A Technological study and manufacture of ceramic vessels from K2 and Mapungubwe Hill, South Africa

Abstract

This thesis investigates the technology of twenty-six complete vessels from the ceramic assemblages of K2 and Mapungubwe in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, from the early second millennium (AD 1000 - AD 1300). Mapungubwe is a significant pre-colonial archaeological site of social and political complexity, which lead to the emergence of one of the first known states in southern Africa. Ceramics are commonly associated with these nationally significant sites and have served mainly as chronological and regional markers to determine the cultural sequence of the Shashe Limpopo Confluence Area. Previous studies on these ceramics have paid little consideration to ceramic technology, as research for decades has focused largely on stylistic typologies. Non-invasive methods, compositional materials analysis, and macroscopic analysis provide a broad technological characterization of physical evidence left by the potter on the complete vessels, and are used to interpret aspects of the chaîne opératoire or sequence of ceramic manufacture. Though primary traces of forming and shaping techniques have often been erased by secondary forming processes such as smoothing, scraping, wiping and finishing, the fundamental technology of the vessels can nevertheless be elucidated based on a range of technical variables. This study is the first of its kind in South African archaeology, where complete vessels from a valuable research assemblage are used as a basis for understanding ceramic technology. The results enhance archaeological views of Iron Age ceramic technology, which are pertinent to the interpretation of how the ceramics were manufactured and contributes to a wider understanding of social and technical choices made by potters and related social implications. Vessels from the K2 and Mapungubwe ceramic repertoire serve to answer questions about ceramic research that relate to (a) characterization of complete archaeological ceramics, (b) evidence of technology (c) compositional data of the vessels (d) to provide anatomical data on the technological and morphological attributes of ceramic manufacture. The preliminary results point to evidence of local manufacture of K2 and Mapungubwe ceramics by means of the analysis of four steps in the chaîne opératoire: fabric, forming, firing and finishing. Tentative conclusions further demonstrate technological continuity and variability of raw materials for ceramic manufacture at K2 and Mapungubwe. The broader archaeological perspective, which emerges is one of an expanding technological society, changing technical commonalities, forms and decorative styles, and in the process, making if only subtle technological choices in the manufacture process of early second millennium AD Iron Age ceramics.