African Archaeological Review最新文献

Archaeological research in the Ndali Crater Lakes Region (NCLR) in western Uganda has contributed significant insights into first millennium AD multilingual communities. These diverse communities, sharing food ways, ceramic technologies, and ritual beliefs, are traced to Bantu speakers who interacted with Sudanic speakers who made Kansyore ceramics. One of the significant exchanges of cultural beliefs was the adoption of Kansyore burial urns by Bantu makers of Transitional Urewe and Boudiné ware (Early Iron Age). This article provides additional evidence for a region of tropical Africa where burials are well preserved. These conditions allow unusual opportunities to assess syncretism in ritual treatments of the dead, using funerary practices that add significantly to evidence previously documented in the NCLR. Ritual interment of the dead on western caldera rims, where celestial renewal is assured, shows long-term continuities through documentation of later Bigo-period burials.

In many archaeological sites in the Nile Valley of Northeast Africa, pre-adult burials are severely underrepresented due to differential burial practices, variable preservation, differential excavation, and curation practices. This study examines pre-adult burials from the New Kingdom–Early Napatan (1400–750 BCE) site of Tombos in Sudan. Historical and artistic documentation of social age categories from Egypt is presented in order to provide a better understanding of social factors for each age group. Skeletal and mortuary data from pre-adult individuals at Tombos are analyzed and compared with data from other sites in the Nile Valley as well as adult burials from Tombos. The analysis of mortuary patterns indicates greater variability in treatment of pre-adults compared to adults and shows consistency with documented Egyptological ideas that the youngest members of the community were treated as fully human in death with proper burial and offerings for the afterlife. Pathological condition frequencies by age group reveal that individuals in the late childhood social age category (8–14 years) experienced higher levels of non-specific stress indicators as they headed toward social adulthood. Examination of mortuary practices and health conditions by social age category sheds light on differing experiences across the life course.

Mluwati is a Late Iron Age site in the central Lowveld of South Africa. Historically, this region is known to host several fatal diseases for humans and livestock, including malaria and nagana. Mluwati was excavated in 2002 as part of rescue excavations during the construction of a lodge. The faunal assemblage from Mluwati contains a variety of mammals, notably larger ungulates such as blue wildebeest, impala, and plains zebra. The giant African land snail and tortoise remains are also common. The fauna from Mluwati is similar to that of other Early and Late Iron Age sites from the central Lowveld, where large ungulates were also hunted. The faunal assemblage from Mluwati is relatively large yet lacks any domestic animals. Faunal samples from the Early and Late Iron Ages in the central Lowveld indicate that there are several sites lacking livestock, which is not the result of small sample sizes. When samples do contain livestock, they are represented in lower numbers, and hunted animals dominate. Some of the common animals in all the faunal samples from the central Lowveld include plains zebra, blue wildebeest, impala, tortoise, and the giant African land snail. The area has been an attractive hunting ground for several centuries, where people may have been practicing seasonal sedentism.

Sex estimation based on skeletal dimensions can be an important tool in the case of a missing pelvis, but is population specific. The aim is to present logistic regression models for sex estimation specifically for the Old Kingdom population (2700–2180 BCE) of ancient Egypt. The sample includes the skeletal remains of 162 adult individuals, 95 males and 67 females, from two burial sites (Abusir, Giza), whose sex could be estimated based on pelvic bone measurements and/or morphological features. A total of 38 cranial and 64 postcranial measurements were included. Sex estimation equations were developed using logistic regression to obtain probabilities for sex predictions. 26 final skeletal measurements were selected for use in the multivariate models. A total of 65 best performing models are presented. All are statistically significant at a 0.01 p-level and characterized by a combination of low error, high decisiveness, high accuracy, and sufficient coverage. Models incorporating lower limb measurements perform best, yielding almost no errors on the 95% certainty level. Sexual dimorphism in the lower limbs is best reflected by the physiological length of the talus, and in the upper limbs by the transversal head diameter of the humerus. The main advantages to logistic regression models are reliability and using probabilities to predict sex. Previous models used discriminant analysis and did not target the population of the Old Kingdom. Their comparison with the presented models shows population specificity over time, and the need for models designed specifically for Old Kingdom individuals.

