Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Abstract Numerous doctoral degree holders were trained in African archaeometallurgy in the Global North as well as on the African continent. African archaeometallurgy continues to attract a significant number of researchers from Europe and North America. This paper is based on our lived experiences as resident African archaeometallurgists. We argue that out of frustration because of unequal power relations and lack of access to archaeological science laboratories and funding, most African archaeometallurgists are now pursuing other research areas and careers altogether. We propose some solutions to ensure sustainability in the training and practice of archaeological scientists on the African continent. We conclude that African scholars need to develop home-grown and long-term research capacities and strategies. PubDate: 2022-09-07
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Abstract: Abstract The 4.2 ka BP climate event was a phase of severe global drought. Its evidence has been attested in many regions of the world and was reported to have played an important role in the collapse of major ancient civilizations. This article provides a comprehensive literature review using several proxies on the 4.2 ka BP climate event in Ancient Egypt. It applies a multidisciplinary approach that integrates archaeological, geoarchaeological, and bioarchaeological evidence. The conclusion is that the event had critical environmental, economic, and political impacts. It led to aridification, a decline in the Nile level and Nile-fed lakes, encroachment of aeolian desert sand into the Nile Valley, lower crop yields, and famine across ancient Egypt. Therefore, as a compound event, it played an important role in the collapse of the Old Kingdom (ca. 2181 BC), and its effect continued in the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2181–2055 BC) when Egypt witnessed political fragmentation. PubDate: 2022-09-03
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Abstract: Abstract Al-Khiday, located on the bank of the White Nile in Sudan, offers an exceptionally preserved stratigraphic sequence, providing a unique opportunity to use organic residue analysis to investigate diet and subsistence during the Khartoum Mesolithic and the Early Neolithic, a period of nearly 3500 years (7000–4500 cal BC). While the vast and diverse Mesolithic fish assemblage indicates a strong reliance on products from aquatic habitats, floodplains, vegetated marshes, and open water, results from the lipid residue analysis suggest that the fish were not cooked in ceramic pots, but consumed in other ways. Rather, pots were more specialized in processing plants, including wild grasses, leafy plants, and sedges. These results, confirmed by experimental analysis, provide, for the first time, direct chemical evidence for plant exploitation in the Khartoum Mesolithic. Non-ruminant fauna (e.g., warthog) and low lipid-yielding reptiles (e.g., Adanson’s mud turtle and Nile monitor lizard), found in significant numbers at al-Khiday, were likely also cooked in pots. There is little evidence for the processing of wild ruminants in the Mesolithic pots, suggesting either that ruminant species were not routinely hunted or that large wild fauna may have been cooked in different ways, possibly grilled over fires. These data suggest sophisticated economic strategies by sedentary people exploiting their ecological niche to the fullest. Pottery use changed considerably in the Early Neolithic, with ruminant products being more routinely processed in pots, and while the exploitation of domesticates cannot be confirmed by a small faunal assemblage, some dairying took place. The results provide valuable information on Early and Middle Holocene lifeways in central Sudan. PubDate: 2022-08-31
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Abstract: Abstract In most African contexts, glass beads are evidence of direct and indirect exchanges between communities and are often useful chronological markers. Their analysis contributes to a better understanding of the social relationships between ancient societies. Over the last decade, the archaeometric analysis of glass beads has gained ground in Sub-Saharan Africa, but large regions across southeastern Africa have remained underexplored. Glass beads excavated from the Hora 1, Hora 5, and Mazinga 1 sites in the Kasitu Valley of the Mzimba District of northern Malawi were analyzed using laser ablation—inductively coupled plasma—mass spectrometry (LA-ICP- MS). These are granitic rock shelter sites located 40 km from Lake Malawi. They have predominantly Early Holocene and Pleistocene deposits but with a scattering of more recent material at the top. Analysis revealed that most of the beads were from European manufacture with one exception—a bead that has a composition typical of South Asia and that circulated from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century AD. Although Europeans were not present in the region before the second part of the nineteenth century, the presence of European beads testifies to trade directly or indirectly involving Europeans, most likely in association with increased trade in ivory and enslaved persons. The presence of the bead from South Asia and two cowrie beads from a fourth nearby site (Kadawonda 1) that dates to the seventh century AD show that European trade was the most recent manifestation of connections between the hinterland and the coast. PubDate: 2022-08-22
