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Pottery is an ancient technology in Africa that transformed how people store and prepare their foods. It is a craft technology frequently associated with women and is often practiced by people who belong to marginalized social groups with limited access to farmland. This article offers insight into traditional pottery-making and how women have innovated the craft under changing sociopolitical and economic circumstances. It also addresses the more recent government policies that have shaped potters' access to clay. In addition, the article examines how competition with alternative materials, including plastics and enamels, has challenged women's ability to maintain their pottery-making livelihoods and inspired potters' creativity in circumventing the challenges imposed on them. The study provides insights into the archaeological implications of resilience and dynamism in the pottery technological tradition and considers these in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Résumé: La poterie est une technologie ancienne en Afrique qui a transformé la façon dont les gens préparent et stockent leurs aliments. Il s'agit d'une technologie artisanale fréquemment associée aux femmes, et souvent pratiquée par des personnes appartenant à des groupes sociaux marginalisés, ayant accès limité aux terres agricoles. Cet article offre un aperçu de la fabrication traditionnelle de la poterie et des façons dont les femmes ont innové l'artisanat dans des circonstances socio-politiques et économiques changeantes. Il aborde également les politiques gouvernementales plus récentes qui ont façonné l'accès des potiers à l'argile. Nous proposons également d'élaborer comment l'arrivée des matériaux autres, tels les plastiques et les émaux, a mis à l'épreuve la capacité des femmes à maintenir leurs moyens de subsistance en matière de poterie, tout en inspirant la créativité des potiers pour contourner les défis qui leur sont imposés. L'étude donne un aperçu des implications archéologiques de la résilience et du dynamisme dans la tradition technologique de la poterie, et les considère par rapport aux objectifs de développement durable (ODD) des Nations Unies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In southern Africa and elsewhere, the archaeological study of ceramics largely relies on two approaches that tend to be treated separately: technology and style. While the emphasis of Iron Age archaeology has been on the range of shapes and decorative characteristics of pots and how these are determined or illustrative of cultural identities, little is known about the technological processes of ceramic production. This article uses ethnoarchaeological methods to examine the chaine operatories of ceramic production in specific sociocultural contexts among the Nguni-speaking (Zulu) peoples in the Upper and Lower uThukela Basins in KwaZulu-Natal. The study focuses on social and technical decisions for ceramic production and documents production stages and attributes, design, style, and functional components. Moreover, the social characteristics of production stages are used to understand various techniques, processes, tools, and materials involved in ceramic production, including distribution and apprenticeship. The social and operational attributes of ceramic production discussed in this article are potential sources for developing models that would bridge the gaps between the technology and style approaches in the archaeological study of Iron Age ceramics in southern Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peter R. Schmidt has had a multidimensional career whose five decades of engagement with the archaeology of Africa has left enduring legacies. In this conversation, the reader is invited into the world of Peter Schmidt, from his humble family background to his formative years as a young adult finding his way to Africa and archaeology. His path to the field of African archaeology was unconventional, but it led to his groundbreaking research into iron technology that set a new standard for the ethnoarchaeology of social and technological life. Likewise, his unalloyed commitment to marrying oral traditions with archaeology has expanded intellectual horizons in African archaeology. He has also been a staunch advocate for postcolonial perspectives, decolonization of archaeological practice, and community engagements that privilege local knowledge and African ontologies. His capacity-building efforts in the USA and Africa, especially at Brown University, University of Florida, University of Dar es Salaam, the University of Asmara, and Makerere University, speak to his vision to improve the human condition. This conversation explores what can be learned from Schmidt's experience and labor as an Africa-centered scholar, archaeologist, and institution builder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers a specific kind of hunting strategy, ambush hunting, employed by Ju/'hoansi San who reside in northwestern Botswana and northeastern Namibia. We examine this hunting technique from ethnoarchaeological, archaeological, historical, and ethnographic perspectives. Data are drawn from an analysis of 14 blinds at ǂGi Pan on the Botswana-Namibia border. These hunting blinds were mapped and two were excavated. Our methods included having Ju/'hoansi show us how they constructed blinds. We also conducted interviews of individuals who constructed and utilized the blinds. Based on this information, we assess the structure, distribution, morphology, contents, function, size, timing of use, and reasons for placement of these specialized hunting facilities. Conclusions are drawn concerning the utilization of ambush hunting and its social, economic, environmental, and technological significance in the northern Kalahari. