African Archaeology

Developer-led archaeology has reshaped how we uncover the past, expanding rapidly alongside the transformation of modern landscapes. This volume celebrates the career of Christopher Evans, one of the field’s most influential figures, co‑founder and long‑time director of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, via which he has conducted groundbreaking fieldwork and internationally recognised research. Contributions are gathered from colleagues and collaborators whose work reflects Evans’s profound impact on landscape archaeology, prehistoric and Roman studies, and the evolving practice of archaeological interpretation. From the Fenland to Australasia, and from urban Cambridge to Cape Verde, the chapters explore the global reach of Evans’s ideas – where bold experimentation, deep contextual thinking, and an eye for how the discipline’s shifting histories open new possibilities for understanding the past. Blending analysis and artistry, personal reflection and scholarly insight, this volume is both a tribute to Evans’s remarkable career and a testament to the vibrant communities of practice that drive and enrich the archaeological project.

The Manga uprising of 1824 in Borno was documented by the first British mission contemporaneously. This post endeavors to explore Lovejoy and other scholars' interpretations of it as a peasant revolt or uprising within the context of salt production and the legacy of Sayfawa legitimacy.

In 1967 a hoard of eight X-shaped copper ingots was discovered in the village of Chombe, in central Malawi. These are all of the HXR ingot type, of which several hundred examples have been found in Zambia and Zimbabwe. They are thought to have been manufactured between the 14th and late 18th centuries CE. In 2024 we sampled five of the Chombe ingots to analyze for lead isotope analysis (LIA) and bulk ICP-MS chemical analysis at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR). We conclude that all five ingots derive from the Kipushi ore body, located near Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The straight-line distance between ore source and find spot is about 790 km, but we suggest that the ingots may have travelled a longer but easier route by canoe down the Kafue and Zambezi rivers, with only the last 220+ km overland to central Malawi (ca. 1200 km total). These ingots are much thinner, and therefore lighter, than typical HXR ingots, and are the only HXR ingots known so far to have been sand-cast. We infer that at some point along their journey the original ingots were recast, and discuss why this might have been done.

Publikationsansicht. 30888095. Megaliths and Mande states : sociopolitical change in the Gambia Valley over the past two millennia. (2003). Lawson, Amy. Abstract. Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of Michigan. Details der Publikation. Download, http://worldcat.org/oclc/83771392 ...

Evidences of metallurgical activities at the Final Bronze Age site, Semiyarka, located in the East Kazakhstan on the Irtysh river valley are presented in the thesis.
Microstructural and compositional analysis of ores, crucible slags, metal objects and metal artefacts in order to characterize the nature of metal making processes on this site, infer their potential scale and finally, learn about the organisation of production was conducted.
The highlight of the results is detecting six crucibles for tin bronze making, alongside copper production.
The site is relatively dated between c. 1500 and 1300 BCE. In 2018 the field survey campaign collected more than 40 remains of various metallurgical processes on this site, the analysis of which are presented here.
Potential resources for copper and tin exploitation, alongside routes for trade and exchange of metals during the stated period in East Kazakhstan, and across the steppes are also suggested.

The South Jukunoid languages were first defined by Shimizu (1971, 1980) as the primary split within Jukunoid. He called them ‘Yukuben-Kuteb’ as these were the only languages known at the period. However, since his exercise in data collection in the 1970s, many new speech forms have been recorded in minority communities along the Nigeria-Cameroun border. Some of these are reflected in the PhD thesis of Prischnegg (2008) who questioned the unity of Jukunoid. The present paper has been able to access a considerable amount of new data and revisits the evidence. It broadly concludes;

a) South Jukunoid should be split into Kuteb-Kapya and Yukubenic. These are regarded as distinct branches of Benue-Congo
b) that the evidence for a relationship with Central Jukunoid is very weak, and that common lexical items represent early borrowing not genetic affiliation
c) that there is no specific evidence linking either Kuteb-Kapya or Yukubenic to Plateau and that individual lexical similarities are due to contact or shared common roots
d) that there is a common fund of lexical items shared with Plateau and Cross River, but not Kainji, arguing that Kainji is a primary split of Benue-Congo

