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Characterization of Glass, Shell, and Fishbone Beads on Ibo Island (Northern Mozambique) in the Context of the Indian Ocean Trade African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2021-03-30 Manuel García-Heras, Fernando Agua, Hilario Madiquida, Víctor M. Fernández, Jorge de Torres, María-Ángeles Villegas, Marisa Ruiz-Gálvez
A set of beads made of glass, gastropod mollusk shell, and fishbone from a Swahili occupation level on Ibo Island (northern Mozambique) is dated to the eleventh and twelfth centuries AD. The chemical composition of the glass beads and their chromophores, and the shell and fishbone materials, are studied to understand the local and trading provenance of these items. Representative samples of each material
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Transition From Wild to Domesticated Pearl Millet ( Pennisetum glaucum) Revealed in Ceramic Temper at Three Middle Holocene Sites in Northern Mali African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2021-03-16 Dorian Q. Fuller, Aleese Barron, Louis Champion, Christian Dupuy, Dominique Commelin, Michel Raimbault, Tim Denham
Imprints of domesticated pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) spikelets, observed as temper in ceramics dating to the third millennium BC, provide the earliest evidence for the cultivation and domestication process of this crop in northern Mali. Additional sherds from the same region dating to the fifth and fourth millennium BC were examined and found to have pearl millet chaff with wild morphologies
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Zooarchaeology of the Middle Stone Age in Magubike Rockshelter, Iringa Region, Tanzania African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2021-03-16 Frank Masele, Pamela Rae Willoughby
The analysis of the faunal remains from Middle Stone Age deposits of Magubike rockshelter was undertaken to contribute to the modern human behavior debate. Multivariate taphonomic analyses implicate hominins as the key taphonomic agent in the accumulation and modification of the faunal assemblage. Results also show they mainly foraged on large-sized animals as the key sources of meat and marrow. Small-sized
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The Ceramic Assemblage of Tse Dura ( Indyer Mbakuv ) Rockshelter in Benue State, Central Nigeria African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2021-02-15 E. A. Orijemie, A. Ceccarelli, C. A. I. French
We analyzed the ceramic assemblage from a re-excavated section of Tse Dura rockshelter (KA4RS1) in central Nigeria’s Ushongo area to understand the archaeological sequence of human occupation and cultural changes. The analysis, focusing on motifs, forms, and petrography, identifies three phases of human occupation. The petrographic results, in particular, revealed three main fabric groups—TD-AC1, TD-AC2
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Revisiting the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic Transition in the Extreme NW of Africa: The Latest Results of the Chronological Sequence of the Cave of Kaf Taht el-Ghar (Tétouan, Morocco) African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2021-02-09 Rafael M. Martínez Sánchez, Juan Carlos Vera-Rodríguez, Guillem Pérez-Jordà, Marta Moreno-García, Youssef Bokbot, Leonor Peña-Chocarro
This study focuses on the chronostratigraphic sequence of the Cave of Kaf Taht el-Ghar (Dar Ben Karrich, Tétouan, Morocco) excavated in 2012 in the framework of the AGRIWESTMED research project. The broad sequence reveals a series of occupations ranging from the Pleistocene (Moroccan Aterian) to recent historical times. Our research identifies a rich Early Neolithic phase (sixth millennium cal BC)
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Review of Archaeological Research in Angola African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2021-02-08 Daniela de Matos, Ana Cristina Martins, João Carlos Senna-Martinez, Inês Pinto, Ana Godinho Coelho, Soraia Santos Ferreira, Luiz Oosterbeek
This article examines the historical processes that shaped the development of archaeological practice in Angola during the Portuguese colonial period and the aftermath of political independence. Using published works, unpublished reports, and photographic records, we examine the research themes, actors, scholars, and institutions that influenced archaeological research in the country. We also used
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Searching for the Right Color Palette: Source of Pigments of the Holocene Wadi Sura Paintings, Gilf Kebir, Western Desert (Egypt) African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2021-02-01 Mohamed A. Hamdan, Giulio Lucarini, Maria Cristina Tomassetti, Giuseppina Mutri, Walid Salama, Safiya M. Hassan, Barbara E. Barich
In this article, we discuss the geological, mineralogical, and geochemical characteristics of the proposed sources of pigments used in the Wadi Sura rock art, southwestern Egypt. Colors used in the paintings include white, yellow, and several reddish hues ranging from pale red to dark reddish brown, rare black, and greenish hues. The results of Raman spectroscopy and pXRF techniques on both raw coloring