Glass beads are among the oldest objects in the glassmaking industry. In West Africa, archaeological glass beads are evidence of short-, medium- and long-distance trade within the continent and with the rest of the world, in relation to social and geopolitical circumstances. As glass beads relate to many aspects of the everyday life of a community, the interest of their study lies in gaining evidence about technological aspects, socio-cultural contexts, and politico-economic background. We present here the techno-stylistic and chemical analysis of 945 glass beads found in 9 archaeological sites in Senegal, Mali, and Ghana dated between the 7th–5th c. BCE and the 18th–20th c. CE. The cross-referencing of the analytical results with archaeological and historical data has made it possible to identify three main clusters relating to the provenance of the glass, the commercial partners involved, and the trade networks exploited.

This paper investigates the preservation and morphology of the Inner City Iya of Benin in southern Nigeria, Edo State. The Iya have been the focus of research in the 1960s and 1970s by archaeologists Graham Connah and Patrick Darling. Since then, urban development has grown rapidly spreading out across the wider Iya network and damaging the earthworks. Already more than half of the Iya within Benin City vanished. Digital archaeology methods pose new opportunities for cost-effective and rapid documentation and monitoring of the remaining Iya. Based on these results and maps, the paper proposes strategies for future preservation. Future preservation of the Iya is only possible by working together with the communities of Benin. Further, the first new survey of the Benin City Iya since the 1960s provides for the first time a detailed plan and archaeological discussion of one of the gates of the Benin earthworks.

The thirteenth century AD was a period that was marked by significant social changes, including the development of a class-based social system and the rise of elite sites like Mapungubwe, which became regional political centers. While substantial gains have been made in understanding MIA agriculture, some problems remain. For one, our knowledge of the spatial distribution and variability of agricultural practices is limited. As a result, this article provides a detailed analysis of macrobotanical assemblages from six archaeological sites located north of the Soutpansberg. Five crop species and 11 wild taxa were identified. Cenchrus americanus, Sorghum bicolor, and Vigna unguiculata were present at most sites. Eleusine coracana was identified from a single site within a higher rainfall zone. Vigna radiata was present at two sites, which attests to the incorporation of this imported crop into the interior. Our study is the first to compare macrobotanical results from communities that occupied different sociopolitical strata within the Mapungubwe world and from different regions. The results shed light on thirteenth-century crops and potential factors that influence plant use, thereby contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the diet and agricultural practices of MIA communities.

Despite the fame of its manifold art objects and large complexes of linear earthworks, Benin City has witnessed relatively little archaeological research to help contextualize its spectacular artistic and monumental heritage. Meanwhile, urban development has contributed to the destruction and loss of archaeological features, especially its inner earthwork structures, further hampering archaeological research and interpretation. This article responds to these problems by drawing from unpublished data from the archive of South African archaeologist A. J. H. Goodwin, who performed the first ever archaeological excavations at Benin City in 1954–1955. As well as providing a review of literature on the Benin City earthworks, the article also reveals novel evidence of Goodwin’s previously unknown excavation of a prominent gateway in the town’s inner earthwork and uses it to address lingering questions pertaining to the uses, functions, and meanings of these features. The article reviews literature across multiple disciplines and regions that contributes to theorizing the diverse nature of West African linear earthworks and their entranceways, and draws upon this body of comparative material to interpret and contextualize the evidence from Goodwin’s field notes. Based on this analysis of Goodwin’s discoveries, it is argued that these earthworks and their gateways were multifunctional thresholds, combining physical defence and regulation of people with forms of magical protection against spiritual dangers.