C omme espace francophone à la jonction des mondes européen et nord-américain, profondément marqué par l'hybridité culturelle, notamment dans sa rencontre avec le monde anglo-saxon et avec les peuples autochtones 1 , le Québec présente un fort potentiel du point de vue de l'une des pratiques historiennes qui s'est imposée dans le dernier tiers du XX e siècle : l'histoire orale. Cependant, l'emploi de sources orales dans les travaux des chercheurs québécois qui n'appartiennent pas aux sciences anthropologiques et aux études de folklore 2 reste encore marginal. Des travaux ambitieux ont permis de rendre compte de l'histoire de groupes

'Fragments' capture the incompleteness and unfinishedness of living and thinking in a fractured world. Amid climate crisis, conflict, technological disruption, and social uncertainty, fragments-ruins, partial archives, broken objects, unfinished narratives-persist not only as traces of loss, but also as sites of possibility. They demand renewed attention to what remains, and to what might yet be reassembled, reworked, or reimagined. Rather than seeking a return to unity, 'Afterlives of Fragments' approaches fragmentation as a generative condition of knowledge-making. We turn to '(un)making' as both an analytic process and a practice, following the movements of matter and relations as they weather, fracture, and transform. By attending to how things come apart as much as how they come into being, (un)making recognizes that creation is inseparable from dissolution. Here, patchwork, montage, and assemblage emerge as critical modes of knowing, encouraging mess, productive dissonance, and open-ended becoming. Bridging anthropology, archaeology, art, and architecture, we invite scholars, artists, and practitioners to engage with fragments not merely as objects of study, but as ways of thinking, sensing, and collaborating. As part of CRASSH's 25th anniversary programme, the event combines an interdisciplinary panel with an artistic workshop. Together, we seek to imagine how thinking and working with fragments can inspire new forms of inquiry, creativity, and community in a fractured world.

This study on the Trans-Saharan trade examines the history as one of the most significant arteries of pre-modern economic, cultural, and political interaction, linking sub-Saharan Africa with North Africa, the Islamic world, and eventually Europe. Drawing on written sources, it challenges Eurocentric narratives that situate Africa outside the mainstream of global history, emphasizing instead the integrative role of long-distance commerce in shaping African and world civilizations. The paper traces the early origins of Saharan exchange from antiquity, through the revolution in transport brought by the camel, to the structured networks of the medieval period, highlighting how states such as Ghana, Mali, Songhai, and Kanem-Bornu consolidated power through control of gold, salt, and slave routes. Particular attention is given to the spread of Islam as both a spiritual and commercial framework that fostered urbanization, scholarship, and cultural synthesis in centers like Timbuktu, Kano, and Gao, thereby embedding West Africa within the wider Islamic ecumene. The study further situates the Trans-Saharan trade within the global context, noting its economic implications for the Islamic world, the Ottoman Empire, and later European expansion. It demonstrates how the trade not only sustained African polities but also supplied precious metals and human labor crucial to Mediterranean and Eurasian economies before its eventual decline with the rise of Atlantic commerce. Ultimately, the Trans-Saharan trade emerges as a vital force of connectivity, whose legacies of state formation, intellectual production, and cultural hybridity underscore Africa's active role in the making of global civilization.

This research introduces the Architectural Alphabet, a pedagogical and conceptual framework asserting that architecture encompasses far more than graphic representation. Built on the premise that "if architecture were an alphabet, drawing would be but one letter," it proposes twenty-six interconnected concepts — from Ambiance to Zone — each bridging universal architectural theory with African vernacular practice. Drawing on observations of academic and professional contexts in Cameroon, the study identifies a systematic reduction of architectural thinking to draftsmanship, at the expense of sensory, cultural, memorial and ritual dimensions. By anchoring each concept in African heritage — chefferies, vernacular habitats, constructive gestures and collective memory — the framework reclaims indigenous spatial knowledge as a legitimate theoretical resource. The Architectural Alphabet functions simultaneously as a teaching tool, a reflective practice guide, and a cultural preservation instrument, inviting students, practitioners and researchers to engage architecture as a living, multisensory and pluridisciplinary language.

