• PDF / 4,545,398 Bytes
• 18 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
• 79 Downloads / 207 Views

DOWNLOAD

REPORT

---

Modern and Ancient Pottery Traditions in the el-Zuma and Karima Region in Sudan: An Introduction to Comparative Studies (Pots Project) Ewa Czyżewska-Zalewska 1

& Zofia

Kowarska 1

# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020

Abstract The “Pots Project” documents and studies modern pottery workshops in Sudan, in the area of el-Zuma and Karima, which is the core area investigated by the Early Makuria Research Project (EMRP) of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw (PCMA) researching the beginnings of the Kingdom of Makuria. This interim presentation discusses observations from two modern workshops in ElDahasyra and Karima, among others, both making traditional handmade pottery. Documentation of the processes involved, including telltale traces on vessel surfaces, like impressed textile patterns on bottoms and pebble-beating, have already given insight into ancient pottery production techniques. A comparison of these results with the recorded evidence from an abundant assemblage excavated by the EMRP Project in the tumulus tombs of el-Zuma enables the authors to point out and discuss similarities and differences between ancient and modern vessels. Keywords Nubia . Early Makuria period . el-Zuma . Karima . Tanqasi . Handmade pottery .

Pottery workshop

Introduction A robust handmade pottery tradition in Sudan today has triggered an ethnoarchaeological study that is intended to increase understanding of ancient ceramic production techniques. The “Pots Project,” a sideline of the Early Makuria

* Ewa Czyżewska-Zalewska [email protected] Zofia Kowarska [email protected]

1

Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, ul. Nowy Świat 4, 00-497 Warsaw, Poland

International Journal of Historical Archaeology

Research Project (EMRP) of the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw (PCMA), focuses on this tradition, documenting the work and products of the modern pottery workshops in Sudan. Observation of potters in action—the project is underway, interviewing local potters, observing the technological process, collecting clay samples for analyses—is yielding information on production techniques that the EMRP ceramologists will be able to apply to their interpretation of the ancient pottery from the region. The archaeological assemblage in question comes from excavations by the EMRP Project investigating the beginnings of the Kingdom of Makuria, which flourished in the territory of ancient Nubia between the Third and Fifth cataract in the fourth/sixth centuries CE (El-Tayeb 2006, 2010a, 2010b, 2013: 15–18); El-Tayeb and Czyżewska 2011; El-Tayeb et al. 2014; Godlewski 2005: 385–388; Klimaszewska-Drabot and El-Tayeb 2014). The excavations have uncovered primarily burial architecture and artifacts of material culture belonging to the early Makurian period (El-Tayeb 2013). Among the latter, pottery is the largest group of finds. Many vessels were found in situ, inside the burial chambers, or broken and scattered in th