials illustrate this distinction particularly well. Wooden vessels used to carry Easter foods to church were known there as paskivnyky or dorінnyky—cylindrical containers that could be used for many years.
The word paskivnyk therefore does not, by itself, guarantee that the object is an earthenware baking mould. Material and function must be established separately.
15. GLAZED AND UNGLAZED SURFACES
For an earthenware baking mould, the interior glaze was functionally important. The exterior could be left unglazed, glazed in part, or glazed entirely or over most of its surface.
In some pottery centers, only the rim was glazed with a narrow band. This technique, known as kraiuvannia or edge banding, both decorated the vessel and strengthened its rim.
Did the Paskivnyk Have to Be Painted?
No. Historical examples include many simple, functional paskivnyk vessels retaining the natural color of the clay. Even when decoration was present, it was often restrained and concentrated near the upper edge.
Modern perceptions of the paskivnyk are shaped to a considerable extent by museum examples, among which decorated objects are well represented. However, the functional, almost unadorned form was no less important to the tradition.
The Role of the Handle
One or two ear-shaped handles were most often positioned in the upper part of the vessel. They were practical features that made the mould easier to handle, particularly when working with a hot oven.
However, the absence of handles does not exclude an attribution as a paskivnyk. Forms without handles are also documented.
16. THE TRADITION AND ITS DECLINE
The period of most widespread use of the earthenware paskivnyk extended from the late nineteenth century to the first third of the twentieth century. Later, metal and industrially manufactured moulds began to replace it.
The tradition did not disappear all at once, however. In some localities, earthenware paskivnyk vessels were still used in the early twenty-first century.
17. THE MOST IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGICAL DISTINCTIONS
Paskivnyk — a specialized mould for shaping and baking Easter paska; best documented as an earthenware type from the late nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century.
Tazok / tazyk — a widespread regional name for the paskivnyk, but a term with a broader meaning that cannot automatically be equated with this form.
Stavchyk / stavets / postavets / stavnyk — regional names documented for paskivnyk vessels, but polysemous; in different contexts, they may refer to other vessels or objects.
Babnyk / baboshnyk / babierka — names associated with regional traditions of calling the corresponding ritual bread baba or babka.
Rynka / rynochka — a name that, in a specific Easter context, could designate a paska-baking mould, but which is also an independent name for another type of kitchen pottery.
18. ENCYCLOPEDIC DEFINITION
The paskivnyk is a specialized vessel-mould for shaping and baking Easter paska, one of the types of ritual Ukrainian ceramics. Its basic construction consists of a base, walls that flare upward, a rim, and one or two ear-shaped handles; the handles could be absent, while some western Ukrainian examples have a low, hollow, column-like projection on the base. Paskivnyk vessels vary in proportion, from tall and narrow to low and wide, and have capacities ranging from approximately 1 to 6 liters. The interior was usually glazed to prevent the dough from sticking during baking. The exterior appearance ranged from simple, naturally colored fired clay to incising, applied relief modeling, burnishing, engobe painting, and underglaze decoration. From the late nineteenth century to the first third of the twentieth century, paskivnyk vessels were widespread in many pottery centers across Ukraine. In different regions, they could be called tazky, tazyky, stavchyky, stavtsi, postavtsi, babnyky, baboshnyky, babierky, rynky, and other names, although some of these terms also had broader or different meanings.

FESTIVE AND RITUAL EARTHENWARE
1. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS
Festive and ritual earthenware forms a distinctive part of traditional Ukrainian ceramics. Its difference from ordinary household pottery was determined not only by its form but, above all, by the time, manner, and circumstances of its use.
An ordinary pot, bowl, jug, makitra, or taril could serve as festive tableware if it was used on holidays, for a ceremonial meal, or when receiving guests. A vessel became ritual ware when incorporated into a specific rite—wedding, childbirth, baptism, funeral, calendar, Easter, Christmas, church-related, or another traditional practice.
Festive and ritual vessels therefore do not constitute a single group strictly defined by form. In some cases, specialized forms were created for a particular action; in others, ordinary household vessels acquired special status solely through the way they were used. In the sources, this group is often referred to as ritual or praznykovyi (“festive”) ware.