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study presents the results of neutron activation analysis (NAA) of contemporary pottery from Tigray Regional State, northern highland Ethiopia. This is the first regional-scale study of ceramic composition of Tigray's pottery and is part of an ethnoarchaeological study of the material and social contexts of pottery production and consumption in Tigray's Eastern (Misraqawi), Central (Mehakelegnaw), and North-western (Semien Mi'irabawi) zones. The analysis identifies clear compositional groups with strong regional patterns, an encouraging result for the use of NAA to study Tigray's ancient pottery trade. Significantly, the study further contributes to discussions of how mutually constituted social identities of potters and consumers affect compositional patterning in the distribution of pottery in market networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnoarchaeological research combined with morphological analysis of modern and ancient grinding stones was completed in 2013 and 2014 as part of the Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project (ETAP), based in the Gulo Makeda region of northern Ethiopia. Research focused on investigating the cultural context of grinding, grinding stone morphology, and use-surface area employing low power use-wear analysis of grinding surfaces. In the Gulo Makeda region today, men manufacture grinding stones and women use them in food processing for many hours per day. While grinding, relationships are formed and maintained with other women, and archaeological evidence suggests that women were grinding together in the past. It was discovered through interviews that distinctive grinding surfaces are preferred for processing different cereals based on grain size. Rough surfaces are used to process larger grains such as imported Near Eastern barley ( Hordeum vulgare), wheat ( Triticum spp.), maize ( Zea mays), and the African domesticate sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor), while fine/smooth surfaces are used for smaller, locally domesticated African grains including finger millet ( Eleusine coracana) and t'ef ( Eragrostis tef). Comparing ethnoarchaeological data with evidence of different use-surfaces on ancient Mezber grinding stones suggests that both locally domesticated and imported grains have been processed in the region for thousands of years. Interpretations are made about the use of grinding stones in the past through analogy, supported by evidence of ancient stone tool morphology and surface wear. The archaeological record at the pre-Aksumite site of Mezber indicates that grinding stone sizes have changed through time, with larger grinding surface areas likely reflecting the need for the production of greater amounts of flour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In southern African archaeology, the equation of pottery styles with archaeological 'cultures' and their attribution to the antecedents of contemporary ethnic groups has been a common practice for a long time. Ethnoarchaeological studies from other parts of Africa and beyond have shown that the matter is complex and that stylistic and technological boundaries in ceramic distributions can reflect different kinds of social boundaries under different circumstances. To expand on these findings and make them locally relevant, a large-scale ethnoarchaeological study of 41 potters in south-eastern Botswana aims for a better understanding of ceramic technological style and boundary relations. Here, we present and explain only the results concerning the boundaries in the forming and shaping stage of ceramic vessel manufacture. We conclude that learning networks explain the visible boundaries in the technological style of forming and shaping pots in south-eastern Botswana today; language and ethnic affiliation do not. Boundaries in the other stages in the operational sequence of pottery manufacture, such as clay sourcing and preparation, vessel surface treatment and decoration, firing and finishing, will be presented in a series of further publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article deals with the myriad determinants involved in pottery distribution in northeast Ghana, considered from a theoretical perspective that integrates the materiality of vessels and the social, political and historical context where both communities and pottery operate in their daily practice. Hence, we develop a comprehensive research strategy that combines emic and etic views covering the multiple dimensions of pottery life history. In this sense, production units, technical traditions and the characteristics of the redistributive centres, as well as the strategies for pottery acquisition, are studied. Special attention is paid to quite varied aspects such as the physical properties of vessels and their performance characteristics, the reputation of both vessels and potters according to the consumers and the mobility and connectivity patterns found in the study area. On the other hand, interpretations regarding the historical and sociopolitical context of the region are emphasised, as well as the interethnic relationships amongst groups