Descriptive analysis of ceramic materials from Wabukhe hills of Bungoma district

Abstract

This study presents a descriptive analysis of the ceramics recovered from sites in the Wabukhe Hills of Bungoma District. The main objective of the study was to present a picture of the kinds of vessels the people who lived in the area during the late Iron Age period used. It is, it was hoped, would help future scholars establish a pottery type for the area. It was also hoped that, through deduction, the activities of the people could be highlighted through the extraction of vessel shapes and/or ethnographic analogs•

The study starts with an introduction/chapter one introduces the study by explaining the underlying factors that influenced the trend focused in analysing the material. It also consists of the literature review, statement of the Problem, Objectives of the study , and some information on the sites and the material obtained from extract. Chapter two explains the method followed in analyzing the material and defines the terms used in distinguishing the various attributes and their variables , The section terminology will enable a reader to understand and the attributes and

variables as defined by the study and get to know how and why this definitions were arrived at. Chapter three which deals with the attribute analysis of the ceramic material, presents the data on the various attributes and their variables from each site. There is also a section on evaluation in which the validity of the material The fourth chapter comprises the discussion in which the various attributes and attribute variables have-been used to try and reconstruct complete vessel forms that probably existed in the Wabuke Hills area during the late Iron Age period. Ethnographic anology of ceramic material from Bungoma district has been used as a on which conclusions about the possible of the vessels could have been. From this study the main conclusions arrived at are t ha t the people who lived in th e mines at the Hills area during the late Iron Age were settled Communities and they-had different shapes and sizes of pots which they most probably used for transportation, serving of meals, storage of liquids and/or grains and for cooking. The pottery consisted of vessels that were decorated using various decorative techniques and motifs.