In this article, ritual use is treated as the broader concept. It encompasses the incorporation of vessels into symbolically significant actions and practices. Ritual-ceremonial use represents a more specific historical and ethnographic manifestation of this broader category, referring to vessels associated with a particular traditional rite, holiday, or established custom.
Festive Occasions, Rituals, and Ritual Use
In traditional culture, these concepts should not be conflated.
Festive tableware consists of vessels intended for ceremonial meals, holidays, or receiving guests. Such vessels might be used only occasionally and stored separately from everyday tableware.
Ritual ware consists of vessels directly associated with a specific rite or its preparation: weddings, baptisms, funerals, Easter, Christmas, blessing ceremonies, and other traditional practices.
Ritual use of vessels is a broader concept that describes situations in which a vessel was incorporated into a symbolically significant action, even when no separate, specially designed form existed for that purpose.
Thus, the same object could successively serve as an everyday vessel, festive tableware, ritual ware, and everyday tableware again without undergoing any change in form.
The Main Principle: Ritual Significance Is Not Always Embedded in the Form
The most important characteristic of this group is that a vessel’s ritual status cannot always be determined from its external appearance alone.
An ordinary bowl could be used for everyday meals or become a myska na prynos—a bowl used for carrying food to church. An ordinary jug could hold water or, in another context, be used for holy water. A pot could serve as kitchenware, be designated for Christmas kutia, or take part in a baptismal rite.
To establish the purpose of a vessel, it is therefore important to consider its form, name, function, the specific action in which it was used, the time and place, and the local tradition.
This principle is particularly important for museum attribution: a name alone does not always establish an object’s ritual purpose. Ancient ceramics of this form and pr…
Festive Tableware in the Traditional Home
Festive tableware differed from everyday vessels not necessarily in form but in how it was used.
It could be stored separately, protected from everyday use, displayed in a mysnyk or on shelves, and brought out only on designated days. Painted bowls, tarili, jugs, and other decorated vessels acquired particular importance.
Festive tableware could therefore perform several functions simultaneously:
- Utilitarian: serving and eating food.
- Representational: participation in a ceremonial meal.
- Decorative: furnishing and decorating the interior.
  Sometimes all three functions coexisted.
Christmas Tableware
The Christmas cycle is one of the best-documented examples of the festive use of earthenware.
Kutia and uzvar held a special place. Pots, bowls, jugs, and other vessels were used to prepare, serve, or store these foods and drinks. In some traditions, people tried to use new vessels for Christmas dishes.
Kutia and uzvar could be served or stored in separate vessels, carried to relatives, or used during a communal meal. Combined vessels made as a single object are also known, including blyzniata (twin vessels), triiniata (triple vessels), and similar forms that could have a special festive purpose. Ancient ceramics of this form and pr…
In this context, the significance of the vessel was determined less by its shape than by the food, the occasion, and the manner of use.
Easter Tableware
Easter traditions demonstrate a much broader range of specialized and festive earthenware.
This group included makitras for preparing dough, paskivnyky and tazky for baking Easter bread, porosiatnyky for roasting piglets, rynky, mysky na prynos, special vessels for blessing food, and other forms.
Here, the distinction between merely festive tableware and specifically ritual ware becomes particularly clear.
A makitra could be an ordinary household vessel, but preparing Easter paska in it placed its use within a festive and ritual context.
A paskivnyk, by contrast, was a specially adapted mould, so its function was directly connected with the Easter ritual.
Paskivnyk and Tazok
A paskivnyk is a specialized mould for shaping and baking Easter paska.
Its basic construction consists of a base, walls that flare upward, a rim, and one or two ear-shaped handles, although handles could be absent. The forms vary in proportion, from tall and narrow to low and wide. The interior of baking moulds was usually glazed to prevent the dough from sticking.
In some regional traditions, tazok or tazyk was another name for the paskivnyk. However, the word itself had a broader meaning and cannot automatically be equated with the Easter mould.
The paskivnyk is one of the clearest examples of specialized ritual ware: an object whose function is directly connected with a particular festive practice.
