Approaching Trans-Generational Training Networks in Central Africa: Using Ceramic Petrography to Retrace Provenance and Technology throughout Two Millennia

Potters’ traditions within the Congo Basin Rainforest are still vibrant today and the result of a supposedly more than two millennia-long transfer of knowledge. While for the past decades' pottery finds were used to establish sequences of stylistically interrelated pottery groups and to derive regional chrono-historical frameworks, the way these communities of practice transmitted their approaches and expertise throughout generations is still unknown. The first study focusing on petrographic characterizations of ceramics from the north-western parts of the Congo Basin showed distinct phases of similar clay procurement and processing. Of special interest is the site of Pikunda (PIK). In the late 1980s, multiple archaeological features were excavated and ethnographic observations on potters’ production showed a particular chaîne opératoire, comprised of coiling, internal scraping, and external beating. Clay procurement and preparation were not recorded though.