Cascadden, Lyons, Paris 2020

AZANIA: ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN AFRICA
2020, VOL. 55, NO. 1, 69–96

https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2020.1721842
On the surface: an ethnoarchaeological study of marginalised

pottery production and the social context of pottery surface
treatments in Tigray Regional State, northern highland
Ethiopia
Zoe Cascadden, Diane Lyons and Elizabeth Paris
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, T2N1N4 Canada
ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Pottery surface treatments are considered essential to Received 7 July 2019
waterproofing and strengthening low-fired porous pots, and they Accepted 20 August 2019
add characteristic elements of colour and texture to pottery
KEYWORDS
assemblages. However, surface treatments do not receive the pottery surface treatments;
same attention as other stages of pottery chaînes opératoires in marginalised potters; chaîne
Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in terms of the social context of opératoire; Tigray; Ethiopia
production, how technological treatments vary across an
assemblage, contribute to flavour and address ecological concerns
and ontological perspectives. This paper presents an
ethnoarchaeological study of the continuum of potter and
customer surface treatments that are applied to pots to specialise
vessels for use in regional culinary practices in three sub-regions
of Tigray Regional state in northern highland Ethiopia. The choice
of surface treatments and their application methods may further
protect consumers from the perceived dangers that society
attributes to these marginalised artisans.
RÉSUMÉ
Les traitements de surface effectués sur les poteries sont souvent
considérés comme essentiels pour imperméabiliser et renforcer
les récipients perméables cuits à basse température, et ils ajoutent
aussi de la couleur et de la texture à tout ensemble céramique.
Cependant, ces traitements de surface n’ont pas reçu la même
attention que les autres étapes de la chaîne opératoire en Afrique
subsaharienne, en particulier pour ce qui est du contexte de
production, ou de la façon dont les traitements technologiques
varient au sein d’un ensemble céramique, contribuent au goût, ou
adressent des préoccupations écologiques et des perspectives
ontologiques. Cet article présente une étude ethnoarchéologique
des traitements de surface effectués sur les pots par les potières
et leurs clients visant à préparer ces récipients pour un usage
culinaire spécialisé dans trois sous-régions de l’état régional de
Tigray, dans les hautes terres du nord de l’Éthiopie. Le choix des
traitements de surface et des méthodes pour leur application
peut, en fait, protéger les clients des dangers associés à ces
artisans marginalisés.
CONTACT Diane Lyons dlyons@ucalgary.ca

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
70 Z. CASCADDEN ET AL.
Introduction
Potters’ technological choices are situated within broader societal, ecological and historical
relations. Here we address surface treatments that are applied by contemporary potters
and their customers to low-fired pottery assemblages in Tigray Regional State, northern
highland Ethiopia. Low-fired pottery (under 1000°C) is porous and fragile and potters
worldwide apply surface treatments to such pots to make them function (Rye 1974;
Arnold 1985: 140; Rice 1987; Skibo et al. 1997; Skibo 2013). The most common surface
treatments reported for ethnographic and ancient low-fired pottery include burnishing
(polishing), slipping, organic applications of smudging and the use of resins, starches
and fats to coat the entire interior and/or exterior vessel surfaces (Rice 1987; Skibo
et al. 1997: 312, 313; Arthur 2006). These treatments seal and strengthen vessel walls
and contribute to the material identities of both potters and consumers (Frank 1993,
1998; Croucher and Wynne-Jones 2006; Skibo and Schiffer 2008).
Unfortunately, surface treatments, particularly post-firing organic applications, are
unevenly documented in Africa (Diallo et al. 1995; Gosselain and Livingstone Smith
1995: 156; Gosselain 2002) and often omit consumer practices. This oversight is significant
for at least three reasons. First, organic treatments are evidence of how potters and con-
sumers (who are often women) develop a body of technological knowledge of the proper-
ties of local and traded plants that improve the flavour, functionality, sanitation and
aesthetics of pottery assemblages. Second, many residues, especially tree resins, beeswax,
animal fats and plant oils, absorb into vessel surfaces and can be recovered from archae-
ological specimens using chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques (e.g. Heron
and Evershed 1993; Roffet-Salque et al. 2017; Reber et al. 2019) that provide information
on trade networks, vessel specialisation (Roffet-Salque et al. 2017) and subsistence strat-
egies (Dunne et al. 2019). Third, surface treatments are shaped by the social, ontological
and material contexts of pottery production and consumption that can contribute to our
understanding of how different groups of people constitute social relationships in material
practice.
In this paper we compare surface treatments in three sub-regions of potter and consu-
mer communities located in villages near the towns of Edaga Hamus in the Eastern Zone
(Misraqawi), near Yeha in the Central Zone (Mehakelegnaw), and near Selekeleka in the
Northwestern Zone (Semien Mi’irabawi) of Tigray Regional State (Figure 1). Although
potter communities in each of the three study areas have a distinct technological style,
all potters produce a similar assemblage of vessels to prepare a common highland
cuisine of bread, beer, dairy products, coffee and stews made of meat, vegetables,
legumes and pulses. In Tigray and many other societies in Ethiopia and across Sub-
Saharan Africa, pottery-making is a despised craft and potters are socially marginalised
or form endogamous castes (Sterner and David 1991; Frank 1998; Freeman and Pankhurst
2003; Arthur 2006, 2014; Lyons 2014; Wayessa 2016). In northern Ethiopia, the act of
embodying pottery and other craft knowledge and skill is perceived by society as demean-
ing, spiritually and physically polluting, and dangerous to the potter, her children, other
people and the fertility of the land (Lyons 2014). Non-potters must purchase their pots
from potters in the market, and while consumers do not make pots, they routinely alter
pottery surfaces with organic treatments to ready pots for cooking and perhaps to
purify them. The advantage of exploring surface treatments across an assemblage of
AZANIA: ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN AFRICA 71
Figure 1. Map of the Tigray region of Ethiopia showing the location of the places mentioned in the
text.
pots and across the producer/consumer divide at a regional scale is that it provides a more
holistic approach to surface treatments and a richer understanding of sub-regional and
regional practices that arise from the differential relationship of potters and consumers
in northern Tigray. Marginalised contexts of pottery production are not unique to
Tigray and this paper provides a comparative study for research in other areas.
Data presented were collected in three ethnoarchaeology projects directed over five
seasons by Lyons between 2007 and 2015, that investigated the social and material
context of pottery production in northern Tigray (see Lyons 2007, 2014; Lyons and
Freeman 2009; Harlow 2011; Lyons et al. 2018). One important goal of this study is to deter-
mine the similarities and differences in pottery chaînes opératoires in the three sub-regions
as part of regional and sub-regional identity-making. This information can provide a greater
understanding of the social history of the region. Lyons et al. (2018) previously reported on
clay and temper selection, paste preparation and the results of Neutron Activation Analysis
(NAA) of fired pottery samples from the three study areas, which demonstrate clear ceramic
compositional distinctions among them. Here, we present data on surface treatments
applied to pottery by potters and consumers in each region and additional XRF analysis con-
ducted by Elizabeth Paris (University of Calgary) on a small sample from the northwestern
study area to test if very thin slips used by these potters can be chemically distinguished from
vessel fabric. The results of our study demonstrate that potter communities in each sub-
region use distinct surface treatments to waterproof and strengthen pots, while customers
apply a different series of surface treatments based in regional scale technologies used for
culinary purposes and possibly to protect against perceived dangers posed by potters. The
results of this study further contribute to the material distinctions of pottery practices in
the three sub-regions. Comparative analyses of other stages of the chaîne opératoire in
these three study areas are forthcoming.
Surface treatments: previous studies

Although surface treatments are not well described in Sub-Saharan Africa, these practices
are the subject of ethnographic, experimental and archaeological research elsewhere. Not
all porous pottery surfaces are treated. Experimental and ethnoarchaeological studies of
water storage pots suggest that untreated surfaces of low-fired pots can have an evapora-
tive cooling effect on stored water (Rice 1987; Young and Stone 1990), although this effect
varies with environment and societal preference (Warfe 2016).
However, some types of vessel surfaces must be sealed. Skibo (2013: 48; Skibo et al.
1997: 316) advises that surface treatments applied to waterproof pots used to boil water
are so essential that archaeologists should assume that low-fired cooking pots were
coated with organic surface treatments or other impermeable barriers. Controlled exper-
iments show that the application of organic surface treatments and other barriers that
cover the interior and/or exterior surfaces of cooking pots have a major impact on
heating efficiency by reducing or eliminating the loss of heat passing through vessel
walls, thus reducing fuel costs, an important consideration where fuel is scarce (Rye
1974; Arnold 1985: 140; Skibo and Schiffer 1987; Schiffer 1990; Schiffer et al. 1994;
Harry and Frink 2009; Harry et al. 2009; Skibo 2013).
Experimental and ethnoarchaeological analyses of specific surface treatments are
salient to the study presented here and are summarised below.
Resins and oils

