Pub Date : 2018-11-27DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20180013
Alfredo González-Ruibal
{"title":"Searching for Boko Haram: A History of Violence in Central Africa, written by Scott MacEachern","authors":"Alfredo González-Ruibal","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20180013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180013","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20180013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47252189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-11-27DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20180014
Marika Low, A. Mackay
Emphasis on the production of small unretouched blades is the strongest defining technological characteristic of southern African assemblages referred to as the Robberg – a ‘technologically uniform’ technocomplex identified across the sub-continent. This paper explores the spatial organisation of Robberg blade technology from three rockshelter sites in the Doring River catchment of the eastern Cederberg Mountains. The Doring is both a key source of water and toolstone, and the three sites are located at varying distances from it. Blades and blade cores from these sites are used to explore the influence of distance to source on the abundance of raw materials, staging of production and maintenance/reduction of transported artefacts. Results suggest key differences in procurement and provisioning strategies for different materials. Hunter-gatherers ‘geared up’ with hornfels and silcrete blades at the river before moving up the tributaries where toolkits were supplemented by small numbers of blades made from transported silcrete cores and the situational use of local rock types such as quartz. Results demonstrate the importance of understanding local-scale controls on technological organisation before inferring patterns of broader behavioural import.
{"title":"The Organisation of Late Pleistocene Robberg Blade Technology in the Doring River Catchment, South Africa","authors":"Marika Low, A. Mackay","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20180014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180014","url":null,"abstract":"Emphasis on the production of small unretouched blades is the strongest defining technological characteristic of southern African assemblages referred to as the Robberg – a ‘technologically uniform’ technocomplex identified across the sub-continent. This paper explores the spatial organisation of Robberg blade technology from three rockshelter sites in the Doring River catchment of the eastern Cederberg Mountains. The Doring is both a key source of water and toolstone, and the three sites are located at varying distances from it. Blades and blade cores from these sites are used to explore the influence of distance to source on the abundance of raw materials, staging of production and maintenance/reduction of transported artefacts. Results suggest key differences in procurement and provisioning strategies for different materials. Hunter-gatherers ‘geared up’ with hornfels and silcrete blades at the river before moving up the tributaries where toolkits were supplemented by small numbers of blades made from transported silcrete cores and the situational use of local rock types such as quartz. Results demonstrate the importance of understanding local-scale controls on technological organisation before inferring patterns of broader behavioural import.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20180014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43602303","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-11-27DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20180012
N. Finlay
{"title":"The Lives of Stone Tools: Crafting the Status, Skill, and Identity of Flintknappers, written by Kathryn Weedman Arthur","authors":"N. Finlay","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20180012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180012","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20180012","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43634155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-11-27DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20180009
H. Pinto, W. Archer, D. Witelson, Rae Regensberg, Stephanie E. Baker, Rethabile Mokhachane, Joseph Ralimpe, Nkosinathi Ndaba, Lisedi Mokhantso, Puseletso Lecheko, Sam Challis
The rock shelter Mafusing 1 was excavated in 2011 as part of the Matatiele Archaeology and Rock Art orMARAresearch programme initiated in the same year. This programme endeavours to redress the much-neglected history of this region of South Africa, which until 1994 formed part of the wider ‘Transkei’ apartheid homeland. Derricourt’s 1977Prehistoric Man in the Ciskei and Transkeiconstituted the last archaeological survey in this area. However, the coverage for the Matatiele region was limited, and relied largely on van Riet Lowe’s site list of the 1930s. Thus far, theMARAprogramme has documented more than 200 rock art sites in systematic survey and has excavated two shelters – Mafusing 1 (MAF1) and Gladstone 1 (forthcoming). Here we present analyses of the excavated material from theMAF1 site, which illustrates the archaeological component of the wider historical and heritage-related programme focus. Our main findings atMAF1 to date include a continuous, well stratified cultural sequence dating from the middle Holocene up to 2400 cal.BP. Ages obtained from these deposits are suggestive of hunter-gatherer occupation pulses atMAF1, with possible abandonment of the site over the course of two millennia in the middle Holocene. After a major roof collapse altered the morphology of the shelter, there was a significant change in the character of occupation atMAF1, reflected in both the artefact assemblage composition and the construction of a rectilinear structure within the shelter sometime after 2400 cal.BP. The presence of a lithic artefact assemblage from this latter phase of occupation atMAF1 confirms the continued use of the site by hunter-gatherers, while the presence of pottery and in particular the construction of a putative rectilinear dwelling and associated animal enclosure points to occupation of the shelter by agropastoralists. Rock art evidence shows distinct phases, the latter of which may point to religious practices involving rain-serpents and rainmaking possibly performed, in part, for an African farmer audience. This brings into focus a central aim of theMARAprogramme: to research the archaeology of contact between hunter-gatherer and agropastoralist groups.
