Journal of Archaeological Science (2000) 27, 163–182 doi:10.1006/jasc.1999.0455, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on Ceramic Tradition in the African Forest: Characterisation Analysis of Ancient and Modern Pottery from Ituri, D.R. Congo Julio Mercader* Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, 2110 G. St. NW, Washington DC, 20052, U.S.A. Manuel Garcia-Heras Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education, 4210 Silver Hill Rd, Suitland, MD 20746–2863, U.S.A. Ignacio Gonzalez-Alvarez Departamento de Geologia, Area de Estratigrafia, Universidad de Oviedo, 33005, Asturias, Spain (Received 5 February 1999, revised manuscript accepted 7 April 1999) This paper aims to explain the major characteristics of pottery making in the Ituri rainforest during the last millennium  by identifying and comparing technological aspects of archaeological and ethnographic assemblages with the primary goal of relating some present features of ceramic production to those of the past. Such comparison has been undertaken by archaeometric characterisation: mineralogical phase analysis, structure identification, and processing behavior. This study points out that interaction between farmers and hunter–gatherers homogenised the technological repertoires throughout the diverse cultural settings of the N.E. Congo Basin. Recent ceramic assemblages share with ancient ones a consistent distribution and manufacture of pottery across a multiethnic setting in which pottery is used by ethnically diverse slash and burn farmers and bow/net hunter–gatherers. The degree of technological continuity inherent to these assemblages is measurable by empirical means, the results suggesting that ancient and modern traditions have shared, now as then, the five components that make the Ituri pottery tradition insofar as raw material extraction, preparation of clays, modelling, drying, and firing are concerned.  2000 Academic Press Keywords: D.R. CONGO, ITURI RAINFOREST, POTTERY, THIN SECTION, X.R.D., HUNTER–GATHERER/FARMER INTERACTION. Introduction T his paper aims to explain the major character- istics of pottery making in the Ituri rainforest during the last millennium  by identifying and comparing technological aspects of archaeological and ethnographic assemblages with the primary goal of relating some present features of ceramic production to those of the past. Such comparison has been under- taken by archaeometric characterisation of modern (Arnold et al., 1991; Gosselain, 1991, 1992, 1994) and ancient pottery from the Ituri forest of D.R. Congo (formerly Zaire) in order to assess technological vari- ability over time. This includes mineralogical phase analysis, structure identification, and processing behaviour (Bronitsky, 1986). The late onset of ceramic technologies in the Ituri lowland tropical forests, c. 1080 41 , indicates that farming colonisation of this region could be a late event. Furthermore, late chronologies for farming inception in the Ituri forest could denote the relevance that foraging strategies still have in local ways of life, the hypothesis that tropical forests of the Congo’s watershed may have experienced differential colonisation processes over space and time, and the idea that, until recently, there have been large hunter–gatherer domains within a wider context of mixed hunting–gathering/farming economies first established 2500–2000 years ago. The beginnings of farming and ceramic technology in this part of the Central African forests could be *For correspondence: E-mail: MercaderJ@ancon.si.edu 163 0305–4403/00/020163+20 $35.00/0  2000 Academic Press