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The Evolution of Lower Egyptian Culture During the Formative Stages of the Egyptian State at Tell el-Iswid: The Contribution of Ceramic Technology African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2021-01-19 Jade Bajeot, Nathalie Buchez
This article focuses on ceramic technology at Tell el-Iswid dating to the second half of the fourth millennium BC—Buto IIIa and Naqada III(A2)-B periods. The study investigates the crucial transitional period during the formation of the Egyptian State. It identifies four ceramic technical traditions and examines their respective evolution and interaction. It provides new data on the mechanisms underlying
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Milling Cereals/Legumes and Stamping Bread in Mauretanian Tamuda (Morocco): An Interdisciplinary Study African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-10-31 Darío Bernal-Casasola, Macarena Bustamante-Álvarez, José J. Díaz, José Antonio López-Sáez, Mario Gutiérrez-Rodríguez, José Manuel Vargas Girón, José Luis Portillo-Sotelo, María Ángeles Pascual Sánchez, Tarik Moujoud
Recent archaeological excavations (2016–2019) in the city of Tamuda (northern Morocco) yielded evidence of commercial milling and bread-making facilities dated to the Mauretanian period (first century BC). This article presents the results of the excavation of two Mauretanian buildings (E0 7 and E0 8) in the Eastern Quarter, in which evidence for flour milling and, indirectly, the preparation of bread
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New Light on the Silent Millennia: Mediterranean Africa, ca. 4000–900 BC African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-10-27 Giulio Lucarini, Youssef Bokbot, Cyprian Broodbank
The so-called neolithization process (ca. 6000/5500–4000 BC) in Mediterranean Africa and the Sahara has been increasingly researched in recent years. In contrast, relatively little is known, especially in Mediterranean Africa, of the period between the beginnings of irreversible climatic deterioration in the Sahara, around 4000–3500 BC, and the onset of Iron Age to broadly Classical times. Why, with
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Enset ( Ensete ventricosum ) and the Archaeology of Southwestern Ethiopia African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-10-17 Agazi Negash
Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is an indigenous Ethiopian domesticate growing in what is known as the “enset zone” of southwestern Ethiopia. Few archaeological sites have been excavated in this region, and only one site has yielded remains of enset. However, the abundant megalithic and rock art sites in the region compensate for the paucity of the archaeological record. This review article provides an
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Food and Ornament: Use of Shellfish at Ifri Oudadane, a Holocene Settlement in NE Morocco African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-10-09 Rainer Hutterer, Oskar Schröder, Jörg Linstädter
Recent excavations of Ifri Oudadane, a prehistoric rockshelter on the Mediterranean coast of NW Morocco, yielded a rich marine and terrestrial fauna. We present an analysis of the shellfish remains (exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates) from the 2011 trench, covering the Epipaleolithic and Early Neolithic levels. A total of 4,415 liters of sediment contained 8,749 specimens (MNI) of at least 40
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An Evolutionary Approach to the History of Barley (Hordeum vulgare) Cultivation in the Canary Islands African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-10-02 Jenny Hagenblad, Jacob Morales
The Canary Islands are an archipelago that lies about 100 km west of North Africa. Barley (Hordeum vulgare) has been continuously cultivated since the colonization of the islands. To investigate the agricultural history of the islands, the DNA from multiple individuals of six extant landraces of barley was sequenced, and the resulting data were analyzed with ABC modeling. Estimates of separation times
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New Excavations at Umhlatuzana Rockshelter, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a Stratigraphic and Taphonomic Evaluation African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-09-26 Irini Sifogeorgaki, Victor Klinkenberg, Irene Esteban, May Murungi, Andrew S. Carr, Valentijn B. van den Brink, Gerrit L. Dusseldorp
Umhlatuzana rockshelter has an occupation sequence spanning the last 70,000 years. It is one of the few sites with deposits covering the Middle to Later Stone Age transition (~40,000–30,000 years BP) in southern Africa. Comprehending the site’s depositional history and occupation sequence is thus important for the broader understanding of the development of Homo sapiens’ behavior. The rockshelter was