Plant resins are used worldwide to waterproof pots, but because resins come from a broad
range of species Skibo et al. (1997) advise that different resins should be tested indepen-
dently to determine how they affect vessel permeability. In experiments, interior pot sur-
faces treated with varnish, pine resin (Agathis philippinesis) used by Kalinga potters in the
Philippines, and commercial vegetable oil (PAM) all rendered vessels impermeable, but
those treated with resin had the best heating effectiveness (Schiffer 1990; Schiffer et al.
1994). Skibo (2013: 50) found that when resin wore off cooking pots, Kalinga women
could no longer use them to boil water. Applying vegetable oil or resin to interior surfaces
also increased vessel strength by reducing vessel porosity, as would any organic treatment
that absorbs into vessel walls (Schiffer et al. 1994: 204). The significance of surface
treatments for waterproofing and transferring heat to the vessel interior is demonstrated in
a study of unfired Alaskan cooking pots (Harry et al. 2009). Unfired clay pots could boil
water and transfer heat effectively when interior and exterior surfaces were coated with
seal blood and seal oil.
In a rare chemical study of African surface treatments, Diallo et al. (1995) surveyed
potters in 21 Cameroon ethnic groups to determine the chemical constituents of the
resins of four plant species used on hot vessels that potters claimed made vessels stronger
and impermeable and added colour. Chemical analyses of solutions made from the bark of
Bridelia ferruginea and Bridelia micranthra had high levels of a group of tannins called
procyanidins, which, when heated, produce products that coat clay and improve imperme-
ability and heating effectiveness (Diallo et al. 1995: 96; Gosselain and Livingstone Smith
1995; Gosselain 2002: 183).
Smudging, slipping and burnishing

Smudging is a common waterproofing application at the end of vessel firing that deposits
carbon in vessel walls. Rogers (1980) found that smudging with grasses, bark and
especially animal dung causes a chemical reaction at temperatures of between 310°C
and 380°C that produces furfural in a gaseous state, which deeply and irreversibly pene-
trates porous vessel walls making them impermeable, while contributing bactericidal and
fungicidal benefits. Other waterproofing barriers include slips and burnish. Slips are made
of fine clay particles suspended in water that are applied for colour and, if applied over
entire vessel bodies, can provide waterproofing (Arnold 1985). Burnishing (or polishing)
involves rubbing surfaces with a hard, smooth object when the pot is leather hard or dry.
This has the effect of compressing surface clay, closing pores and producing a smooth
surface. In experiments, exterior surface treatments — smudge, slip and burnish —
were almost as impermeable as resins (Schiffer 1990: 378).
Combinations of surface treatments

Multiple treatments can have an additive effect to produce desired vessel characteristics. In
the Philippines, Longacre et al. (2000) found that all potter communities in their study
used the same clay and temper sources and applied an iron-rich red slip to exterior sur-
faces, but that one group also smudged their vessels, producing shiny black pots. Potters
claimed that the black surface had no meaning, but it attracted customers with its beauty
and reputation for strength. Experiments showed that, while smudging reduced vessel per-
meability, the combination of smudging and red slip increased the pots’ impermeability
and heating effectiveness when compared to those that received only one of these treat-
ments, but there was no evidence that smudging increased vessel strength (Longacre
et al. 2000). However, Skibo et al. (1997) found that surface treatments of either resin
(Agathis philippinesis) or smudging were highly resistant to abrasion, a major cause of
vessel failure.
While studies of cooking and water pots are important, vessels used in dry-roasting,
slow-cooking, fermentation, liquid storage and baking may require different surface treat-
ments. It is important to consider here that potters and their customers develop a range of
surface treatments to modify an assemblage of pots suited for specific and changing
culinary practices. In addition to waterproofing, pots are part of cuisine and clay minerals
contribute flavour to food (e.g. Arnold 1985; Lyons 2007; Giblin and Remigius 2012: 7).
However, women in Tigray also use plant-based surface treatments for flavour, further
specialising pottery for specific culinary products.
Significantly, Gosselain (2002) suggests that surface treatments are contiguous with
Sub-Saharan people’s understanding of reality. He conducted ethnoarchaeological
experiments with pots in northern Cameroon and concluded that waterproofing
effects of surface treatments were overrated. He then compared descriptions of Sub-
Saharan pottery surface treatments in the ethnographic literature and concluded that
they are symbolic (or more accurately, metonymic, see Schmidt 2010) in that pots
and people were treated with similar medicinal surface applications to effect similar
results. Gosselain (2002) identified five organic application techniques used in Sub-
Saharan Africa: (1) coating with a solid or liquid solution, (2) resin applications, (3)
rubbing organic materials into surfaces, (4) smoking/smudging and spraying and (5)
soaking pots with water. Unfortunately, this classification is difficult to use to
compare social groups or regions because more than one of these practices can be
applied to the same vessel, and because different applications are applied to different
vessel types within the same assemblage.
The study areas

Northern Tigray has a rugged topography with elevations ranging from 3100 m a.s.l. in the
eastern study area to 1700m a.s.l. in the northwest. Rural household economies are based
in keeping small numbers of cattle, sheep, goat and chickens and cultivating cereals,
legumes, and vegetables. All three areas are largely deforested and farm yields are impacted
by soil erosion, lack of rain and small land holdings per household. A total of 122 potters
was interviewed in the three study areas. All were Tigrinya-speakers and members of the
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Additional interviews were conducted with
potters in markets and with administrators and farmer-consumers. All stages of pottery
chaîne opératoire were observed and documented and the data presented here represents
only a small portion of the overall research.
Pottery-making is the occupation of very poor women, who learn their skills as adults
from neighbours or relatives when faced with dire economic circumstances. In doing so,
they are stigmatised and subjected to societal avoidance practices, including prohibitions
against intermarriage, they are spatially segregated in social gatherings and in markets, and
they are denied access to pottery resources. None of the potters studied formed endoga-
mous castes, but until the end of the twentieth century potters living in Ebalay near Sele-
keleka were members of the Beta Israel caste. The Beta Israel, derogatorily called Falasha
or Kayla, were a highland Jewish sub-group who made crafts for income, but most Beta
Israel, including those in Ebalay, were evacuated to Israel during and at the end of the
Ethiopian Civil War of 1974–1991. The Beta Israel were widely perceived by society to
be ‘buda’, people who possess ‘evil-eyes’ with which they caused disease and misfortune,
a capacity sometimes attributed to contemporary potters. Despite proscriptions, Beta
Israel potters taught poor Christian women in Ebalay and Akatsl how to make pots and
their students now produce pottery for market, claiming to use the same clay and
temper sources and technological style as their former teachers. Although recent
government policy has reduced prejudice, potters stated that they continue to experience
insults from neighbours and customers, remain undesirable marriage partners, and are
often restricted from accessing clay and fuel, forcing them to ‘steal’ these resources at
risk of violence (see Lyons and Freeman 2009; Lyons 2014; Lyons et al. 2018). Farmers
blame potters for soil erosion, degradation of grazing lands and for stealing other
people’s resources for their own profit (Lyons and Freeman 2009).
Contemporary potters, customers and surface treatments

The three sub-regional wares are identified by surface treatments that provide colour and
texture: eastern unburnished black ware, central burnished orange ware and northwestern
slipped red ware. All the potters produce a similar assemblage of pots for a similar regional
cuisine (see Lyons and D’Andrea 2003; Lyons 2007) that can be sub-categorised into the
following specialised types:
(1) griddles for bread baking and grain roasting;

(2) cooking bowls for simmering stews;
(3) cooking pots for boiling cereals, beans, lentils, peas and vegetables;
(4) beer pots for fermenting, brewing and serving (not used over heat);
(5) dairy pots for churning milk and storing butter, yogurt, cheese and fermented milk;
(6) coffee pots;
(7) water storage pots (water carrying pots are replaced almost entirely by plastic
containers);
(8) large basins used for different purposes including processing food, washing clothes,
feeding animals and tanning hides.
Clay incense burners, portable stoves and braziers are not included in this study as they
do not contain food and their surface treatments are decorative. Small pots to store con-
diments are also excluded. Potters in all three areas specialise in producing vessels (atro),
griddles (mogogo) and cooking bowls (tsahale) or coffee pots (jebena). Surface treatments
are discussed for each region by potter and vessel specialisation. Customers apply
additional treatments that further specialise vessels for preparing culinary products
using a variety of plant-based applications. Table 1 summarises the surface treatments
applied by potters and consumers in the three study areas.
Eastern Tigray: unburnished blackware

