Recycling and the material science tetrahedron: Everyday strategies of making in high temperature technologies of Iron Age southern Africa

Abstract

This paper applies the Material Science Tetrahedron concept to explore practices of pottery recycling in selected craft activities performed in first and second millennium CE southern Africa. It combines analyses of pottery decorative style on vessels and their fragments used for metal processing with fabric inclusion mineralogy and chemical composition to show that recycling was a sociotechnical endeavour integral to making and remaking everyday things in society. Recycling weaved, along the chaîne opératoire, tapestries of materialities formed by and flowing from relationships between crafting, materials, containers, and humans as part of daily routines of making, provisioning, and consumption.