Artistic reconstruction of a Trypillian mega-settlement
A generalized reconstruction of the spatial organization of large settlements of the Cucuteni–Trypillia culture, based on archaeological and geophysical data. Scale: approximately 200–250 ha. Photo: TORBADJA — CC BY-NC 4.0

Eneolithic

The Eneolithic, or Copper Age, in Ukraine spans the 4th–3rd millennia BCE. This was a time when stone tools remained commonplace, but copper objects began to appear alongside them. These changes did not occur uniformly across the entire territory. Some cultures emerged and developed alongside older Neolithic traditions, while others arose under the influence of neighbouring populations.
The best-known cultural community of this period was Cucuteni–Trypillia. In the territory of Ukraine, Trypillian settlements occupied a substantial part of the Right-Bank Forest-Steppe. The name “Trypillia” comes from the settlement near the village of Trypillia in the Kyiv region, investigated by Viktor Khvoika. The western variant of this cultural community became known as Cucuteni, after a settlement in Romania.
The Trypillians did not know the potter’s wheel, but this did not prevent them from creating a highly diverse range of ceramic vessels. They shaped them by hand and fired them in pottery kilns. Kitchenware and tableware differed not only in their intended use but also in the composition of the clay body, their shapes, and the methods used to finish their surfaces.
Painted pottery holds a particularly important place. During the Middle Trypillia period, polychrome decoration using white, red, and black pigments became widespread. Spirals, circles, ovals, and other geometric compositions appeared on vessels. Alongside pottery, archaeologists find female and male figurines, animal figures, models of dwellings and household objects, and even models of means of transport. Ceramics therefore provide information not only about technology but also about the beliefs and everyday lives of people of that era.
The Eneolithic in the territory of Ukraine was not the age of a single culture. Alongside Trypillia, the Sredny Stog, Skelia, Dereivka, Kvityana, Lower Mykhailivka, and other steppe cultures existed. In the west of present-day Ukraine, traditions associated with the Lengyel, Polgár, and Baden cultures spread. Their pottery could differ considerably from Trypillian ceramics, ranging from finely burnished, elegant vessels to coarser forms tempered with shell, sand, grog, or plant material.
This diversity is clearly visible in the pottery. Among the steppe cultures, pottery-making remained largely a community-based activity. Vessels were hand-built without a wheel, and their surfaces were decorated with comb impressions, cord impressions, punctures, and pinched patterns. The Sredny Stog culture established a tradition of decorating vessels with impressions made by twisted woollen cord, which later became more widespread.
Towards the end of the 3rd millennium BCE, the cultural map of Ukraine began to change once again. The Yamnaya culture gained prominence in the south and the Middle Dnieper region, while the Globular Amphora culture spread across western Ukraine. The Trypillian tradition gradually disappeared, but it left behind a vast archaeological record, above all its ceramics, through which we can trace changes over time, across different territories, and in cultural contacts.

Tableware of the Late Stage of the Trypillia Culture

Ceramics decorated with patterns characteristic of the Donets variant of the Catacomb culture, found in burial mounds in the Siverskyi Donets River basin.

Looking at this pottery today, I sometimes find myself thinking about something else. Many forms familiar from rural pottery of the 19th and 20th centuries have very ancient predecessors. This does not necessarily mean a direct continuity of form. It simply means that people have continued to make certain objects in similar ways over very long periods because the needs they were designed to meet have often changed very little.
This phenomenon can rightly be called the quintessence of practicality, refined and established over thousands of years of ceramic vessel production. It is like the wheel: once it had been invented, all that remained was to improve the manufacturing process through advances in technology, without changing its geometry.

Forms and Decoration of Ceramics among the Population of Northern Ukraine in the Mid-2nd Millennium BCE

