Ceramic Technology, Production and Use in an Urban Settlement on the Middle Nile

Excavations in the ancient town of Hamadab (Sudan) have revealed a large urban settlement of the 3rd century B.C. to 4th century A.D. – a once thriving neighbour to Meroe, the capital of Kush. As one of the few well-researched habitation sites in the region, Hamadab has revealed new insights on the way of life in a past African community about 2000 years ago. Archaeological investigations in the town, and particularly of pottery kilns and domestic houses, yielded large quantities of ceramics which provide important categories of data suitable for exploring the role of pottery in craft production and everyday life. They form the basis for an empirical analysis of production technologies and ceramic use; research topics that remain little studied in the archaeology of the Middle Nile region. By evaluating a large ceramic corpus from Hamadab, this book defines, for the first time, a Late Meroitic domestic assemblage. Kiln remains and household ceramics were analysed towards the economic and domestic activities in a Kushite settlement, using the broad potentials of ceramic analysis, such as archaeometric fabric analyses, contextual approaches, use wear traces and ethnoarchaeological observations. The evaluation of scientifically defined fabric groups also incorporates ceramics from the excavations at the Royal Baths in Meroe, which allows for a wider spectrum in studying the changes in Kushite ceramic technology, raw material selection and clay preparation. This book thus provides an important methodological and thematic reference for a Meroitic living assemblage and the analytical basis for understanding wider socio-cultural phenomena in the region.Mit der Untersuchung eines umfangreichen Keramikkorpus aus Hamadab, einer antiken Stadt im Mittleren Niltal, wird ein grundlegender Beitrag zur Erforschung der meroitischen Keramik geleistet. Die systematische Auswertung von Fehlbränden aus einem Töpferofen und von Haushaltskeramik des 2. bis 4. Jh. n. Chr. eröffnet neue Perspektiven zum Verständnis der Herstellungstechniken und der Verwendung von Keramikgefäßen im Lebensalltag altafrikanischer Siedlungen. Wichtige methodische Grundlagen für zukünftige Studien liefert dabei die Anwendung verschiedener Analysemethoden, wie archäometrische Materialanalysen, sowie die Einbeziehung kontextueller Zusammenhänge und ethnoarchäologischer Beobachtungen, die in ihrer Zusammenschau zur Rekonstruktion der antiken Lebensumstände beitragen.