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Use-Wear Analysis Brings “Vanished Technologies” to Light African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-09-23 Justin Bradfield
I review five “vanished technologies” from southern Africa that have been brought to light through use-wear studies of bone tools. Most of the examples discussed here represent the first recognition of these technologies in the region and provide unique insights into the technological and behavioral repertoires of past humans and hominins. Hominin foraging and subsistence practices are inferred from
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Backed Pieces and Their Variability in the Later Stone Age of the Horn of Africa African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-09-01 Alice Leplongeon, Clément Ménard, Vincent Bonhomme, Eugenio Bortolini
Backed pieces became widespread in the Upper Pleistocene and Holocene and are part of the classic definitions for the Later Stone Age in many parts of Africa. However, the association of backed pieces with Later Stone Age is not clear in the Horn of Africa. These pieces are present in both Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) contexts. To what extent was the “backing phenomenon” homogeneous
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The COVID-19 Pandemic: Perspectives for Reimaging and Reimagining Archaeological Practice. African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-09-01 Akinwumi Ogundiran
Like other branches of historical studies, archaeology is the study of the past in the present. It is inescapable that our approaches, modalities of inquiry, and knowledge are influenced by the sentiments, experiences, possibilities, and anxieties of our time and location, not to talk of the global configurations of power that structure the ways of knowing and being. COVID-19 had dominated the news
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Managing Epidemics in Ancestral Yorùbá Towns and Cities: "Sacred Groves" as Isolation Sites. African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-09-01 Akinwumi Ogundiran
The COVID-19 pandemic is firing up our imagination about how to account for the past epidemics in archaeological contexts. This essay is a reflection on some of the historical cases of epidemic outbreaks in Yorùbá history, and what we can learn from social memory, oral traditions, and recent eyewitness accounts on how microbial attacks were managed in ancestral Yorùbá urban centers. Malignant microbes
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Issues Emerging: Thoughts on the Reflective Articles on Coronavirus (COVID-19) and African Archaeology. African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-08-28 Shadreck Chirikure
With a ragtag methodology shrouded in Eurocentrism, archaeology emerged out of western antiquarianism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Since then, the discipline evolved into a professional and high-resolution tool for exploring the deep and recent histories of Africa and other places in previously unimagined ways. The five contributions in this forum unanimously applaud the
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Amy ty lilin-draza'ay: Building Archaeological Practice on Principles of Community. African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-08-26 Kristina Douglass
The significant economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have forced archaeologists to consider the concept of resilience in the present day, as it relates to their profession, students, research projects, cultural heritage, and the livelihoods and well-being of the communities with a stake in the sites they study. The global crisis presents an opportunity to cement archaeological practice
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Dark Side Archaeology: Climate Change and Mid-Holocene Saharan Pastoral Adaptation. African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-08-25 Augustin F C Holl
High-resolution paleoenvironmental research allows us to pinpoint the tempo and amplitude of past climate changes. Abrupt climate events have axiomatically triggered cascades of adjustments, in vegetation, fauna, humans, and pathogens. This essay focuses on the abrupt end of the African Humid Episode (9000–6000 cal BP), ca. 5000 cal BP in the Sahara. Neolithic pastoralists, practicing transhumance
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Disease as a Factor in the African Archaeological Record. African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-08-25 Susan Pfeiffer
It is clear from their natural histories that various kinds of diseases would have affected African communities in the distant past. Climatic factors may have reduced the impact of plague-like epidemics across much of the continent. Because of the link between environment and disease vectors, the presence of a disease may have been a stimulus for some group movements in the African past. Evidence of
