AFRICA (Geographic Keyword)

376-400 (535 Records)

PIXE Analysis and Provenance Study of Archaeological Potsherds from West Africa (1984)
DOCUMENT Citation Only P. Fontes. I. Brissaud. G. Lagarde. J. Leblanc. A. Person. J. Saliege. C. Heitz.

This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.


Population Pressure and Subsistence Strategies Among the Mbuti Pygmies (1979)
DOCUMENT Citation Only William S. Abruzzi.

This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.


Potential 1.5 million year old phantom hearth at FxJj20 AB, Koobi Fora, Kenya (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Sarah Hlubik. J.W.K. Harris. David Braun. Francesco Berna. Craig Feibel.

Identifying the control and use of fire in domestic spaces in the Early Pleistocene is contentious, due to the lack of physical evidence preserved in the record. The ephemeral nature of fires results in a sparse archaeological record. Further, the evidence for fire may degrade quickly depending on the depositional context of the burial environment. The potential for identifying fire in the early Pleistocene archaeological record, where accepted hearth features are unknown, relies heavily on...


Pots, Ethnoarchaeology, and Snake-Oil: James Skibo’s Lasting Impact on the Future of Archaeology (2019)
DOCUMENT Citation Only John Arthur.

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Method and Theory: Papers in Honor of James M. Skibo, Part I" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. James Skibo changed the way we study pottery. Jim’s archaeological career incorporated many different facets of archaeological research including experimental archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, archaeology, and theory, all focusing on pottery research. One of his biggest influences is combining ethnoarchaeology and...


The pre-Aksumite Period in Eastern Tigrai: The Chronology and Stratigraphy of the Site of Mezber (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Lynn Welton.

The current understanding of the pre-Aksumite period of northern Ethiopia has been heavily influenced by data originating from sites in western Tigrai, particularly those in the area of Aksum. The Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project (ETAP), however, has also documented substantial evidence for pre-Aksumite settlement further to the east, through both survey and excavation. This paper will summarize ETAP’s efforts to understand the pre-Aksumite period in eastern Tigrai at the site of Mezber,...


The Pre-Aksumite to Aksumite Transition in EasternTigrai: Ceramic Evidence from Ona Adi (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Habtamu Mekonnen.

The pre-Aksumite to Aksumite transition (PA-A transition) is critically important for the culture history of the Horn of Africa. This period in Western Tigrai (400/300–150 BCE) represents a cultural break between the Sabaean-influenced pre-Aksumite period (≥800–400/300 BCE) and the predominantly indigenous kingdom of Aksum. Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite polities in Western Tigrai were not directly related and marked by significant sociopolitical change. The emerging picture of the PA-A transition in...


Predatory Commerce, Elite Competition: Economic Conflict and the Downfall of Elite Communitas in the port of Mtwapa, Kenya, 1600-1750 CE. (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Rahul Oka.

The premise of this session is that "communities are not merely the byproducts of individual households pursuing their own productive strategies nor are households passive reflections of the larger communities of which they are a part." This paper focuses on Waungwana (elite) communitas at the Swahili port of Mtwapa, Kenya between 1600-1750 CE. Data from 10 elite wards is used to examine the effects of competition on both household and community. Analysis shows that the external predatory...


A Predictive Model of Archaeological Site Location in the Hodh ech Chargui Region, Mauritania (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Wade Campbell.

This paper presents a model to determine potential archaeological site locations in far southeastern Mauritania (known as the Hodh ech Chargui). Although sustained archaeological research has been carried out throughout West Africa since the 1940s, the 81,000 km2 Hodh ech Chargui region has been poorly examined, with two regional surveys constituting the majority of the archaeological record for the area. It has been proposed that the Hodh ech Chargui served as a place of passage between the two...


The Preferential Collection and Use of Ochre Pigments and Iron Ores at Twin Rivers Kopje, Zambia (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Zipkin. Alison Brooks. John Hanchar. Kathy Schick. Nicholas Toth.

Twin Rivers Kopje, Zambia is a Middle and Later Stone Age site first excavated by J. Desmond Clark that has yielded extensive evidence of mineral pigment collection and use dating to as old as 300,000 years ago. In this study, we sampled pigment sources within 25 km of Twin Rivers for digital colorimetry and trace element fingerprinting using Laser Ablation - Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. In addition, all pigment excavated from the site by Clark was analyzed for sourcing....


Prehistoric Population and Pressures Favoring Plant Domestication in Africa (1973)
DOCUMENT Citation Only J. G. D. Clark.

This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.


Prehistory of Africa (1972)
DOCUMENT Citation Only J. Desmond Clark.

This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.


The Prehistory of East Africa (1963)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Sonia Cole.

This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.


Preliminary results from new excavations of the Late Pleistocene occupations at Grassridge Rockshelter, South Africa. (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Benjamin Collins. Christopher Ames.

Grassridge Rockshelter sits at the base of the Stormberg Mountains in the northern part of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. This region has only been the focus of two previous major archaeological projects, with research at Grassridge last conducted in 1979 and identifying Holocene Later Stone Age and Late Pleistocene Middle Stone Age occupations. The Grassridge Archaeological and Palaeoenvironmental Project (GAPP) renewed research at Grassridge in 2014. In this presentation, we summarise the...


Preliminary Results of Geoarchaeological Sampling and Survey to Investigate Landscape History in Northern Unguja, Zanzibar (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Wolfgang Alders. Abdallah Khamis Ali.

