Population and Ceramic Traditions: Revisiting the Tana Ware of Coastal Kenya (7th-14th Century AD)

Abstract

This thesis is a departure from the traditional archaeological pottery analysis in Kenya, where emphasis has been on decorations and forms. It uses a technological approach to offer additional information on Bantu pottery whose social boundary has been a cause of disagreement between different researchers. Pottery decorations and forms have been/are still powerful instruments in defining archaeological spatial and temporal distribution of prehistoric populations, but the ability of these attributes as social boundary markers is limited by their overt visibility on the finished product. Whilst this explicit visibility is an advantage for archaeologists who seek to explore temporal and spatial distributions of different wares, it is also disadvantageous since it makes it possible for communities which are socially, ethnically, and linguistically distinct to copy from each other hence making these two salient pottery features unreliable indicators of social boundaries. Therefore, this study puts emphasis on the forming stage, which is not obvious on the finished product and must be learnt by apprenticeship only through kinship, as demonstrated by numerous ethnographic studies. Using chaine operatoire as an analytical tool for archaeological material and ethnographic, experimental and ethno-historical data as reference and interpretive tools, this study sought to establish the social boundaries of makers of Tana ware which is a disputed Iron Age pottery of Bantu speakers. Some archaeologists attribute its origins to Bantu speakers whilst others attribute it to Cushitic speakers. Archaeological data was collected from Manda and Ungwana sites assemblages and ethnographic reference data was collected from Cushitic and Bantuspeakers from the Coastal and Highland regions of Kenya. Ethno-historical data was derived from library resources while experimental data were obtained from the field. This study demonstrated that due to the nature of archaeological peopling and interactions which exposed different ethnolinguistic groups to material cultures of the other, borrowing of cultural traits took place causing distinct populations to have pottery of similar decorations and forms. It has also demonstrated that pottery chaine operatoire can show population continuity or discontinuity from archaeological to modern times. Most importantly, this thesis has demonstrated that Tana ware has its origins from Bantu speakers, and that its decorations have their origins from Cushitic speakers. It has also confirmed the movement of Meru ethnic group from the Coast of Kenya to Mt. Kenya region, by providing tangible data to linguistic, historical and oral evidences. The last part of this work gives directions of future research on pottery analysis in Kenya, and outlines some questions pertaining to Bantu and Cushitic speakers which remain to be answered.