122 Annals of the SontJi African Miiscitin. 



mamelon. This variation in form precludes the possibility of an 

 industry for barter or exchange. Had it existed a similarity of 

 shape obtained through imitation would have resulted. 



This pottery industry is therefore local, and the material used is 

 that found at hand. Along the sea-board, ^Yhence most pots come 

 — fragmentary mostly, but also occasionally whole — the clay is 

 seldom freed from impurities ; it is even of the coarsest kind, mixed 

 with a large quantity of quartz grains or small pebbles (Fig. 179). 

 The clay so mixed is of the kind that accumulates in the marshy 

 depressions of the localities in which these pots are found. '■' 



More care in kneading seems, however, to have been taken for 

 other specimens, such as Fig. 174, found not far from the very 

 primitive pot. Fig. 179, and more discrimination in the quality of 

 material is indicated by the composition of the clay of Figs. 175 

 and 17G. Potsherds from up-country " stations " are often superior 

 in texture and baking to those of the open-air middens of the Cape 

 Flats, or of the Western Coast ; but most fragments indicate that 

 either the kneading of the clay or the baking is very primitive or 

 imperfect, as shown by the blackened or reddened outer rind of 

 the vessel, and the greyish hue of the centre, or of the inner part 

 of the same, t 



In this respect there is a great resemblance with the neolithic 

 pottery of Europe. 



Pottery there was not baked in ovens ; the pots were made by 

 hand, the wheel being then unknown. 



Our South African spe«iniens are not baked in ovens, and are 

 also made by hand ; but there the resemblance ceases. The shape 

 of the South African vessels made by the occupiers of middens or 

 rock-shelters is neither calciform or goblet-like, nor spherically 

 ovoid, and when somewhat amphora-like, the bottom is neither as 

 broadly rounded or as flat as in the European vessels ; there is no 

 handle proper ; occasionally there are perforated ears for suspension 

 as in some European relics, but these openings are of a different 

 type. 



A point, however, of the greatest importance in connection with 

 this comparison of the South African earthenware vessels with the 



* It has been suggested that in the Neolithic of Europe rock was ground to mix 

 with clay (Assoc. Franc. Avanc. Sc, 1904). 



t It has been claimed that Bush pottery was distiuguish-\ble through particles 

 of straw being still left in the baked clay — the straw to make bricks. I have ex- 

 amined these " straws " microscopically. There is nothing worthy of acceptance 

 in the assertion. The parts left are vegetable particles found in the clay, which 

 is extremely badly baked. 



