Journal of African Archaeology最新文献

{"title":"Obsidian Vessels and Eye Inlays from Naqada and Abydos in the Collection of the Garstang Museum, Liverpool, UK","authors":"Rebecca O’Sullivan","doi":"10.1163/21915784-bja10026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-bja10026","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Nine unpublished obsidian artefacts (one cosmetics jar, two vessel fragments, and six eye inlays) from the Garstang Museum collection are presented, with the aim of patching gaps in the current record concerning their excavation contexts and material properties, which were presumably detailed in John Garstang’s now-lost excavation report/notes. The objects date to the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods, and five objects were matched to those described in previous archival research on Garstang’s Abydos excavations. SEM-EDS was conducted to characterise the material compositions and make a preliminary assessment of the obsidian’s provenance. It is suggested that the obsidian for the three vessels (analyses on prepared surfaces) may have originated in the region of modern Eritrea and Ethiopia, but the eye inlays (non-destructive analyses on raw surfaces) could not be matched to any geological obsidian source, highlighting the difficulties with balancing object preservation and analytical quality in researching museum collections.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45328726","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}

{"title":"New Holocene Radiocarbon Dates from the Heart of the Sangha River Interval, Southwestern Central African Republic","authors":"D. Schmitt, K. Lupo, Guy T. Amaye, Jean-Paul Ndanga, Lucien P. Nguerede, Henri Zana","doi":"10.1163/21915784-bja10025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-bja10025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Radiocarbon assay of charcoal from four sites in Nola, Central African Republic, provide new age estimates from the Sangha River Interval and doubles the number of radiocarbon dates from the center of this important and controversial biogeographical tract. The new age estimates mark the occupation of a village ~575 cal BP, two iron-smelting events about 1550 cal BP, and a ~2750–2520 cal BP iron production feature that represents one of the earliest smelting sites in the Congo Basin. Although the numbers of dated sites in the northcentral Sangha River Interval remain unfortunately small, most represent iron production loci that predate 1550 cal BP and suggest Nola supported widespread Early Iron Age smelting on the cusp of a proposed human population collapse. The extant record also indicates this profusion of smelting occurred hundreds of years before intensification in metallurgy in the neighboring Lobaye River basin.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41254187","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}

{"title":"The Yoruba: From Prehistory to the Present, written by Aribidesi Usman and Toyin Falola The Yoruba: A New History, written by Akinwumi Ogundiran","authors":"Elizabeth Olorunwa Adeyemo, A. Ibirogba","doi":"10.1163/21915784-23210101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-23210101","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-04-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46221031","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}

{"title":"Kathu Pan 6: Observations on the First Known Buried High-Density Open-Air Holocene Occupation on the Southern Margin of the Kalahari Basin","authors":"W. Black, Precious Chiwara-Maenzanise, L. Horwitz, S. J. Walker, M. Chazan","doi":"10.1163/21915784-bja10023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-bja10023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This paper presents preliminary results from a newly excavated open-air Later Stone Age site attributed to the Wilton Industry at Kathu Pan 6 in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. Basic data on the lithics, fauna (including a large ivory fragment), and ostrich eggshell (including beads) recovered during two seasons of excavation (2016–2017) are presented and this material is contextualized through comparison with neighboring sites. Spatial analysis of the artifact distribution from the small exposure from the 2017 season suggests a spatially structured occupation. The Wilton open-air occupation of Kathu Pan 6 offers a new perspective on the poorly understood Later Stone Age of the southern fringes of the Kalahari.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43728623","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}

{"title":"Local Communities and Archaeological Sites in Tunisia: A Case Study at Dougga (Ancient Thugga) about Cultural Memory and Cultural Markers in the Longue Durée","authors":"J. Whitehouse, Sami Harize","doi":"10.1163/21915784-bja10024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-bja10024","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The experience and legends of local communities in Tunisia who lived within archaeological sites and shared long-standing connections with those sites has been poorly recognised and documented. The extent to which elements of the cultural memory of local communities refer back to the pre-Islamic period has often been hinted at, but rarely explored in detail. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between local communities and archaeological sites in Tunisia, and the extent to which modern cultural memory in a community embeds elements or cultural markers from the Roman, Punic and Numidian past. This case study examines the cult of Oum Khoula at the site of Dougga (ancient Thugga). The marabout of Oum Khoula is in the cisterns of Aïn El-Hammam, at the end of the major Roman aqueduct to Dougga. Oum Khoula is remembered by local inhabitants as associated with a range of legends stretching back to the Roman and pre-Roman past. The cult has continued to be revered to the modern day. Whether the cultural memory illustrated by the cult of Oum Khoula at Dougga represents continuity with the past cannot be proved or disproved and is ultimately not the important issue. The cult of Oum Khoula at Dougga represents an example of the persistence of references from Numidian, Punic and Roman periods in the Maghreb. That cultural memory is a function of the community’s sense of place and significant references to that place derive from the archaeological remains and its associated oral traditions and symbols found at Dougga. The question of how modern archaeologists respond to and interpret this cultural memory is discussed.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47891331","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}