Keywords: architectural pedagogy, holistic design, African vernacular architecture, sensory experience, cultural heritage, spatial memory, pluridisciplinary practice.

In the last two decades, the mobilities turn in anthropology and archaeology has resulted in a widened scope for mobility studies. This includes a renewed interest in ontological questioning of the human condition, new methods for mapping humans and nonhumans (things, materials and ancestral beings) alike, and a wider range of scalar levels of analysis. Somewhat paradoxically, however, given this widened scope, during the same period African archaeology has undergone a main crisis, characterised by inter-and intradisciplinary siloing and seclusion from stakeholders and policymakers. Geospatial technologies have a vast potential in contributing to solve this crisis. However, after more than a decade of promising geoarchaeological approaches seeking to harness universalist geospatial technologies into localised, context-sensitive insights, the potential remains unfulfilled, as geospatial archaeology is largely detached from other ways of doing

The tempo of crop adoption in the Kalahari Basin Area remains imperfectly understood, with most inferences drawn from sparse macrobotanical finds and stable isotope baselines rather than direct evidence of plant use at the individual level. A long-standing question-the 'Kalahari Debate'-concerns whether forager communities in southern Africa were isolated from, or progressively integrated with, neighbouring food-producing societies. The more recent three-layer approach suggests a drawn-out process of complex Holocene interactions among Wilton-producing foragers, Late Stone Age Khoe-Kwadi sheep herders, and later Bantu farmers. This study assesses whether cereals became dietary staples in northern and central Botswana during the early part of the Late Iron Age. We analysed microbotanical remains in dental calculus from four individuals from Nǃoma, Taukome and Xaro. Short-cell phytolith morphotypes consistent with Panicoideae were common at Nǃoma and Taukome, with rare dendritic long-cells suggestive of husk tissue; while starches were scarce. Xaro produced very low counts dominated by Pooideae short-cells. Proteomic analysis of the three dental calculus samples yielded no dietary proteins but did identify oral bacteria, including those associated with periodontal disease. Dietary findings align with published stable carbon isotope evidence: Nǃoma and Taukome show values consistent with diets rich in C 4 crops (for example sorghum and pearl millet). At Nǃoma, differences between childhood tooth enamel (records childhood diet) and adult bone collagen (records primarily adult diet) point to a shift from C 3 foraging/ fishing in youth to C 4 crop consumption in adulthood. These results provide the first direct microbotanical evidence of cereal consumption in Iron Age Botswana, consistent with the KBA framework in which crops became embedded through sustained forager, herder, and farmer interaction.

Archaeological and environmental research by an international and interdisciplinary team opens new perspectives into the settlement histories of Kansyore, Early Iron Age, and Bigo period peoples in the once forested regions of the Ndali Crater Lakes Region (NCLR) of western Uganda. The research examines the role of Kansyore agropastoralists and their Early Iron Age and Bantu-speaking contemporaries in remaking a once forested environment into a forest-savannah mosaic from circa 500 BC to the end of the first millennium AD. Archaeological settlement and subsistence evidence is examined within a framework of social interaction of Sudanic speakers with Bantu speakers, drawing on historical linguistics and environmental studies to arrive at a new synthesis of late Holocene history in western Uganda. This perspective also unveils the significance and chronology of Boudiné ware, a long enigmatic ceramic tradition that we identify as contemporary to Transitional Urewe and deeply influenced through social interactions with those making Kansyore ceramics and inhabiting the same landscape. Using archaeological evidence from fifteen sites and multiple burials spanning from 400 to 1650 calAD, new views of ceramic histories, lifeways, and

The ancient Egyptian temples at the Philae UNESCO World Heritage Site in Aswan face conservation challenges due to fluctuating water levels, which threaten their building material resistance. Following a summary review of the hydrological changes to the natural responses of the Nile caused by the construction of the Aswan dam, our research employs a novel approach, combining remote sensing data analysis, literature review, fieldwork, and multiple high-specification materials analyses, to assess the impact of these changes on the temples in Philae. The new data permit the identification of the most at-risk areas and inform the long-term monitoring and conservation of Philae. Our approach enhances understanding of the causes and effects of building material decay and underscores the urgent need for conservation strategies to mitigate ongoing water-induced deterioration. The research highlights the impact of human-induced hydrological changes, offering a case study that informs future climate change effects. It is clear that tough decisions will be required for the long term heritage conservation of the Philae temples in the face of modern infrastructural developments and climate change, and that cultural heritage management guidelines before and after dam construction is urgently required. The issues identified, are not unique to the Philae Temples so the results and recommendations are relevant to other World Heritage sites that are currently facing similar environmental and conservation challenges.

