Table of Contents
What is African pottery?
Pots are like data, they provide insight into the cultural interchanges of African societies; the life they led, the paths they trod, the needs they had and the skills they possessed. Shards of pottery found by archaeologists in ancient sites tell us that pots were being made as early as 7000 BC.
What is African pottery made of?
Pottery diversity of Africa Terracotta clay is most commonly used, fired in the open, to produce pots of remarkable durability. Their pottery wares embody a refined understanding of material, process, and embellishment that conjures a deceptive simplicity.
How old is African pottery?
Dating from around 10,000 BCE – i.e., one or two millennia after the inception of the Jomon pottery in Japan – they were excavated in the Aïr Region of Niger (West Africa) (Haour 2003). Despite its age, the craft is still alive in many parts of the continent.
Who made the oldest pottery in Africa?
Africans have been making pottery in Africa for countless thousands of years, with some of the earliest examples ranging back to the Ancient Egyptians that started to create pottery circa 6000 BC. Many of these practices then made their way south throughout the rest of the continent such as Ethiopia and the Sudan.
Where did African pottery originate?
People in East Africa started to make clay pots about 6000 BC. From Sudan and Ethiopia to Egypt, African pottery styles are very similar. By 400 BC, pottery-making had spread as far west as West Africa.
What is the history of pottery?
Pottery is one of the oldest human inventions, originating before the Neolithic period, with ceramic objects like the Gravettian culture Venus of Dolní Věstonice figurine discovered in the Czech Republic dating back to 29,000–25,000 BC, and pottery vessels that were discovered in Jiangxi, China, which date back to.
What are African clay pots used for?
The production of clay vessels was widespread among South Africa’s Iron Age communities. Associated most obviously with the storage, serving and consumption of food, these coiled pots also formed part of burial practices, rain-making ceremonies, and various rites involving the ancestral world.
How is pottery made in Nigeria?
The making of pottery includes the following basic methods namely: shaping (modelling), moulding, decorating and firing. The clay must first of all undergo some sort of purification before the pottery making commences.
How is calabash pottery made?
Calabash is the term used for artefacts made from the hard shell of a fruit in the gourd family “Lagenaria siceraria.” Once the calabash is dried and hollowed out it can be used for serving or storing food. It can also be used as an inkpot, cosmetic container and by market women as a money box.
Who made clay pots in South Africa?
Traditional clay pots are made in Africa by people from different cultures. This study focuses on the suitability of clayey soils used for clay pot production as traditionally made by the Sotho people of the Free State Province of South Africa.
What is ancient pottery?
Pottery, also called ceramics or ceramic art – the creation of objects, mainly cooking or storage vessels, made out of clay and then hardened by heat – was the first functional art to emerge during the Upper Paleolithic, after body painting.
How do I identify an African mask?
Check the back of the mask for wear, including the holes for fastening the mask on the face. The wearer does a lot of moving in his dances, and contact between body and wood can leave sweat and oil stains. 2. Look for wear from forehead, cheeks, chins and noses.
Who first invented pottery?
The first high-fired glazed ceramics were produced in China, during the Shang (1700-1027 BC) dynasty period. At sites such as Yinxu and Erligang, high-fired ceramics appear in the 13th-17th centuries BC.
What is the oldest pottery found?
Pottery fragments found in a south China cave have been confirmed to be 20,000 years old, making them the oldest known pottery in the world, archaeologists say.
Who created some of the earliest pottery in northeast Africa?
During the Holocene, Niger-Congo speakers independently created pottery in Ounjougou, Mali – the earliest pottery in Africa – by at least 9400 BCE, and along with their pottery, as well as wielding bows and arrows, migrated into the Central Sahara, which became their primary region of residence by 10,000 BP.
What is Calabash pottery?
Introduced in 1995 Calabash features a hand-painted underglaze design of leaves, peas and squash in greens and yellows.
How were clay pots decorated in South Africa?
Venda pottery goes back to the 14th and 15th centuries. Until recently pots like these were normally decorated with geometric patterns, including concentric circles. In most cases, motifs were incised onto the surface before being filled in with graphite and red oxide.
What is the historical importance of pottery?
The social and cultural effects of the invention of pottery involved the use of improved cooking and food storage techniques. Pottery meant that people were able to steam and boil food which allowed the consumption of new types of food such as leafy vegetables, acorns and shellfish.
When was pottery first discovered?
The oldest evidence of pottery manufacture has been found at an archaeological site known as Odai Yamamoto, in Japan, where fragments from a specific vessel have been dated to about 16,500-14,920 years ago.
Why was pottery invented?
The Greeks were credited with making pottery an art form, although at the time, potters were still known as craftsmen. Their pots and vases were utilitarian in nature and were mainly created for drinking and pouring, or storing wine and olive oil.