Vessels
Potters in eastern Tigray are concentrated in a cluster of villages located east of the market
town of Edaga Hamus (Figure 1). Eastern blackware is smudged, an effective water-
proofing practice that turns pots black. The eastern study area has the highest elevation
of the three sub-regions, a factor that increases fuel costs in boiling food. Researchers
(Rye 1976; Arnold 1985) claim that darker vessels absorb more heat than lighter coloured
pots, thereby reducing fuel costs, although this was not mentioned by potters or
consumers.
Table 1. Surface treatments applied by sub-region, vessel specialisation and stage of production and
consumption.
Eastern Tigray (Edaga Hamus) Central Tigray (Yeha) Northwestern Tigray (Selekeleka)
Griddles pre-fire: burnish with
(mogogo) succulent (hehot) using
pebble en kor koro
fire: smudged black fire: smudged black
post bisque fire: red slip with oil
applied with cloth to cooking surface;
burnished with plastic bead bracelet &
oil
post second fire:
black smudge dot decoration
season: oily seeds (flax, season: oily seeds (mustard) season: oily seeds (mustard/castor
sunflower, mustard) bean)
Cooking bowls pre-fire: burnish cooking pre-fire: burnish pre-fire: red slip with oil applied with
for simmering surface using smooth pebble cloth to cooking surface and below the
(tsahale) en kor koro rim on the exterior surface; burnish
with plastic bead bracelet and oil
post-firing: smudged
season: oily seeds (flax, season: oily seeds (flax, season: oily seeds (mustard, castor
sunflower, mustard) mustard) bean)
Cooking pots for pre-fire: burnish interior and pre-fire: exterior red slip without oil,
boiling exterior surfaces using interior surface burnished with smooth
(various) smooth pebble maahk’oka pebble eminee beret
post-fire: smudged
season: coat interior surface season: sibco (tef, barley or season: sunko (tef or finger millet
with cereal paste, smoke finger millet porridge) porridge)
with olive, acacia and
koronet wood
Beer pots pre-fire: burnished interior
(various) and exterior surfaces using
maahk’oka
post-fire: smudged post-fire: latex (quelqual) post-fire: interior and exterior surfaces
with resin (kinchicha)
season: coat interior surface season: fill with beer or season: smoke with olive wood
with cereal paste, smoke water for three days,
with olive, seraw, koronet smoke with olive, seraw,
wood tambok, kulio
Dairy vessels pre-fire: large pots
(various) burnished interior &
exterior surfaces using
maahk’oka
post-fire: smudged post-fire: sibco
season: smoke with olive, season: smoke with olive, season: sunko, smoke with olive wood
seraw, koronet wood seraw, aftuh, tambok, kulio
wood
Coffee pots pre-fire: burnish exterior pre-fire: red slip without oil
( jebena) surface
post-fire: smudged black
season: coffee residue season: coffee residue or season: coffee or sunko boiled dry, rub
sibco boiled dry coffee grounds on exterior surface
Water pots pre-fire: burnished interior
(atro) and exterior surfaces using
maahk’oka
post-fire: smudged post-fire: latex (quelqual) post-fire: coat exterior and interior
surfaces with resin (kinchicha), smoke
with olive
season: water or sibco season: smoke with olive
Large basins pre-fire: burnish interior pre-fire: burnish interior &
(zubdee/ surface exterior surfaces with
wincheti) maahk’oka
post-fire: smudged post-fire: quelqual or sibco post-fire: exterior and interior surfaces
with resin (kinchicha)
At the end of firing, pottery is covered with dry and powdered cow, goat and/or sheep
dung, straw and any available plant material until they combust. A thick layer (10–20 cm)
of charred soil is shovelled over the pottery from a deposit that surrounds the firing
depression and pots smudge overnight (Figure 2). Vessels are pulled hot from the
smudge and the external body surface is smeared with fresh cow dung, which potters
said cooled the pots and kept soot from marking them on the way to market. Pots that
do not turn black are fired and smudged again. Potters and customers consistently
stated that people only want black pots in this area, while many women suggested that
orange and red pots would break on the fire (Lyons et al. 2018).
Before first use, customers season cooking pots (used on the fire for boiling) and large
beer pots (never used on the fire) by coating their interior surfaces with a paste made of
water and the flour of any cereal crop. The pot interior is then smoked by inverting it over
smouldering pieces of aromatic wood (Figure 3). Certain kinds of wood are available
locally, or non-local wood may be purchased in small pieces from market sellers. Wood
species used include awlie (olive) (Olea europaea L.), seraw (Acacia ethbaica) and a
local wood called koronet. Smoking takes about one hour until the pot is hot to the
touch and the interior turns permanently black. It is unclear without further testing if
this process produces a smudge, but residue from the cereal paste and some carbon
would fill interior surface pores, increasing vessel strength and impermeability. Beer
pots are then filled with beer for three days introducing additional organic residue into
vessel pores, after which the beer is consumed or thrown out and the process repeated.
Women stated that the treatment gives the pot a ‘good smell’ and imparts desired
flavours to food and beer. Women also stated that if this treatment is not applied to the
largest beer pot (ganee), it will break. Dairy vessels are smoked before each use with the
Figure 2. Smudging vessels in the eastern sub-region of the study area (photograph Diane Lyons).
Figure 3. Smoking pots before first use in the eastern sub-region of the study area (photograph Diane
Lyons).
same aromatic wood used for cooking and beer pots, in order to sanitise, flavour and
improve the smell of milk churns and other dairy processing and storage pots. Women
were adamant that the churn must be smoked before every use to ensure a good smell
and flavour. Olea europaea is the most commonly used wood to smoke dairy vessels in
Ethiopia and it has been demonstrated that this practice does indeed prevent spoilage,
improve flavour and extend the shelf-life of fermented milk products (Ashenafi 1996;
Mekonnen and Lemma 2011; Tesfemariam Berhe et al. 2017).
Griddles and cooking bowls

Usually the same market specialist makes griddles and cooking bowls using the same paste
and smudging practices. Griddles (mogogo) are used to bake injera, the staple spongy
pancake bread, as well as other unleavened and leavened bread, and to roast grains (see
Lyons and D’Andrea 2003). Griddles are fired over purpose-made circular pits that
hold the griddle about 10 cm above the dung fuel source, creating a reduced atmosphere
that smudges the surface black. Prior to firing, potters crush the leaves of a succulent
(Rumex nervosus Vahl.), locally called hehot, and burnish it into the dry cooking
surface using a smooth pebble called en kor koro (‘egg’). This treatment produces a
black shiny surface once fired. Customers create a stick-free baking surface by heating
the griddle with a mass of crushed seeds of flax (Linum usitatissimum L.), sunflower
(Helianthus annus) and mustard (Brassica rapa L.). Some women also include hehot in
the oily mix. The surface is lubricated with these same oily seeds before and during
every baking episode to maintain the stick-free surface. The cooking surface of the
cooking bowl (tsahale) is similarly treated by first burnishing the cooking surface before
firing, and then seasoning the pot with the same oily seeds used on the griddle to create
a stick-free surface to simmer stews.
Coffee pots
Coffee pots are made of the same paste as vessels and are smudged. Unlike other vessels
used over the fire, coffee pots are seated in a bed of hot charcoal placed in a small stand.
Customers season coffee pots with coffee residue that is left to absorb into the interior
walls as the pot heats.
Central Tigray: burnished orangewares

