Kitala Ware: A New Early Iron Age Pottery Group from the Lower Congo Region in Central Africa

Abstract

This article presents the first detailed account of a previously unknown Early Iron Age pottery group from the Kongo Central Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ceramic group is named Kitala ware, after the site where it was first discovered, and excavated in 2014 and 2015. Dated between cal AD 230 and 524 at Kitala, the ware is also documented as surface finds from six other sites south of the Congo River. Its chronology partly overlaps with the previously known Kay Ladio ware dated between cal AD 30 and 475. Both Early Iron Age (EIA) pottery groups share many features and are distinct from Ngovo ware, the province’s earliest pottery group which preceded the arrival of iron metallurgy and dates between 420 cal BC and cal AD 130. The users of Kitala ware had iron metallurgy and lived in a natural environment of open deciduous woods with access to tree species characteristic of wooded savannas, such as Bridelia spp., and gallery forests, such as Elaeis guineensis. The clay properties, shapes, and decoration patterns of Kitala vessels presented in this article indicate that this ceramic group derived from Kay Ladio ware. While it is unrelated to EIA pottery traditions known in the Atlantic Coast region of the Congo Republic to the north, it does share specific features with certain EIA pottery types in the vicinity of Kinshasa. This article shows that during the EIA, the Lower Congo region of Central Africa had more regional variation in ceramic production than previously known.