African Archaeological Review最新文献

{"title":"Peter R. Coutros, Jessamy H. Doman, Igor Matonda Sakala, and Koen Bostoen (Eds.) An Archaeology of the Bantu Expansion: Early Settlers South of the Congo Rainforest","authors":"Steven T Goldstein","doi":"10.1007/s10437-026-09665-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-026-09665-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 3","pages":"567 - 569"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148909813","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Auditory Affordances of Game Pass Shelter (South Africa): Implications for Performative Practices and Multisensory Engagement with San Rock Art","authors":"Neemias Santos da Rosa,&nbsp;Lidia Alvarez-Morales,&nbsp;Diego Moreno-Iglesias,&nbsp;Ghilraen Laue,&nbsp;Margarita Díaz-Andreu","doi":"10.1007/s10437-026-09664-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-026-09664-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Sensory research on San rock art has often focused on whether acoustic effects influenced the selection of places to be painted or engraved. This article addresses the issue from a different perspective by examining the auditory affordances of Game Pass shelter, one of the most iconic rock art sites in southern Africa. Using impulse-response measurements adapted from room acoustics, we analyzed reverberation, clarity, definition, and sound strength within the shelter. The results show that Game Pass is acoustically “dry,” with low reverberation and local reinforcement of direct sound through early reflections. Rather than producing spectacular sonic effects, the site offers conditions in which sounds involved in performative practices could remain clear while gaining presence at specific listening positions. Although these measurements do not demonstrate that specific performances took place at the shelter, they indicate the kinds of sonic practices Game Pass could have supported. More generally, the study suggests that the acoustic significance of painted shelters may lie less in unusual phenomena than in how their auditory affordances facilitate performances involving sound and contribute to multisensory engagement with rock art.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 3","pages":"437 - 451"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-026-09664-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148909594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bored Discs of Stone and Rain Control in Kaingo Game Reserve, Limpopo Province, South Africa","authors":"Lyn Wadley,&nbsp;Ghilraen Laue,&nbsp;Wim Biemond","doi":"10.1007/s10437-026-09662-y","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-026-09662-y","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Bored disc fragments of quartzitic sandstone were excavated from Welgevonden Rock Shelter and collected from the surface of the talus slope of Dwaalhoek 11 Rock Shelter on Kaingo Game Reserve in the Waterberg. The fragments represent stages of manufacture, breakage, and occasional recycling as grinders. Naturally flat slabs were knapped, often bifacially, to shape discs. Then, small, rounded hollows were pecked to thin the center of both disc faces. Finally, a central hole was pecked and/or punched, probably using a short, narrow stone reamer. Large, sharp-edged discs may have been hafted axes. Small bored discs resemble stone spindle whorls used by Iron Age farmers, but they were probably imitations for ritual purposes. Eiland facies ceramic sherds were also excavated. Since farmers did not live in rock shelters, it seems likely that makers of Eiland ceramics used Welgevonden for working with rain. The performance of drilling discs to make spindle whorls may have been part of the ritual. A rock art motif at a nearby site suggests that the area was also used by Bushmen for working with rain. Conceptually, threads are important for Bushmen and for Iron Age farmers, and both groups link them to rain. Threads spun on spindle whorls are woven into fine cotton for Iron Age chiefs, who are charged with producing rain for their subjects. When Bushman rain specialists trance, they climb threads to access the sky. Here, or from water pits, they use threads to lead rain animals to slaughter.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 3","pages":"525 - 554"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-026-09662-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148909639","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Iron Production in the Machile Valley: A Millennium of Variation and Innovation in Socio-technical Practice","authors":"Zachary McKeeby,&nbsp;Kenneth Luhila,&nbsp;Samuel Namunji Namunji","doi":"10.1007/s10437-026-09661-z","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-026-09661-z","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Decades of research on iron production in south-central Africa have emphasized the myriad ways that iron smelting and smithing formed fundamental political, economic, and technological institutions throughout the region. The specific socio-technical decisions ironworkers employed during production, and the ways that iron production practices shaped local and regional political economies, are nonetheless always historically specific and culturally mediated processes. This paper brings together historical, ethnographic, metallurgical, archaeological, and geophysical data from the Machile Valley, Western Zambia. In doing so, we detail dramatic and non-uniform spatial, social, and technical variations in smelting and smithing practices over the past 1000 years. That these variations and innovations in practice occur within a ~ 40-km stretch of the Machile Valley underscores the nuance that can emerge from locally focused research, and hints at the region’s place in broader historical trends in south-central Africa.