Pottery decoration in contemporary southeastern Botswana

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe presumed link between pottery style and linguistic identity has played a key role in the archaeological interpretation of the peopling of southern Africa. To re-assess this link, we study ceramic vessel decorations used by 41 contemporary potters in southeastern Botswana, who are from two separate language groups, come from six different ethnic groups, learned their craft in one of five different ‘schools’ of pottery and live scattered in ten different villages. Our observations of ceramic style are on a small sample of pots available at the time of fieldwork. We isolate 24 attributes under three major categories of decoration motif, technique of plastic decoration and surface treatment. Our study shows that in contemporary southeastern Botswana pottery style does not help to distinguish the pots made by potters from different language groups. However, to varying degrees it can reveal differences in the products of potters from different locations, ethnic groups and schools of learning.