This paper is a response to the conference session ‘Generic MSA:
fact or fiction?’ held as part of the PanAfrican Association
Conference in 2022 in Unguja, Tanzania. It questions the validity
of the concept of a ‘generic Middle Stone Age’ and goes beyond
the simple debate of terminology that has persisted for nearly 75
years. Instead, it uses this as a starting point to discuss the past,
present and future of lithic analyses, including the history of
terminology in the African Stone Age, the current topics of lithic
enquiry and the role of lithic analysis following the Third Science
Revolution. It highlights the effect of tensions between science
versus humanities approaches and provides suggestions for
future lithic analysts. Lithic studies remain of great importance
but are only one source of evidence in modern interdisciplinary
human origins research. The paper contends that there is not a
single approach suitable for all sites or regions since analyses are
contingent upon the questions being asked. Instead, it
emphasises opportunities for multivocality and suggests that
despite the focus here on the Middle Stone Age the conclusions
reached are more widely applicable to other times and places.

Sumatra has long been recognized as a pivotal crossroads for trade in the Indian Ocean, with evidence of this activity dating back to the late first millennium when the Srivijaya regional polity emerged. The predominant hypothesis regarding this trade is that upland areas supplied forest products to lowland centers, which functioned as international trading marketplaces. These marketplaces received imported materials, some of which were exchanged with upland groups. However, evidence of this trade is still poorly supported by archaeological materials. This paper presents the first comprehensive study of glass beads from Sumatra via laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to determine the elemental compositions of the beads. The study encompasses a wide range of sites from upland and lowland areas and various temporal periods, extending from prehistoric to early historic times in Southern Sumatra, Jambi, and South Sumatra Province. The study provides not only improved chronologies, but also data on upland–lowland exchanges that definitively show the upland megalithic sites are not prehistoric, but rather contemporary with Srivijaya. Furthermore, it provides data on the pre-Srivijayan port-settlements and the regional networks in which they were involved, thanks to the presence of certain types of glass, including Mediterranean glass.

The Connecting Foodways project investigates the culinary traditions of early Iron Age sub-Saharan Northern Africa for evidence of inter-regional interaction, based on domestic, everyday foodways. The focus is upon the study of food technologies, specifically cooking vessels and their technical traits, and foodstuffs, such as food traces and botanical remains. These are used in combination to study cultural transmission via household-level interaction over the long-term.
Comparing key technical characteristics of globular cooking vessels, including size of mouth opening, wall thickness, and temper kind, we investigate similarities in function across sub-Saharan Northern Africa, as well as regional changes in these over time. These are analysed in conjunction with a comparison of plant and animal lipids recovered from the same cooking vessels using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS), in collaboration with Julie Dunne (University of Bristol). Here we present an overview of results, focusing on the analysis of these food technologies and foodstuffs in inter-regional, comparative perspective.

This paper examines the economic relationship between two Eastern Desert site s—Berenike and Sikait— and the Nile Valley market during Late Antiquity (from the late fourth to the sixth century AD). A comprehensive pottery study, based on nearly 100,000 pottery sherds, provides deep insights into the mercantile and supply strategies of both sites. A comparative analysis of fully quantified assemblages from other Egyptian sites, such as Kom el-Dikka, Coptos, and Abū Ša’ar, integrates the pottery study into the broader economic interdependencies of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Indian Ocean markets. By identifying the origins and distribution patterns of amphorae and other transport vessels, this research sheds light on the role of these desert settlements in regional trade networks. Furthermore, the results contribute to the ongoing discussion on the economic autonomy of Berenike and Sikait, questioning whether these sites relied primarily on external supply routes or maintained a degree of self-sufficiency within the desert environment.
ISBN 978-84-16725-45-8

