Ceramic Finds from Stratified Archaeological Contexts Reflecting Complex Building Activity at Kom H at Wad Ben Naga. Part I

The present paper focuses on the pottery corpus recovered from strata attributed to pre-Natakamani horizon in the area of kom H and kom A (Typhonium, WBN 200) at Wad Ben Naga. The first part of the paper describes the stratigraphic contexts from which the pottery came and establishes distinction between features related to the construction of structure WBN 700, others linked to its subsequent adjustments and/or later disturbed and finally, contexts related to its destruction and razing of the ground in preparation for the building of the Typhonium. The pottery corpus itself is analysed with special attention given to the issues of its dating and identifying the attributes distinguishing it from other, mostly later, pottery corpora from Wad Ben Naga. Amongst others, it was mainly the significant appearance of several pottery form types which were in general characteristic for Meroitic contexts datable mostly between the 1st century BCE and early 1st century CE. In effect, the analysis of the pottery corpus attributed to the pre-Natakamani horizon helped to confirm and precise dating of individual events in the area and allowed to establish a clearly defined, temporally specific profile of Meroitic ceramic culture which may serve for comparison with other pottery assemblages at Wad Ben Naga and beyond

Archaeology · Geography · Geometry · Horizon · Pottery · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · History · Image Processing and 3D Reconstruction · Mathematics · Metallurgy and Cultural Artifacts