before firing. Hair, head, torso, and other body parts were
made separately and then fitted together using “keys,” or
grooves cut into the clay into which a projection fi ts, with a V-
shape fi tting into a V-shape groove. Th e surfaces of the fi gures
were polished. To the northwest of Nigeria, in Mali, ceramic
fi gures from 2010 to 1670 b.c.e. have been found with pottery
intended for daily household use. Th e artifacts are associated
with the western Sudan culture that may have been related to
the Saharan grassland cultures. Th e pottery was incised with
lines and dots. Little is known about these artifacts.
Much of central and southern Africa is now inhabited by
the Bantu-speaking culture that began spreading through Af-
rica in the last couple of centuries b.c.e. Some of these people
settled in an area beside Lake Victoria stretching westward.
Th eir pottery is called Urewe ware, named for the region in
which it was discovered, and it was made from about 200 to
500 c.e. Th e bases of Urewe vessels had indentations, perhaps
so they could be carried on the head. Th e potters added de-
signs that look like bumps, and they etched in lines, usually
horizontal. Th e lips of the vessels tend to bend outward and
then turn under and in on themselves.
EGYPT
BY ERIN FAIRBURN
Pottery in ancient Egypt fi rst appears in the archaeological
record throughout the Nile River valley in the Predynastic
Period (around 3800 b.c.e.). Pottery is the predominant ar-
tifact from that point on. Two types of clay were used to
make pottery in the ancient Nile River valley, marl and Nile
silt. Nile silt was formed from sediments deposited during
the annual fl ooding of the Nile and would have been rela-
tively easy to obtain, especially following the inundation,
when deposits would settle on the surface. Marl clay appears
in proximity to the limestone and shale formations near the
Nile, stretching from the area of modern Cairo south. Marl
is very dense and stonelike and has to be mined in under-
ground works.
Th e preparation methods for the two types of clay would
probably have varied very little. Th e fi rst step might have been
to purify the clay. Th en the clay would be soaked in a pit of
water to soft en it. Th e soft ened clay would next be mixed by
trampling. Humans trampled silt clays, but animals were
probably used for marls. Th e person treading the clay would
remove any bits of impurities found underfoot. Next, the
trampled clay would be taken from the pit and placed on the
fl oor, where workers would wedge it, a process of stamping
on it that removed air pockets and any remaining impuri-
ties. An optional fi nal step was tempering the clay to improve
consistency and strength by adding foreign substances such
as sand, hair, ash, chopped straw, or ground-up quantities of
old pottery.
Aft er the clay had undergone this preparation, it was fi -
nally ready to be formed into pottery. Vessels could be cre-
ated by modeling, coil building, molding, and throwing.
Handmade pottery was the most common, and the earliest
Egyptian pottery was made by the hand techniques of mod-
eling or coil building. Modeling was achieved by working a
lump of prepared clay with the hands, using tools to build
up the sides, usually a paddle of wood and an anvil, a stone,In many parts of Africa ceramics are all that remain to tell us about ancient cultures, but what they can tell us has
limits. For example, the pottery of the Nok culture of about 500 B.C.E. to 200 C.E. reveals a sophisticated artistic sen-
sibility without telling us why the Nok created these beautiful portraits of people and animals. We know that they
probably liked to wear jewelry, because their fi gures wear necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. The features on these
fi gures are similar to those of people native to modern Nigeria, so it is likely that they were not descended from North
Africans, such as Carthaginians or from Greeks, Romans, or Egyptians. Still, this does not exclude them from being
of mixed ethnic ancestry, as were the people of Axum.
The Nok ceramics inspire speculation, such as the notion that the fi gures belonged to shrines that were washed
away in fl oods, since Nok pottery was deposited in gullies by fl owing water; without more information, this remains
no more than an educated guess. The men and women depicted in the fi gures are sometimes so well portrayed that
the fi gures seem to be portraits of real people: The fi gures could be representations of kings and queens or even por-
traits of ordinary people who paid artisans to make the pottery.
Sometimes a simple piece of pottery can tell much about its culture. In the Aegyptisches Museum in Leipzig there
is a small sculpture of a cow from Nubia (ca. 1990–1550 B.C.E.). It resembles the rock paintings of cattle found in the
Tibesti Massif in northern Chad, dating from 5095 to 2780 B.C.E. This resemblance indicates to archaeologists that
the cattle in Nubia may have been descended from the cattle herded by the lost peoples belonging to the era when
the Sahara was grassland, rather than desert. This, in turn, suggests that ancient Nubian culture was infl uenced by
or was descended from the culture of ancient Saharan herders.WHAT CERAMICS CAN TELL US ABOUT ANCIENT AFRICA
176 ceramics and pottery: Egypt