Offering Bowls
A distinct group consisted of mysky na prynos, bowls used for carrying food to church.
They were used to transport festive or commemorative dishes to church. Their form could remain similar to that of an ordinary bowl, while the manner of use gave the object its ritual status.
This is one of the most important examples demonstrating that ritual ware does not necessarily constitute a separate morphological type.
Vessels for Blessing
Another group consisted of vessels used to bring food to church for blessing.
These could include bowls, jugs, tarili, specialized Easter moulds, and other vessels.
What mattered here was the transition of the vessel from the domestic space into the church. An object that served as an ordinary container in everyday life entered the sacred sphere through a specific action.
This change in functional status is a characteristic example of the ritual use of vessels. Ancient ceramics of this form and pr…
Jugs for Holy Water
A jug for holy water provides another illustrative example.
Its shape could remain that of an ordinary jug, while its specialized use was associated with church practice. Museum collections include decorated and glazed vessels intended for this purpose.
In this case, the ritual character is determined not by the silhouette itself but by the function, setting, and manner of use.
Wedding Tableware
Wedding rituals created a distinctive set of practices involving ceramics.
Vessels could be used for serving food and drinks, preparing particular dishes, performing specific ritual actions, giving or exchanging gifts, use at a particular stage of the wedding, and ritual breaking.
Well-documented specialized forms include perepiitsi, troichatky (three-part vessels), and jugs for varena.
It is important, however, not to assume that all wedding tableware was manufactured specifically as a ritual object. A considerable portion remained ordinary household pottery.
Ritual Breaking of Vessels
The deliberate breaking of a vessel constitutes a special case.
In some childbirth, baptismal, wedding, and other traditions, destroying a vessel could be part of the ritual action itself.
In this case, the object functions not merely as a container but as a participant in a ritual sequence.
This is particularly revealing for ceramics: an object made for practical use consciously passes into another state at a particular moment—it becomes shards. Its ritual function may therefore consist precisely in the prescribed termination of its domestic existence.
Childbirth, Baptism, and “Babka’s Porridge”
Vessels played a distinct role in childbirth and baptismal traditions.
A well-known example is the pot used for babyna kasha (“babka’s porridge”), which was served during baptismal celebrations. After a particular ritual action, the pot could be broken.
Here, an ordinary pot acquired ritual significance through the combination of:
A special dish + a specific holiday or event + a ritual action + a prescribed way of concluding the vessel’s use.
The ritual character therefore did not originate in the shape of the pot itself.
Funerary and Commemorative Tableware
Another distinct sphere involved vessels associated with funerals and commemorative meals.
Examples include bowls for kolyvo (ritual grain porridge), vessels used at memorial services, mysky na prynos, and other local forms intended for preparing, serving, or transporting food for the deceased.
Some of these vessels could feature a cross or other religious ornament, but their defining characteristic remains their function and context of use rather than their decoration.
Divination
Earthenware was also used in various divination practices.
Ordinary pots, bowls, tarili, jugs, small cups, and other vessels could be used in these contexts. Their shapes did not, by themselves, make them “magical” objects.
A vessel acquired ritual significance through a specific action involving water, grain, twigs, or other objects, their placement, and the sequence of the rite. Museum materials document such practices, including divination associated with the feast of Saint Catherine.
The term “magical vessels” should therefore not be used as a universal typological category.
Vessels in Calendar Rituals
The ritual use of ceramics was not limited to Christmas and Easter.
Earthenware could be incorporated into practices associated with water, rain, harvests, fertility, purification, remembrance of ancestors, and transitions between stages of human life.
In each case, the meaning of the object must be established from a local description rather than by extending one practice to the whole of Ukraine.
Festive, Ritual, and Decorative Tableware
The boundary between festive and decorative tableware is not always clear-cut.
A painted bowl or taril could be kept in a mysnyk as part of the interior and later used at the table on a holiday.
The same object could therefore simultaneously be:
- Decorative when displayed in the interior.
- Festive when used during a ceremonial meal.
- Ritual when incorporated into a specific rite.
  This flexibility of functional status is a characteristic feature of traditional domestic life.