Nous présentons l'étude anthropologique de dix individus provenant d'un cimetière situé sur la colline de Kindoki au Kongo central (RDC). Ils ont été exhumés en 2012 et 2013 dans le cadre du projet KongoKing qui consistait en une approche interdisciplinaire de l'histoire ancienne du royaume Kongo. Ce cimetière contient des inhumations datées du xviieau xixesiècle, très probablement celles de nobles de haut rang. Les défunts étaient accompagnés d'un mobilier funéraire (perles de verre, sabres, bijoux en or, mousquet). Les restes humains sont malheureusement très mal conservés. Certains ne sont représentés que par quelques fragments osseux ou dentaires. Parmi les dix défunts, on note la présence de deux femmes et de huit hommes. Deux individus masculins présentent des usures dentaires qui résulteraient de l'utilisation d'une pipe. Les deux femmes seraient âgées de plus de 40 ans et se caractérisent par des signes vertébraux évocateurs de DISH (diffuse idiopathi...

We present results, analyses, and an in-depth historical contextualization of the fieldwork undertaken in 2012 and 2013 at the Kindoki site in the Lower Congo (DRC). This site is linked to Mbanza Nsundi, one of the Kongo Kingdom's provincial capitals, which turns out to be archaeologically 'elusive'. Pinpointing its location proved to be particularly challenging. To this end, a historically informed survey methodology was applied that has rarely been implemented on such a scale in Central Africa before. We combined a strategy * Koen Bostoen

The Deep Symbolic Systems Model (DSSM) proposes that human civilization advances not through episodic invention or moral choice, but through the recursive stabilization of embodied practices into durable symbolic systems-rituals that become symbols, symbols that become protocols, protocols that become institutions. This synthesis paper integrates thirty-nine published DSSM papers spanning 2025 to 2026, presenting a unified account of the model's theoretical architecture, methodological instruments, regional evidence base, applied extensions, and falsification conditions. The paper proceeds in eight movements. It opens with the core theoretical inversion-that monumentality and writing are late-stage externalizations of pre-existing symbolic load, not its origins. It then grounds the framework in neuroscience, tracing the co-evolution of neural architecture and symbolic behavior from early hominins to anatomically modern humans. A comparative synthesis of five macro-regional pathways to symbolic stabilization-Egypt, Mesopotamia, East Asia, Mesoamerica, and the Indus Valley-demonstrates structural convergence despite divergent media and ecologies. Negative cases (Australia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Late Neolithic Europe) are analyzed as scope condition tests, confirming three distinct failure modes of the developmental sequence. The model's applied extensions-from technology as fossilized ritual, through empire as fossilized extraction, to the contemporary AI race as protocol competition-are evaluated against current evidence. The paper closes with a formal statement of falsification conditions and a structured research agenda. DSSM is presented as the first fully operationalized, falsifiable, two-dimensionally scored, and negative-case-validated cognitive-archaeological model of civilizational emergence.

This research examines Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge (ITEK) as a key response to climate change and conflict mitigation in Tivland, Benue State, Nigeria. This research explores how traditional environmental practices and cultural values can be applied as adaptive solutions to contemporary climate and social problems. The study adopts a qualitative approach, including ethnographic surveys in addition to key informant interviews and focus group discussions with farmers, elders, custodians of cultural traditions, and a review of documentary sources on indigenous knowledge systems. The findings of the study revealed that ecological knowledge among Tiv communities, through such practices as crop rotation, intercropping, sacred sites, seasonal farming calendars, land tenure systems, and communal ownership of resources, has contributed to greater environmental sustainability and ultimately reduced competition for scarce resources. These practices largely contribute to enhanced food security and community cohesion, consequently reducing climate-induced disputes or conflict over scarcity of resources. ITEK has, therefore, become a vital channel for the development of a culturally appropriate framework for climate change adaptation and peacebuilding. The study recommends that local communities hold opportunities to collaborate with relevant stakeholders and policy-makers in response to climate change and conflict mitigation.