Central orange ware is characterised by burnished orange — and sometimes small black —
shiny pots. Vessel-makers are located in Adi Keshi near Yeha; coffee pot-makers are con-
centrated south of Yeha near Adinfas (Figure 1).
Vessels
Vessel-makers use the same paste for all vessel types. Once vessels are leather hard, their
surfaces are wiped with a wet cloth and burnished with a smooth pebble called a maah-
k’oka, a time-consuming process. Open mouth pots are burnished on both the interior
and exterior surfaces, while closed neck vessels are burnished on exterior surfaces only.
All large pots that are not intended for cooking (beer pots and water pots) are treated
immediately after firing with quelqual, unadulterated latex from Euphorbia candelabrum.
Potters cut the euphorbia stock with a knife, collect the latex in a container and close the
wound to stop the flow. Vessels are pulled hot from the fire, pure latex is poured into each
pot and the potter uses her hands to coat the inside and outside surfaces (Figure 4). Pots
are left to dry in the sun and the latex absorbs into the walls to create a glaze-like surface.
Euphorbia candelabrum latex contains rubber (Uzabakiliho et al. 1987), providing water-
proofing benefits. Potters stated that quelqual strengthens the pot, with one potter describ-
ing the coating as ‘like plastic’ and that ‘it sticks the inside and the outside of the pot
together’. However, potters warned that quelqual has a bitter taste and that food cooked
in pots with this application will taste bad (very sour), so it is never applied to cooking
or dairy pots, including milk churns that are sometimes used to boil grain.
Customers reduce the quelqual taste by filling new water pots with water and beer pots
with beer, or with a cereal porridge called sibco made of tef, barley or finger millet flours, for
three days. Sibco is a one-time application that fills surface pores and strengthens vessels; it
may also add to the waterproofing and heating efficiency of the already burnished surfaces.
The process removes some of the bitterness, but the taste is said to linger for a long time.
Euphorbia latex is difficult for potters to use and to obtain, a measure of its impor-
tance in vessel production. Several potters warned that euphorbia latex burns the eyes
and any skin wounds, so they need to be careful when using it. One potter claimed to
have suffered permanent eye damage from latex and can no longer make pots that
require it. Obtaining latex is difficult for other reasons. One of the two main euphorbia
groves near Yeha is located on a mountain frequented by hyenas and the other is located
on private land, whose owner refuses the potters permission to tap the latex. Potters said
that the situation forced them to become thieves, taking the latex surreptitiously. These
problems may explain why some potters minimise latex applications to exterior surfaces
only.
Yeha potters referred to changes in their practices over time. Older potters said that
they used to fire with olive wood, which gave the pots a wonderful flavour, but that this
fuel is no longer available. Some recalled strengthening their pots with the ‘sap’ from a
plant called dukduk, which no longer grows locally, but is still used by people in Ahssa,
a market town to the west. Dukduk may be the hindukduk reported by Abraha Teklay
et al. (2013: Table 1) as Euphorbia petitiana A. Rich, a species which produces latex. In
1974, Hervé de Roux (1976: 312) described a single pottery-making episode in Yeha in
which potters used juice extracted from the roots of Malva parviflora, locally called
lehetit (possibly Malva verticillate; see Leul Kidane et al. 2018), that was mixed with
Euphorbia candelabrum latex and applied to the interior and exterior of pots. In 2012,
a resin called kinchicha was sold in local markets and, while Yeha potters knew that it
was resin from either lehay (Acacia lehay) or cha’a (Acacia seyal), they did not use it,
but stated that potters further west did so (see below).
Before first use, customers season cooking pots and dairy pots that are intended to be
used on the fire with sibco. Customers routinely smoke beer and dairy pots with aromatic
wood to maintain the desired smoky flavour and ‘good smell’ using a process identical to
that described for eastern Tigray. Butter is also made as a hair cosmetic and the smoky
smell is a desired scent. Different woods and leaves are locally obtained or purchased in
the market and are used, often in combination, to smoke vessels. These include wood
Figure 4. Latex of Euphorbia candelabrum applied to a beer pot in the central sub-region of the study
area (photograph Diane Lyons).
from olive (Olea europaea L.), seraw (Acacia ethbaica), alendia (Ormocarpum pubescens
(Hochst.), which is only found in the market and is preferred for dairy pots, aftuh (Plum-
bago zeylanica L.), tambok (Croton macrostachyus) hambahambo (Senna singueana
(Delile) Lock) and kulio (Euclearacemosa Murr. subsp. schimperi). The importance of
these treatments for flavour is supported by the recent practice of smoking metal and
plastic containers for the same purpose.
As in eastern Tigray, smoking pots contributes to vessel flavour and to culinary
specialisation. Women stated that one of the primary condiments, berbere paste
(dulukh), used to be kept in small pots that were smoked with cardamom pods, a practice
that completely changed the character of its flavour (Casey 2012: personal communi-
cation). Women also remarked on reusing pots for different purposes and the effect
that this has on pot flavour. Cooking pots used to boil dough to make injera can be
used to boil sauces, but if fenugreek is used to spice the sauce, then the pot can never
again be used for dough because this spice overpowers the flavour of everything
cooked in the pot thereafter. Water and beer pots can be used to cook meat after the
taste of quelqual has dissipated with long use. One potter claimed that meat is delicious
when cooked in an old beer pot, especially if it has been used to make honey wine (tej),
but that once a pot is used to cook meat it cannot be used again to store beer or water
because of the meaty flavour.

Only one woman made griddles in the central study area and most women purchased
griddles brought to markets from other locations. The one griddle-maker smudged the
only griddle observed in production on top of the cooking stove with the cooking
surface inverted over the fuel and the fuel opening closed to create a reduced atmosphere.
When asked about the black colour, the potter stated that griddles always turn black in
cooking, so colour is unimportant (although griddles observed in local markets were
orange or red). The griddle-maker stated that before use the customer heats the griddle
on their stove and burns a layer of dried cow dung on the cooking surface until it turns
to ash. This process is repeated three times. The surface is then covered with crushed
mustard seeds (called maharar) until it is completely burned. Griddles are lubricated
before and during every baking episode thereafter with crushed mustard seed or with
USAID vegetable oil. The cooking bowl was similarly treated, although flax seeds are
used to oil the surface, sunflower not being available in this area.
Coffee pots
Coffee pot exterior surfaces are highly burnished before firing. Before first use, the custo-
mer heats the new pot with old coffee grounds or sibco and boils the mix dry. This gives the
first pot of coffee a different flavour.
Northwestern Tigray: slipped redware

Pottery from the Selekeleka area is distinguished by a dark red matte slip found on vessels,
coffee pots and griddles. Pottery is made by three groups of specialists living in different
communities on the outskirts of Selekeleka: vessel-makers in Ebalay, griddle- and cooking

bowl-makers in Akatsl and coffee pot-makers in Madelba (Figure 1). Contemporary
potters are Christian women, but they are perceived by their customers to produce the
same quality of pots as their Beta Israel teachers because they learned their skills and
use their clay sources.
There are no ethnographic descriptions of Beta Israel pottery-making in Ebalay, but
there are descriptions of Beta Israel making pottery near Gondar before the Civil War
(Messing 1957a, 1957b; Simoons 1960; Cassiers 1971). Messing (1957b: 188) states
that Falasha potters burnished vessels to a ‘tight and slightly shiny surface’ and
applied organic forms of waterproofing, a process called mamuashat. Waterproofing
included the application of a cow-dung slip to the exterior surface of dry pots that
was burnished after firing with a necklace of imported blue glass beads called doqa.
Customers further waterproofed pots by heating them and coating the interior
surface with milk (or yeast) and they continued to treat the interior surfaces of
cooking, beer and water pots by smoking them with specific aromatic woods that
removed sour smells. Baking plates/griddles were burnished by customers with
crushed noog (Guizotia abyssinica) seeds and before and during each baking
episode the griddle surface was rubbed with ketketa (Dodonea viscosa) leaves or the
latex of Euphorbia candelabrum depending on environmental availability, although
the latter observation conflicts with Yeha potters’ warnings that latex makes cooked
food taste bad. Both Cassiers (1971) and Simoons (1960) describe the application of
red slips that were made black by either smudging or rubbing hot vessels with pods
of the galaba plant (identified in Seelger 1983: 198–199 as Maesa lanceolata Forsk),
possibly augmenting waterproofing and heating effectiveness as Longacre et al.
(2000) found with slips and smudges in the Philippines. Simoons (1960) and Cassiers
(1971) refer generally to seasoning pots with milk, butter or flour and noog-oil seed
porridges to waterproof them.
Vessels
Vessel makers in Ebalay use the same paste for all vessels, but the slip clay comes from a
different source than the clays used for the vessel fabric. Slip clay is called guila, a fine red
clay collected from termite mounds in the Adi Kayeti area north of Selekeleka and from
other sources that were not located in the field. Termite mound soil is used widely in
Africa for potter clay because termites sort the fine particles and their mounds tend to
be enriched with clay minerals (Nicklin 1979: 438; Mahaney et al. 1999: 584). Selekeleka
potters stated that guila is hard to collect because landholders refuse them permission, so
they are forced to take it surreptitiously. Guila is mixed with water into a very thin slip that
is applied with a cloth and rubbed onto all vessel exterior surfaces when leather hard; the
slip turns dark red in firing. Potters stated that slip is applied for colour, vessel strength
and waterproofing.
The exterior surfaces of cooking pots used for boiling are also slipped, while the
interiors are burnished (a process called mi’hr’kok) using a smooth pebble called eminee
beret (‘ice stone’), and coated with USAID vegetable oil. Customers season pots that are
intended for use on the fire (cooking pot for boiling, coffee pots) with sunko, a porridge
or soup made of cereal flours of tef or finger millet, that is boiled in the pot and then
splashed onto the vessel exterior for waterproofing. In this region, milk is churned in a
gourd and not a clay pot.
Beer pots, water storage pots and large basins are not intended for use over the fire and
their interior and exterior surfaces are coated with kinchicha, although basins can also be
treated with sunko. Kinchicha is resin from Acacia lehay that extrudes along branches and
stems and is collected and boiled in water to form a pinkish coloured mass. The mass is
pressed into different sized ‘loaves’ that harden and are sold in the pottery section of the
market (Figure 5). Potters stated that without kinchicha the pots will leak, so potters apply
it or tell their customers to do so before first use. Kinchicha is applied to hot vessels either
directly after firing or by heating the pot on the kitchen stove. A lump of kinchicha is
melted in the pot and applied with a cloth to the interior and exterior surfaces. When
dry, the kinchicha creates a shiny hard surface that potters claimed strengthens and water-
proofs the pot. Melted kinchicha is a super-glue so women take care not to get the resin on
their hands. Kinchicha is applied only once, but unlike quelqual it has no flavour and
requires no further treatment before use. Unfortunately, we were unable to get infor-
mation on routine post-firing treatments for Selekeleka vessels, but a few potters stated
that customers smoke the interior of water and beer pots with olive wood to give them
a good smell and flavour.

