The effects of ceramic manufacturing behaviour on identifying clay sources: petrographic and chemical analyses of the modern Zulu ceramic production process in the Thukela River Basin, South Africa

This thesis aims to evaluate the compositional changes that occur when raw clays are transformed into finished vessels, and how these compositional changes impact provenance research. Petrographic and chemical techniques are used to analyse clays at each stage in the production sequence used by Zulu...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Middleton, Emma C.
Other Authors: Fowler, Kent (Anthropology)
Published: 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1993/8351
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spelling ndltd-LACETR-oai-collectionscanada.gc.ca-MWU.1993-83512014-03-29T03:44:45Z The effects of ceramic manufacturing behaviour on identifying clay sources: petrographic and chemical analyses of the modern Zulu ceramic production process in the Thukela River Basin, South Africa Middleton, Emma C. Fowler, Kent (Anthropology) Fayek, Mostafa (Geological Sciences) Greenfield, Haskel (Anthropology) Davidson-Hunt, Iain (Natural Resources Institute) archaeology ceramic characterization provenance South Africa This thesis aims to evaluate the compositional changes that occur when raw clays are transformed into finished vessels, and how these compositional changes impact provenance research. Petrographic and chemical techniques are used to analyse clays at each stage in the production sequence used by Zulu potters in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The results of this research demonstrate that tempering behaviour, particularly the mixing of clays, can significantly alter the composition of ceramic vessels, depending on the ratio of clay types. The provenance of mixed clays and vessels can be determined when the range of variation between clay sources is known. Different ratios of constituent clays significantly affect the composition of finished vessels. 2012-08-16T15:23:45Z 2012-08-16T15:23:45Z 2012-08-16 http://hdl.handle.net/1993/8351
collection NDLTD
sources NDLTD
topic archaeology
ceramic characterization
provenance
South Africa
spellingShingle archaeology
ceramic characterization
provenance
South Africa
Middleton, Emma C.
The effects of ceramic manufacturing behaviour on identifying clay sources: petrographic and chemical analyses of the modern Zulu ceramic production process in the Thukela River Basin, South Africa
description This thesis aims to evaluate the compositional changes that occur when raw clays are transformed into finished vessels, and how these compositional changes impact provenance research. Petrographic and chemical techniques are used to analyse clays at each stage in the production sequence used by Zulu potters in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The results of this research demonstrate that tempering behaviour, particularly the mixing of clays, can significantly alter the composition of ceramic vessels, depending on the ratio of clay types. The provenance of mixed clays and vessels can be determined when the range of variation between clay sources is known. Different ratios of constituent clays significantly affect the composition of finished vessels.
author2 Fowler, Kent (Anthropology)
author_facet Fowler, Kent (Anthropology)
Middleton, Emma C.
author Middleton, Emma C.
author_sort Middleton, Emma C.
title The effects of ceramic manufacturing behaviour on identifying clay sources: petrographic and chemical analyses of the modern Zulu ceramic production process in the Thukela River Basin, South Africa
title_short The effects of ceramic manufacturing behaviour on identifying clay sources: petrographic and chemical analyses of the modern Zulu ceramic production process in the Thukela River Basin, South Africa
title_full The effects of ceramic manufacturing behaviour on identifying clay sources: petrographic and chemical analyses of the modern Zulu ceramic production process in the Thukela River Basin, South Africa
title_fullStr The effects of ceramic manufacturing behaviour on identifying clay sources: petrographic and chemical analyses of the modern Zulu ceramic production process in the Thukela River Basin, South Africa
title_full_unstemmed The effects of ceramic manufacturing behaviour on identifying clay sources: petrographic and chemical analyses of the modern Zulu ceramic production process in the Thukela River Basin, South Africa
title_sort effects of ceramic manufacturing behaviour on identifying clay sources: petrographic and chemical analyses of the modern zulu ceramic production process in the thukela river basin, south africa
publishDate 2012
url http://hdl.handle.net/1993/8351
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