The Garonga ceramic assemblage

Abstract

Garonga is an Early Iron Age site in north-eastern South Africa. Ceramic decoration on sherds from the site seems to combine elements of the two traditions that appear in the subcontinent near the beginning of the first millennium AD, that is, the Urewe and Kalundu traditions. This combination of decorative styles contradicts the application of any simplistic, compartmentalised culture history sequence to our understanding of Iron Age sequences. The merger reflects an on-going social dynamism operating at the level of the individual potters or subgroups within the larger community. Further, it is illustrative of one way in which changes in ceramic style trajectories could originate.