Decoration
Festive and ritual vessels often feature more pronounced decorative treatment.
Techniques included engobe painting, underglaze painting, incising, burnishing, applied relief modeling, glazing, and combinations of several techniques.
Individual objects feature vegetal, geometric, narrative, and religious motifs.
However, elaborate decoration is not an obligatory feature of ritual ware. Simple functional forms are also known whose appearance differed little from that of everyday vessels. This is particularly important for accurate attribution.
The Cross and Religious Decoration
A cross and other religious motifs may be important indicators of a vessel’s association with church practice.
Even here, however, one should not adopt an automatic formula:
Cross = ritual vessel.
Ornament must be considered together with function, place of manufacture, dating, and the context of use.
New Vessels and Festive Practices
In some festive traditions, the fact that a vessel was new was itself important.
This is particularly well documented in the Christmas cycle. A new vessel could be considered appropriate for the holiday, clean, and unused.
At the same time, there was no universal rule requiring all festive tableware to be new.
Specialized forms such as paskivnyky, by contrast, could be used for many years and passed down within a family.
Festive traditions could therefore involve both one-time or short-term use and the long-term preservation of a special object.
2. REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
Podillia
Easter and church-related ritual forms are well documented here, including mysky na prynos, Passover plates, porosiatnyky, and other specialized vessels.
Poltava Region and Middle Dnipro Region
These areas demonstrate a wide range of festive and ritual vessels, including paskivnyky, specialized wedding forms, and vessels used in divination. Ancient ceramics of the form and pr…
Hutsul Region and Pokuttia
The combination of tableware, festive, decorative, and ritual functions is particularly evident here. Bowls, polumysky, tarili, and jugs could be part of both the festive table and the interior.
Bukovyna
Traditional earthenware coexisted with factory-made faience. Easter practices included specialized vessels, among them rynka vessels and forms intended for festive purposes.
Polissia
This region provides interesting evidence of family, calendar, and commemorative rituals in which ordinary earthenware vessels were incorporated into specific ritual practices.
Sloboda Ukraine
Particularly distinctive examples include Christmas blyzniata (twin vessels), wedding troichatky (three-part vessels), and specialized paska moulds.
Chronology
The best-documented ethnographic evidence for festive and ritual earthenware dates from the late nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century.
However, the use of ceramics in ritual practices has a much longer history. Archaeological evidence indicates that ceramic vessels were used in rituals in much earlier periods, but archaeological finds cannot automatically be equated with the ethnographic traditions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In earlier cultures, an object’s function often has to be reconstructed from its archaeological context. Ancient ceramics.
Transformation During the Twentieth Century
The spread of factory-made faience, porcelain, and metal tableware transformed the traditional context in which ceramics were used.
Some festive tableware was replaced by factory-made products. Specialized ritual forms, however, could survive longer because their significance was connected not only with their shape but also with the traditional action in which they were used.
This is why certain types of ritual ceramics continued to be used even after industrial products had largely displaced ordinary earthenware for everyday use.
What Should Not Be Done During Attribution
One should not automatically assume that:
- Festive tableware was always specially manufactured for a holiday.
- Ritual ware always had a distinctive form.
- Ritual vessels were always richly ornamented.
- The same name meant the same form everywhere.
- The same form served the same function everywhere.
  It is particularly risky to project the modern meaning of a name onto a historical object.
The Correct Principle of Attribution
For festive and ritual tableware, the most reliable principle is:
Name + form + structural features + function + specific ritual context + dating + region + decoration.
Only by combining these characteristics can one establish whether an object is ordinary household tableware, a festive vessel, a specialized ritual form, or an ordinary vessel used ritually only on a particular occasion.
Main Groups of Festive and Ritual Use
For this page, it is more useful to organize the material by situations of use than to present an arbitrary list of “ritual forms.”
Christmas: kutia, uzvar, festive meals, and the transport of food.
Easter: dough preparation, baking paska, Easter meals, and blessing ceremonies.
Weddings: drinks, varena, specialized vessels, gift-giving, and ritual breaking.
Childbirth and baptism: ritual food, “babka’s porridge,” and specific actions involving vessels.