{"title":"The Matatiele Archaeology and Rock Art (MARA) Program Excavations: The Archaeology of Mafusing 1 Rock Shelter, Eastern Cape, South Africa","authors":"H. Pinto, W. Archer, D. Witelson, Rae Regensberg, Stephanie E. Baker, Rethabile Mokhachane, Joseph Ralimpe, Nkosinathi Ndaba, Lisedi Mokhantso, Puseletso Lecheko, Sam Challis","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20180009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180009","url":null,"abstract":"The rock shelter Mafusing 1 was excavated in 2011 as part of the Matatiele Archaeology and Rock Art orMARAresearch programme initiated in the same year. This programme endeavours to redress the much-neglected history of this region of South Africa, which until 1994 formed part of the wider ‘Transkei’ apartheid homeland. Derricourt’s 1977Prehistoric Man in the Ciskei and Transkeiconstituted the last archaeological survey in this area. However, the coverage for the Matatiele region was limited, and relied largely on van Riet Lowe’s site list of the 1930s. Thus far, theMARAprogramme has documented more than 200 rock art sites in systematic survey and has excavated two shelters – Mafusing 1 (MAF1) and Gladstone 1 (forthcoming). Here we present analyses of the excavated material from theMAF1 site, which illustrates the archaeological component of the wider historical and heritage-related programme focus. Our main findings atMAF1 to date include a continuous, well stratified cultural sequence dating from the middle Holocene up to 2400 cal.BP. Ages obtained from these deposits are suggestive of hunter-gatherer occupation pulses atMAF1, with possible abandonment of the site over the course of two millennia in the middle Holocene. After a major roof collapse altered the morphology of the shelter, there was a significant change in the character of occupation atMAF1, reflected in both the artefact assemblage composition and the construction of a rectilinear structure within the shelter sometime after 2400 cal.BP. The presence of a lithic artefact assemblage from this latter phase of occupation atMAF1 confirms the continued use of the site by hunter-gatherers, while the presence of pottery and in particular the construction of a putative rectilinear dwelling and associated animal enclosure points to occupation of the shelter by agropastoralists. Rock art evidence shows distinct phases, the latter of which may point to religious practices involving rain-serpents and rainmaking possibly performed, in part, for an African farmer audience. This brings into focus a central aim of theMARAprogramme: to research the archaeology of contact between hunter-gatherer and agropastoralist groups.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20180009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42725014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-11-27DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20180008
Annalisa C. Christie, A. Haour
The lost caravan of Ma’den Ijafen, Mauritania, with its cargo of cowries and brass, is widely discussed in African archaeology, providing significant insight into the nature of long-distance trade in the medieval period. While the brass bars recovered by Théodore Monod during his expedition to the site in 1962 have received considerable attention, the cowrie shells described in his comprehensive publication of the assemblage in 1969 have received much less coverage. This issue was addressed during a recent visit to the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) in Dakar, Senegal in May 2017, when the authors re-examined the shells as part of a wider project which also involved archaeological and environmental surveys in the Maldives, the oft-assumed source of these shells. Examinations of natural history collections of cowries, ethnographic interviews in the Maldives, and environmental surveys in East Africa were also carried out. Drawing on insights from these surveys, we systematically compared the Ma’den Ijafen cowrie assemblage to three others from the Maldives, focussing on four criteria: species composition and diversity, shell size and evidence of modifications. This analysis enabled us to shed new light on the nature of the Ma’den Ijafen cowries and their wider significance to understanding the role of the shells in West African trade networks.
{"title":"The ‘Lost Caravan’ of Ma’den Ijafen Revisited: Re-appraising Its Cargo of Cowries, a Medieval Global Commodity","authors":"Annalisa C. Christie, A. Haour","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20180008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180008","url":null,"abstract":"The lost caravan of Ma’den Ijafen, Mauritania, with its cargo of cowries and brass, is widely discussed in African archaeology, providing significant insight into the nature of long-distance trade in the medieval period. While the brass bars recovered by Théodore Monod during his expedition to the site in 1962 have received considerable attention, the cowrie shells described in his comprehensive publication of the assemblage in 1969 have received much less coverage. This issue was addressed during a recent visit to the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire (IFAN) in Dakar, Senegal in May 2017, when the authors re-examined the shells as part of a wider project which also involved archaeological and environmental surveys in the Maldives, the oft-assumed source of these shells. Examinations of natural history collections of cowries, ethnographic interviews in the Maldives, and environmental surveys in East Africa were also carried out. Drawing on insights from these surveys, we systematically compared the Ma’den Ijafen cowrie assemblage to three others from the Maldives, focussing on four criteria: species composition and diversity, shell size and evidence of modifications. This analysis enabled us to shed new light on the nature of the Ma’den Ijafen cowries and their wider significance to understanding the role of the shells in West African trade networks.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-11-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20180008","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43787611","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20180006
N. Bicho, J. Cascalheira, Jonathan A. Haws, C. Gonçalves
Southeast Africa has become an important region for understanding the development of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Anatomically Modern Humans. Due to its location between east and southern Africa, Mozambique is a key region for evaluating the development of Homo sapiens and the MSA across Africa. Here, we present the first results of lithic analyses of MSA assemblages collected during survey and testing in the Niassa and Massingir regions of Mozambique in 2014-2016. We were able to locate close to 200 new Stone Age surface sites. Data show that raw material use is different in the two areas. The lithic assemblages from both areas show the use of centripetal technology, but in Massingir, Levallois points, the respective cores and blade technology are frequent, they are almost absent in the northern region.
