Africa: East Africa (Other Keyword)
1-10 (10 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ochre sensu lato is considered to be one of the earliest evidence of human cognition and culture due to its raw materials diversity, its significance in raw materials processing, and its large panel of uses. However, there are little data from central Africa on the use of ochre in cultural systems during the terminal Pleistocene and Holocene. As part of...
Clarifying Coral Harvesting for Historical Swahili Monuments (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Swahili architecture is well known for its grand structures, often constructed using carved, live-harvested coral. Research has been sparse on the practices of coral harvesting despite coral’s importance for the medieval Swahili and for reef ecosystems. To clarify the potential impacts of coral harvesting, the authors collected survey data on the amount...
Comparing Quartz Lithic Technological Organization of Early Holocene Foragers and Iron Age Farmers at Kakapel Rockshelter, Western Kenya (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Quartz is a readily available lithic raw material that formed a large portion of the stone tool economy for many ancient societies globally. Considered a lower-quality material overall, physical properties of crystalline vein quartz constrain reduction strategies, often resulting in a narrow range of tool and debitage morphologies. This leaves open...
Copper-Based Metals from the Tanzanian Swahili Coast: Connections, Technologies, and Implications (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> Examining non-ferrous metals from the Tanzanian Swahili Coast, many imported and reworked locally, can serve as proxy to understanding the impact of Indian Ocean trade on local economies, particularly with regard to the consumption of semi-exotic materials and finished goods. Copper-based metals (and even lead metals) were relatively commonly...
The Ecological Context of Modern Human Evolution in Central Rift Valley, Kenya, during the Late Quaternary (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> Tracking the processes by which Homo sapiens acquired our broad ecological niche is key to understanding the evolution of modern human behavior. Modern behaviors include enhanced adaptive technological flexibility, expansion of social interaction and exchange networks, and intensification of symbolic behavior. This project seeks to improve our...
Insights from Ground-Penetrating Radar Survey at a Pastoral Neolithic Occupation Site in Northeastern Tanzania (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Geophysical and remote surveys are well-established methods for identifying subsurface features and providing insight to site layout and land-use strategies in the archaeological record. In recent years, magnetometry has been successfully used at Pastoral Neolithic (PN, 5000-1200 BP) sites in eastern Africa, allowing for the identification of features and...
Molly Crowfoot and Elizabeth Crowfoot: Pioneers in Textile Archaeology (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation focuses on Grace Mary Hood Crowfoot (Molly; 1877-1957), whose groundbreaking work was foundational in the field of textile archaeology, and on their daughter Elisabeth Grace Crowfoot (1914-2005). Wife of renowned British archaeologist John Winter Crowfoot, Molly trained as a midwife and became a self-taught ethnographer, archaeologist,...
Obsidian Sourcing and Interaction Networks in the Tanzanian Pastoral Neolithic (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Understanding mobility, interaction, and exchange is fundamental to reconstructing social dynamics during the early spread of food production throughout eastern Africa. Geochemical sourcing of obsidian artifacts provides one mechanism for exploring relationships among mobile pastoralists and between these groups and foragers and how those relationships...
Reconstructing the Paleoenvironment at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, during the Technological Evolution of the Oldowan to Acheulean: A Geochemical and Geoarchaeological Study (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This research focuses on deciphering the paleoenvironments associated with lower Bed II (1.8 - 1.6 Ma) of Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania in Eastern Africa. This dynamic time period includes multiple tectonic and volcanic events, the Oldowan to Acheulean technological transition, and the arrival of Homo erectus on the landscape. While research has been conducted...
Trade and Exchange of Obsidian from Historic Ritual Sites in Southwest Ethiopia (2025)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Nearly 400 obsidian artifacts from a dozen sites in southwestern Ethiopia were analyzed to address source selection for ritual activities. This involved the Gamo ethnic group at historic sites dating to the seventeenth– nineteenth centuries, where men are hide-workers of all materials. Another site, the Mota Cave, dates back to 4500 BP and provides a...