African Archaeological Review最新文献

A broad agreement exists that towards the end of the Holocene in Central Africa there was a drier climatic episode called the “Late Holocene Forest Crisis” (LHFC) that impacted the Central African rainforest, its peak lying between c. 2500 and 2000 cal yr BP. The Sangha River Interval or SRI is such a hypothesized rainforest biome where savannas were understood to have developed. This climate-driven LHFC has been thought to have benefited the first village communities, migrating from Cameroon towards the south before 3000 cal yr BP. We review for the first time all the pertinent and extant data relating to the paleoenvironment and archaeology of this region from the last 3000 years. We conclude the SRI was more limited in extension than previously thought, that tropical forests were maintained within it throughout the period, and lastly, that the earliest pottery-using settlements are dated from c. 2200 cal yr BP. Thus, the SRI probably did not play a role in the expansion of the first village communities because when the Interval was initially settled, villagers had already reached the Congo River near the border to Angola some 800 km away to the south passing through coastal forests and savannas and the inland forests, bypassing the SRI.

The Tangier Peninsula, located on the northwestern African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, occupies a unique geostrategic position that has operated since the Late Stone Age as a connecting gateway between Europe and Africa, as well as the inner Atlantic and the Mediterranean. This paper explores how, from c. 3000 to 500 BC, such all-round connectivity is reified in the occurrence of a rich mosaic of burial traditions, ritual practices, symbolic sites, rock art, and unique megalithic monuments that span imposed modern continental divides. Through fieldwork, radiocarbon dating, and GIS-based analysis, this study suggests that the ritual landscapes of the Tangier Peninsula are far more complex and widespread than previously assumed, with their closest parallels in late prehistoric southern Iberia and the Sahara. By providing the first radiocarbon date for a northwest African cist, that at Daroua Zaydan, this paper also establishes an Early Bronze Age terminus post quem for this burial tradition. This new evidence challenges prevailing narratives and underscores the need to reevaluate the colonial biases that have shaped scholarly discourse in North African archaeology. By shedding light on the social, cultural, and economic dynamics of northwestern Africa, this paper highlights the region’s significant role in trans-regional networks, offering new insights into the broader dynamics of the late prehistoric western Mediterranean and inner Atlantic.

This paper presents a unique archaeobotanical discovery of stored crops from two domestic structures at Old Dongola in Northern Sudan, dating to the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries CE. The findings provide new insights into aspects of cuisine during the early Funj period (1504–1821 CE) and its historical roots. The assemblage of stored crops—including sorghum, bread wheat, hulled barley, grass pea, cowpea, and radish seeds—reveals a blend of Mediterranean and African influences, reflecting the diverse cultural spheres that converged at Old Dongola. We argue that these crops constituted a fundamental component of the local diet and served as the primary carbohydrate sources for the inhabitants. The size of the storage vessels and containers suggests small-scale storage practices aimed at daily subsistence. Moreover, the location of these stored crops within domestic spaces indicates a household-based economy, in which crop processing and storage were organized at the individual household level.

Archaeological research in central Tanzania, chiefly in the Singida Region, has only been sporadically conducted, with the focus of such investigations being mostly on rock art and Later Stone Age (LSA) material. Here, we report preliminary results from renewed research expeditions conducted in the Singida Region. In 2021 and 2022, we located 31 archaeological sites in Ikungi District, excavated an open-air site (Nkungi) and a rock shelter (Itramuka), and uncovered well-stratified cultural sequences containing lithics, ceramics, and metallurgical remains, as well as human remains and animal bones. The recent archaeological discoveries in the region revealed a rich and composite archaeological heritage, encompassing scatters of archaeological artifacts, stratified deposits, and rock shelters with preserved deposits and rock art. These sites are embedded in a varied landscape that, in itself, should be preserved for their geo-heritage. Our renewed research also emphasizes the importance of local community engagement, specifically with traditional landowners, to ensure the sustainability of this multidisciplinary research project.

