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1913.34.18.34

Slightly curved triangular pottery sherd from the body of a thick grey ware vessel. Evidence of having been burnt on the outside. [EH [OPS move] 29/11/2017]

1913.34.18.34

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Collection type
Object
Description
Slightly curved triangular pottery sherd from the body of a thick grey ware vessel. Evidence of having been burnt 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
Date / Period
Date made: 1400-1600
Date collected
1913
Acquisition information
Donated: 1913
Materials and processes
Material Pottery, Process Fire-Hardened, Process Handbuilt
Dimensions
Length: max 66 mm, Depth: max 12 mm, Width: max 51 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1913.34.18.34
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

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