Saturday, February 27, 2010

Modern and Old Swazi Clay Pots

Part of my work at the Museum is to inventory
cultural objects, such as these clay pots. The two traditional pots were used for storing seeds or grains. The modern pots were made by a woman named Cass Mamba, who started a program to hire Swazi women to create new/old pots to help them earn money. The museum has a large and fine collection of the Hawu pots, which are not made anymore. I need to go call on this woman, and document the work she did before it passes away into unknown history. Clay pots can be found far back in African prehistory, and are important to archaeologists, historians and the like due to their unique styles. James and I are reading quite a bit about ceramics, because sherds were found with the bones he is working on. If we can identify the stylistic patterns found on the sherds, it is possible to have a rough idea about the ethnic group that made the pots (it is probable they pre-dated the Swazi people) and perhaps a time range. We will talk about this in other posts.










2 comments:

Mom said...

Love the clay pots especially the ones with colorful painted designs. Did the women use paint or are they stains that they made themselves from plants, flowers, etc ? That would be very interesting, and would add to the history of the pot collection,if you could interview the woman who started that group.

Anonymous said...

You are right, there, mumsy. I should make time to interview Cass, but unfortunately, there is not enough time. I think the colors are paint, because the color is so strong and rich. I am going to suggest to the museum, that they use the pots in a small room that is currently empty.