inhabiting the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When heat treatment of silcrete for stone knapping was first discovered in the South African Middle Stone Age (MSA), the procedure used for it was suggested to be similar to the one used for heat treatment of finer rocks in other parts of the world: slow sand-bath heating. This comparison may have been based on published data from the fields of ethnography, experimentation and archaeology, describing sand-bath like structures and processes. In this review, I discuss whether the available data from these three fields indeed justify the suggestions that sand-bath heating was used in the context of MSA silcrete heat treatment. A careful revaluation of the available data shows that, although sand-bath heating is a widely accepted procedure that is documented in other parts of the world, understanding the earliest known cases of heat treatment in the MSA calls for another technical procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented to the issue of the journal that discusses topics such as crafts and foodways in Africa, culinary practice in everyday life, and ethnoarchaeological research.

This article blends insights from gender, technology, and development studies with Ingold's concept of taskscape to examine the interrelated nature of farming, food, and craft manufacture practices in Banda, Ghana during the last three centuries. We begin by comparing two ethnoarchaeological studies that were conducted separately by the authors, one that focused on food, and the other on ceramic production, preparation, and consumption. We use these data to analyze gendered taskscapes and how they have changed in recent decades with the introduction of new technologies and major economic and environmental shifts. Building on such insights, we analyze how taskscapes shifted in earlier centuries in Banda through archaeological remains of food and craft practice at the eighteenth- to twentieth-century site of Makala Kataa. Craft production cannot be fully understood without reference to food production, preparation, and consumption; thus, viewing these practices as interrelated tasks in a gendered taskscape yields insight into the rhythms of everyday life and highlights women's often undervalued skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few ethnoarchaeological studies have combined the production and use of groundstones and pottery as indicators of household variation in subsistence and socioeconomics. This ethnoarchaeological study explores how the Gamo people who live in southwestern Ethiopia interact with their culinary tools of pottery and groundstones. One of the unique cultural features of the Gamo is their strict caste system, which forces artisans such as potters and groundstone makers into a full-time specialization. This paper uses a chaîne opératoire analysis regarding groundstone and pottery production and then addresses their use by drawing from household studies from three Gamo communities. The analysis discusses the role that social hierarchy can have on cooking and craft variation within households. Thus, these artisans bring to life crafts that give the Gamo tools to create their daily subsistence, and these tools and foods allow us to explore two key archaeological issues: subsistence and socioeconomic variation of people's households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Samburu, Kenya, ethnoarchaeological research reveals a deep and perhaps unexpected integration of pottery use into a mobile lifestyle centered on the herding of livestock. This paper examines the importance of pottery to Samburu survival, particularly for the preparation of bone soups, wild plants, and other foods during times of drought and food insecurity. These data raise new questions about how pottery and other household material culture may have influenced the origins and development of African pastoralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contemporary use of flaked stone tools provides a rare opportunity to study various aspects of lithic technology. Variables that must be inferred in archaeological contexts can be observed and more easily studied in ethnographic ones. The Hadiya hideworkers of southern Ethiopia, like a few other groups in this region, still retain the tradition of making and using obsidian scrapers on a daily basis for hide-working activities. This ethnoarchaeological study demonstrates how differential access to raw material and the resultant procurement strategies result in intra-group variability in scraper-use intensity. Results show that raw material acquisition costs, which are difficult to identify in archaeological assemblages, represent significant impacts on tool use life and curation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pottery making is still practiced widely in parts of Ethiopia but variations in its technical practices are poorly documented. This study presents an ethnoarchaeological investigation of the technical style of pottery making among the Oromo of western Wallaga, located in the highlands of southwestern Ethiopia. The Oromo are a Cushitic-speaking people who occupied Wallaga as part of a massive expansion that occurred between the early sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This resulted in the Oromo settling among Omotic and Nilo-Saharan peoples in Wallaga. Oromo pottery production in the region is passed down through family lines, and these potters use specific technical styles, which