Shaping Kabambian Pottery: Identification and Definition of Technical Features

ABSTRACT

The excavation of a series of graveyards during the '50 and '70 in the Upemba depression (Katanga, DRC) led to the establishment of a cultural sequence spanning the 7^th to the 20^th century AD. This sequence consists in a succession of archaeological cultures displaying elements of rupture and continuity, particularly visible in the shape and decoration of pottery. To answer questions pertaining to population dynamics in central Katanga, we decided to check whether or not these variations where reflected in pottery roughing-out technologies. Because they are related to a strong interaction between master and apprentice and are associated to an essential step of pottery apprenticeship, pottery roughing-out methods are indeed considered to be more stable – i.e. related to deeply rooted forms of identity - than form or decoration. In this paper, we present the analysis and reconstruction of Kabambian pottery roughing-out methods - a first for central Africa. Our conclusion indicates, that Kabambian pottery (dated between the 13^th and the 18^th century AD) was made by cylindrical coiling with slab bottom.

Keywords:

Central Africa, Katanga, Upemba depression, Archaeology, Kabambian, Pottery technology, Pottery shaping, Roughing-out, Identity.