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 3","pages":"403 - 435"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148909517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Pioneering African Archaeology from Within: A Conversation with Simiyu Wandibba","authors":"Chapurukha Makokha Kusimba","doi":"10.1007/s10437-026-09663-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-026-09663-x","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Simiyu Wandibba belongs to a pioneering generation of African archaeologists who came of age during the transformative years of independence and worked to establish archaeology as an African discipline, practiced by Africans, on African terms. Born in 1945 in Bungoma County, Western Kenya, Wandibba’s career spans nearly five decades and encompasses contributions to ceramic studies, ethnoarchaeology, heritage management, and anthropological theory that have fundamentally shaped our understanding of East African prehistory.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 3","pages":"555 - 565"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148909524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Breaking Borders: The Medieval Archaeology of the Ethiopian-Somaliland Borderland","authors":"Jorge de Torres Rodríguez,&nbsp;Jorge Rouco Collazo,&nbsp;Valeria Leticia Franco Salvi,&nbsp;Manuel Antonio Franco Fernández,&nbsp;Mohamed Abdi Allamagen,&nbsp;Carolina Cornax Gómez,&nbsp;Mario Llorente García,&nbsp;Mesfin Getachew,&nbsp;Adrián de la Torre García,&nbsp;Juan Montegú,&nbsp;Worku Derara,&nbsp;Álvaro Minguito Palomares,&nbsp;Khalid Abdilahi Abdi","doi":"10.1007/s10437-026-09660-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-026-09660-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This article examines the impact of colonial borders on the interpretation of medieval archaeology in the Horn of Africa, focusing on the region now divided between Ethiopia and Somaliland. The boundary established in the 1930s fragmented what had historically been an integrated cultural and economic landscape, leading to uneven research trajectories and hindering the reconstruction of historical processes whose scope transcended modern political limits. Through an archaeological project conducted between 2022 and 2025 in the Aw Bare and Harawo woredas of Ethiopia’s Somali Region, nineteen sites—fifteen previously unknown for the academic literature—were identified and documented, allowing for a reassessment of medieval Muslim settlement patterns between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. The results reveal a hierarchical sedentary occupation, ranging from major urban centers such as Aw Bare and Aw Boba to medium-sized villages, small hamlets, and isolated dwellings, alongside defensive structures and specialized cemeteries. Excavations at Aiyanle produced a detailed stratigraphic sequence, imported materials, and radiocarbon dates that place the site’s peak during the rule of the Barr Saʿd al-Dīn Sultanate, followed by a decline associated with its collapse in the late sixteenth century. In parallel, substantial evidence of nomadic occupation was recorded, including ritual aggregation sites, cemeteries, and craft-related activity areas. Together, these data reveal a densely occupied and highly complex landscape in which sedentary and nomadic communities interacted dynamically. The findings also challenge interpretations shaped by contemporary borders and offer new insights into territorial organization, economic strategies, and religious practices in the medieval Muslim Horn of Africa.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 3","pages":"453 - 494"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-026-09660-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148909554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lithic Techno-economics and OSL Chronology of the Later Stone Age at Chessungalane, Save River Valley, Mozambique","authors":"Osama Samawi,&nbsp;Jeffrey I. Rose,&nbsp;Li Li,&nbsp;Ana Gomes,&nbsp;Daniel Martins,&nbsp;Elena Skosey-LaLonde,&nbsp;Gina M. Buckley,&nbsp;Ilona Benedetti,&nbsp;J. Michael Daniels,&nbsp;Jan-Pieter Buylaert,&nbsp;Jonathan A. Haws,&nbsp;Juma Nacuti Turquia,&nbsp;May Murungi,&nbsp;Michael M. Benedetti,&nbsp;Milena Carvalho,&nbsp;Milton Chirindza,&nbsp;Mussa Raja,&nbsp;Profina Júlio Mondlane,&nbsp;Sarah Marie Foley,&nbsp;Takalani A. Dubayi,&nbsp;Telma João Sipaneque,&nbsp;Nuno Bicho","doi":"10.1007/s10437-026-09659-7","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-026-09659-7","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Nestled between East and Southern Africa, the Stone Age archaeology of Mozambique offers important insights into Later Stone Age (LSA) behavioral variability across a region pivotal to understanding human adaptations. Here, we present results from technological analysis, refitting and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of the newly discovered site of Chessungalane (CHE) in south-central Mozambique. OSL dates indicate occupation spanning ~ 23–7 ka, corresponding to the early LSA through Wilton periods. Technological analysis of lithic artifacts, refitting, and raw material survey reveals differential technological investment strategies employed by LSA groups. Chert was introduced during last occupation phase for systematic bladelet production through complex reduction sequences, likely due to its scarcity and superior knapping qualities. In contrast, quartz and quartzite were procured during all the occupation phases for simple flake production via shorter, simpler reduction sequences, reflecting their local abundance and fracture constraints. Preliminary comparison with contemporaneous LSA sequences from the broader region suggests that CHE followed a distinct technological trajectory, with bladelet production appearing significantly later in time, highlighting the importance of regional variability in shaping LSA technological behavior. The results demonstrate a strong relationship between raw material availability, quality, and technological investment, and contribute critical new data to the largely undocumented LSA record of Mozambique.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 3","pages":"495 - 523"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-026-09659-7.