Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Ivii. (191 3), No. 0- 



VI. A Note on Black Pottery from the Gold Coast 

 and Ashanti. 



By William Burton, M.A., F.C.S. 



( Kecehyd and read .April 8th, igij.) 



Antiquarians and ethnographers have often drawn 

 attention to the unglazed forms of primitive pottery which 

 are gray or black throughout their substance. 



The pre-d}'nastic races of the Nile Valley, the earliest 

 races in Italy and in many other European countries 

 evidently produced large quantities of pottery of this kind, 

 and the so-called " Buchero Nero" of Northern Italy and 

 elsewhere has acquired great significance in the various 

 attempts that have been made to classify the progressive 

 stages of culture of these races. 



It is natural that, owing to this importance of ancient 

 black pottery, man}' attempts have been made to explain 

 how the pottery was blackened, and it has generally been 

 assumed, where the blackening was thorough and intense, 

 that the ware was fired in some kind of a smother kiln in 

 which, towards the finish of the firing, the vents of the kiln 

 were wholly or partially blocked so as to retain the carbon- 

 aceous matter in the kiln, for, of course, it has long been 

 known that this black ware owes its colour purely to the 

 presence of finely divided carbon or some carbonaceous 

 substance through the ware. 



Recently I received from the Liverpool Museum some 

 very interesting information, together with some speci- 

 mens which Mr. Ridyard had kindly forwarded to them, 

 showing how this process of making black pottery is at the 



May 28th, igij. 



