Africa (Continent) (Geographic Keyword)

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ryan Szymanski.

Interpretive challenges involving issues of equifinality and causation can chronically hamper environmental reconstruction efforts, as numerous physical, environmental, or anthropogenic processes may potentially be responsible for creating observed raw data patterns. Nested multi- proxy and multi­scalar analyses offer potential means of approaching these difficult conceptual issues which can plague interpretations reliant on single lines of proxy evidence. A dataset comprised of multiple...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Steven Brandt. Alice Leplongeon. Clément Ménard.

Recent paleoclimate studies indicate rainfall increased dramatically over many parts of northeastern and eastern Africa at the end of MIS 2 and the hyper-arid LGM ~14.7 ka, thereby marking the beginning of MIS 1 and the "African Humid Period" (AHP). These studies also suggest that not only should the "early" AHP be decoupled from the start of the Holocene some 3000 years later, it should also encompass the cooler, more arid Younger Dryas (12.9-11.7 ka). This paper explores two key questions: 1)...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Marek Zvelebil.

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 EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these 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 using the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jaco Boshoff. Stephen Lubkemann. Yolanda P Duarte.

In December of 1794 the São Josè Paquete d’Afrique foundered off of Capetown while transporting nearly five hundred slaves from Mozambique who were destined for northeastern Brazil, resulting in the death of over two hundred souls. This presentation reports on how ongoing archaeological work on site combined with archival work in Africa, Europe, and South America have enabled identification of the shipwreck. It reflects on some of the insights research about this event is providing about the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ian Watts.

This is an abstract from the "Embodied Essence: Anthropological, Historical, and Archaeological Perspectives on the Use of Body Parts and Bodily Substances in Religious Beliefs and Practices" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. At ~160ka, roughly at the end of our African speciation, archaeologists identify a change from sporadic to habitual use of red ochre. This has been interpreted as primarily a pigment for decorating performers’ bodies during...

IMAGE Matthew Boulanger. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

These images show the individual sherds from Ilesha analyzed by neutron activation at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). Photographs were taken at LBNL and scanned by the Archaeometry Laboratory at MURR. Individual files were named according to the official catalog numbers of each image assigned by the Graphic Arts Department at LBNL.

DOCUMENT Citation Only Dawn Elise Mooney.

This is an abstract from the "SANNA v2.2: Case Studies in the Social Archaeology of the North and North Atlantic" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Medieval literary sources describe the Icelandic landscape when the first settlers arrived as ‘forested from the mountains to the shores’. It had previously been thought that the island was rapidly deforested after settlement, but recent research gives a much more nuanced picture of woodland history. It...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Evie Vaughn. Kathryn Catlin. Douglas Bolender.

This is an abstract from the "Small Dwellings on the Viking Frontier: New Research from Kotið, North Iceland" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This poster offers an artistic visualization of the Viking Age dwelling at Kotið, North Iceland. Based on geospatial data and photogrammetry collected in 2022 and 2023, the rendering demonstrates how this structure differs from previously excavated turf dwellings in Viking Age Iceland. Its small size,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Merritt. Kara Peters.

Actualistic butchery often investigates the relationship between tool characteristics and butchery behavior but rarely considers individuals’ butchery skill. Therefore idiosyncratic behavioral differences may confound analyses of butchery time or efficiency. Here, two novice butchers used replicated Oldowan flakes on 40 domestic goat limbs to examine how tool attributes affected processing time and efficiency during defleshing and disarticulation, and whether a learning curve impacted butchery...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Peter Müller. Philip Staudigel. Sean Murray. Hildegard Westphal. Peter Swart.

The analysis of geochemical proxies in skeletal remains has become a standard tool in shell midden research. Sub-seasonally resolved proxy records provide information about environmental and anthropological aspects such as ancient climate conditions, fishing and foraging seasonality or site occupation pattern. However, as subsistence was the primary purpose for fishing activities in most prehistoric cultures, it is likely that many shell midden constituents were subjected to processing methods...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Francois Richard.

This paper examines the travails of colonial government in Senegal, looking specifically at material histories in the rural region of Siin. One tenet of French colonial policy was to govern through the operation of commerce, specifically through the infrastructure of cash-cropping. If peanut agriculture would, in principle, create both wealth for the colony and ‘African subjects,’ on the ground, peanuts combined with a web of material entities that bent, diverted, or interrupted the flow of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Heba Abdelsalam.

Heritage interpretation is one of the best methods for preserving cultural heritage since it assists a neighborhood in having a better understanding of the importance of its museums and historic sites. Lately, the world has witnessed the loss of many such sites in the Middle East. Therefore, the adaptation of the American models of interpretation would be ideal for addressing this problem. This paper provides an example of the use of these methods of interpretation for the preservation of sites...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Aaron Armstrong. Martha Tappen.