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Archaeology of Two Pandemics and Teranga Aesthetic. African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-08-25 Ibrahima Thiaw
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how coloniality and racism are endemic to modern society. This was reflected in many early western discourses, French in particular, about the pandemic in Africa. These discourses unveiled old colonial antagonism, projection, stigmatization, and paternalism. The articulation of such discourses among well-informed and sometimes well-meaning people calls for deeper introspection
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Archaeological Ochres of the Rock Art Site of Leopard Cave (Erongo, Namibia): Looking for Later Stone Age Sociocultural Behaviors African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-07-15 Guilhem Mauran, Matthieu Lebon, Océane Lapauze, Alma Nankela, Florent Détroit, Joséphine Lesur, Jean-Jacques Bahain, David Pleurdeau
The use of ochre has been documented in many Middle Stone Age sites of Southern Africa. However, the literature on the exploitation of ochre within the archaeological contexts of Later Stone Age (LSA) rock art sites is scarce. Despite the discovery of several painted shelters within the Erongo Mountains (Namibia), no archaeological study of ochre assemblages has been conducted in the region. Here,
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Forests of History: Satellite Remote Sensing and Archaeological Survey in Southern Ghana African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-06-27 Sean H. Reid
Archaeological research shows that people have inhabited the southern Ghanaian forest zone for millennia. Yet the cultural landscape is poorly known due to enormous logistical challenges that have frustrated survey efforts for the past century. Establishing long-term archaeological and regional perspectives on the settlement landscape and patterns of material culture is necessary to address larger
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Correction to: The Early Holocene Lithic Tradition of the Northern Farafra Plateau (Tenth–Ninth Millennia cal BP): Its Significance in the Egyptian Western Desert African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-06-20 Giuseppina Mutri, Barbara E. Barich, Giulio Lucarini
The author group in the original version of this article contained a mistake.
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The Early Holocene Lithic Tradition of the Northern Farafra Plateau (Tenth–Ninth Millennia cal BP): Its Significance in the Egyptian Western Desert African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-06-11 Giuseppina Mutri, Barbara E. Barich, Giulio Lucarini
The widespread utilization of laminar industries with backed retouch is the most characteristic feature of North African Later Stone Age contexts—from the Maghreb to the Nile Valley—between the end of the Pleistocene and the Early Holocene. These laminar microliths represent a true technological revolution triggered by the need for new tools to exploit a different range of resources available due to
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A Conversation with Peter Ridgway Schmidt, the Ṣango of African Archaeology African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-06-01 Chapurukha M. Kusimba, Innocent Pikirayi
Peter R. Schmidt has had a multidimensional career whose five decades of engagement with the archaeology of Africa has left enduring legacies. In this conversation, the reader is invited into the world of Peter Schmidt, from his humble family background to his formative years as a young adult finding his way to Africa and archaeology. His path to the field of African archaeology was unconventional
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On COVID-19 and Matters Arising. African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-06-01 Akin Ogundiran
The final phase of the editorial process that culminated in this issue of African Archaeological Review (Volume 36, 2) took place in the atmosphere of panic and uncertainties unleashed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. I must first thank our authors, reviewers, editorial team, and the Springer staff for keeping the clock of production moving despite the strains imposed by the pandemic on our
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Common Cultural Markers in the Bone and Lithic Production of the Upper Capsian: A Comparative Approach African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-05-22 Giacoma Petrullo, Amandine Delaplace
This article discusses two major types of the Upper Capsian cultural materials in the Eastern Maghreb (ca. 8.2–6.0 cal BP): worked bones and knapped stones. These materials represent the main “toolset” of Capsian groups. The comparative observation of the two systems of production—bone and lithic—has allowed the recognition of certain analogies in their methods of exploitation and fabrication. These
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Fourteen Years of Archaeological and Heritage Research in the Iringa Region, Tanzania. African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-05-20 J M Miller,J J Werner,K M Biittner,P R Willoughby