We present the preliminary results of a study investigating long-term agricultural history in northern Unguja, the southern island of Zanzibar. In the summer of 2016, we excavated four test pits in modern rice fields to collect bulk, starch, phytolith, C14, and micromorphology samples, as well as samples from upland areas along watersheds, with the aim of characterizing contemporary and ancient land use in the rice-growing western side of the island. We also carried out brief archaeological...


The price of freedom: health status in a freed slave community in Le Morne (18-19th centuries, Mauritius). (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Jonathan Santana Cabrera. Jo Appleby. Krish Seetah.

This contribution presents the preliminary results of an osteobiograhical approach to the life conditions of a slave/ex-slave population from Le Morne cemetery (18-19th centuries, Mautiritius Island). We evaluate the incidence of several stress indicators/pathologies on the human remains that are the result of environmental conditions during life. Dental health, infectious diseases and physical activity markers were analyzed to address the daily life of this population. Our results indicate high...


Primitive Art: Its Traditions and Styles (1962)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Paul S. Wingert.

This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.


Problems of Archaeological Site Preservation and Identification in the Highland Mountains of Ethiopia (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Brian Clark.

This paper will discuss how historical, environmental, and social changes have effected archaeological site preservation in the mountains of the central Ethiopian Highlands, with implications for improving archaeological research in the region. Over the past decade, archaeological and historical research in the central highlands of Ethiopia has seen a growing interest to move beyond prominent Aksumite and Pre-Aksumite monumental sites to more ephemeral sites like medieval settlements and royal...


The promise and pitfalls of quantitative paleoenvironmental reconstruction in zooarchaeology: evaluation of late Quaternary micromammal assemblages from southern Africa (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Tyler Faith. Margaret Avery.

Over the last several decades, Quaternary scientists have developed numerous techniques to generate quantitative paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on the taxonomic composition of fossil assemblages. The appeal of these methods is that, rather than providing reconstructions in qualitative terms (e.g., cooler versus warmer), they offer potential to generate numerical assessments. While these methods have been applied to a variety of fossil organisms, including pollen, diatoms, foraminifera,...


Provenance and Distribution of Neo-Punic Ceramics at Zita, Southern Tunisia, and Beyond. (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Dennis Braekmans. Brett Kaufman. Hans Barnand. Ali Drine.

The site of Zita is an urban mound located in southern Tunisia and situated along an ancient trade route from Carthage to Tripoli. It is the highest point on a peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean Sea across from the Island of Djerba, often identified as the Island of Calypso of the Lotus-Eaters from the Odyssey. Established as a Carthaginian settlement around 500 BCE, the city became a Roman regional center in the 1st century CE. Zita still has industrial features such as ceramic kilns and...


Public Opinion and Archaeological Heritage: An Initial Perspective from Egypt (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only David Pokotylo. Hend Mohammed.

A recent survey of Egyptian public opinion on archaeological heritage issues focused on four main areas: level of public interest and participation in archaeology, the role of antiquities and monuments in contemporary society, perceived reasons behind the spread of the iliicit antiquities trade, awareness of problems and issues that endanger Egyptian antiquities and monuments. Data collected from a sample of 908 residents across nine governorates in Egypt are used to examine trends and patterns...


Putting Southern African Rock Paintings in Context: The View from the Mirabib Rockshelter, Namibia (2017)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Grant McCall. Theodore Marks. Andrew Schroll. Jordan Krummel.

Various researchers have made great strides toward understanding southern African rock art through the exploration of the ethnographic and ethnohistoric records of San hunter-gatherer shamanism. In contrast, less attention has been paid to the archaeological context of the Later Stone Age (LSA) in which rock art was produced. This paper examines Middle Holocene rock paintings at the Mirabib rockshelter in the Central Namib Desert, western Namibia. Our fieldwork at Mirabib and our re-analysis of...


Quantifying the effects of erosional processes on stone artifact concentrations: Implications for site formation at open-air Paleolithic sites (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Jacob Davis. Shiela Nightingale. Jessica Thompson. Elizabeth Gomani-Chindebvu.

An essential part of archaeological site management and interpretation is determining how recent landscape modifications affect artifact distributions. Stone artifact scatters can be an initial indicator of subsurface concentrations, yet little scholarship has focused on quantifying the nature and rate of the erosional processes that affect them. The archaeological record of northern Malawi demonstrates that despite abundant surface scatters, subsurface distributions may vary considerably in...


Radiocarbon dated archaeozoological and palaeoecological evidence of initial human colonization in Madagascar (2016)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Geoff Clarke. Aaron Camens. Simon Haberle. Atholl Anderson.

Human impacts to Madagascar, through the introduction of non-native species, habitat modification and species extinctions, are thought to have begun in the prehistoric period. Understanding of these anthropogenic modifications to Madagascar’s ecosystems is, however, impossible without solid chronologies for human settlement and expansion across the island, which are currently lacking. Estimates of the period in which people first colonized Madagascar have varied considerably, and never more so...


Raw Materials, Reuse, and Refuse: A multi-disciplinary study of Karanis glass (2015)
DOCUMENT Citation Only Angela Susak Pitzer.

This multi-disciplinary study comprising archaeological, scientific, and morphological analyses as well as ethnoarchaeology and textual analysis, interrogates how value was assessed in the ancient world by examining Roman glass from Karanis, Egypt. Onsite portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF) analysis of recently excavated glass was conducted since the Egyptian government prohibits the export of artifacts for further analysis. This research, combined with pXRF and electron microprobe...


Re-Examination of the Evidence for Agricultural Origins in the Nile Valley (1971)
DOCUMENT Citation Only J. G. D. Clark.

This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the National Archaeological Database Reports Module (NADB-R) and updated. Most NADB-R records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us at comments@tdar.org.