Bronze Age Ceramics

The Bronze Age in Ukraine dates to approximately the 18th–9th centuries BCE. By the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, the cultural landscape of the territory of Ukraine had already changed considerably. Corded Ware cultures spread across the western and northern regions, the Catacomb culture occupied the steppe zone, and the Budzhak culture developed in the northwestern Black Sea region. In the northeast, the Maryanivka culture emerged on a Neolithic foundation. The Trzciniec–Komarów cultural complex covered much of the Carpathian foothills, western Podillia, Volhynia, the Buh River region, and the Right-Bank Middle Dnieper area.
Clay vessels were still made predominantly by hand during this period. Changes primarily concerned the composition of the clay body, surface treatment, and methods of decoration. Sand was the most common tempering material. Coarse sand, crushed fired stone, and granite were characteristic of the Middle Bronze Age; during the Late Bronze Age, grog, mica, graphite, talc, limestone, and other materials were also added to the clay. Engobing, the application of a thin layer of liquid, slightly tinted clay to the surface, is also found on the Right Bank.
Distinctive decorative techniques can be identified in different periods. Cord impressions were widespread on Early Bronze Age pottery, incised decoration was characteristic of the Middle Bronze Age, and applied ridges became common during the Late Bronze Age. The use of cord as a decorative technique connected several cultural groups, although their vessel shapes and other decorative methods differed.
Trzciniec–Komarów pottery demonstrates just how diverse vessels had already become by this time. The Trzciniec culture produced pots with tall, outward-flaring rims, tulip-shaped vessels, bowls, and dishes. They were decorated with broad impressed lines, oval and triangular indentations, and cord impressions. Other decorative techniques included horizontal scratched lines, applied ridges, fluting, festoons, and garlands of triangles. Tableware included mugs, two-handled cups, bowls, small jars, goblets, and even spoons.
In southern Ukraine, within the Sabatynivka culture, handmade pottery was dominated by jar-shaped pots with decorative bands below the rims. Thin-walled, burnished goblets, ladles, and two-handled cups are also known. Many researchers associate the complex decorative compositions found on pottery from the Left Bank with ideas about fertility and prosperity. The most elaborate decoration was applied to vessels intended for drinking and storing beverages.
Towards the end of the Bronze Age, black-burnished pottery appeared. Here, the technology itself is particularly important. The dark sheen was not achieved simply by smoothing the surface. At a certain point during firing, the draught was closed off and the supply of oxygen restricted. Smoke formed a thin layer on the vessel's surface, after which it was coated with fat and fired again. This technique was not exclusive to certain communities in Right-Bank Ukraine, which is why black-burnished vessels are also found beyond the areas where they were produced.
Regarding firing itself, the source presents the widely held view that pottery in the territory of Ukraine during the Bronze Age was fired in open fires. Uneven firing can be identified by dark, underfired bands on the interior and differently coloured patches on the exterior surface.

Iron Age Ceramics

During the 1st millennium BCE, various cultural groups coexisted in the territory of Ukraine. The tribes of the Milograd culture spread across Polesia, Volhynia, and the Middle Dnieper region. The steppe and forest-steppe zones became areas of movement for the Cimmerians and Scythians; in the first centuries CE, the Sarmatians and Goths joined these movements.

Ceramic production did not immediately shift to the potter’s wheel. Even after the wheel had been adopted, some vessels, especially cooking pots, continued to be hand-built for a long time. This is clearly demonstrated by the materials of the Zarubintsy culture, whose pottery was handmade and characterized by its black colour.

The Zarubintsy culture emerged in a territory encompassing the Middle Dnieper region and later spread to the Pripyat Polesia and other areas. An early Slavic assemblage, referred to in the source as “pottery of the cemetery fields,” included two distinct groups. The first consisted of cooking pots and jar-shaped vessels similar in form to Scythian pottery. The second comprised more carefully made tableware: bowls, mugs, and jugs with smoothed surfaces and decorations consisting of lines, wavy patterns, and grids. The source considers this pottery a direct precursor of Ukrainian folk ceramics.

Alongside these traditions, the Chernyakhiv culture developed. Its pottery demonstrates a different level of production: unlike Zarubintsy pottery, its vessels were made on the potter’s wheel, and grey was the typical colour. The source identifies the 3rd–4th centuries CE as the period when pottery production flourished in the Ukrainian lands.

Elaborately decorated tableware was also widespread in the Chernyakhiv culture, including jugs, large three-handled bowl-shaped vessels, and goblets. Another distinctive feature was the presence of vessels bearing “calendar” symbols. The best-known example is a single-handled jug with a biconical profile, a narrow neck with a complex moulded profile, a ring-shaped foot, and a two-tiered stamped decoration, discovered near Romashky in the Kyiv region.

