Dirk Seidensticker

The first archaeometric study of ceramics from the Marshill rockshelter by A. Dorado-Alejos, F. Lander, and P. de la Peña reveals how potters shaped, smoothed, and fired their vessels in the Stormberg area during the late Holocene.
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The first scientific study of ceramics from the Lalibela region (Ethiopia) by Selina Han, Patrick Sean Quinn, Tania Tribe, Jacke Phillips, Laurence Smith, and Mesfin Getachew Wondim reveals diverse paste recipes tied to local geology or shared across site www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New research from Jebel Moya (Sudan) by Patrick Sean Quinn, Isabelle Vella Gregory, Hannah Page, Ahmed Hussein Abdelrahman Adam and Michael Brass reveals two ancient ceramic recipes that stood the test of time, even as pottery styles and social dynamics evolved www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

From the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age, the study by Giulia D’Ercole, Julia Budka and Elena A.A. Garcea showcases how archaeometric analysis reveals deep cultural complexity in Sudanese ceramics www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This first-ever lab study of Congo Basin pottery clay sourcing by Dirk Seidensticker, Wannes Hubau, Florias Mees, Géraldine Fiers, and Veerle Cnudde reveals shifting strategies: from unaltered sponge-rich river clays to tempered clays with grog & plant material www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New finds from two recently uncovered cemeteries in Alexandra (Egypt) presented by Magda Mahmoud Ibrahiem reveal how perfume vases—essential to funerary rites—evolved in shape and style during the Ptolemaic period www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This first-ever geochemical study of 19th–20th century earthenware from Amedeka by R. Dela Kuma and Brandi L. MacDonald reveals a regionally diverse pottery economy and how local pots connect to broader production and consumption networks in southeastern Ghana www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

At Ntuusi, western Uganda, a technological and geochemical deep dive into uniform roulette-decorated ceramics by Hannah Page, Patrick Sean Quinn, and Andrew Reid reveals a vibrant local pottery tradition in the early 2nd millennium CE www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The virtual special issue on "Scientific Analysis on Pottery Finds from Africa" in the JASRep is taking shape: www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu... Check comments below to find out about each individual paper!

I am happy to share my latest paper on the Pikunda-Munda pottery: link.springer.com/article/10.1... and as usual, all data and code are available here github.com/dirkseidenst... & zenodo.org/records/1464... In it, I highlight pottery chaînes opératoires and petrographic evidence

The integrity of open-air sites has never been proven by utilising extensive refitting of lithics in combination with anthracological analyses in that region. The latest Late Stone Age findings are crucial to further our understanding of these insufficiently studied communities.

The site of Mukila, first excavated in 1952 by Maurice Bequaert, covers 40 millennia and provides a rare glimpse into the lithic production in the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene south of the equatorial rainforest of Central Africa.

The Late Pleistocene and Holocene chronocultural and anthracological open-air sequence from Mukila (DRC) Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene open-air archaeological sites have been assumed to be disturbed throughout Central Africa because key sites locate…

Important new research on little known phase of forager communities living in Central Africa - the younger part of the Late Stone Age – published by @mtrkavimejuplsu and collaborators @goetheuni @ArcheoUGent @FWOVlaanderen #flintfriday sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Today's endeavour: running chemical survey on pottery sherds with pXRF @AfricamuseumTervuren 🏺⚛️👨🏻‍🔬

Call-for-Papers for an online workshop on: "Scientific analyses on pottery finds from Africa" on June 7th, 2024. We invite papers on all aspects of scientific analyses of pottery from any archaeological period in Africa. Please send titles and abstracts (max. 250 words) by January 31st, 2024 🏺🔬

Started working on a collection of pottery from the north-eastern Congo Basin and what can I say; it's different 🫣 With sites located along rivers draining from the Rwenzori mountains, I encounter new minerals wherever I look 🏺🔬

What to do on a rainy autumn day? Catch up on yesterday's notes from my meeting with Dr. Florias Mees (RMCA) concerning my petrographic descriptions (and all the little things I missed) and starting to work on pottery from the north-eastern Congo Basin