The Iringa Region is famous among archaeologists for the Acheulean site of Isimila, and among historians as the stronghold where Chief Mkwawa led the Hehe resistance against German colonial forces. However, our research reveals that Iringa has a rich archaeological record that spans the period from the Stone Age into the recent past. This article summarizes the results of 14 years of research by our
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Variability of Early Iron Production in the Falémé Valley Region, Eastern Senegal African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-05-15 Alexander Walmsley, Vincent Serneels, Irka Hajdas, Anne Mayor
Iron production represents a major technological shift in African prehistory, and a growing body of archaeological and archaeometric data over the past few decades testifies to the complex origins and development of this technology across West Africa. The recent discovery and excavation of four iron smelting sites in the Falémé River region in eastern Senegal (Dakaba, Birandjikou, Madina Cheikh Oumar
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Cooking, Serving, and Storage: Ceramic Vessel Function and Use Contexts at Schroda African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-05-15 Annie R. Antonites
Foods and foodways are closely connected to social processes and activities. The functions of ceramic vessels in transporting, storing, processing, and serving food are tied to these social processes. Vessel functions can thus provide direct evidence of social activities. This article presents the results of a functional analysis of ceramic vessels from Schroda, a tenth- to eleventh-century farming
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The Early and Middle Holocene Lithic Industries of Ifri n’Etsedda (Eastern Rif, Morocco) African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-03-12 Manuel Broich, Alessandro Potì, Jörg Linstädter, Juan F. Gibaja, Niccolò Mazzucco, Margarita Vadillo Conesa, Abdeslam Mikdad, Gerd-Christian Weniger
Archaeological research has been carried out in the Eastern Rif (Morocco) since 1995 by a collaborative Moroccan-German research team. A major topic of the project is the transition from hunting-gathering to food production and related cultural developments. Innovations such as pottery and domesticated species appeared around 7.6 ka calBP. The cultivation of cereals and pulses is evident at that time
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From the Bottom Up: Assessing the Spectral Ability of Common Multispectral Sensors to Detect Surface Archaeological Deposits Using Field Spectrometry and Advanced Classifiers in the Shashi-Limpopo Confluence Area African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-03-01 Olaotse L. Thabeng, Stefania Merlo, Elhadi Adam
This paper investigates the ability of six common multispectral sensors (GeoEye, Landsat 8 OLI, RapidEye, Sentinel-2, SPOT 5, and WorldView-2) to map archaeological sites typically inhabited by the farming communities of Southern Africa and characterized by surface features such as middens, non-vitrified dung, and vitrified dung. To achieve this, hyperspectral data collected in the field using a GER-1500
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Mapping the Villagescape: An Archaeological Approach to Political Ecology Along the Falemme River, AD 1000–1900 African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-02-28 Cameron Gokee, Ibrahima Thiaw
Historical narratives in Upper Senegal largely center on precolonial statecraft, long-distance trade, and ethno-religious mobilization. Drawing on the perspective of political ecology, we examine how these regional processes intersected with village life through local relations to land. Specifically, we chart the long-term dynamics of settlements and their catchments along the Falemme River between
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Aerial and Spaceborne Remote Sensing in African Archaeology: A Review of Current Research and Potential Future Avenues African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-02-27 Dylan S. Davis, Kristina Douglass
Africa represents a vast region where remote sensing technologies have been largely uneven in their archaeological applications. With impending climate-related risks such as increased coastal erosion and rising sea levels, coupled with rapid urban development, gaps in our knowledge of the human history of this continent are in jeopardy of becoming permanent. Spaceborne and aerial remote sensing instruments
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The Bone Artifact Collection from Wadi Ti-n-Torha (Northern Tadrart Akakus, Libya): A Reappraisal Based on Technological Analysis African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-02-24 Giacoma Petrullo, Barbara E. Barich