Another important change took place in the 2nd century CE. A hand-operated potter’s wheel appeared in Podillia and the Upper Dniester region. It gradually reduced the role of hand-building, while wheel-made pottery developed thinner walls and a considerably greater variety of shapes.

What matters to me here is precisely this transition: the potter’s wheel did not replace the older technology all at once. Hand-built and wheel-made pottery existed side by side for some time. This is clearly evident in the archaeological materials of different cultures, particularly in cooking pottery.

Cimmerian–Scythian–Sarmatian Ceramics

The Cimmerian, Scythian, and Sarmatian periods span several centuries during which the steppe regions of Ukraine were an area of continuous cultural contact and population movement.
Cimmerian pottery retained features of earlier local traditions. Characteristic forms included conical bowls and large vessels decorated with geometric patterns such as triangles, rhombuses, zigzags, and hatching.
Scythian pottery was also made without the potter’s wheel. It was predominantly flat-bottomed and came in a variety of shapes. Alongside locally made hand-built pottery, wheel-made ceramics from the Greek cities of the northern Black Sea region became widespread in the steppe. This was more than simply an exchange of objects: the introduction of vessels from different traditions also brought changes to everyday life.
The Sarmatians, who arrived in the northern Black Sea region later, did not establish a single, uniform ceramic tradition either. Their pottery combined their own forms with ceramics of Scythian, Zarubintsy, Getic, and other local origins. Alongside hand-built vessels, they also used wheel-made pottery brought from ancient Greek centres. This mixture of traditions clearly demonstrates how dynamic and constantly changing the cultural landscape of the Ukrainian steppes was.

Ceramics of the Northern Black Sea Region

During antiquity, the Northern Black Sea region became a meeting point between the Greek world and the local cultures of the steppe. Beginning in the 7th century BCE, Greek settlements appeared here, followed by entire cities connected through maritime trade. The best known were Olbia on the coast of what is now Mykolaiv region, Tyras near present-day Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, and a series of cities in Crimea: Panticapaeum, Theodosia, Nymphaeum, Myrmekion, Kerkinitis, and Chersonesus. Panticapaeum, located on the site of present-day Kerch, later became the capital of the Bosporan Kingdom. Tauric Chersonesus was founded in the 5th century BCE in southwestern Crimea.
For international readers, some of these names may be familiar from more than just the history of Ukraine. Olbia was founded by Greek settlers from Miletus and other Ionian cities. Miletus itself is mentioned in Homer's Iliad.
The island of Zmiinyi, or Snake Island, has an even more fascinating connection to Greek mythology. In antiquity, it was known as Leuke, and it was home to a sanctuary dedicated to Achilles, the same Achilles who appears in Homer's Iliad and is one of the principal heroes of the Trojan War. The cult of Achilles on the island is attested by archaeological and epigraphic evidence.
Thus, within a single maritime region, we find names that are now well known from different parts of European history: Homer and Achilles, Miletus and Greek colonization, Olbia, Panticapaeum, and Chersonesus. Along with people, goods, and cultural practices, ceramic objects also moved between these cities.
The ceramics of the Northern Black Sea region are particularly interesting because different traditions met here. Pottery was produced locally in Greek cities, but a significant proportion was also imported from other centres. In Olbia, for example, remains of pottery workshops and kilns have been preserved. Imported ceramics included amphorae used to transport wine and other goods, as well as tableware.
Painted Greek pottery also circulated widely, including vessels decorated in the characteristic black-figure and red-figure styles. Alongside these existed handmade pottery belonging to local traditions. However, the presence of handmade vessels does not necessarily mean they were produced by a non-Greek population: in early Greek settlements, local production of cooking pottery gradually developed alongside imported wares.
The ceramics of the Northern Black Sea region are therefore more than a collection of Greek and local forms. They are a material record of continuous contact between these communities. Vessels passed from one cultural environment to another; their shapes changed, were imitated, and adapted to local ways of life. It is precisely this blending of traditions that defines the distinctive character of the region's ceramics.

Ceramics of the Slavic Period

When discussing Slavic ceramics in the territory of Ukraine, we are no longer dealing with a single style or one type of vessel. Across different regions and periods, vessel shapes, manufacturing techniques, decorative methods, and intended uses all changed.

