AbstractsAnthropology

Bantu pottery of Southern Africa

by A. C Lawton




Institution: University of Cape Town
Department:
Degree: MA
Year: 1965
Keywords: Social Anthropology
Record ID: 1573169
Full text PDF: http://uctscholar.uct.ac.za/PDF/172892_Lawton_A_Volume1.pdf


Abstract

The Bantu people of Southern Africa entered this region from the North in successive migratory waves and advanced to the regions which they, now inhabit. The first of the immigrants crossed the Zambezi at about the beginning of the Christian era. Pottery of a type belonging to the earliest Iron Age traditions, and found north of the Zambezi (Clark 1959), has been found at Zimbabwe where it has, been dated 330 A.D. by radio carbon tests (Robinson 1961b). Contact with different people and new environments resulted in changes in the way of life and material culture of the migrants. These changes became more pronounced and permanent with the settlement of the European in South Africa and are very evident in regard to pottery. We know from the observations of early travellers and anthropologists that pottery used to be made in large quantities throughout Southern Africa.