Kansyore Pottery

Throughout the ages, ceramics such as Kansyore pottery, have provided archaeologists the opportunity to study past cultures. Darla Dale and Ceri Z. Ashley state that, “[archaeological] sites with Kansyore pottery are the only hunter-gatherer sites associated with large quantities of ceramics before the beginnings of food production in East Africa at 3000 to 2000 BC”.[1] Evenmore, Dale and Ashley put forward earlier dates that “suggest they [are] among the earliest ceramic using hunter-gatherers in East Africa”.[1] Their research suggests that the pottery is evidence of change. The investigation into Kansyore pottery is important because it adds a new perspective on alternative hunter-gather life ways.

Research into Kansyore has provided a life-way that differs from other known East African Late Stone Age hunter-gatherers (LSA).[1] The Kansyore communities of the LSA are marked with ceramics and a settlement pattern based on the exploitation of resources around the shoreline of lakes or rivers. Thus, the exploitation of marine resources fostered sedentism and the production of Kansyore pottery.[1]

Kansyore ceramics have been found in East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, southeastern Sudan). More specifically, this particular pottery is located around the Lake Victoria basin. Most sites associated with Kansyore pottery are nearby bodies of water, such rivers or lakes. For example, assemblages are “loosely concentrated” [1] around Lake Victoria. To list a few areas and sites:

• Gogo Falls, Kenya.
• Usenge, Kenya.
• Siror, Kenya.
• northern Tanzania.

The concentration of Kansyore pottery in geographical areas associated with water suggests something about the hunter-gatherer's lifeways. This settlement pattern suggests a specialized subsistence economy based on aquatic food. Furthermore, the subsistence strategy of fish and shellfish is the result of seasonal exploitation of food sources:

• River sites were exploited for fishing during the wet season.[1]
• Lake sites were exploited during the dry season for the collection of shellfish and easily caught fish.[1]

Kansyore pottery's uniqueness is a result of applied tools and techniques. This caused the design of the pottery to display distinct decorations that covered most of the exterior surface. The vessels themselves run a spectrum from medium-sized to hemispherical bowls with varying rim designs, such as rounded, tapered, and occasionally spurred.[1] To classify, Dale developed an approach to identify Kansyore pottery:

• Four techniques: appliqué, incision, rocker, and simple impression.[1]
• Eight motifs: serrated-edge, serrated-edge zigzag, plain-edge zigzag, punctate, punctate circular motif, appliqué, incision, and impression.[1]

Within each of these categories certain techniques were applied to achieve the desired design. For example, in the appliqué technique clay pieces were attached to the clay body in circular or oblong shapes, yet within the motifs categories were many variations.[1]

Significant non-ceramic artifacts found associated with Kansyore pottery are:

• Shell middens[3]
• Personal adornment at Usenge, Pundo, and Siror[3]
• Rounded pebble at Pundo[1]
• Lithics[2]
• Bone points[1]

The chronology for Kansyore has been a source of discourse for many archaeologists. Dates for Kansyore cover 6000 years with the earliest dates, 7819 to 6590 cal. BC, coming from Luanda in Kenya, while the latest dates, AD 1-120, coming from Wadh Lang'o.[1]

The above-mentioned sections illustrate the amount of research into the Kansyore tradition. Research into the Kansyore has provided more insight into the lifeways of those who created the pottery. Artifacts, such as pottery, in which the originators are no longer tangible entities, allow archaeologists the ability to interpret it.

Dale and Ashley illustrate the difference between Early and Late Kansyore by using ceramic and non-ceramic archaeological material from Siror, and at the same time speak about the culture of the pottery makers. Thus, in the early phase of Siror, the large quantities of fish bones suggest that many people whom had a fish-based subsistence economy occupied the site.[1] As stated above, ceramic evidence at the early phase was punctate, but shifted to rocker-stamped motif in the later Kansyore period. With the shift in ceramic decoration, more emphasis on terrestrial mammals for subsistence became apparent.[1]

The transition to the use of ceramics was not a swift transition. In fact, evidence shows that ceramic use was slowly applied and may have come after specialized subsistence economies. For instance, shell middens in Usenge 1 and Pundo show low ceramic density.[1] Even more, non-ceramic artifacts, such as bone points, indicate that other material culture linked to specific activities and economies existed before ceramics.[1] Nonetheless, even if the transition to ceramic use was slow and part of a process of change, by the Early Kansyore Phase, 5648-5299 cal. BC, it became a central part of the economy.[1]

Evidence for a shift in subsistence economy and social relations in the Later Terminal Kansyore Phase is seen in Siror and Usenge 3. At these sites a decline of fish resource exploitation is experienced and a rise in terrestrial mammals is emphasized. For example, in Usenge 3 the upper layers of deposit including terrestrial animals, such as cattle, overlaid a Kansyore shell midden.[1] In addition to the terrestrial animals, the Kansyore ceramics in the upper layers of deposit depicted a decline in decoration and technological quality.[1] This is taken as evidence for social contact with late hunter-gather-fishers and farming societies. Thus, in the Later Terminal Kansyore Phase, the fishing to hunting society was going through a local change brought on by contact with other societies.