One important stage in this development was the Chernyakhiv culture, which emerged around the middle of the 3rd century CE across a vast territory between the Buh and Dniester rivers. Various populations of the Northern Black Sea region, the Dniester area, and the Carpathian foothills contributed to its formation; the source also associates it with the Slavic Antes. The Chernyakhiv culture was genetically related to the Zarubintsy culture and later became one of the foundations for the Prague–Korčak and Penkivka cultures.

During the early Slavic period, handmade pottery predominated. One characteristic example is the pottery of the Korčak culture of the 6th–7th centuries. It consisted mainly of small, undecorated pots with short, straight or slightly everted rims, as well as bowls and clay frying pans. Handmade pottery was also characteristic of the Penkivka culture, which existed approximately from the 5th to the 8th centuries in the forest-steppe zone extending from the Prut to the Siverskyi Donets. Its pottery included pots with rounded shoulders, vessels with rounded or biconical bodies, and some objects already made on the potter’s wheel.

Interestingly, Slavic pottery of this period was relatively restrained in appearance. Some vessels were decorated with incised patterns, but overall, their defining feature was their form, adapted to everyday use. Settlements were often located near rivers and other bodies of water, and the principal types of dwellings were pit houses and semi-subterranean houses. In these conditions, a ceramic pot was more than just a vessel: it was used for cooking and storing food, and sometimes pottery also played a role in burial rituals.

The technology gradually changed as well. The introduction and spread of the potter’s wheel made it possible to produce thinner vessel walls and more regular shapes. For Slavic ceramics, this represented an important technological transition: vessels were no longer formed exclusively by hand but were increasingly made using a method that allowed potters to work with clay more quickly and control the geometry of each vessel more precisely.

Ceramics of the Princely Period

 

During the princely period, the range of ceramic products expanded considerably. Archaeologists distinguish several major groups: vessels, architectural ceramics, toys, and objects made for specialized purposes. Domestic pottery remained the most numerous category.

Vessels can now be broadly classified according to their function. Kitchenware included cooking pots, shallow baking dishes, and frying pans; tableware comprised jugs, goblets, bowls, cups, and ladles. Large storage jars were used for storage and transportation, alongside imported amphorae produced in the Byzantine Empire. However, this classification was not absolute: the same vessel shape could serve different purposes. A pot, for example, could be used for cooking, storing food, or even as part of a burial ritual.

A much wider range of specialized ceramic objects also appeared. Archaeological finds include lamps, facing tiles, plinth bricks, toys, clay spindle whorls, crucibles, and casting ladles. Rare hand-washing vessels and goblets are also known. A separate group consisted of objects associated with religious rituals, including miniature vessels, lamps, and other items intended for specific ceremonial purposes.

The Church also introduced new forms into ceramic production. Clay censers dating to the 12th century, for example, have been found in Kyiv and Halych. Small clay lamps are also known, including portable and hanging examples. Some had three holes arranged in a circle around the walls, allowing them to be suspended.

Glazed ceramics are of particular interest. Glazed bowls, goblets, and jugs were used in everyday life in Kyivan Rus. Alongside domestic vessels, architectural ceramics developed as well, serving purposes beyond the kitchen or table and becoming part of architecture and the furnishing of buildings.

At this point, ceramics begin to tell us not only what people ate and drank from, but also how life itself was changing. Vessels reveal the development of crafts, the introduction of new technologies, the expansion of urban environments, religious changes, and the emergence of new types of objects that had not existed before.

One thing particularly interests me here. A pot remained a pot. It was still placed over a fire, used for cooking, and employed for storage. Yet gradually, an entire world of other ceramic objects emerged alongside it, from small toys to architectural tiles and church lamps. Ceramics ceased to be merely tableware and increasingly became a material from which the very environment of everyday life was shaped.

Plates from the 17th–18th centuries depicting fish, birds, and angels

Jugs from archaeological assemblages in Kyiv: 16th century (1), 17th century (2, 3, 5, 6), and 18th century (4)

Ukrainian Ceramics of the 19th–20th Centuries

 

Ukrainian pottery was never limited to a particular type of vessel or a single method of decoration. Potters made cooking pots, bowls and deep serving dishes, jugs, makitras, shallow baking dishes, milk jugs, gourd-shaped vessels, small barrels, elongated storage vessels, flasks, and kumantsi, traditional ceramic vessels with handles. Alongside domestic pottery, there were decorative objects, stove tiles, roof tiles, bricks, children's toys, and other items. The development of this craft was supported by natural deposits of suitable clays, including red, reddish-brown, and light-grey varieties.

