Prehistoric Southern African ceramic figurines from Kulubele further contextualised - some links and discontinuities

Anthropomorphic ceramic sculptures, some dating to more than a thousand years ago, have appeared intermittently in the Southern African archaeological record. These works sometimes only hint at the human form. This paper seeks, from an art historical point of view, to contextualise ways of looking at their visual features within aspects of a framework of what has been theorised about social life in those times. To this end, solidly modelled human ceramic figurine fragments, from Kulubele in the Eastern Cape Province, are situated within a broader prehistoric visual arts heritage that also includes comparison with artworks from more northerly Southern African sites such as at Schroda, K2 and Mapungubwe, in Limpopo Province. Imbali engaphambili yemazantsi e-Afrika eyenzelwe ngokuqinileyo kudongwe oluqhekekayo icacisiwe - unxibelelwano nokuqhawukana Iimixonkxo yodongwe etshintshayo, eminye yayo esukela ngaphezu kwenkulungwane yeminyaka egqithileyo, iye yavela izihlandlo ngezihlandlo kwimbali yeakhiyoloji yamaZantsi e-Afrika. Lemisebenzi okanye lembali ngamaxesha athile inika nje intluva kuhlobo loluntu. Eliphepha, ngokoluvo lwembali yomzobi, lifuna ukuphuhlisa iindlela zokujonga iimpawu zangaphandle ezibonakalayo ngokwendlela abebephila ngayo ngalomaxesha. Njengangoku, iintsalela zodongwe eziqinileyo ezenzelwe eluntwini eKulubele kwiphondo leMpuma Kapa, zibekwe kwimo ebanzi yembali engaphambili yenkcubeko esiyibonayo equka uthelekiso lomsebenzi wezandla kwimimandla esemantla kumaZantsi e-Afrika anjenge-Schroda, K2 kunye neMapungubwe kwiphondo leLimpompo.