The northern highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea (NHE) hosted the earliest agricultural and urban societies in sub-Saharan Africa: the Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite cultures. However, the role of environmental shifts in the transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture and state formation remains unclear. This study reviews 95 peer-reviewed articles on paleoenvironmental data from the NHE and adjacent regions (6000–1000 BP), integrating recent archaeobotanical and archaeological findings. We draw three main conclusions: (1) Paleoenvironmental conditions during this transition were highly variable, with differing tempos and magnitudes of change across the region. (2) The emergence of early agriculture and Pre-Aksumite societies in the NHE was not directly driven by environmental changes around 3500 BP. Instead, social dynamics and interactions among local human groups provided a more plausible explanation. (3) The NHE highlands experienced a shift towards higher humidity during early Aksumite period, specifically between 2500 and 2000 BP and 1500 and 1000 BP. This climatic shift likely enhanced agricultural productivity, facilitating food surpluses that underpinned the expansion of the Aksumite Kingdom. These results suggest that while early agriculture was culturally driven, later state development was more closely tied to environmental factors. To understand the interplay between environmental and socio-cultural factors in the NHE, we recommended interdisciplinary approach integrating, paleoenvironmental, archaeological, and archaeobotanical and genetic studies. This will enhance data resolution, mitigate geographical biases, and refine our understanding of complex societies in the Horn of Africa.

This review emphasizes the significance of archaeological faunal remains in understanding past foraging and agropastoralist societies, highlighting their substantial potential for future scientific analyses. These remains have been underrepresented in Zambian archaeology due to a historical focus on durable materials such as Stone Age lithics and Iron Age ceramics, the latter being crucial for typological and cultural sequencing during mid-twentieth-century Bantu expansion studies. Here, we synthesize a half-century of zooarchaeological data from Later Stone Age and Iron Age sites in Zambia, demonstrating that methods and theoretical frameworks used there align with broader African and global zooarchaeological trends. We analyze relative species abundance and other zooarchaeological information for past hunting, fishing, and agropastoralist societies, identifying important gaps in the faunal and chronological records as well as unresolved questions, particularly surrounding introductions of nonnative domestic and commensal animals. We assess the current state of zooarchaeology in Zambia and propose future research pathways to enhance our understanding of human-animal-environment relations in south-central Africa.

This paper explores the relationship between archaeology, photography, and colonialism at the site of Jebel Moya (Site 100), Sudan. We consider technical aspects of the photographic archive, the role of photographers, the manipulation of images to convey specific narratives, and the dispersal and reclassification of the Jebel Moya materials across various institutions. When Site 100 was first excavated by Henry Wellcome (1911–1914), Sudan had a Condominium government, rendering the country a British colony in all but name. Our work acknowledges the racial legacies of colonial rule and as such it engages with the community whose past is under discussion, emphasizing how photography served as an agent of Western colonial authority. It re-situates Jebel Moya and related archives in the Sudanese context, providing an enriched understanding of the site’s history, the workers who excavated it, and the various colonial power dynamics involved. Additionally, our current fieldwork recognizes that as a discipline, archaeology is deeply rooted in European colonialism and as such we extend inquiry beyond sites and artifacts and focus on colonial practices and representational encounters, pronounced power imbalances, and imperial values rooted in white dominance and superiority. Consequently, this study contributes to the reframing of Sudanese history and a more inclusive understanding of the past.

Five fired-brick sites, tentatively attributed to the Kanem-Borno State, were test-excavated, and samples of fired bricks and wood charcoal were dated using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Although OSL yielded larger standard deviations compared to radiocarbon dating, both methods produced chronologically significant results. In addition to confirming that the sites were constructed during Kanem-Borno’s rule over Kanem, the new dates support earlier suggestions of multi-phase construction of similar nearby locations. To systematically analyze the growing body of chronometric data from Kanem, we employed Bayesian chronological modelling. This method not only identifies potential stratigraphic and chronological outliers but also provides probabilistic evidence for the multi-phase development of these sites.

A detailed study of the vertebrate faunal assemblage from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) deposits at the Loiyangalani open-air site is presented. The study considered skeletal part representation, mortality profile, bone surface modifications, and fragmentation patterns to provide insights into MSA hominin foraging strategies. Multivariate taphonomic analyses implicate hominins as the key agents responsible for the modification and accumulation of the faunal assemblage. The prevalence of butchery marks (cut marks and hammerstone percussion marks) on the small- and large-sized animals, particularly on high-meat and marrow-bearing bones, suggests that hominins frequently butchered fleshed carcasses procured through active hunting. The “hot zone” areas of the long bones and the axial bones are more cut-marked than tooth-marked. The proportions of cut marks, percussion marks, and carnivore tooth marks on long bone midshaft fragments indicate that hominins enjoyed primary (early) access to the fully fleshed carcasses, and carnivores had secondary (late) access to the defleshed and demarrowed bone fragments. The evidence supports that effective hunting and meat-eating were integral adaptive elements of MSA hominin behavior at the site.