Pottery centres emerged throughout different parts of Ukraine. The Kyiv, Poltava, and Chernihiv regions, Podillia, western Ukrainian lands, the Kharkiv region, and Volhynia all had their own production centres. The products of these areas could share similar shapes or purposes but differed in colour, surface treatment, ornamentation, and painting styles. Opishnia pottery, for example, is characterized by thin walls and multicoloured painting; Volhynian syvaky by dark grey and black surfaces with linear patterns; and Podillian ceramics by a fiery red background and plant motifs.

Amid all this diversity, it is easy to overlook a simpler fact: most ceramics were not made to be admired, but to be used.

Clay was initially extracted from clay pits, transported, and left to mature, while being periodically moistened and mixed. It was then crushed and cleaned of impurities. Different types of clay were blended when necessary, after which the material was kneaded by hand or foot. Portions of the prepared clay were then shaped for individual vessels. Once dry, the pieces were painted or glazed and fired in a kiln.

It is here that ceramics reveal their close connection with everyday life particularly well. Potters sold their wares themselves, travelling from village to village and taking their products to fairs and markets. The textbook even preserves a detail of this trade: potters called out to potential customers, “Pots for sale!” The price of a vessel could be determined by the amount of grain it could hold. At fairs, the pottery was displayed directly on the ground in the potters' section.

Milk-Treated Ceramics

One interesting surface-treatment method was milk-treated, or milk-fired, ceramics. After the initial firing, a vessel was dipped in milk, which penetrated the porous clay surface. Once dry, it underwent another firing at a lower temperature. As a result, the surface acquired characteristic shades ranging from light beige to dark brown. The textbook specifically notes that the resulting colour depended on the treatment conditions and the potter's skill.

Kosiv Ceramics

A distinct tradition developed in the Hutsul region. According to the textbook, Kosiv ceramics originated in the Hutsul tradition, which had emerged as an artistic and craft movement as early as the 15th century. Natural clay deposits encouraged the development of local pottery, and craftspeople developed their own decorative techniques and vessel forms. Alongside jugs, cups, and deep serving dishes, they produced stove tiles, candlesticks, and other utilitarian and decorative objects.

One characteristic technique was incising, or engraving. After the first firing, coloured decoration was applied to the surface, covered with a transparent glaze, and fired again. The tradition did not remain static: over time, human, animal, and plant figures, as well as narrative compositions, joined the ornamental motifs.

Havarechchyna Black-Smoked Ceramics

Another distinctive tradition developed in the black-smoked ceramics of Havarechchyna. The vessels were wood-fired using a special technique that excluded air, giving them a dark, almost black or silvery-grey colour. The traditional range consisted mainly of household pottery: cups, small bowls, jugs, teapots, vases, and other everyday objects.

The history of this craft illustrates how fragile a tradition can be. In the 19th century, more than a hundred craftspeople worked in Havarechchyna; by the beginning of the 20th century, their numbers had already fallen considerably. By the 1980s, only a few potters remained, after which the craft gradually began to revive.

Opishnia Ceramics

Opishnia became one of the best-known centres of Ukrainian pottery. At the same time, the textbook makes an important clarification: the distinct Opishnia ceramic tradition in the form familiar today is relatively young, with its origins traced to the 19th century.

Opishnia painting is characterized by flowers, leaves, clusters of berries, ears of grain, bouquets, and wreaths. The principal colours are beige, brown, green, and blue. One of the techniques is flyandruvannia, a method in which lines of painted decoration are drawn out with a fine stylus to create patterns. The textbook also notes that craftspeople created their designs without preliminary sketches.

When looking at simple pottery from the 19th century through the early and mid-20th century, it can often seem the least interesting. There is no elaborate painting, no decorative applied elements, and sometimes the surface is entirely undecorated. An ordinary pot, bowl, or jug, made for the kitchen and everyday work. Yet this is precisely where I see the greatest value of such pottery. After all, practical necessity was the primary reason ceramics emerged as early as the Neolithic and Eneolithic periods. It was then that their original forms were established, forms that underwent millennia of testing for functionality.