This article examines the importance of preserving Ethiopia’s historic buildings as part of the country’s cultural and legal heritage. It explores the challenges facing conservation efforts, including urban development pressures, weak enforcement mechanisms, and limited public awareness. The paper further highlights the role of legal frameworks and policy interventions in safeguarding historical sites. By emphasizing the intersection of heritage, law, and national identity, the article calls for strengthened protection mechanisms and increased institutional commitment to preservation.

Archaeological and environmental research by an international and interdisciplinary team opens new perspectives into the settlement histories of Kansyore, Early Iron Age, and Bigo period peoples in the once forested regions of the Ndali Crater Lakes Region (NCLR) of western Uganda. The research examines the role of Kansyore agropastoralists and their Early Iron Age and Bantu-speaking contemporaries in remaking a once forested environment into a forest-savannah mosaic from circa 500 BC to the end of the first millennium AD. Archaeological settlement and subsistence evidence is examined within a framework of social interaction of Sudanic speakers with Bantu speakers, drawing on historical linguistics and environmental studies to arrive at a new synthesis of late Holocene history in western Uganda. This perspective also unveils the significance and chronology of Boudiné ware, a long enigmatic ceramic tradition that we identify as contemporary to Transitional Urewe and deeply influenced through social interactions with those making Kansyore ceramics and inhabiting the same landscape. Using archaeological evidence from fifteen sites and multiple burials spanning from 400 to 1650 calAD, new views of ceramic histories, lifeways, and

British Colonial governments in eastern Africa became deeply involved in the protection and conservation of Protected Areas, zones of high value for natural history and wildlife. Often such areas were created without consideration of community interests and management expertise. Centralized power and decision-making militated against local engagement. This trend was accompanied by parallel developments in the heritage sector, which initially focused on the creation of institutions to facilitate the preservation of sites declared as national monuments in the respective colonies. Such institutions were given the mandate to ensure the security and conservation of the monuments, to investigate the history/archaeology of the respective colonies, and to provide permits to researchers. These institutions continue to document and preserve heritage sites and issue permits, but their strong application of central control has diminished local attempts to manage and develop heritage sites. Using Tanzania as a case study, this paper examines how the Division of Antiquities has come to mimic the Division of Wildlife's failure to respond to community needs and initiatives-part of the colonial legacy of central control and maintenance of institutional interests before service to public concern.

Eritrea fought a war of liberation for three decades between the early 1960s and 1991. While professional research stagnated because of the war, amateur archaeologists provided the sole source of information for ancient material culture in the country during this era. With the coming of independence in 1993, awareness of the potential value of Eritrea’s heritage resources began to grow, leading to an initiative in 1997 to teach archaeology and heritage management at the University of Asmara.Out of the combined training and research programmes conducted by the University of Asmara have come several major discoveries that change the way that the rise of urbanism is seen in the Horn of Africa. We highlight research showing that between 800 BC and 400 BC the greater Asmara area of Eritrea supported the earliest settled agropastoralist communities known in the highlands of the Horn. These communities pre-date and are contemporaneous with Pre-Aksumite settlements in the highlands of south...

This Reviewed monograph presents a comprehensive examination of the 3bi numeral system , an indigenous mathematical notation developed by the Gonja people of the ancient Gonja Kingdom in present-day northern Ghana on an initial publication with same title. This review is a correctional attempt to try and address some historical discrepancies  on certain names presented. Through an integration of archaeological evidence uncovered during excavations at Salaga, Buipe, and Kafaba in 1970, oral historical traditions, and comparative linguistic and mathematical analysis, this work establishes that the 3bi system represents one of sub-Saharan Africa's most sophisticated and historically significant indigenous counting and record-keeping traditions.
The 3bi system, employing chalk-drawn lines, dots, and geometric symbols on walls, animal skins, papyrus, wooden poles, and wet clay surfaces, served as the primary financial notation system in the Salaga Slave Market , one of West Africa's most important pre-colonial commercial hubs, as well as in broader Gonja trading communities throughout the sixteenth century and beyond. Evidence from the 1970 excavations confirms that these numerical inscriptions predate European contact and represent an autonomous intellectual achievement of the Gonja people, estimated to have originated in the early sixteenth century, making the system well over four hundred years old at the time of its archaeological discovery.
This work argues forcefully for the recognition, documentation, and preservation of the 3bi numerals by UNESCO, the International Mathematical Union (IMU), the African Union's cultural bodies, and all relevant global heritage organisations. The 3bi system is not merely a curiosity of the past; it is a living testament to the mathematical ingenuity of African civilisation and deserves its rightful place in the global history of mathematics.