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Abstract: The Lake Eyasi Basin in northern Tanzania is among the few key regions in Africa that offer important information about human origins and peopling of the world. Material culture from this region provides significant insight into the origin and development of modern human behavior. It contains dense, stratified, and continuous archaeological records from the Middle Pleistocene to historical periods. The archaeological records of this region offer an opportunity to investigate trends in technological change, past diets, symbolic aspects, and other traits of cognitive thoughts. For a long time, these cultural materials and environmental trajectories were managed through traditionally based non-legislative systems ordered through traditional norms and values. However, such arrangements were interrupted during the colonial and post-colonial periods with emphasis on legislative heritage management systems stressing law enforcement and economic outputs. Strict obedience to heritage law enforcement gradually excluded local communities from mainstream social, economic, and cultural aspects of the archaeological sites in their regions. This paper discusses sustainable solutions and guidelines for managing cultural assets and the surrounding environment through co-management systems. The intention is to develop a highly focused mission for sustainable management and use of cultural assets, reduce vulnerability to climate change, enhance sustainable rural development, and contribute to poverty eradication through tourism. Résumé Le Bassin du lac Eyasi au nord de la Tanzanie constitue une des régions africaines notables qui réservent des informations importantes sur les origines des humaines ainsi que le peuplement du monde. La culture matérielle exceptionnelle de cette région préserve de manière significative l’origine et le développement de comportement humain moderne. Cette culture porte des vestiges archéologiques denses, diversifiées et interrompues, datant depuis le Pléistocène moyen de nos jours. À cet effet, les réserves archéologiques présentes dans cette région créent une occasion inédite pour l’investissement visant la protection contre le changement climatique, la cuisine ancienne, le patrimoine symbolique ainsi que contre les traits relatifs au développement de la réflexion cognitive. Pendant longtemps, ces matériaux culturels et ces projets environnementaux ont été protégés grâce aux systèmes non législatifs des gestions basées sur les normes et valeurs traditionnelles. Et pourtant, tels plans ont été interrompus par le droit moderne institué au cours de l’ère coloniale et repris au post colonial qui privilégie le gain économique. Ceux-ci mettent l’accent sur le respect strict des lois. En conséquence, ces règlements restreignent la population locale de profiter aux atouts sociaux, économiques et culturelles disponibles dans ces sites archéologiques. Dans le cet article l’auteur présente des solutions durables et propose des lignes directrices pour une gestion des biens culturels et une protection de l’environnement autour à travers la gestion de ces biens de manière coopérative. PubDate: 2022-08-18
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Abstract: Abstract The fourteenth-to-sixteenth-century AD site of Songo Mnara, in the Kilwa archipelago in southern Tanzania, is a stone town with many standing coral buildings. Extensive excavations at the site have produced over 9,000 beads, 7,444 of which are glass. A subset of 140 of these was chemically analyzed using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, revealing a notably diverse assemblage that included four main glass types: mineral soda-high alumina (m-Na-Al), vegetable soda-high alumina (v-Na-Al), high lead glasses, and vegetable soda-lime (v-Na-Ca) glass. Here we present these types, giving the first tightly dated assemblage for the fifteenth-century coast. We then focus on two notable features of the assemblage. Among the high-lead glass beads are two types from China: one dates to the early fifteenth century and the other from about 1600. These later Chinese beads were accompanied by some of the earliest European beads (v-Na-Ca) found in eastern Africa. Their provenance and meaning are examined. Then, we discuss large folded beads that were decorated with trails of colored glass. Such beads have been recorded only at Songo Mnara and Kilwa Kisiwani, and we suggest they may have been made locally from imported v-Na-Al glass. PubDate: 2022-08-05