Akatsl griddle-makers fire griddles twice on a purpose-made firebox: a short bisque firing
to strengthen the griddle and a final firing. After bisque firing, potters use a cloth to apply a
thin clay slip onto the cooking surface. The slip is made of dark red clay from a source in
Figure 5. Kinchicha for sale in the market (photograph Diane Lyons).

Figure 6. Red slip applied to griddle surface in the northwestern sub-region of the study area using
oiled plastic beads (photograph Diane Lyons).
Akatsl, mixed with water and a small amount of USAID vegetable oil. Oil is only added to
slip used on griddles and cooking bowls and never to slip used on vessels for reasons that
were unclear. The slipped surface is then burnished with a small bracelet of mainly blue
plastic beads oiled with USAID vegetable oil until smooth and shiny (Figure 6). The
red slip mixed with oil, and the use of blue beads to burnish, are both reminiscent of
earlier ethnographic descriptions of Falasha pottery-making near Gondar.
In the second firing the griddle is positioned with the slipped side to the fire. When
firing is completed, the griddle is placed cooking surface side down onto a grouping of
pottery sherd stacks with wet cow dung coating the top of each stack. The contact of
the dung and the hot griddle surface creates a smudge of temporary black dots on the
dark red baking surface. Griddle-makers explained that the dots are decorations to
attract customers and identify the griddle-maker (Figure 7).
Before first use, customers season the griddle by heating it on their kitchen stove with
the cooking surface covered in crushed oily seeds of either gulie, i.e. castor bean (Ricinus
communis) or adri, i.e. mustard seed (Brassica rapa L.). The griddle is lubricated before
and during each baking episode with these same oily seeds to maintain a stick-free
surface. Cooking bowls are similarly treated with slip, but are burnished with a pebble
rather than beads. The surface is seasoned with the same oily seeds as griddles.
Coffee pots
Potters use cloth to apply a red slip to the exterior surfaces of coffee pots. The slip is made
with red clay from the source used by the Akastl griddle-makers. Potters explained that
Figure 7. Smudged dot decoration on griddles in the Selekeleka market (photograph Diane Lyons).
surfaces are not burnished because customers ‘want to see the decoration and red colour’.
Before first use, customers season coffee pots by filling them with hot coffee residue
or sunko and boiling it dry or by rubbing coffee grounds over the exterior surface.
Potters stated that coffee pots are only treated once to make the pot stronger, not for
the taste.
X-Ray fluorescence spectrometry

X-Ray fluorescence is a non-destructive method well described elsewhere (Shackley 2010;
Hunt and Speakman 2015). A small sample of fired ceramic specimens (N = 12) was ana-
lysed by Elizabeth Paris using a Bruker Tracer IV-SD portable XRF spectrometer1 in three
positions: (1) vessel paste exposed from breakage, (2) vessel exteriors and (3) vessel
interiors to test if chemical differences could be measured between slip and paste compo-
sitions. The thin slip on the Selekeleka pottery and the Akatsl griddles was expected to be
chemically distinct because the slip clays have different sources (Figure 8). XRF does not
measure organic chemical applications, so only six specimens from the northwestern study
area are considered in this study. The clay slip used on vessels from Ebalay in the Seleke-
leka area has higher amounts of calcium and sulphur (Figure 9), with calcium concen-
trations in the range of approximately 0.5 to 5.0 wt% and sulphur concentrations in the
range of approximately 0.2 to 0.4 wt%; one outlier — a beer pot (zingreer) from Ebalay
— had a sulphur concentration of approximately 3.3 wt% (Figure 10). Although several
possible explanations for the higher concentrations of these elements are possible, we
hypothesise that the source of this higher concentration for the majority of high
calcium/sulphur vessels is the use of termite-clay slips, compared to the non-termite
clay slip used on Akatsl griddles (the latter slips contain low/absent calcium and
Figure 8. XRF spectra (logarithmic scale) of the griddles showing compositional differences between
pastes and cooking surfaces from Akatsl and Selekeleka. Akatsl griddle 1 (A1), Akatsl griddle 2 (A2),
Selekeleka griddle (S1) (diagram drafted by Elizabeth Paris).
Figure 9. XRF spectra (logarithmic scale) of a Gunee (beer pot) from Ebalay, showing compositional
distinctions between paste and exterior surfaces (diagram drafted by Elizabeth Paris).
Figure 10. XRF spectra (logarithmic scale) of the surfaces of the Ebalay Gunee (beer pot, E1), Emba
Tsedi Mahabe’et (beer pot, ET1) and Ebalay Zingreer (beer pot, E2), indicating some compositional dis-
tinctions between vessel types and production areas (diagram drafted by Elizabeth Paris).
sulphur and have higher concentrations of aluminium). Wood (1988) states that termites
can add calcium to soil from organic matter contained in their faeces, while Mahaney et al.
(1999: 583) found that termite mound soil in East Africa has higher concentrations of
major elements including calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron. Vessel and griddle-
makers use different paste recipes and have different sources of clay and temper that are
chemically differentiated in subtle ways (Lyons et al. 2018: 582). Despite the slip’s thinness,
the results are encouraging in differentiating slips and in separating the practices of
different potter communities living in close proximity; however, further investigation is
needed to confirm the termite clays as the source of the higher calcium and sulphur as
opposed to the use of other possible geological additives such as gypsum.
Surfaces and the perceptions of potters