are distinct in material properties and production processes from the surrounding non-Oromo communities. Documentation of the technical styles of contemporary potter communities provides a material means for archaeologists to investigate the history and interaction of social groups in the past. Specifically, this study is relevant to investigating the poorly documented history of the Oromo expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt has been made in this paper to use ethnoarchaeology to clarify our understanding of aspects of domestic space and spatial behaviour among the Tiv and Ungwai peoples of Central Nigeria. Indeed, the work is in several senses, a comparative study of two ethnolinguistic groups who occupy a similar ecological niche with broadly similar sociopolitical organisation. This mode of organisation is non-centralized in character. In addition, the two peoples had a tradition of hilltop occupation in ancient times. Differences in topography (hilltops for the ancient settlers and lowlands for the present-day peoples) have affected not only the compound layout of each of these ethnic groups but also among other features, the architecture of their houses. Given the limited available archaeological data including charcoal samples for dating, one is not yet able to ascribe specific functions to some of the structures identified on the archaeological sites (hilltops). This will be better addressed as research progresses.Quelques tentatives ont ete faits dans cet article pour se servir de I’ethnoarchaeologie pour expliquer les divers aspects de l’espace domestique et des characteres de l’occupation l’espace parmi les Tiv et les Ungwai de la region centrale du Nigeria. En fait, ce travail est en grandes measures une etude comparative des deux groupes ethnolinguistiques occupant le meme crenau ecologique ayant largement la meme organization socio-politique. Le mode d’organisation est du type non centralize. De plus les deux groupes ethniques ont une tradition de l’ocucpation des peuples anciens centres sur le haut de la colline. Des differences en topographie (le haut des collines pour le anciens occupants et la plaine pour les habitants actuels) n’ ont pas seulement eu effets sur la generalite de la maniere dont les concessions des ces groupes ethniques se presentent mais aussi l’architecture de leurs maisons sont parmi les traits particuliers importants. A cause du numbrer restreint de donnees disponibles en ce moment, nous ne sommes pas encore en mesure d’attribuer certaines functions aux structures identifiees aux chantiers archaeologigues (au sommet des collines). Ces functions seront mieux traitees au fur et a mesure que l’on avance dans nos recherches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study reports the use of ethnographic parallels to interpret excavated relics at Ijaye. Following some limited reconnaissance, archaeological relics, which included mounds and a ditch and embankment, were identified. Three test pits were dug on one of the mounds while an extensive excavation was carried out on another. The major excavation uncovered large pots placed on top of one another and arranged in a row. Ethnographic data were sought in some neighboring Yoruba settlements to understand the features uncovered in the excavations. Probable interpretation was soap and/or dye making. L'étude rapporte sur l'emploi des matières ethnographiques pour l'interprétation des vestiges trouvées à Ijaye. A la suite des prospections limitées, des vestiges archéologiques ont été identifiées, parmi lesquelles étaient des amas et un fossé et rempart. Trois sondages ont été effectués sur un des amas, et une fouille a été effectuée sur un autre. Des grandes jarres entassées les unes sur les autres ont été découvertes dans la fouille. Les données ethnographiques ont été recherchées en des villes voisinantes pour bien comprendre des vestiges retrouvées en fouille. L'interprétation probable était la fabrication du savon et/ou teinture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnoarchaeological studies have constantly emphasized the complexity of pottery distribution and its close ties with other aspects of social life. It is argued here that, among the Dowayo of northern Cameroon, pottery exchange is not regulated by preferential economic relationships between producers and consumers but rather by mechanisms such as fashion or the reputation of the artisans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A typology of artificial rock hollows and tentative identification of their functions is founded upon study of recent practices at Sukur. Five stages of development of equipment for grinding grain are identified and shown, using field archaeological evidence, to constitute a sequence of historical phases that extends from the Neolithic or early Iron Age to the present. The development of other types of hollows is related to this sequence. Ethnographic data are employed to estimate the use lives of grain grinding hollows, which are interpreted in terms of woman-centered familial grain-grinding units. The evidence suggests that prior to ca. AD 1600 the population density averaged two orders of magnitude less than in recent times—with important implications for regional culture history. This exploratory study demonstrates the potential of artificial hollows as evidence for the study of prehistory, culture and demographic history, and the history of landscape in Africa and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]