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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Through Thick and Thin: Early Pottery in Southern Africa
Authors:Sadr, KarimISNI
Sampson, C. GarthISNI
Year:2006
Periodical:Journal of African Archaeology
Volume:4
Issue:2
Pages:235-252
Language:English
Geographic term:Southern Africa
Subjects:Iron Age
Stone Age
pottery
Anthropology and Archaeology
History and Exploration
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/43135406
Abstract:Conventional wisdom has it that ceramic technology reached southernmost Africa with or just ahead of the so-called Iron Age, Bantu migrations of c. 2000 years ago. A review of the evidence suggests that the earliest ceramics in the subcontinent are thin-walled and smooth surfaced vessels, technologically quite distinct from the first thick-walled, coarse surfaced Iron Age ware of the subcontinent, and predating the latter by two to four centuries. There is no published evidence of a thin-walled ware to the north of the Zambezi, although undated examples are known from coastal Angola. It seems unlikely that the thin-walled wares in southernmost Africa represent a residue of some mass human migration in the distant past. It is more likely that the art of making fired clay pots reached the subcontinent through archaeologically invisible infiltrations by small groups, perhaps peripatetic artisans; or it may have been invented locally. Bibliogr., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]
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