The development of technological analysis at the end of the 1900s made it possible to explore new aspects of the production of artifacts from animal materials, especially bones and teeth, by Holocene Saharan societies. Here, we reappraise a selected set of these artifacts excavated from the shelter sites of Ti-n-Torha Two Caves, Ti-n-Torha East, and Ti-n-Torha North, in the Libyan desert of the Tadrart
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M. C. Gatto, D. J. Mattingly, N. Ray, and M. M. Sterry (Eds.): Burials, Migration, and Identity in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-02-15 Elizabeth A. Sawchuk
The diverse array of tombs, tumuli, and other funerary monuments that dot the Sahara makes it one of the most fascinating mortuary landscapes in the world. Such features also comprise a large part of the archaeological record of the last 5000 years. Yet mortuary archaeology tends to be regionally and chronologically fragmented across multiple countries with distinct academic histories and language
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Kom W and X Basin: Erosion, Deposition, and the Potential for Village Occupation African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-02-15 Joshua Emmitt, Rebecca Phillipps, Annelies Koopman, Matthew Barrett, Willeke Wendrich, Simon Holdaway
The twentieth-century excavations of stratified deposits at Kom W, adjacent to Lake Qarun in Fayum north shore, Egypt, led to a variety of interpretations, including the argument for the presence of a Neolithic village. This has influenced the evaluation of early to mid-Holocene occupation in Egypt. Here, we report our recent study of the erosion and deposition processes at the site and its environs
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Water, Geography, and Aksumite Civilization: The Southern Red Sea Archaeological Histories (SRSAH) Project Survey (2009–2016) African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-02-15 Michael J. Harrower, Smiti Nathan, Joseph C. Mazzariello, Kifle Zerue, Ioana A. Dumitru, Yemane Meresa, Jacob L. Bongers, Gidey Gebreegziabher, Benjamin F. Zaitchik, Martha C. Anderson
For at least four decades, archaeologists have identified irrigation as playing a potentially major role in the rise of Aksumite civilization. Based on a systematic survey covering the area between Aksum and Yeha (Ethiopia), Joseph Michels proposed that large-scale irrigation systems introduced from Southwest Arabia contributed to the rise of Yeha as a major center of Pre-Aksumite civilization. To
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Sensory Synaesthesia: Combined Analyses Based on Space Syntax in African Urban Contexts African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-02-11 Monika Baumanova
The organization of past urban space continues to be an important focus of archaeological research in sub-Saharan Africa where the methods of space syntax now offer new interpretations of the built environment. Traditionally, space syntax uses access analysis graphs for buildings and axial maps for towns to represent and analyze the configuration of space as a network. Using perspectives from neuroscience
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Diachronic Variation in Microlith Production Systems During the Late Pleistocene, Algeria African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-02-03 Latifa Sari
The Iberomaurusian lithic industries in the Maghreb are known for their microlithization characteristics beginning ca. 25 ka cal BP. The analyses of the Iberomaurusian lithic assemblages in Algeria have mostly focused on typological and stylistic issues. These are good for distinguishing the various archaeological entities encountered in the region but inadequate for understanding the techno-economic
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Capturing People on the Move: Spatial Analysis and Remote Sensing in the Bantu Mobility Project, Basanga, Zambia African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-01-31 Matthew Pawlowicz, Jeffrey Fleisher, Kathryn de Luna
From its inception in 2014, the interdisciplinary Bantu Mobility Project has sought to refocus research on the Bantu Expansions away from the macroscale towards a “writ small” approach within a well-defined region with well-understood episodes of language expansion, namely, the middle Kafue and middle Zambezi catchments of southern Zambia. This tighter focus enables the project to capture the human
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Kathleen Bickford Berzock (Ed.): Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange Across Medieval Saharan Africa African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-01-24 Anne Haour
chapter (6) to the most famous patron of female Cistercians in France, Blanche of Castile. Blanche founded two nunneries, namely Maubuisson (1236) and Lys (1248), both of which went on to be very successful. The remaining two chapters then take a closer economic look at Saint-Antoine-des-Champs, one of the “most successful houses of Cistercian nuns in the ecclesiastical province of Sens” (150) and
