This thesis investigates the technology of twenty-six complete vessels from the ceramic assemblages of K2 and Mapungubwe in the Limpopo Province of South Africa, from the early second millennium (AD 1000 - AD 1300). Mapungubwe is a significant pre-colonial archaeological site of social and political complexity, which lead to the emergence of one of the first known states in southern Africa. Ceramics are commonly associated with these nationally significant sites and have served mainly as chronological and regional markers to determine the cultural sequence of the Shashe Limpopo Confluence Area. Previous studies on these ceramics have paid little consideration to ceramic technology, as research for decades has focused largely on stylistic typologies. Non-invasive methods, compositional materials analysis, and macroscopic analysis provide a broad technological characterization of physical evidence left by the potter on the complete vessels, and are used to interpret aspects of the chaîne opératoire or sequence of ceramic manufacture. Though primary traces of forming and shaping techniques have often been erased by secondary forming processes such as smoothing, scraping, wiping and finishing, the fundamental technology of the vessels can nevertheless be elucidated based on a range of technical variables. This study is the first of its kind in South African archaeology, where complete vessels from a valuable research assemblage are used as a basis for understanding ceramic technology. The results enhance archaeological views of Iron Age ceramic technology, which are pertinent to the interpretation of how the ceramics were manufactured and contributes to a wider understanding of social and technical choices made by potters and related social implications. Vessels from the K2 and Mapungubwe ceramic repertoire serve to answer questions about ceramic research that relate to (a) characterization of complete archaeological ceramics, (b) evidence of technology (c) compositional data of the vessels (d) to provide anatomical data on the technological and morphological attributes of ceramic manufacture. The preliminary results point to evidence of local manufacture of K2 and Mapungubwe ceramics by means of the analysis of four steps in the chaîne opératoire: fabric, forming, firing and finishing. Tentative conclusions further demonstrate technological continuity and variability of raw materials for ceramic manufacture at K2 and Mapungubwe. The broader archaeological perspective, which emerges is one of an expanding technological society, changing technical commonalities, forms and decorative styles, and in the process, making if only subtle technological choices in the manufacture process of early second millennium AD Iron Age ceramics. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Anthropology and Archaeology / unrestricted

To be able to be an active participant in today’s society, equal access and ease of use on the web is a must since a variety of our day to day activities happen on the web, something that is made more difficult with bad accessibility design. This paper investigated a selection of profit-driven e-commerce sites in regards to how they design for accessibility by evaluating them in accordance to how they comply with WCAG 2.0. This result was then compared to some different factors. The differences found between these factors shed some light on some other factors that should be kept in mind when designing an accessible e-commerce experience, namely how sales-channel dependency and commoditization of product stock may contribute to accessibility design by survivor bias and website complexity. The study found that having a high commoditization of product stock and a high sales-channel dependency correlated with better accessibility design. Furthermore, sites using newer frameworks and/or versions of said frameworks had better measured accessibility than their counterparts, showing that technical choices is a factor that should be considered for accessibility success in practice.