Archaeological analyses of faunal remains frequently rely on observations derived from ethnoarchaeological studies to identify bone surface modifications that were the result of animal capture, butchery, and consumption by humans. In addition to the accurate identification of human-derived modifications, ethnoarchaeological studies in which carcass processing and consumption were observed and documented can provide a more precise means to recognizing specific human behavioral choices, such as...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stanley Ambrose. Andrew Zipkin.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ostrich eggshell (OES) is widely used for environmental reconstruction with carbon, oxygen and nitrogen isotopes, and radiocarbon dating. Strontium isotope ratios of OES artifacts can be used to reconstruct object biography, human mobility, and interaction networks. OES can provide an isotopic baseline for reconstructing past environments and provenience of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephanie Wynne-Jones.

This is an abstract from the "Islands around Africa: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The role of islands in the western Indian Ocean has been well explored by archaeologists and historians, who point to a combination of natural and social advantages created by these bounded worlds. What has been less commented upon is the role of archipelagoes as crucial units of exploration. In this paper, I review the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Grace Cesario.

This is an abstract from the "Climate and Heritage in the North Atlantic: Burning Libraries" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Sandvík, located in the Westfjords of Iceland, seems to have been a seasonally utilized site focused primarily on winter fishing and fish processing. The site is situated directly on the coast, quite near to the main farm of Bær, and dates to very early in the settlement period of Iceland, which began around AD 877. Even...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Benjamin Smith. Lucas Johnson. Steven Brandt.

This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in Material Sourcing and Provenience Studies in Africa" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Forty-two obsidian samples from the Baantu obsidian source, including 25 outcrop samples and 17 surface artifacts, were characterized using portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. These source data were then compared to 116 obsidian artifacts from Mochena Borago Rockshelter, excavated from levels dated to >50 ka BP...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Justin Dunnavant.

In 1896 Emperor Menelik II of Abyssinia engaged in one of the bloodiest battles of his military campaigns, attempting to unseat King Tona of Wolaita. After two weeks of fighting, King Tona was captured and the royal court devastated. The last palace of the Wolaita Kingdom stood in Dalbo just 10 kilometers northeast of the current city of Soddo. While the general location of King Tona’s palace is known, contesting narratives situate the exact location at different sites. This paper reports on...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Krish Seetah. Sasa Caval. Diego Calaon. Alessandra Cianciosi.

This is an abstract from the "Archaeological Approaches to Slavery and Unfree Labour in Africa" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The materiality of slavery has received much attention over recent decades. Unequivocally focused on the Atlantic experience, comparative models from the Indian Ocean serve to enrich our understanding of slavery on a global scale. The body of literature on slave artefacts, mortuary practices, and diet highlight the nuances...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Joe Merchant. Jeffrey Fleisher. Gry Barfod.

This is an abstract from the "Current Research on Ancient Glass around the Indian Ocean" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper reports on an assemblage of Indian Ocean glass beads excavated from the Middle Iron Age mound of Miyoba in western Zambia, at the hook of the Kafue River. Miyoba was a long-occupied settlement during the late first and early second millennium CE represented by approximately 5 m of occupation debris that includes house...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Olanrewaju Lasisi.

This is an abstract from the "Essential Contributions from African to Global Archaeology" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since the discoveries of the astronomical orientation of Stonehenge in the 1960s, several scholarships have employed skyscape archaeology to answer questions about state formation and consolidation of complex societies. The majority of these works have focused outside Africa, particularly on cultures in Latin America, China,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Alyson Caine.

This is an abstract from the "Continued Advances in Method and Theory for Commingled Remains" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Commingling of skeletal remains is largely acknowledged to occur in response to taphonomic factors in situ or secondary practices post-interment. However, data is frequently lost from commingling in museum collections due to curatorial practices. Here, commingling through curation and its ramifications are explored in an...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sara Borsodi. Lydia Luncz. David Braun. Jonathan Reeves.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Little is known about behaviors associated with the percussive technology of the Early Stone Age (ESA). Primatology provides a rare opportunity to observe how percussive behaviors produce damage patterns on stone tools. Although primate behavior provides a framework for inferring behaviors associated with ESA percussive tools, the distinction between...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Sydney James. Jonathan Reeves. Matthew Douglass. David Braun.

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A defining feature of human tool use compared to our closest living relatives is the transport of tools. This distinction is most evident in the Early Stone Age where transport is a feature of even the earliest industries. Spatial variability in raw material proportions has often been assumed to reflect transport patterns; however, these measures must be...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Andrew Womack. Peter Coutros. Mamadou Cissé.

In the spring of 2017 geophysical remote sensing surveys were conducted across three locations at and around the Dakajalan sacred site, Commune Rurale de Sanankoroba, Mali in order to detect anomalies associated with archaeological features. This site has been described in oral tradition as the location where the battle that proceeded the formation of the Mali Empire took place, and also where the village that acted as the first capital of the newly formed empire was located. Surface survey of...