{"title":"“Oh, My Beloved, Great Bull!” An Interdisciplinary Approach to Cattle as a Marker of Economic and Political Status in Medieval Sub-Saharan Societies","authors":"Marta Osypińska, B. Żurawski, Z. Belka, P. Osypiński, Roman Łopaciuk","doi":"10.1163/21915784-bja10022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-bja10022","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The historical, zooarchaeological and isotopic data concerning cattle breeding and management in the medieval Middle Nile Valley are considered in this paper in the first such comprehensive research for the region. The main source of data are the nearly 10,300 animal remains. The archaeozoological analyses focused primarily on cattle morphology. Strontium isotope analyses were used to indicate the local/non-local origin of animals encompassing the whole period studied. The empirical data indicate a developed central system of cattle management in medieval Makuria. Textual and iconographic sources additionally reflect an extensive set of values that have been experienced since prehistory in the Middle Nile and correspond to the anthropological definition of the “cattle centred behavior”. Comprehensive analysis of animal remains and the analysis of textual information enabled the formulation of a hypothesis about Makuria’s economic and cultural foundations rooted in the local tradition, constituting an important element of the Nubian identity.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47666573","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}

{"title":"A Unique Twelfth- to Fourteenth-Century AD Iron Nail Assemblage from Kanem, Chad","authors":"C. Magnavita","doi":"10.1163/21915784-bja10021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-bja10021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Iron nails are still a poorly researched group of African archaeological artefacts. Probably because of preservation issues and their ordinary nature, archaeologists have in general not dealt analytically with such objects. A brief survey of the published evidence shows that, compared to North Africa and the Middle Nile Valley, iron nails are late occurrences in sites south of the Sahara, dating to the late first and the second millennia AD. This paper presents the first trait analysis of an iron nail assemblage from sub-Saharan Africa. Based on a collection of recently excavated and well-preserved samples from 12th to 14th century Kanem, the analysis distinguishes four main nail types being used east of Lake Chad at that time. It is concluded that, as any other archaeological artefacts, nails should be properly illustrated and analyzed as a means of warranting the retrieval of relatable data for future comparative studies.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49028085","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}

{"title":"Les fortifications endogènes au Sénégal Oriental (17ème–19ème siècle), written by Jacques Aymeric Nsangou","authors":"Sirio Canós-Donnay","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20220202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20220202","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48792136","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}

{"title":"African Islands: A Comparative Archaeology, written by Peter Mitchell","authors":"T. Leppard","doi":"10.1163/21915784-20220201","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-20220201","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41491897","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}

{"title":"Les traditions céramiques du mégalithisme du Sénégal et de Gambie : une nouvelle périodisation pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest aux Ier et IIe millénaires de notre ère","authors":"Adrien Delvoye","doi":"10.1163/21915784-bja10020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/21915784-bja10020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Cet article présente les fondements, la construction et les résultats d’un nouveau modèle de périodisation des productions céramiques provenant des sites mégalithiques du Sénégal et de Gambie (8e-16e siècles). Pour la première fois dans cette région, cette périodisation est basée sur des contextes stratigraphiques soigneusement renseignés, obtenus sur la nécropole de Wanar (Sénégal). Le croisement des approches typologiques et technologiques révèle différentes productions, reflets de traditions céramiques et de groupes artisanaux distincts. À Wanar, la succession de ces productions aux caractères morpho-fonctionnels spécifiques a pu être corrélée avec l’émergence de styles architecturaux particuliers. Cette périodisation offre également une lecture renouvelée des corpus céramiques issus de fouilles anciennes. Elle interroge par ailleurs le statut des productions céramiques et des sites, en distinguant les vestiges antérieurs à l’érection des architectures monumentales de ceux participant pleinement à leur fonctionnement rituel. Cette recherche permet finalement d’entamer une réflexion sur la place des traditions céramiques sénégambiennes au sein de l’Afrique de l’Ouest médiévale.\u0000This article aims to detail the construction and results of a new periodization of ceramic productions from megalithic sites in Senegal and The Gambia (8th-16th centuries CE). For the first time there, this model is based on carefully documented stratigraphic contexts obtained on the necropolis of Wanar (Senegal). The intersection of typological and technological approaches reveals different productions, reflections of ceramic traditions, and distinct craft groups. In Wanar, the succession of these productions with specific morpho-functional characters could be correlated with the emergence of particular architectural styles. This periodization also integrates materials from previous excavations and thus offers a renewed reading of it. The distinction between ceramic vestiges anterior to the erection of monumental architectures and others fully participating in their ritual functioning leads to question both the status of ceramic productions and sites. This research finally contributes to integrating Senegambian pottery production into the broader context of medieval West Africa.","PeriodicalId":44797,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Archaeology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2022-10-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49388708","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}