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The Middle Stone Age (MSA) Technological Patterns, Innovations, and Behavioral Changes at Bed VIA of Mumba Rockshelter, Northern Tanzania African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2020-01-02 Pastory Magayane Bushozi, Anne Skinner, Luis de Luque
Although anatomically modern humans emerged during the MSA, debates have focused on the timing for the development of cognitive thoughts, planning depth, and profound cultural innovations. While some scholars have attributed these qualities to the LSA population, others have proposed that the evolutionary modern human behaviors developed during the MSA. This paper is a contribution to this debate based
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Iberomaurusian Lithic Assemblages at Ifri El Baroud (Northeast Morocco) African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-12-06 Alessandro Potì, Juan Francisco Gibaja Bao, Jörg Linstädter, Abdeslam Mikdad, Mustapha Nami, Gerd-Christian Weniger
The Iberomaurusian lithic assemblages from Ifri El Baroud (northeast Morocco) are discussed from techno-economic, typological, and functional points of view. The site preserves an archaeological sequence spanning the period ca. 23,000–13,000 cal BP. The analysis of the lithic materials from the sequence highlights the diachronic changes in human behavior. Results show a strong relationship between
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Kitala Ware: A New Early Iron Age Pottery Group from the Lower Congo Region in Central Africa African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-12-01 Bernard Clist, Mandela Kaumba, Igor Matonda, Koen Bostoen
This article presents the first detailed account of a previously unknown Early Iron Age pottery group from the Kongo Central Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ceramic group is named Kitala ware, after the site where it was first discovered, and excavated in 2014 and 2015. Dated between cal AD 230 and 524 at Kitala, the ware is also documented as surface finds from six other sites south
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Cataloging Cowries: A Standardized Strategy to Record Six Key Species of Cowrie Shell from the West African Archaeological Record African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-12-01 Annalisa C. Christie, Alastair Grant, Anne Haour
Two species of cowrie shell, Monetaria moneta (Linnaeus 1758) and Monetaria annulus (Linnaeus 1758), occur repeatedly in archaeological contexts across West Africa. Despite their archaeological and ethnographic importance, these shells remain poorly and inconsistently reported in the archaeological literature. The absence of standardised data on species composition, size and condition of cowrie assemblages
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Collaborative Mapping of Sacred Forests in Southern Ethiopia: Canopies Harboring Conflict Landscapes? African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-11-26 Kathryn Weedman Arthur, Sean Stretton, Matthew C. Curtis
The Boreda elders of southern Ethiopia requested that we create maps highlighting the locations of their historic settlements and sacred groves. Community elders led us along winding footpaths that ascended to nine mountaintops that had been occupied since the early thirteenth century and were abandoned nearly 100 years ago. Surrounding these historic communities are Boreda sacred groves with springs
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Geophysical and Archaeological Survey in Igbo Oritaa (Iwo), Southwest Nigeria African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-11-19 Martins Olusola Olorunfemi, Benjamin Adisa Ogunfolakan, Ademakinwa George Oni
An integrated geophysical survey was carried out in Igbo Oritaa, a suburb of Iwo town (southwest Nigeria). The study was part of an archaeological investigation initiated by the Iwo community to identify and preserve the town’s ancient sites. The geophysical investigations involved ground magnetic profiling, 1D vertical electrical sounding (VES), and 2D electrical resistivity imaging. The magnetic
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Gouges: Iconic Artifacts of the Early Neolithic Period in Central Sudan African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-11-19 Katarína Kapustka, Lenka Lisá, Aleš Bajer, David Buriánek, Ladislav Varadzin, Lenka Varadzinová
Neolithic stone tool production in Sudan was quite diverse but exhibited high standards of production, as exemplified by the adze-like artifacts called “gouges”. Drawing on data from several sites in Jebel Sabaloka, and comparative data from Shaheinab and Sheikh el-Amin, our paper examines the economy of gouge production from a technological point of view. More specifically, we discuss the process
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Correction to: Usable Pasts Forum: Critically Engaging Food Security African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-09-01 Amanda L. Logan, Daryl Stump, Steven T. Goldstein, Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie, M. H. Schoeman
The article Usable Pasts Forum: Critically Engaging Food Security.
