1913.34.18.24

Collection type

Object

Description

Pottery sherd from the body of a grey ware large jar including part of the rim. Consists of two smaller slightly curved sherds stuck together. [EH [OPS move] 29/11/2017]

Long description

Pottery sherd from the body of a grey ware large jar including part of the rim. Consists of two smaller slightly curved sherds stuck together. Dark grey fabric, partially blackened on the inside surface and partially reddish brown in colour on the outside.[EH [OPS move] 29/11/2017]

Geographical reference

Cabo Verde

Africa > Western Africa > Cabo Verde

São Vicente (Saint Vincent) Bay of João d'Evora

Person

Field collector Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford

PRM source Osbert Guy Stanhope Crawford

Date / Period

Date made: 1400-1600

Date collected

1913

Acquisition information

Donated: 1913

Materials and processes

Material Pottery, Process Fire-Hardened, Process Handbuilt, Process Glued

Dimensions

Width: max 150 mm, Length: max 105 mm, Depth: max 20 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1913.34.18.24

Research and responses

On page 89 of his autobiography, Said and Done: The Autobiography of an Archaeologist (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1955), O. G. S. Crawford writes: 'One day I walked across the island to a bay on the north side where I found a remarkable assortment of drift on the beach, including some molucca beans that had come from the West Indies. There was also a kitchen midden with potsherds in the sand-dunes; but if the island was uninhabited as stated when it was discovered in the fifteenth century it cannot have been very old. (I gave the sherds to Balfour for the Pitt-Rivers Museum).' [JN 1998; JC 15 7 2008]

For an account of the results of the first phase of an archaeological excavation undertaken at the same site in 1998, see ‘Contribuição para o estudo de estações arqueohistõricas em cabo verde: Os concheiros de Salamanza e João d'Evora Ilha de S. Vicente’, by M. Conceição Rodrigues, in Portugalia, Vol. 21/22 (2000–2001), pp. 249–80. (Photocopy in RDF.) [JC 27 8 2009]

Note that the place is João d'Evora, with a "v" (not Erora, as Crawford had spelled it). [AS 08/03/2011]

This object was looked at by Chris Evans (University of Cambridge). The visit took place 22/09/15. [NC 23/09/2015]

Associated publications

Reference: Finding the Forgotten: Locating Transatlantic Slavery in The Pitt Rivers Museum Collection, Main author: Jane Webster, 2025, Page: 109

‘Contribuição para o estudo de estações arqueohistõricas em cabo verde: Os concheiros de Salamanza e João d'Evora Ilha de S. Vicente’, by M. Conceição Rodrigues, in Portugalia, Vol. 21/22 (2000–2001), pp. 249–80

Search terms: Pottery, Vessel, Sherd