Northwestern Africa, West Sahel region, Late Neolithic to Iron Age, ca. 2000 BCE to 1300 CE. This is a beautiful terracotta high-rimmed pot in amazing, nearly pristine condition, with a tall, large flared rim and globular body. The decorative red slip on the upper half is intact and shows amazing ancient burnishing to create a natural luster. The lower half is left unglazed and features a beautiful, well-detailed imprinting of a woven cord that was pressed into the soft clay before firing. This magnificent pot was made using the coil-built technique whereby the pot was made without a wheel, instead, layers of coiled clay were built one upon another and the entire surface burnished smooth to remove the lines of the coils. Evidence of the coils can still be seen on the neck! The late Neolithic to Early Iron Age period ceramics from the Sahel are some of the rarest ancient pottery one could own! The Sahel is the transitional region just between the arid Sahara and tropical savannah to the south. Size: 8" Diameter x 9.5" H (20.3 cm x 24.1 cm)

Pottery was the first product of the transition from the Stone Age to the farming societies of the Neolithic. Transitory populations of hunters and gatherers now could farm their food and settle into communities. Pottery was the result of needing storage for excess resource production afforded by this new form of lifestyle. The history of the Sahel region was mainly preserved through oral tradition and accounts by Islamic authors, and most pre-Islamic cultural traditions survive via the burial practices of early Sahelian people.

Provenance: ex-private Tennessee, USA collection, formed in the 1970s

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#175614

Minor loss to base, otherwise intact with no repairs or restoration! Mineral deposits on surface.