Societal perceptions of potters as polluting, immoral and dangerous are held at extra-
regional levels in Ethiopia (Freeman and Pankhurst 2003) and these perceptions are
legitimated in daily practice (Lyons 2014). Potters damage fertile land, they take soil
without permission, overuse communal sources of fuel, and sell their pots for personal
profit. But potters are also very poor women, who endure insults from customers and
neighbours, and they can risk violence in taking the resources needed for their economic
survival (Lyons et al. 2018). In all three regions, potters reported difficulties in accessing
fuel, latex and slip clay needed for surface treatments. Customers also apply surface treat-
ments to season and further strengthen, waterproof and sanitise pots. However, custo-
mers have uncontested access to these materials: kinchicha and aromatic wood are
available from market specialists, while cereal-based applications and oily seeds are
grown in farms and kitchen gardens and are part of the culinary technology of moral
women.
Are surface treatments selected to safely transfer pots from potter to customer in this
perceptually charged relationship? First, potters and consumers described surface treat-
ments in terms of their role in culinary function, flavour and providing colour and
surface texture to pots. However, Gosselain’s hypothesis that surface treatments are
medicines that treat human bodies and pots similarly to effect similar results should
not be dismissed. Potters are perceived by their customers to embody skills that are
socially viewed as immoral, polluting and dangerous, with potters sometimes being
referred to as buda by their customers. Ethnomedical and ethnobotanical studies docu-
ment the plants used in Tigray’s traditional medicine to treat human ailments, includ-
ing evil eye and evil spirit. Plants used to treat these afflictions involve a variety of
species. Of plant parts burned to fumigate the ill, some are inhaled directly by the
patient, while others are tied to the body (Zenebe et al. 2010, 2012; Abraha Teklay
et al. 2013; Fitsumbirhan et al. 2017; Fitsumbirhan 2018; Leul Kidane et al. 2018:
Table S3). People with ‘evil eyes’ are perceived to enter victims through the nose and
mouth and then to ‘eat’ their victim (Lyons 2014). An initial sign of possession is
stomach pain.
The plants used by potters and customers for surface treatments and their uses in tra-
ditional healing are summarised in Tables 2 and 3. Customer-applied surface treatments
use plants that treat evil spirits, evil eye, gastrointestinal ailments, dermal maladies and
male impotence. The majority of these plants are applied to cooking surfaces by
smoking or burning, just as they are to human bodies. Customer practices of smoking
pots with certain plants undoubtedly have benefits in eliminating bacteria and other
microbes, but fumigation is part of a broader societal practice for cleansing and healing
bodies: women fumigate their bodies after childbirth, incense is burned to purify the air
Table 2. Plant-based surface treatments applied by potters and the plant’s use in traditional medicine.
Linnaean name (with
references) Family Local name Diseases treated Plant part used Application
2,3,5
Acacia lehay Fabaceae lehay Evil spirits Stem Tied to the body
near the neck
Euphorbia abyssinica 1 Euphorbiaceae kulqual Ascariasis (round Latex Orally (mixed with
worm), food/beer, tihini)
abdominal pain
Leprosy, swelling Applied dermally
3,4
Euphorbia candelabrum Euphorbiaceae kolonqual Swelling Latex
(quelqual
in Yeha)
Euphorbia petitiana 1,2 Euphorbiaceae hindukduk Leishmaniasis Latex Rubbed on the
affected part
Gonorrhoea Leaf Crushed, mixed
with water and
drunk
Malva parviflora/ Malyaceae lhtit ? Roots ?
Malva verticillata 2
Rumex nervosus Vahl.1,2 Polygonaceae hehot Ascariasis (round Leaf Orally
worm)
Itching/skin rash Stem Mixed with other
plants, soaked
and used to wash
the body
Male impotence Root Orally
Evil eye Leaf Soaked in water and
used to wash the
body
Evil spirits Leaf Leaf is powdered
and tied on body
Male impotence Root Orally
Sources: 1. Abraha Teklay et al. 2013; 2. Leul Kidane et al. 2018; 3. Zenebe et al. 2010; 4. Zenebe et al. 2012; 5. Fitsumbirhan
et al. 2017.
in houses when guests gather and to give a good smell, and bad smelling smoke is used to
identify the attacking buda in possessed bodies. Clay is also perceived to cause male impo-
tence, and it is salient that plants used to treat this condition are used also to treat pottery
surfaces.
Potters also use plants that are medicines used to treat evil spirits and evil eye. Acacia
lehay is used to treat evil spirits in the northwestern zone. Selekeleka vessel-makers use
lehay resin to waterproof pots and lehay wood to pound temper and paste and to fire
pots (Zenebe et al. 2010: Table A2). In eastern Tigray, pots are smudged (or smoked)
and those that do not turn black are fired until they do. Griddle makers in eastern
Tigray burn hehot into griddle surfaces, a plant also used to cure evil spirit. It should be
noted that the blue beads used to burnish griddles in the northwestern study area are
also worn to protect the body from evil spirits.
While tentative, there is support for Gosselain’s (2002) hypothesis that pottery surface
treatments are medicines used to treat pots and people’s bodies similarly for similar
results. This does not negate the functional benefits of these treatments, but it does
suggest added layers that shape technological choices within a broader societal view of
reality.
Table 3. Plant-based surface treatments applied by customers and the plant’s use in traditional
medicine.
Linnaean name Family Local name Diseases treated Plant parts Application
Acacia etbaica Fabaceae Seraw Swelling, ring worm, Leaf, stems Applied to affected
Schweinf.1–3 haemorrhoids, part, orally
itching, anthrax, mixed for
burns fungal swelling
infection Latex Applied to the skin
Brassica rapa L.3,5 Brassicaceae Hamli-adri Wounds, constipation, Leaf, Dermal
blood pressure, skin, Seed Oral
cough
Croton macrostachysus Euphorbiaceae Tambok Yellow fever, rabies, Bark Crushed and drunk
Hochst. ex Delile1,2,4,6 epilepsy, anti- as a liquid
termite, enlarged
spleen,
abdominal pain,
tinea capitis,
jaundice, malaria
Euclearacemosa murr. Ebanaceae Kulio Impotence Root Oral
subsp. schimperi
(A. DC.) F. White6
Plumbago zeylanica Plumbaginaceae Aftuh Anthrax Root Crushed, squeezed
L.2,4–6 and applied to
skin lesions
Evil eye Leaf Crushed, mixed
with water and
used to wash the
body
Wounds Root Dermal
1,2,4
Olea europaea L. Oleaceae Awlie Colic, abdominal Root/ Oral
pain leaf
toothache
Malaria Bark Boiled and drunk
Ormocarpum Fabaceae Alendia Wounds Root
pubescens (Hochst.)4
Ricinus communis L.1,4,5 Euphorbiaceae Gulei, Guile Wounds Leaf Crushed and
applied to the
wound
Hornworm Leaf Dermal
Senna singueana Fabaceae Hambohambo Abdominal pain, Bark, leaf, Ground and drunk
(Delile) Lock2,4,6 tooth infection, root, stem or chewed for
sprain abdominal pain,
toothache
Skin rash Powdered Mixed with butter
root and applied to
the body
Sources: 1. Abraha Teklay et al. 2013; 2. Leul Kidane et al. 2018; 3. Zenebe et al. 2010; 4. Zenebe et al. 2012; 5. Fitsumbirhan
2018; 6. Fitsumbirhan et al. 2017.
Discussion
Surface treatments must be routinely documented to determine the functional, social and
ontological practices that are applied to the surfaces of pottery assemblages in Sub-Saharan
Africa and elsewhere. It is clear that Tigrayan surface treatments are a critical technology
that constitutes material identities of potters and consumers in sub-regions, specialises
pots for culinary practices and possibly purifies vessels in the transition from potter to cus-
tomer in contexts where potters are perceived as polluting or capable of causing disease
and misfortune. The essential contributions of these treatments to pottery production are
demonstrated by the hazards that potters undergo to collect raw materials for slips, resins
and fuel for smudging, as well as by the fact that customers use limited resources to pur-
chase aromatic wood and resins to season and maintain pots, a demand that further
necessitates market specialists and regional trade in specific woods.
Pottery surface texture and colour are the most visible characteristics of pottery assem-
blages used and consumed in each sub-region (Lyons et al. 2018). Exterior surface texture
and colour are created by potters and are applied pre- or post- firing. Potters are aware of
surface treatments used in other sub-regions, but potters and consumers expressed the
opinion that local pottery was superior in function, colour and surface texture. This
strong customer preference for sub-regional wares contributes to the material identity
of both potters and consumers at the sub-regional level.
Potters in each sub-region used distinct techniques to treat vessel surfaces that they
stated were intended to strengthen and waterproof pots: smudging in the eastern
sub-region, burnishing in the central sub-region, and slipping in the northwestern sub-
region. Based on ethnoarchaeological and experimental studies, all three methods are
effective waterproofing techniques that close vessel pores, increase heating efficiency
and reduce fuel use, a factor of particular concern in eastern Tigray where black vessels
may be preferred for heating effectiveness at the highest elevations in the areas studied.
Waterproofing is important for storing liquids, particularly water and beer. Rural
farmers live in stone houses at high elevations so cooling stored water is unnecessary.
However, the effort to obtain water is considerable and minimising water loss is therefore
important. Farmers live on steep slopes and water must be carried from wells located in
valleys to supply household needs. Water-carrying pots were replaced by plastic containers
when the latter became available at the end of the twentieth century, literally freeing
women from the burden of carrying water in large heavy pots up and down mountains.
However, water still needs to be hauled uphill and we suggest that waterproofed water
storage pots in the home control water loss. Beer is stored in a variety of large and
medium-sized pots and is an investment of grain and water, necessitating strong and
waterproof pots to minimize seepage.
While potters in each area use a distinct waterproofing method that is applied only
once, customers across the three regions use standard techniques learned in their
mother’s kitchen to prepare pots to produce regional cuisine and to maintain their
vessels. Customers claim that their surface treatments flavour and sanitise vessels
and have functional benefits, which they do. Bread baking griddles and cooking
bowls are always seasoned with Brassica and other locally available oily seeds to
make and to maintain a stick-free surface. Although USAID cooking oil is widely avail-
able, it is never an alternative to local oily seeds in seasoning griddles prior to first use,
although it can be used to lubricate griddles during baking. Baking episodes can take
over an hour (Lyons and D’Andrea 2003) and oil acts as a superior heat conductor con-
serving fuel. Cooking bowls simmer stews that contain fatty and oily foods (meat, dairy,
cooking oil), that continue to penetrate the surface with use (Warfe 2016). Interior sur-
faces of cooking, dairy, beer and water pots are treated with cereal paste or porridge,
coffee pots with porridge or coffee grounds before first use. Experimental studies
demonstrate that plant residues fill pores and help to strengthen and waterproof
vessels. Cereals have a mild flavour that complements, or does not interfere with,
vessel flavour specialisation. Dairy pots continue to absorb milk fats, while coffee pots
absorb coffee oil through ongoing use, a process that continues to waterproof and
specialise vessel flavour. Plant-based applications may also purify pots before customers
use them to cook food. The selection of plants to season and sanitise pots include those
used to treat evil spirits and evil eye, and it is possible that the selection of plants
smoked onto food surfaces purifies pots in their transition from potter to consumer.
In doing so, the different identities of potter and consumer are further constituted in
surface treatments in the need to cleanse or purify pots.
Conclusions
Surface treatments are sometimes described in ethnoarchaeological studies of pottery pro-
duction, but they are not always investigated in terms of their value in broader social and
functional contexts. Looking at surface treatments applied to an assemblage of pots in
three sub-regions of Tigray reveals a variety of techniques used by potters to waterproof,
strengthen and improve vessel heating efficiency. However, the full production of useable
surfaces involves two separate traditions and chaînes opératoires. Potters produce pots
using three distinct sub-regional surface treatments that constitute sub-regional material
identities. Customers then alter the surfaces of these assemblages using regional level tech-
nological practices that flavour and specialise pots in regional culinary practice. Potter and
consumer surface treatments may also purify vessels made by the potter’s hand within a
regionally understood perception of potters as polluting and potentially dangerous.
Clearly, surface treatments play a significant role in making pots function in both material
and ontological contexts and they deserve the ethnoarchaeologist’s systematic attention in
the documentation of pottery chaînes opératoires.
Note
1. All of the samples were analysed by Paris using a Bruker Tracer IV-SD portable XRF spec-
trometer. Samples were analysed twice: once using the protocols for major elements, 15 kV
and 30 µA with no filter for 180 s and once using the protocols for trace elements, 40 kV
and 16.5 µA using Filter 1 for 60 s, which was optimised for the detection of trace elements.
Elemental concentrations in weight percent were calculated for each sample using the
custom calibrations developed for ceramic materials by Bruker. This instrument uses an
automated filter changer, as the manual positioning of filters is a potential source of
user-induced analytical error in portable XRF spectrometers. However, due to the pres-
ence of slip and variable depth of penetration for photons of different energies, the quan-
titative results contain a mixture of elements from both the slip and paste in which the
relative representation of slip versus paste varies by element. Thus, they can only be con-
sidered semi-quantitative results that indicate the relative presence/absence of both slip
and paste combined. To prevent misrepresentation, they are therefore not reported here
in table form.
Acknowledgements
This project is indebted to the generosity of the potters, farmers, merchants and village administra-
tors of Selekeleka, Akatsl, Ebalay, Dershan, Yeha, Gendebta, Adinfas, Adi Keshi, Adwa, Adi Ayfela,
Adi Geba, Angohl, Aba Makreita, Daga, Hadush Adi and Adi Mariam who participated in our
study and contributed to our knowledge of pottery production and consumption in Tigray. We
gratefully acknowledge the generous support and permission to conduct this research provided
by the Ethiopian Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage (ARCCH) in
Addis Ababa, the National Regional State of Tigrai Tourism Bureau in Mekelle, the Geological
Survey of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa and Woreda offices in Tahtai Maichow, Wukro Maray,
Mezaba Zana, Shire, Adwa, Sinkata and Tabia chairs for Mai Maghelta, Hadush Adi, Marium
Agamat, Ra Ilhe, Yeha, Gendebta, Selekeleka, Hafken and Lemate. Thanks to Michael Sowbeka,
Temesgen Tadese, Tedros Girmay, Mulubrhan G/Sellassie, Degol Fissahaye, Daniel G/Kidane,
Goitum Fitsom, Atakilte G/Tsedik, Zelealem Tesfay G/Tsedik and ARCCH field inspectors Geza-
hegne Girma and Degene Dandena Gulti. We thank Dr Temesgen Burka (Addis Ababa University),
Dr Joanna Casey (University of South Carolina), Getachew Nigus (University of Calgary) and
Niguss Gitaw (Addis Ababa University) for assistance in identifying plant species. Special thanks
to Dr Gerry Oetelaar for the French translation of the abstract. This work was supported by the
Wenner-Gren Foundation under grants (7934, 8449, 8956), the National Geographic Society Com-
mittee for Research and Exploration grant (9065–12) and the University of Calgary Research Grant.
Notes on contributors
Zoe Cascadden recently completed a BSc in Archaeology at the University of Calgary and an
honours thesis under the supervision of Dr Diane Lyons and Dr Elizabeth Paris. She is currently
continuing her studies in archaeology in an MA Programme at the University of Calgary.
Diane Lyons is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the
University of Calgary. Her ethnoarchaeological research explores how people constitute social iden-
tities in the production and consumption of craft, vernacular architecture and cuisine in northern
highland Ethiopia.
Elizabeth Paris is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at
the University of Calgary. Her research focuses on the archaeology of urbanism, high-skill craft pro-
duction and marketplace exchange in the Maya culture area of Mesoamerica, including Chiapas
and Yucatan.
References
Arnold, D. 1985. Ceramic Theory and Cultural Process. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Arthur, J.W. 2006. Living with Pottery: Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology among the Gamo of Southwestern
Ethiopia. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.
Arthur, J.W. 2014. “Pottery uniformity in a stratified society: an ethnoarchaeological perspective
from the Gamo of southwest Ethiopia.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 35: 106–116.
Ashenafi, M. 1996. “Effect of container smoking and incubation temperature on the microbiological
and some biochemical qualities of fermenting ergo, a traditional Ethiopian sour milk.”
International Dairy Journal 6: 95–104.
Berhe, T., Vogensen, F.K., Ipsen, R., Seifu, E., Kurtu, M.Y. and Bech Hansen, E. 2017. “Traditional
fermented dairy products of Ethiopia: a review.” East African Journal of Sciences 11: 73–80.
Cassiers, A. 1971. “Ethiopian pottery.” African Arts 4(3): 44–47.
Croucher, S. and Wynne-Jones, S. 2006. “People, not pots:” locally produced ceramics and identity
on the nineteenth-century East African Coast.” International Journal of African Historical
Studies 39: 107–124
de Roux, H. 1976. “Aperçu sur la fabrication de la poterie à Yéha, (Tigré).” Annales d’Éthiopie. 10:
305–320.
Diallo, B., Vanhaelen, M. and Gosselain, O.P. 1995. “Plant constituents involved in coating prac-
tices among traditional African potters.” Experientia 51: 95–97.
Dunne, J., Grillo, K.M., Casanova, E., Whelton, H.L. and Evershed, R.P. 2019. “Pastoralist foodways
recorded in organic residues from pottery vessels of modern communities in Samburu, Kenya.”
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 26: 619–642
Fitsumbirhan, T. 2018. “Marketable medicinal, edible and spice plants in Endasilase-Shire District
Tigray Regional State, Ethiopia.” Research Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences 13(1): 1–6.
Fitsumbirhan, T., Mesfin, M. and Tsewene, S. 2017. “Ethnobotanical survey of traditional medicinal
practices in LaelayAdi-yabo District, northern Ethiopia.” International Journal of Ophthalmology
and Visual Science 2: 80–87.
Frank, B. 1993. “Reconstructing the history of an African ceramic tradition: technology, slavery, and
agency in the region of Kadiolo (Mali).” Cahiers d’Études Africaines. 33: 381–401.
Frank, B. 1998. Mande Potters and Leatherworkers. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Freeman, D. and Pankhurst, A. (eds). 2003. Peripheral People: The Excluded Minorities of Ethiopia.
Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press.
Giblin, J. and Remigius. K. 2012. “The social and symbolic context of the royal potters of Buganda.”
Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 47: 64–80.
Gosselain, O.P. 2002. Poteries du Cameroun Méridional Styles Techniques et Rapports à l’Identité.
Valbonne: CRA.
Gosselain, O.P. and Livingstone Smith, A. 1995. “The Ceramics and Society Project: an ethno-
graphic and experimental approach to technological choices.” KVHAA Konferenser 34: 147–160.
Harlow, D. 2011. “Investigations of aspects of the raw materials used in ceramic production in
eastern Tigray.” MA diss., University of Calgary.
Harry, K. and Frink, L. 2009. “The Arctic cooking pot: why was it adopted?” American
Anthropologist 111: 330–343.
Harry, K., Frink, L., O’Toole, B. and Charest, A. 2009. “How to make an unfired clay cooking pot:
understanding the technological choices made by arctic potters.” Journal of Archaeological
Method and Theory 16: 33–50.
Heron, C. and Evershed, R.P. 1993. “The analysis of organic residues and the study of pottery use.”
Archaeological Method and Theory 5: 247–284.
Hunt, A.M.W. and Speakman R.J. 2015. “Portable XRF analysis of archaeological sediment and cer-
amics.” Journal of Archaeological Science 53: 626–638.
Kidane, L., Gebremedhin, G. and Beyene, T. 2018. “Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in the
Ganta Afeshum District, Eastern Zone of Tigray, northern Ethiopia.” Journal of Ethnobiology
and Ethnomedicine 14: 64.
Longacre, W., Xia, J. and Yang, T. 2000. “I want to buy a black pot.” Journal of Archaeological
Method and Theory 7: 273–293.
Lyons, D. 2007. “Cuisine and identity: an ethnoarchaeological example from eastern Tigray,
Ethiopia.” Journal of Social Archaeology. 7: 346–371.
Lyons, D. 2014. “Perceptions of consumption: constituting potters, farmers and blacksmiths in the
culinary continuum in Eastern Tigray, northern highland Ethiopia.” African Archaeological
Review 31: 169–201.
Lyons, D. and D’Andrea, A.C. 2003. “Griddles, ovens, and agricultural origins: an ethnoarchaeolo-
gical study of bread baking in highland Ethiopia.” American Anthropologist 105: 515–530.
Lyons, D., Ferguson, J., Harlow, D. and Casey, J. 2018. “Marginalized potters and ceramic compo-
sitional groups: Neutron Activation Analysis of contemporary pottery from Tigray, northern
highland Ethiopia.” African Archaeological Review 35: 567–595.
Lyons, D. and Freeman, A. 2009. “‘I’m not evil’: materialising identities of marginalised potters in
Tigray region, Ethiopia.” Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 44: 75–93.
Mahaney, W.C., Zippin, J., Milner, M.W., Sanmugadas, K., Hancock, R.B.V., Aufreiter, S.,
Campbell, S., Huffman, M.A., Wink, M. and Malloch, D. 1999. “Chemistry, mineralogy and
microbiology of termite mound soil eaten by the chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains,
western Tanzania.” Journal of Tropical Ecology 15: 565–588.
Mekonnen, H. and Lemma, A. 2011. “Plant species used in traditional smallholder dairy processing
in East Shoa, Ethiopia.” Tropical Animal and Health Products 43: 833–841.
Messing, S.D. 1957a. “Further comments on resin-coated pottery: Ethiopia.” American
Anthropologist 59: 134.
Messing, S.D. 1957b. “The highland-plateau Amhara of Ethiopia.” PhD diss., University of
Pennsylvania.
Nicklin, K. 1979. “The location of pottery manufacture.” Man 14: 435–458.

