In southern Africa and elsewhere, the archaeological study of ceramics largely relies on two approaches that tend to be treated separately: technology and style. While the emphasis of Iron Age archaeology has been on the range of shapes and decorative characteristics of pots and how these are determined or illustrative of cultural identities, little is known about the technological processes of ceramic production. This article uses ethnoarchaeological methods to examine the chaine operatories of ceramic production in specific sociocultural contexts among the Nguni-speaking (Zulu) peoples in the Upper and Lower uThukela Basins in KwaZulu-Natal. The study focuses on social and technical decisions for ceramic production and documents production stages and attributes, design, style, and functional components. Moreover, the social characteristics of production stages are used to understand various techniques, processes, tools, and materials involved in ceramic production, including distribution and apprenticeship. The social and operational attributes of ceramic production discussed in this article are potential sources for developing models that would bridge the gaps between the technology and style approaches in the archaeological study of Iron Age ceramics in southern Africa.

在南部非洲和其他地方，陶瓷考古研究在很大程度上依赖于两种往往被分开对待的方法：技术和风格。虽然铁器时代考古学的重点是陶器的形状和装饰特征的范围，以及这些是如何确定或说明文化特征的，但人们对陶瓷生产的技术过程知之甚少。这篇文章使用民族考古学方法来检查连锁店夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省上、下 uThukela 盆地的恩古尼语（祖鲁）民族在特定社会文化背景下的陶瓷生产。该研究侧重于陶瓷生产的社会和技术决策，并记录生产阶段和属性、设计、风格和功能组件。此外，生产阶段的社会特征被用来了解陶瓷生产中涉及的各种技术、过程、工具和材料，包括分销和学徒制。本文讨论的陶瓷生产的社会和操作属性是开发模型的潜在来源，这些模型将弥合南部非洲铁器时代陶瓷考古研究中技术和风格方法之间的差距。