A newly recovered site of standing North of Chancha, Dorze, Ethiopia, stands in the vicinity of Birbir Mariam, a noted medieval monastery in the region.
It covers 5.5 hectares, well walled and presumably with two towers. We propose it for further investigation.

Almost a century ago, Goodwin excavated Grave VIa at Oakhurst Shelter that later became known as one of the most intriguing Later Stone Age burials in southern Africa. At the time, and in subsequent discussions, it was thought that a man was buried with a bored stone and a grindstone-objects usually seen as women's things. We now know that the person was buried ~5000 years ago during the mid-Holocene, and that recent genetic work revealed their biological identity as that of a woman. This report reconciles the woman's bioarchaeological information with a photographic record of her grave goods, most of which have never been published before. It highlights how throughout its long curational history, originally well-contextualised items are now scattered, with some no longer traceable. Alongside the items I was able to record over a three-year period, I provide a list of 'still missing' items in the hope that it will lead to their re-location. Brief interpretations of some aspects of the grave goods (such as the bored stone with fish vertebrae, the quartz artefacts, and the ochre and paint paraphernalia) serve to highlight the uniqueness of this grave, and its potential to inform on the woman and the possible worldview of the people who lived at Oakhurst Shelter during the mid-Holocene.

From their first encounters with southern African bowhunters, early European travellers such as Sparrman and Thunberg in the late 1700s and Lichtenstein in the early 1800s, were fascinated by and feared local poisoned arrows in equal measure. Some of these travellers, such as Sparrman and Thunberg, also collected poisoned arrows to take back to Europe, where they are still curated at museums such as the Ethnographic Museum in Stockholm, Sweden. Even after a few centuries the poisons on such arrows can still be detected biochemically (Isaksson et al. 2026). Bowhunting was recorded for 269 groups in sub-Saharan Africa, of which 168 are known to use/have used poisoned arrows, usually with the exudates of one or more of the 273 known arrow-poison plant species used as ingredient/s (Lombard 2026). Gifbol poison, or Boophone disticha bulb exudate (Fig. 1), is a well-documented arrow poison from the Democratic Republic of Congo,

During historical times, Europeans noted the ubiquitous use of poisoned arrows throughout the Afrotropics. Today, we know that this is one of the regions where Homo sapiens evolved. We also know that the archaeological records of some Afrotropic bioregions show rapid, cumulative innovation and cognitively modern behaviours since ~ 100 ka. We may therefore ask when bowhunting with poisoned arrows became part of the Afrotropic arsenal, and where we should look for early evidence of this techno-behaviour. This contribution provides an introduction to the Afrotropics and its 269 historically known bowhunting groups, 168 of whom are also known to use poisoned arrows. The article is meant as a starting point for contemplating the origins and/or radiation of this hunting strategy in each of the six sub-realms in a co-evolutionary context. I also provide a database for known Afrotropic arrowpoison plant species as a resource for future chemical testing of residues obtained from archaeological artefacts. It is widely accepted that bone points and microlithic insets were used for tipping poisoned arrows throughout the Afrotropic Holocene, but providing evidence of the techno-behaviour for the Pleistocene remains difficult and contested. There is, however, an increasing body of work that points to bowhunting-perhaps also with poisoned arrows-in the Southern Afrotropic during MIS 4 (71-57 ka). The broader context for the MIS 4 bowhunting hypothesis shows how it fits with a climate-mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) framework for its northward dispersal after ~ 70 ka. Lastly, I predict that when it is found, biochemical traces of arrow poisons on artefacts ballistically suited for such use have the potential to provide decisive confirmation of the MIS 4 bowhunting hypothesis.