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Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: Abstract About 96% of all malaria deaths occur in Africa, and the malignant falciparum malaria also originated on the continent. Although falciparum malaria only appeared in the Holocene period, it can be hypothesized that the transfer of malaria parasites from other primates to humans occurred several times in history parallel to human evolution. This study develops the model that examines the possible coexistence of the potential original host apes, human ancestors, and the diverse anopheline mosquito species; and how, where, and when the host switch of these parasites from great apes to humans occurred. Based on the Pliocene-early Pleistocene archaeological sites, it was found that certain early hominin populations could have lived in malaria areas where the anopheline mosquito fauna was moderately diverse. The people of the Lupemban Culture, as well as the Greenlandian and Northgrippian human populations of East and West-Central Africa, lived close to the high diversity of anopheline fauna and the territories of such great apes as Gorilla gorrilla. African mid-Holocene cultures likely came in contact with gorilla populations — the original hosts of Plasmodium falciparum — along the coasts of the Gulf of Guinea and the East African Rift Valley during their migration to southern Africa. The host switch of the ancestor of the falciparum malaria parasite likely occurred in these regions. PubDate: 2022-07-11 DOI: 10.1007/s10437-022-09483-9
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Abstract: Abstract Archaeological research on the Saloum Delta (Senegal) shell middens has had relative highs and lows since the first half of the twentieth century, but they are one of the most investigated regional clusters in West Africa. Research has been structured along three main thematic axes: mortuary archaeology (investigating burial mounds); taphonomy (assessing the rhythm and speed of shell midden formation); and ethnoarchaeology (contributing to the construction actualistic references). The Oudierin Drainage Archaeological Project was designed to shift perspective from single sites to the “region”—in this case, the Bolon Oudierin drainage—by investigating the long-term dynamics of the local shellfish economy via fine-tuned “motorboat” and pedestrian surveys, detailed site-mapping and recording, and excavation at two key sites. The research reported here presents new details on the structure of large shell middens, including detailed stratigraphic sections, activity areas, and material culture. The analysis of shell size variations along the stratigraphic column of the largest midden allows for modeling the reasons for the punctuated nature of shell middens formation—relatively short periods of exploitation followed by longer periods of abandonment. Finally, it is shown that shellfish exploitation started some 10,000 years ago during the early Holocene, much earlier than the formation of the Saloum Delta as known today. The formation of cemeteries with burial mounds occurred early in the second millennium (AD 1000–1300), supporting the Diorom-Boumak sequence. PubDate: 2022-06-13 DOI: 10.1007/s10437-022-09482-w
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Abstract: Abstract This article reports a newly discovered Acheulean assemblage in Tanzania’s Northern Mbulu Plateau. Recent investigations in the region have documented surface scatters of artifacts spanning the Acheulean-Later Stone Age continuum. Most of these artifacts have been recovered from disturbed surface contexts, on foothills, plains, and river terraces. However, there were few areas where the Acheulean assemblages were in situ. Like at Oldupai Beds II–IV, the Acheulean of Mbulu Plateau consists of various bifacial large and small cutting tools, flaked and detached types, and nondescript forms. While at Oldupai the raw material includes quartzite and different types of lava, the Mbulu Plateau assemblage is almost exclusively quartzite. Though the focus of this report is on the Acheulean, the artifacts are found co-occurring on the surface with MSA and LSA forms and are in a surprisingly good state of preservation. PubDate: 2022-06-13 DOI: 10.1007/s10437-022-09477-7
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Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Please help us test our new pre-print finding feature by giving the pre-print link a rating. A 5 star rating indicates the linked pre-print has the exact same content as the published article.
