Ethnoarchaeological Pottery Traditions in North Wollo, Ethiopia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper will review the ethnoarchaeological context of ceramic production in North Wollo, Ethiopia, and trace changes to ceramic traditions influenced by sociopolitical factors, with implications for archaeological reconnaissance and research. This research is a part of the broader Solomonic-Zagwe Encounters Project and its ongoing efforts to, in part, re-evaluate pottery from the post-Askumite period. Much of the pottery analyses from northern Ethiopia have followed a simple typological model of vessel form and color. Often, this has been a descriptive exercise with little interpretation of broader archaeological significance. Ethnographic research of contemporary pottery production, almost exclusively in the Tigray region, however, has been more robust, correlating attributes like temper to geographical origins and technical and social factors. This paper presents complimentary research from Gannata Maryam in the Zagwe Dynasty heartland. The research highlights how 20th-century politics influenced pottery production with implications for current field surveying, how local potters view technical choices like temper, and describes rarely recognized potting techniques. All these aspects contribute to more meaningfully engaging with pottery as an archaeological resource in post-Aksumite Ethiopia.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41602.0