African Archaeological Review最新文献

{"title":"Assimilations and Replacements of Early and Middle Holocene Ceramic Productions Across Spatial and Temporal Boundaries in Northern Sudan","authors":"Elena A. A. Garcea,&nbsp;Giulia D’Ercole","doi":"10.1007/s10437-025-09617-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-025-09617-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The inception of ceramic technology in Sudan is a prerogative of early Holocene hunter-gatherers who established their settlements along the Nile Valley and in the surrounding savanna since the mid-ninth millennium BC. These groups were characterized by low mobility with semi-sedentary sites, a few burials within the settlements, or occasionally large cemeteries. The manufacture of pottery, in association with other technological productions (e.g., lithic and bone industries, ground stone tools), became systematic and intensive and is related to increased sedentism and the intensified practice of storing local foods. Growing social complexity also acted as a spur to the emergence of discrete ceramic traditions, which intertwined with different regional identities and local cultural spheres. Starting from the middle Holocene, although with distinct timing and pathways, the overall climatic, economic, and cultural conditions largely changed throughout Sudan. Pottery was then produced under novel circumstances and possibly by new human populations with different physical, morphological features, and socio-cultural traits. Changes and disappearances of ceramic shapes, techniques, and functions can be symptomatic of external or internal economic, cultural, or social stresses or needs (i.e., cultural interactions or assimilation, availability of raw materials, knowledge and skills of adaptation to the environmental problems in the acquisition of raw material, etc.). These processes of loss and replacement could be either progressive or rapid, as the ceramic productions by early Holocene hunter-gatherers (Khartoum Variant), Neolithic (Abkan) pastoralists, and Late Neolithic (A-Group and Pre-Kerma) agro-pastoralists clearly illustrate. </p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 1","pages":"7 - 29"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-025-09617-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148060701","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":"Developer-Led Archaeology in Ethiopia: Reflection on the Field","authors":"Alebachew Belay Birru","doi":"10.1007/s10437-025-09615-x","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-025-09615-x","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 1","pages":"159 - 162"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148061125","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":"Institutionalizing a “developer pays” Principle for Commercial Archaeology as Part of Changing China-Africa Economic Relations","authors":"Paul J. Lane","doi":"10.1007/s10437-025-09616-w","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-025-09616-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 1","pages":"163 - 166"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-025-09616-w.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148061124","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":"Hunting, Fishing, and Herding in Later Stone Age and Iron Age Zambia: A Review of Zooarchaeological Evidence","authors":"Maggie Katongo,&nbsp;Jeffrey B. Fleisher,&nbsp;Mary E. Prendergast","doi":"10.1007/s10437-025-09612-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-025-09612-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>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.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"143 - 172"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-025-09612-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143706868","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":"Capturing Empire Through the Lens: Colonial Narratives and Power Structures in Henry Wellcome’s Expedition to Jebel Moya, Sudan","authors":"Isabelle Vella Gregory,&nbsp;Angela Saward,&nbsp;Ahmed Hussein Abdelrahman Adam","doi":"10.1007/s10437-024-09609-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-024-09609-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>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.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"25 - 52"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-024-09609-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143706993","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":"New Luminescence and Radiocarbon Dates for Kanem-Borno Fired-Brick Elite Sites in Kanem, Chad: Bayesian Chronological Modelling of Settlement Construction","authors":"Carlos Magnavita,&nbsp;Susanne Lindauer,&nbsp;Adoum Casimir Adjbane","doi":"10.1007/s10437-025-09611-1","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-025-09611-1","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>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.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"1 - 23"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-025-09611-1.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143707074","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":"On Hunting and Meat-eating by Middle Stone Age Hominins at Loiyangalani Site in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania","authors":"Frank Masele","doi":"10.1007/s10437-024-09607-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-024-09607-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>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. </p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"42 1","pages":"73 - 94"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-024-09607-3.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143706894","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":"Pikunda-Munda: Disappearance of Pottery Production in the Western Congo Basin at the End of the Early Iron Age","authors":"Dirk Seidensticker","doi":"10.1007/s10437-024-09610-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-024-09610-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The history of pottery-producing communities in Central Africa has long been seen as a study of its spread. While this process started about two-and-a-half millennia ago, it is often linked with the so-called ‘Bantu Expansion’. Linguistic studies claimed substantial migratory events through the so-called ‘Sangha River Interval’, which mostly coincides with the Sangha river valley and the western part of the Congo Basin. This region is viewed as a ‘gateway’ communities followed to cross the equatorial rainforest during their spread south. This paper presents novel data on the oldest widespread pottery from that region, the Pikunda-Munda style. Its emergence in the last century BCE is equally shrouded in secret as its disappearance in the fifth to sixth century CE. The latter coincides with a distinct period of low human activity (600–1000 CE) observed throughout Central Africa. New research into the technological decisions or <i>chaînes opératoires</i> of the potters’ communities that produced Pikunda-Munda pottery revealed that they followed a distinct path, different from that in adjacent regions such as the Inner Congo Basin. Only regarding clay procurement and processing similar preferences for fluvial clay sources rich in sponge spicules can be seen. Drawing of a ring is the primary shaping or roughing-out technique and differences in how the bottoms were attached or closed indicate differences in trans-generational training networks among potters’ communities of practice. The disappearances of the Pikunda-Munda pottery mark an apparent abandonment of pottery production along the middle and lower Sangha river, with knowledge networks established earlier falling apart. There is little evidence for the persistence of the specific knowledge of Pikunda-Munda potters’ communities. All groups encountered after the setback show evidence of them originating from groups found in the Inner Congo Basin or northwards. Potters’ communities responsible for the Pikunda-Munda pottery were among those whose knowledge transfer was interrupted by the widespread setback in human activity observed throughout the wider region.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"43 1","pages":"31 - 57"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148061119","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":"Commentary on Remaking the Late Holocene Environment of Western Uganda: Archaeological Perspectives on Kansyore and Later Settlers","authors":"Andrew Reid","doi":"10.1007/s10437-024-09605-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-024-09605-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"41 4","pages":"605 - 609"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10437-024-09605-5.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143108475","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":"Multilingualism at the Crossroads of Africa: A Response to Commentaries on “Remaking Late Holocene Environment of Western Uganda: Kansyore and Later Settlers in the Ndali Crater Lakes Region”","authors":"Peter R. Schmidt,&nbsp;Jonathan R. Walz,&nbsp;Jackline N. Besigye,&nbsp;John Krigbaum,&nbsp;Gilbert Oteyo","doi":"10.1007/s10437-024-09606-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s10437-024-09606-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46493,"journal":{"name":"African Archaeological Review","volume":"41 4","pages":"611 - 617"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2024-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143109018","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}