{"title":"Middle Stone Age Technologies in Mozambique: A Preliminary Study of the Niassa and Massingir Regions","authors":"N. Bicho, J. Cascalheira, Jonathan A. Haws, C. Gonçalves","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20180006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180006","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Southeast Africa has become an important region for understanding the development of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Anatomically Modern Humans. Due to its location between east and southern Africa, Mozambique is a key region for evaluating the development of Homo sapiens and the MSA across Africa. Here, we present the first results of lithic analyses of MSA assemblages collected during survey and testing in the Niassa and Massingir regions of Mozambique in 2014-2016. We were able to locate close to 200 new Stone Age surface sites. Data show that raw material use is different in the two areas. The lithic assemblages from both areas show the use of centripetal technology, but in Massingir, Levallois points, the respective cores and blade technology are frequent, they are almost absent in the northern region.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20180006","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45529633","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20180003
Thomas Soubira
{"title":"Sur les traces des Grands Empires: recherches archéologiques au Mali, edited by S. Takezawa and M. Cissé","authors":"Thomas Soubira","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20180003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180003","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20180003","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46524482","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20180001
N. Gestrich, K. Macdonald
This article summarises the results of four seasons of excavation at Tongo Maaré Diabal (AD500-1150), near Douentza, Mali. Deep stratigraphic excavations were directed by MacDonald and Togola in 1993, 1995 and by MacDonald in 1996. Complementary, large exposure excavations of the abandonment layer were undertaken by Gestrich in 2010. The combined excavation results speak to topics of craft specialisation, trade, and social organisation. They provide evidence of a specialised blacksmithing community situated at the margins of early Middle Niger and Niger Bend statehood and urbanisation.
{"title":"On the Margins of Ghana and Kawkaw: Four Seasons of Excavation at Tongo Maaré Diabal (AD 500-1150), Mali","authors":"N. Gestrich, K. Macdonald","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20180001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180001","url":null,"abstract":"This article summarises the results of four seasons of excavation at Tongo Maaré Diabal (AD500-1150), near Douentza, Mali. Deep stratigraphic excavations were directed by MacDonald and Togola in 1993, 1995 and by MacDonald in 1996. Complementary, large exposure excavations of the abandonment layer were undertaken by Gestrich in 2010. The combined excavation results speak to topics of craft specialisation, trade, and social organisation. They provide evidence of a specialised blacksmithing community situated at the margins of early Middle Niger and Niger Bend statehood and urbanisation.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20180001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42401461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1163/21915784-20180005
R. Pouwels
{"title":"The Swahili World, edited by Stephanie Wynn-Jones and Adria LaViolette","authors":"R. Pouwels","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20180005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20180005","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-20180005","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47399445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-08-01DOI: 10.1163/21915784-12340013
C. Magnavita, Friedrich Lüth, Siaw Appiah-Adu
Within the scope of a short-term pilot study, the authors conducted trial geophysical surveys at two sites of the late Holocene food-producing Kintampo Complex (ca. 2100-1400BC) in northern Ghana. Overall goal of research was an evaluation of the potential of employing geophysical prospecting to map the subsurface extent of Kintampo open-air settlements. From an archaeological viewpoint, the results of the surveys were satisfactory but not outstanding in view of post-depositional disturbances at the locations. Based on that knowledge, we argue for the need of developing a systematic archaeological reconnaissance and research program for locating new and virtually undisturbed open-air Kintampo sites. We maintain that such a preliminary measure will be crucial both for investigating hitherto neglected research issues such as Kintampo settlement pattern and landscape exploitation as well as allowing geophysical technologies to fully evolve as central explorative tools in regard to settlement-related spatial questions.
{"title":"First Trial Geophysical Surveys at Kintampo Open-Air Sites: Results, Recommendations, Research Prospects","authors":"C. Magnavita, Friedrich Lüth, Siaw Appiah-Adu","doi":"10.1163/21915784-12340013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-12340013","url":null,"abstract":"Within the scope of a short-term pilot study, the authors conducted trial geophysical surveys at two sites of the late Holocene food-producing Kintampo Complex (ca. 2100-1400BC) in northern Ghana. Overall goal of research was an evaluation of the potential of employing geophysical prospecting to map the subsurface extent of Kintampo open-air settlements. From an archaeological viewpoint, the results of the surveys were satisfactory but not outstanding in view of post-depositional disturbances at the locations. Based on that knowledge, we argue for the need of developing a systematic archaeological reconnaissance and research program for locating new and virtually undisturbed open-air Kintampo sites. We maintain that such a preliminary measure will be crucial both for investigating hitherto neglected research issues such as Kintampo settlement pattern and landscape exploitation as well as allowing geophysical technologies to fully evolve as central explorative tools in regard to settlement-related spatial questions.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2018-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/21915784-12340013","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48489428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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