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148909786","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Review of the Turkwel Tradition: Cultural Variability and Social Change in the First Millennium CE East Africa","authors":"Nik Petek-Sargeant","doi":"10.1007/s10437-026-09658-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-026-09658-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Collating all available information, literature, data, and research history on the Turkwel tradition and the material, narratives, and interpretations that have been linked to it, the paper reviews the similarities, differences, and nuances of the assemblages and sites associated with the 1st millennium CE tradition found across South Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. It discusses issues and shortcomings in how we treat the distinctive grooved pottery as a <i>fossil directeur</i>, but also highlights the area-specific localizations in material culture, production processes, and subsistence that make this tradition so variable. Through the analysis focused on ceramics, it also proposes a division of Turkwel into two phases and a northern and southern facies, links the former typological isolate to South Sudan’s Lokabulo tradition, and points to new avenues of research that could shed light on social dynamics in the 1st millennium CE and the Pastoral Neolithic-Pastoral Iron Age transition. The review proposes to treat the Turkwel tradition and its peoples as bricoleurs, adopting and appropriating new and existing practices and ideas into their culture. The trait might be a symptom of broader socio-cultural and technological developments happening in East Africa at the time that contributed to a flurry of new ceramic wares and which indicates new attitudes towards the “materialization” of identity. </p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 3","pages":"367 - 402"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-026-09658-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148909760","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Those Igbo-Ukwu Glass Beads: Morphology, Chemistry, Provenance, and Trade","authors":"Peter Robertshaw,&nbsp;Marilee Wood,&nbsp;Laure Dussubieux,&nbsp;Abidemi Babatunde Babalola,&nbsp;Rachel S. Popelka-Filcoff,&nbsp;Michael D. Glascock","doi":"10.1007/s10437-026-09657-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-026-09657-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Thurstan Shaw recovered more than 150,000 glass beads during his excavations at the famous site of Igbo-Ukwu which he meticulously sorted into morphological types. The geographic origin(s) of these beads and the presumed trade route(s) by which they reached the site have been the subject of debate. Here we report the results of chemical compositional analysis of 104 beads chosen to sample the diversity of the assemblage. Six chemical types of glass are identified, several of which were manufactured from raw materials in West Africa. We relate these both to their findspots in the site (Igbo Isaiah or Igbo Richard) and to Shaw’s bead types, new descriptions of which are provided here. A majority of the beads were made from plant-ash soda-lime glass, mostly manufactured in Mesopotamia but also in Egypt and possibly the Levant. This glass type predominates at Igbo Isaiah whereas a wider range of glass types, many of West African (Nigerian) origin, were found at Igbo Richard. Some of Shaw’s morphological bead types were made from more than one chemical type of glass; different glass chemical types may have been pooled in making some batches of beads indicating that many beads, including those of imported glass, were probably made or finished in the vicinity of Igbo-Ukwu and/or elsewhere in West Africa. These include some exquisitely decorated tiny beads likely made at or near Igbo-Ukwu by a highly skilled glassworker. The contextual and technological data provide insights into the chronology of Igbo-Ukwu and West African trade.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 2","pages":"309 - 337"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148366009","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impaled and Displayed: Human Skull Manipulation and Mortuary Practices in the Prehispanic Canary Islands","authors":"Javier Velasco-Vázquez,&nbsp;Verónica Alberto-Barroso,&nbsp;Teresa Delgado-Darias","doi":"10.1007/s10437-026-09656-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-026-09656-w","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>This study presents the first systematic analysis of deliberately modified, perimortem-processed human crania from the island of La Palma (Canary Islands). The assemblage—comprising seven manipulated skulls recovered from different funerary caves—constitutes an unprecedented corpus both within the Canary archipelago and across the broader Amazigh cultural sphere of North Africa, from which the indigenous island populations originated. Although cranial manipulation has been documented worldwide, from the Upper Paleolithic to contemporary periods, no parallels have been identified either in the Canary Islands or in the Maghreb during the period corresponding to the permanent settlement of the archipelago (1st–fifteenth centuries CE). Through detailed macroscopic assessment of cutmarks, chopmarks, drilling, trauma, and perimortem processing, combined with radiocarbon-dating models, this research reveals standardized technical practices linked to the acquisition, preparation, and display of isolated human heads. These findings expand the interpretive frameworks concerning the ritual, symbolic, and socio-political uses of human remains among early island societies and offer new comparative insights for the study of North African Amazigh populations of the first half of the second millennium CE.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 2","pages":"217 - 235"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2026-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148365971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}