Ceramic manufacturing traditions and sources from the multi-period agro-pastoral cemetery of Jebel Moya, Sudan
The agro-pastoral cemetery of Jebel Moya, Sudan is a complex multi-period site with burials dating back to the 2nd millennium BC and herding and cultivation activities predating available radiometrically dated burials. The earliest activity based on pottery comparisons is dated to the late 6th millennium BC. Building on previous work that identified three distinct pottery assemblages and two dominant paste recipes in Assemblage 3 (spanning the first millennium BC to early first centuries AD), this study focuses on 57 sherds and one figurine from the earlier Late Mesolithic, Neolithic and 1st millennium BC strata (Assemblages 1 and 2). These were characterised stylistically and analysed via thin section petrography, instrumental geochemistry and scanning electron microscopy. The study reveals consistent geochemical and petrographic characteristics, suggesting the use of two distinct but related paste recipes over 5000 years. This stands in stark contrast to significant changes in vessel shape, decoration and motor actions during this period. These two persistent recipes seem to indicate the use of the site by two social groups, producing pottery at Jebel Moya and perhaps another location in the Gezira Plain, or a long-term exchange relationship. Rare sherds coming from further afar were detected in Assemblage 3, but not in the earlier strata.