ARCREATE.

This paper explores the historical and contemporary significance of visibility in human interactions with their environments, particularly in the context of archaeology and the application of geographic information systems (GIS) for visibility analysis. The study highlights the role of visibility analysis in investigating not only the physical visibility of features in landscapes but also the cultural significance associated with seeing or not seeing them. It draws from the ‘visibility relates’ principle, which argues that individuals tend to establish connections with visible entities. The focus is on comparing nineteenth-century urban settlements (Kaditshwene, Molokwane, and Marothodi) in the Magaliesberg region of South Africa, particularly examining the strategic positioning of kraals within these Sotho- Tswana farming communities. These settlements are some of the more popular Late Farming Communities (AD 1300–1840) in South Africa; hence, they have archaeological background and are among the few, if not the only ones, that have LiDAR data coverage. The findings reveal distinctions in visibility at both settlement and household scalar levels, with Kaditshwene standing out as different from Marothodi and Molokwane. This suggests that kraals were strategically located to be more or less visible based on specific settlement circumstances, such as attracting people from other communities and concerns about cattle theft. This study contributes to GIS approaches to archaeological sites and landscapes in Africa and calls for more extensive use of geospatial statistics in African archaeology.

Among Simon Hall’s influential contributions to historical archaeology are two research agendas: the need to focus attention on lower scalar levels of analysis, and broadening the concept of ceramic style to include less visible technological qualities. The latter is of particular importance to the stylistically bland and less decorated assemblages from the 18th and 19th centuries. Combining and developing the two agendas further, this article presents a new set of analyses of ceramic material from the stonewalled sites Marothodi and Lebenya in the Magaliesberg region, dating to the decades leading up to the difaqane in the 1820s. We explore households as flexible spaces for making, creativity and memory-work in turbulent times. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw an accelerated development of pyrotechnologies such as metalworking and ceramics. This happened in tandem with significant changes to the built environment and spatial organisation of the household, which was the primary arena for craft learning. Frequent relocation and alteration of learning spaces put transmission and teacher–apprentice ties under serious strain. Seeking to trace connections across a complex and layered political landscape, we tentatively hypothesise that ceramic craftspeople became relatively less reliant on locally anchored insights and placed more emphasis on sharing knowledge and materials within extended craft-learning networks. The study includes a comparison of the results of petrographic and geochemical laboratory analyses with those from a handheld XRF device. Offering instant feedback while still in the field, such mobile tools can help in developing sampling strategies that also include a higher percentage of undecorated ceramic material.