The Iron Age Ceramics from the Tong Hills, Northern Ghana. Sequence and Comparative Perspective

Insoll, Timothy; MacLean, Rachel; Ashley, Ceri Z.; Kankpeyeng, Benjamin W.

doi:10.3213/1612-1651-10185

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Bedaux et al 2005;Insoll 1996;MacDonald 1994;Mayor 2011a,b;Mayor et al 2005;McIntosh 1995;Togola 2008;Von Czerniewicz 2004). In the Voltaic region comparatively less archaeological fieldwork with a strong ceramic focus has taken place, although significant studies with a first millennium ad component include those from Daboya (Shinnie & Kense 1989), Rim (Andah 1978), Gobnangou Escarpment (Frank et al 2001;Gallagher 2010;Wotzka & Goedicke 2001), Northern Benin (Petit 2005), Tale Hills (Insoll et al 2011), and New Buipe (York 1973). Kirikongo's assemblage is a highly significant addition to Voltaic archaeology as it spans the Iron Age, from ad 100-1700.…”

Section: Ceramics At Kirikongo: Recognizing Identity Over Timementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Bwa are described by ethnographers as having a complex egalitarian socio-political organization distinguished by autonomous villages, communalistic religion, bride service rather than bride wealth, socio-economically specialized multi-family houses with farmers, smith/potters and griots (an endogamous hereditary occupation group in which the men are responsible for music, oral histories, etc., and both men and women often produce fabric), and spatial organization of clustered neighbourhoods rather Figure 1. Selected archaeological sites in the Voltaic region and neighbouring areas: New Buipe (York 1973): Daboya (Shinnie & Kense 1989); NYOO (Insoll et al 2011); Bobo-Dioulasso, surface sample held at IFA-Dakar; Rim (Andah 1978); Promontoire (Downing 2005, discussed by Mayor 2011a; Dangandouloun (Mayor 2011a); Damassougou, Ambere Dougan, Sadia (discussed by Mayor 2011a,b); Jenne-Jeno (McIntosh 1995); Kissi, Oursi, Saouga (Von Czerniewicz 2004, discussed by Mayor 2011a.…”

Section: Introduction To Kirikongomentioning

confidence: 99%

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Expressing Difference: Inequality and House-based Potting in a First-millennium ad Community (Burkina Faso, West Africa)

Dueppen¹

2015

CAJ

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While many studies of inequality focus on the role that specialized craft production plays in the emergence of elite identities, variations in non-specialized crafts can also provide insights into political trajectories as they may reflect diverse choices made by multiple social segments whose socio-political roles are in transition. This article examines non-specialized potting during a time of increasing inequality in the first-millennium ad community of Kirikongo, Burkina Faso. In exploring production at the house level, ceramic analyses demonstrate increasing investment in potting throughout the community and increasing variance between house traditions coinciding with the co-option of ritual and political power by the community's founding house. While these transformations suggest the expression of newly significant house identities, potting is used primarily to express differentiation rather than elite power as, in contrast to other lines of evidence, the pottery from lowerranked houses is higher in quality and diversity. These expressions of emerging elite and non-elite house identities at Kirikongo, and potential tensions between them, may have spurred inventions and adoptions of technologies and stylistic elements contributing to the divergence of regional potting traditions.

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