Funerary and commemorative practices: kolyvo, memorial services, and offerings.
Church practices: holy water, blessing Easter foods, and bringing dishes to church.
Divination: the use of vessels in specific local practices.
Other calendar and family rites: water, rain, harvests, remembrance of ancestors, and other locally documented practices.
The Most Important Distinction
Festive tableware is defined primarily by the festive manner in which it is used.
Ritual ware is defined by its connection with a specific rite or traditional ritual practice.
The ritual use of vessels is a broader analytical category encompassing different instances in which a vessel is incorporated into a symbolically significant action.
Therefore, not every festive object is ritual ware, not every ritual object has a separate specialized form, and ritual use does not necessarily create a new type of vessel.
Encyclopedic Definition
Festive and ritual earthenware is a part of traditional Ukrainian ceramics associated with festive, family, calendar, religious, and other rites. Its status was determined not only by its form but primarily by the manner, timing, and context of its use. This group included both specialized forms, such as paskivnyky and certain wedding and Easter vessels, and ordinary pots, bowls, jugs, makitras, tarili, and other vessels that acquired festive or ritual significance through a particular practice. In a broader analytical sense, this use can be understood as ritual, although distinguishing between the festive and ritual status of an object is more precise when describing Ukrainian tradition. Reliable attribution requires consideration of form, name, function, ritual context, dating, region, and decorative treatment.
Key Point
In Ukrainian tradition, ritual significance often belonged not to the vessel itself but to the way it was used.
An ordinary pot, bowl, or jug could therefore become part of a holiday or rite at a particular moment without changing its form. A specialized form, such as the paskivnyk, could instead be created specifically for a ritual action.
This makes it possible to understand festive and ritual earthenware not as a closed group of forms but as part of the life cycle of Ukrainian ceramics, in which the same object could change its functional and cultural meaning.
Supplement: “Babka’s Porridge”
This is not simply the name of a dish but part of Ukrainian childbirth and baptismal traditions. The midwife prepared it and brought it to the baptismal celebration. Scholarly sources explicitly identify the preparation of babyna kasha and the breaking of the pot containing it as key ritual actions.
The ritual proceeded as follows. The midwife prepared porridge, most often based on millet or buckwheat, with milk, butter, and eggs; in some local traditions, honey water was used. The porridge was brought to the baptismal celebration in an earthenware pot.
The central action that followed was the “buyout” of the porridge. Guests competed to pay the highest amount for the right to break the pot. Most often, the godfather obtained this right. The pot was then ceremonially smashed—against the corner of a table, with a rolling pin or stick, or, in some localities, by striking two pots against each other.
An important point for our ceramics page is that breaking the pot was not an accidental domestic act but part of the rite itself. The vessel served its function until a certain moment, after which it was deliberately destroyed.
After the pot was broken, the porridge was distributed among the participants, and the fragments could also have a particular significance. According to ethnographic records, young women might take the shards; elsewhere, they were thrown into a vegetable garden with wishes for a good harvest, particularly for pumpkins to grow well. The condition of the porridge after the pot was broken could also be used to divine the child’s future.
The symbolic dimension is particularly interesting: the porridge, the pot, and its shards together formed a single ritual complex. The porridge was associated with the child’s health, prosperity, and continuation of the family line. Therefore, after the pot was broken, the porridge was not simply eaten; it became part of the wishes and ritual actions. In some records, participants accompanied its distribution with wishes for fertility and numerous offspring.
“Babka’s porridge” is a particularly clear example of our central principle: an ordinary earthenware pot becomes ritual ware not because of its special form but because of the way it is used.
The pot itself is an ordinary household vessel. But when the midwife brings a special porridge in it to a baptismal celebration, the participants compete for the right to break it, and its deliberate destruction becomes part of the ritual sequence, the ordinary pot becomes a ritual object. This strongly supports our concept of “festive and ritual earthenware.”
One further point is important: the rite was not absolutely identical throughout Ukraine. Ethnographic records document regional differences in the porridge recipe, the manner of breaking the pot, the treatment of the shards, and the actions that followed.