Forming and Shaping Pottery Boundaries in Contemporary South-Eastern Botswana

Archaeological implications of ethnographically grounded functional study of pottery from Nyanga, Zimbabwe

“…These thick boWoms were intenZonally designed to prolong the use-life of most pots as this prevented sudden breakage resulZng from surface aWriZon of both the interior and exterior walls. Culinary vessels with typical features are ubiquitous throughout sub-Saharan African, amongst communiZes such as the Tiv of Nigeria (Ogundele, 2006), Bafia of central Cameroon (Gosselain, 1992); Mafia of coastal Tanzania (Wynne-Jones and Mapunda, 2009), Tswana of south-eastern Botswana (Thebe and Sadr, 2017), Karanga of south-central and eastern Zimbabwe (ColleW 1993;Lindahl and Matenga, 1995;Ndoro 1996); and the Tsonga, Sotho, Venda and Zulu cluster groups in South Africa (Fowler, 2008;. In terms of decoraZon, a few culinary vessels (26,27,29,102), were imprinted with incisions, laqce ridges, and punctates moZfs (see marked vessels in Fig.…”

“…Accordingly, the poWer considers the shape and size to fashion the appropriate vessel whilst, other aWributes such as decoraZon come as secondary consideraZons. This is common among sub-Saharan autochthons such as the Banda (Cruz, 2011), Zulu (Fowler, 2008), Gamo (Arthur, 2002(Arthur, , 2013, Tiv (Ogundele, 2009), Luo (Dietler, 2001), Venda , Karanga (ColleW 1993;Lindahl and Matenga, 1995;Ndoro, 1996), Tswana (Thebe and Sadr, 2017), and the Twa (Kohtamaki, 2010) where vessel decoraZons play an insignificant role in determining local vessel taxonomy. Thus, funcZonal typologies apply to a wide range of poWery be it from southern Africa, West Africa or East Africa.…”

Archaeology in Botswana's history

“…The spiritual, religious, cultural, social, ethnographic, educational, tourism and aesthetic value of archaeological and historical sites and monuments help to further understand and appreciate the link between history and archaeology (Dichaba & Thebe, 2015), the focus of this paper. This link is pronounced in ethnoarchaeological studies (see Lane, 1998; Morton, 2013, 2014, 2018; Ndobochani, 2020; Thebe, 2017; Wilmsen et al., 2009, 2019a, 2019b). Ethnoarchaeology is the study of contemporary or recent society through its material culture.…”

Nyanga pottery and the Manyika ethnohistory: towards a decolonised archaeology of the Nyanga agricultural complex

“…Most of the Manyika potters design their earthenware in a similar sequence and similar spherical- form which is common in most parts of Africa (see Stead, 1947 ; Lawton, 1965 ; Gosselain, 1992 ; Ndoro, 1996 ; Arthur, 2002 ; Fowler, 2008 ; Wynne-Jones and Mapunda, 2008 ; Lindahl and Pikirayi, 2010 ; Fredriksen and Bandama, 2016 ; Thebe and Sadr, 2017 ). Thus, their anatomy is gendered, hence their physical structure is likened to that of a woman (munhukadzi) .…”