Reber, E.A., Keer, M.T., Whelton, H.L. and Evershed, R.P. “Lipid residues from low-fired pottery.”
Archaeometry 61: 131–144.
Rice, P.M. 1987. Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook. The University Chicago Press, Chicago.
Roffet-Salque, M., Dunne, J., Altoft, D.T., Casanova, E., Cramp, L.J.E., Smyth, J., Welton, H.L. and
Evershed R.P. 2017. “From the inside out: upscaling organic residue analyses of archaeological
ceramics.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 16: 627–640.
Rogers, R.N. 1980. “The chemistry of pottery smudging.” Pottery Southwest 7(2): 2–4.
Rye, O.S. 1974. “Keeping your temper under control: materials and the manufacture of Papuan
pottery.” Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 11: 106–137.
Schiffer, M.B. 1990. “The influence of surface treatment on heating effectiveness of ceramic vessels.”
Journal of Archaeological Science. 17: 373–381.
Schiffer, M.B., Skibo, J.M., Boelke, T.C., Neupert, M.A. and Aronson, M. 1994. “New perspectives
on experimental archaeology: surface treatments and thermal response of the clay cooking pot.”
American Antiquity 59: 197–217.
Schmidt, P.R. 2010. “The play of tropes in archaeology: ethnoarchaeology as metonymy.”
Ethnoarchaeology 2: 131–152.
Seelger, C.J.P. 1983. Oil Plants in Ethiopia, Their Taxonomy and Agricultural Significance.
Wageningen: Centre for Agricultural Publishing and Documentation.
Shackley, S.M. 2010. “Is there reliability and validity in portable X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry
(pXRF)?” The SAA Archaeological Record 10(5): 17–44.
Simoons, F.J. 1960. Northwest Ethiopia: Peoples and Economy. Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press.
Skibo, J.M. 2013. Understanding Pottery Function. New York: Springer.
Skibo, J.M., Butts, T.C. and Schiffer, M.B. 1997. “Ceramic surface treatment and abrasion resistance:
an experimental study.” Journal of Archaeological Science 24: 311–317.
Skibo, J.M. and Schiffer, M.B. 1987. “Ceramic surface treatment and abrasion resistance.” Journal of
Archaeological Science. 24: 311–317.
Skibo, J.M. and Schiffer, M.B. 2008. Peoples and Things: A Behavioral Approach to Material Culture.
New York: Springer.
Sterner, J. and David, N. 1991. “Gender and caste in the Mandara highlands: northeastern Nigeria
and northern Cameroon.” Ethnology 30: 355–369.
Teklay, A., Abera, B. and Giday, M. 2013. “An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used in
Kilte Awulaelo District, Tigray Region of Ethiopia.” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
9: 65.
Uzabakiliho, B., Largeau, C. and Casadevall, E. 1987. “Latex constituents of Euphorbia
Candelabrum, E. Grantii, E. Tirucalli and Synadenium Grantii.” Phytochemistry 26: 3041–3045.
Warfe, A. 2016. “Ancient pottery surface treatments from Dakleh Oasis, Egypt: an experimental
study.” Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 23: 331–353.
Wayessa, B.S. 2016. “Toward a history of the Oromo of Wallaga in southwestern Ethiopia: an eth-
noarchaeological study of ceramic technological style and tuber crop domestication.” PhD diss.,
University of Calgary.
Wood, T.G. 1988. “Termites and the soil environment.” Biology and Fertility of Soils 6: 228–236.
Young, L.C. and Stone, T. 1990. “The thermal properties of textured ceramics: an experimental
study.” Journal of Field Archaeology. 17: 195–203.
Zenebe, G., Mekonnen, A., Kassie, M. and Kohlin, G. 2010. “Household tree planting in Tigrai,
northern Ethiopia: tree species, purposes, and determinants.” Environment for Development
Discussion Paper Series January: 1–30.
Zenebe, G., Zerihun, M. and Solomon, Z. 2012. “An ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants in
Asgede Tsimbila District, northwestern Tigray, northern Ethiopia.” Ethnobotany Research and
Applications 10: 305–320.

