Juané Hurter

I am interested in how local communities made and shared pottery. Between AD 450 and AD 650, Mzonjani communities lived across a wide region – from the Soutpansberg Mountains in Limpopo to the KwaZulu-Natal coast. My PhD project focuses on groups living in the northern lowveld (including Letaba) and Soutpansberg regions. Even though the Mzonjani pottery style appears across such a large area, we still don’t fully understand how it spread so widely.

People learn skills – like pottery-making – not on their own, but by working together. These 'communities of practice' share knowledge through teaching, observation, and collaboration. Over time, different groups share ideas and techniques, creating wide networks of learning. At the same time, communities can also keep their own local traditions.

Studying pottery style together with scientific techniques, such as portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF) and optical petrology, can reveal where pottery materials came from and how vessels were made. Understanding the nature of Mzjonjani pottery across the larger region will shed light on how these communities connected, shared knowledge, and maintained their identities.

Read more about my work here.