On Saturday, July 5, the team of the Museum of Photography of Madagascar Anjohy (Andohalo) will welcome the archaeologist Bako Rasoarifetra, as part of his new edition of the Café-Histoire. The latter will lead a chat around the theme “Water and Pottery: Human imprint, identity marker”.
Decipher history through pottery
Where you find pottery, the human has left a trace: it is its material signature. Indeed, without paying attention to it at first glance, behind each pottery hides a human hand that has shaped and used it.
The term ” pottery Note all terracotta objects, made from modeled clay, in archeology. It includes dishes (Vilia and Vilary Tanimanga, Sing, etc.), but also ritual, funeral, technical or even toys (Kiombiombo, Sariolonaetc.).
Thanks to the material that constitutes it, pottery is one of the richest and most durable vestiges. Unlike wooden, textile or metal objects that degrade, pottery fragments – or shards – can be preserved for millennia.
Immersion in the past of Madagascar and the surrounding area
In Vohémar, in the Northeast, pottery were discovered in an Islamized necropolis: some produced locally, others imported, notably from China (Rabemanantoa et al. 2011). This site, occupied between the 10th century and the 16th century by populations called Rasikajy, testifies to rich exchanges with the worlds of the Indian Ocean.
A passionate archaeologist
This cafe-history is likely to be rich and exciting since it will be animated by a historian by training.
Bako Rasoarifetra is more specialized in archeology, museology and heritage. She is currently a associate researcher at the Institute of Civilizations / Museum of Art and Archeology (University of Antananarivo), where she teaches archeology, museology and heritage studies.
His work focuses mainly on material culture, with a particular interest in the dynamics between material and intangible heritage. She is the author of several publications, both national and international, in these areas.
Café-history will start at 10 a.m. this Saturday.
Hanitra Andria