Abstract: The emergence of socio-political differentiation is a core theme in world prehistory, and the West African archaeological record offers unique insights into the range of pathways towards increasing complexity and the origins of socio-economic inequalities. During the second half of the second millennium BC, the Tichitt-Oualata escarpments of southeastern Mauritania witnessed the development of societies with monumental funerary architecture and substantial drystone settlements that relied on an agropastoral economy based primarily on pearl millet (Pennisetum sp.) cultivation and livestock-raising. Previous spatial analyses of site size have shown that the Dhar Tichitt landscape exhibited a multi-tiered settlement hierarchy, with Dakhlet el Atrouss I (80 ha) as the main regional center, with almost 600 compounds forming an intricate layout and hundreds of funerary tumuli in the vicinity of the site. The limited presence of imported prestige goods, however, has sparked considerable controversy regarding the socio-political complexity of the community inhabiting the site. The aim of this article is to understand whether remote sensing and spatial analyses can inform us about the extent of socio-economic differentiation at Dakhlet el Atrouss I, the largest site ascribed to the Tichitt Tradition. On the basis of relevant ethnographies exploring the dynamics of household wealth in agropastoral economies, I explore the degree of compound size variation at the site and neighborhood levels using well-established econometric methods that increasingly feature in archaeological studies of inequality and socio-political complexity. This paper represents the first application of Lorenz Curves and Gini Coefficients in African prehistory and illustrates a considerable degree of spatial and socio-economic differentiation at Dakhlet el Atrouss I. PubDate: 2022-04-13 DOI: 10.1007/s10437-022-09479-5
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Abstract: Abstract In this article, we present the results of a recent program of high-resolution radiocarbon dating on the urban sequence at Kilwa Kisiwani in southern Tanzania, including Bayesian modeling of 21 calibrated 14C dates. These data come from the 2016 excavation of a large trench directly adjacent to trench ZLL, one of the key 1960s excavations that served to establish the original chronology of the town. The new sequence reported here anchors the phases of Kilwa’s development for the first time in absolute terms. The dates, stratigraphy, and artifact assemblage offer a number of new insights into the timing and tempo of the occupation at Kilwa, notably placing the first coral buildings and coins at the end of the tenth century. Insights also include findings related to the earliest phases of settlement and periods of possible urban decline. We argue against a trend for understanding Swahili towns according to a common coastal trajectory and suggest that it is important to consider regional diversity by recognizing the particular, episodic sequence at Kilwa. PubDate: 2022-03-29 DOI: 10.1007/s10437-022-09476-8
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Abstract: Abstract New and improved methods for obtaining chronometric dates for southern African hunter-gatherer rock paintings raise questions about how researchers can use the new dates to say more about the past. Traditionally, however, differences of opinion about the necessity of robust and reliable chronological frameworks for integrating rock art and excavated deposits separate those who think chronology is key from those who see it as an unnecessary obsession. This article takes a step back and scrutinizes the concept of integration itself. It shows that the ideas behind the desire to integrate rock art and excavated materials have a much longer history in South Africa than is usually acknowledged; that there is no consensus among researchers about what integration actually means; and argues that integration is a questionable research objective. The article challenges some of the assumptions implicit in the conventional view of integration and suggests that we need better tools for thinking about the relationships between rock art and excavated materials. PubDate: 2022-03-22 DOI: 10.1007/s10437-022-09478-6
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Abstract: Abstract This article presents the discovery and analysis of a new glass bead assemblage from the Swahili site of Mkokotoni, an early second millennium AD settlement in northwestern Zanzibar. It explores the possibilities for local production of glass beads using imported glass cullet or glass tubes at this site. Glass beads are ubiquitous at archaeological sites from the second millennium on the East African coast. They are presumed to have been traded via long-distance networks from South and Southeast Asia, and used locally in personal adornment, barter, and ritual practices. However, the data from Mkokotoni offers a new and unique perspective on glass bead-making traditions, which places the East African coast as an area of production and distribution. PubDate: 2022-03-10 DOI: 10.1007/s10437-022-09475-9
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