Cascadden, Lyons, Paris 2020

Transféré par

Informations du document

Copyright

Formats disponibles

Partager ce document

Partager ou intégrer le document

Options de partage

Avez-vous trouvé ce document utile ?

Ce contenu est-il inapproprié ?

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

Cascadden, Lyons, Paris 2020

Transféré par

Droits d'auteur :

Formats disponibles

AZANIA: ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN AFRICA

2020, VOL. 55, NO. 1, 69–96

On the surface: an ethnoarchaeological study of marginalised

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

CONTACT Diane Lyons dlyons@ucalgary.ca

Surface treatments: previous studies

Resins and oils

Smudging, slipping and burnishing

Combinations of surface treatments

The study areas

Contemporary potters, customers and surface treatments

(1) griddles for bread baking and grain roasting;

Eastern Tigray: unburnished blackware

Griddles and cooking bowls

Central Tigray: burnished orangewares

Griddles and cooking bowls

Northwestern Tigray: slipped redware

communities on the outskirts of Selekeleka: vessel-makers in Ebalay, griddle- and cooking

Griddles and cooking bowls

Figure 5. Kinchicha for sale in the market (photograph Diane Lyons).

X-Ray ﬂuorescence spectrometry

Surfaces and the perceptions of potters

Nicklin, K. 1979. “The location of pottery manufacture.” Man 14: 435–458.

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi