User:Mdg132/Nderit pottery

Initially known as ceramic tradition "Gumban A," these clay vessels are now popularly known as Nderit Pottery. The burial sites containing fragments of Nderit Ware were initially unearthed by Louis Leakey in the 1930's. Nderit Pottery was first located in the Central Rift Valley of Kenya. Stylistic characteristics of Nderit Pottery discovered in the Central Rift Valley include an exterior decoration of basket-like and triangular markings into the clay’s surface. The vessels here also have intensely scored interiors that do not appear to follow a distinct pattern. Nderit Ware exemplifies the transition from Saharan wavy-line early Holocene pottery towards the basket-like designs of the middle Holocene. Lipid residue found on Nderit Pottery can be used to analyze the food products stored in them by early pastoralist societies.

Archaeological Sites
Burial sites where Nderit Pottery was unearthed by Louis Leakey include Hyrax Hill, Stable’s Drift, and Makalisa Burial Site. Another site containing Nderit Pottery was found by John Bartheleme and is located east of Lake Turkana. Lawrence H. Robbins' discoveries within the Turkana District of Kenya, detailed in 1972, display pottery sherds with Nderit pottery’s distinct internal scoring and basket-like exteriors. Robbins’ Nderit artifacts span throughout the lower Turkwel and Kerio river valleys. Nderit pottery with surrounding lake sediment that could be dated back to 4800 years was found at Kangatotha, a site near Turkel. Within the Jarigole archeological site, which was a communal cemetery near Lake Turkana, highly decorated Nderit pottery was unearthed with diverse items for personal ornamentation. A multitude of the ceramics found at Jarigole had exteriors decorated with the basket-like impressions along with others adorned with ripple and geometric impressions. Another site containing Nderit ceramics and sherds is Dongodien, which lies north of the Jarigole site. The sherds unearthed at Dongodien also contain lipid-bearing residues.