ABSTRACT
A university student commenting on a particular archaeological course once remarked that it was all about pots but one was never told about the people who made the pots. Such a criticism reveals one of the most difficult tasks faced by archaeologists: that of using physical evidence to tell a human story. A notable example of this problem is the investigation of the first farming societies in Africa south of the Equator, for which the bulk of the evidence consists of pottery, often in a fragmentary state. Partly because of poor conditions of preservation, partly because of inadequate research methods, the evidence for other aspects of life, such as subsistence economies, metallurgical knowledge, and social organization, is far more limited. As a result, the main focus of research has been on the similarities and differences amongst pottery from a large number of sites, spread over a huge area of central and southern Africa. This has been in spite of archaeologists being unable to agree about what variations in shapes and decorations of pots might tell us concerning the people who made and used them. It has been necessary to concentrate on the archaeological pottery evidence because the relevant period of roughly 2000 to 1000 years ago is too remote for oral tradition to be of help and there are no written records. However, important information has been obtained from the languages of the area, whose study does enable us to see something of the people behind the pots.