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Livestock Economy at Berenike, a Hellenistic City on the Red Sea (Egypt) African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-08-30 Marta Osypińska, Marek Woźniak
Berenike Trogodytika was one of the cities founded by Ptolemy II in the early third century BC as a trans-shipment point for importing East African elephants for the Hellenistic Egyptian army. Our archaeological research at the site has resulted in the analysis of 9498 animal remains and 8644 mollusc shells that revealed the environmental conditions of the Hellenistic port and fortress and some changes
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Usable Pasts Forum: Critically Engaging Food Security African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-08-23 Amanda L. Logan, Daryl Stump, Steven T. Goldstein, Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie, M. H. Schoeman
In this inaugural Usable Pasts Forum, we make the case that archaeology has a critical role to play in reframing approaches to food security in the African continent. Readers who are unfamiliar with archaeology may find this an odd pairing, since the field is more often associated with characters like Indiana Jones than with anything “useful” in our modern world. After all, Dr. Jones’ missions involved
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The African Incense Trade and Its Impacts in Pharaonic Egypt African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-08-22 Pearce Paul Creasman, Kei Yamamoto
Among ancient Egypt’s most prized imports were resins and other aromatics obtained mainly from or through Nubia and Punt, an area that included the African and Arabian shores of the southern Red Sea. Egyptian texts emphasized the association between these places and the imports of aromatics, indicating that the use of incense and other types of aromatics was likely a foreign introduction to ancient
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A Case for Springbok Hunting with Kite-Like Structures in the Northwest Nama Karoo Bioregion of South Africa African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-08-08 Marlize Lombard, Shaw Badenhorst
In the Levant and some arid zones of Central Asia, desert kites are well-known hunting structures often thought to have been used for the large-scale harvesting of gazelles during the Holocene. Until recently, such structures were unknown from the southern hemisphere. However, three kite sites have now been identified in Keimoes in the arid hinterland north of the Gariep River where the northwest Nama
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Prospect Farm and the Middle and Later Stone Age Occupation of Mt. Eburru (Central Rift, Kenya) in an East African Context African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-07-20 Ann Van Baelen, Alex Wilshaw, Peter Griffith, Gunther Noens, José-Manuel Maíllo-Fernández, Robert A. Foley, Marta Mirazón Lahr
Located within the Nakuru-Naivasha basin on the northern slope of Mt. Eburru, the open-air site of Prospect Farm (Central Rift, Kenya) is one of the few East African sites that have yielded a stratigraphic sequence containing archaeological levels dating from the late Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene. Excavations at the site by Barbara Whitehead Anthony and Glynn Isaac in 1963–1964 exposed Pastoral
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Correction to: The Transition from Hunting–Gathering to Food Production in the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-07-02 John W. Arthur, Matthew C. Curtis, Kathryn J. W. Arthur, Mauro Coltorti, Pierluigi Pieruccini, Joséphine Lesur, Dorian Fuller, Leilani Lucas, Lawrence Conyers, Jay Stock, Sean Stretton, Robert H. Tykot
The article The Transition from Hunting–Gathering to Food Production in the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia
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Lithic Technology at Loiyangalani, a Late Middle Stone Age Site in the Serengeti, Tanzania African Archaeological Review (IF 1.154) Pub Date : 2019-06-01 José-Manuel Maíllo-Fernández, Irene Solano-Megías, Audax Z. P. Mabulla, Mari Carmen Arriaza, John F. R. Bower
Loiyangalani is important to the understanding of human occupation patterns in the Serengeti and Northern Tanzania during the Middle Stone Age in terms of food-processing activities and lithic technology. The abundant faunal remains at the site show that it was used for game processing. The lithic technology was based on prepared core methods, dominated by the discoid and Levallois types, for the production
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