«Chaîne opératoire» of ceramic bread moulds in Nubia in the second part of the 1st millennium B.C.

The article proposes a «chaîne opératoire» for Nubian ceramic conical bread-baking moulds, which was accumulated during the work of the Joint Russian-Sudanese Archaeological Mission of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums of Sudan at Gebel Barkal on 2020 and 2021. The mission investigated the area north to the Amun’s Great Temple. Such vessels are most commonly referred to as “bread moulds” or “bread cones”, reflecting their primary function. In Nubia they were used for baking conical breads as offerings to the god Amun. Large concentrations (“pottery dumps”) of the vessels have been found near Nubian temples dedicated to this deity. One such ceramic concentration is located at Gebel Barkal, occupying an area of approximately 9 500 sq m within the site. To reconstruct the «chaîne opératoire», archaeological and scientific research methods were employed. The petrographic analysis established that kaolinite‑smectite and kaolinite clays of local origin with the addition of various tempers were used as raw materials for the bread moulds and were fired in pottery kilns at temperatures ranging from 700 to 900°C. The vessels were shaped on conical moulds, and then were dried prior to firing. The pottery workshops produced these vessels should have been located somewhere on the “pottery dump”, as evidenced by the rejected pottery found in significant quantities on its surface. Thus, the conical moulds were produced at Gebel Barkal, probably in the vicinity of the Great Temple of the god Amun.