The study of human remains can provide valuable information about aspects of past populations. Here we present an updated database consisting of 590 radiocarbon (14 C) dates for human remains from Holocene South Africa before European contact. We calibrated or recalibrated all the previously published dates using the most recent calibration curve for the southern hemisphere. Each date is roughly georeferenced and plotted according to their Stone Age or Iron Age contexts, revealing the broad distribution pattern of dated Holocene human remains across South Africa-perhaps reflecting aspects of past population distribution and densities, but also underscoring historical collection practices, archaeological research focus, and preservation conditions. We use Kernel Density Estimation models to show peaks and troughs of dated remains through time, with Later Stone Age peaks at ∼5.5 ka cal BP, ∼2 ka cal BP and ∼0.5 ka cal BP, and Iron Age peaks ∼1.1 ka cal BP and ∼0.5 ka cal BP, some of which show broad correspondence to climatic data. Our data, based on dated remains only, do not provide a full reflection of past populations, and our large-scale, coarse-grained analysis cannot yet assess the reasons for the peaks in dated human remains in detail. Yet, the study provides a new resource, and a data-driven overview that highlights aspects to be explored with further contextual analyses against the available archaeological records, population histories and climatic indicators through time and across space.

Poisoned weapons are a hallmark of advanced hunter-gatherer technology. Through targeted microchemical and biomolecular analyses, we identified traces of toxic plant alkaloids on backed microliths from Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, excavated from a level dated to 60,000 years ago. The alkaloids buphandrine and epibuphanisine only originate from Amaryllidaceae indigenous to southern Africa. The most likely source is Boophone disticha (L.f.) Herb. bulb exudate, also associated with historically documented arrow poisons. To our knowledge, we present the first direct evidence for the application of this plant-based poison on the tips of Pleistocene hunting weapons. The discovery highlights the complexity of subsistence strategies and cognition in southern Africa since the mid-Pleistocene.

We reintroduce and discuss a painted copy of 16 figures that George Stow recreated from what we refer to as Namahali Shelter. This shelter is located in a part of the Maloti-Drakensberg that is difficult to reach and has not been relocated since Stow's visit. His comments link the figures, their activities and material culture to the Mo'koma dance described by Arbousset as one of the most important among the San people. Stow's notes on the figures, the painted copy and the accompanying pencil sketches have not been presented as a cohesive record before. We introduce our own preliminary descriptive notes and interpretations, drawing from current understanding of the San world view. We demonstrate that the depictions from Namahali Shelter are exceptionally rich in conceptual elements that inform their narrative component, allowing us to recognise the interweaving of the 'real' with the 'nonreal' of some of the elements of the dance. We provide original insight into the possible role of women in healing and out-of-body travel in trance, the use of material culture (such as batons and bored stones), as well as concepts of fighting and death, in the performance of the Mo'koma dance. Our reading remains tentative until Namahali Shelter can be relocated and the original paintings recorded in their complete context.

Les divinités vodoun sont chargées de symboles et de signes qui véhiculent non seulement des messages à l'endroit des profanes mais aussi expriment leur harmonie avec la société dont elles se réclament. Cette forme de communication des vodoun se fait à travers leurs apparats vestimentaires. Cependant, ces messages peuvent soit ne pas être perçus par les non-initiés, soit mal interprétés ou mal reçus par ceux qui arrivent à les lire. Autrement dit, les apparats vestimentaires vodoun (partie intégrante des arts et cultures vodoun) font l'objet du système d'encodage et de décodage en communication. Comment déchiffrer les symboles et signes des apparats vestimentaires vodoun sous le prisme de la sémiologie de la communication et de la signification ? Que représentent les apparats vestimentaires dans le panthéon vodoun ? Quels messages peut comprendre le profane des accoutrements des divinités Sakpata et Tɔxɔsu-Nɛsuxwe ? Ces questions constituent le socle de cette étude qui se veut explicative et analytique. La méthodologie de recherche privilégie l'approche qualitative avec un accent sur l'analyse de contenu. Les théories de l'information et de la communication couplée avec celles de la sémiotique des cultures permettent d'analyser les données. Les résultats de recherche montrent que les richesses des apparats vodoun peuvent contribuer au développement touristique du Bénin.

By Jacob Hardt, Kristina Pfeiffer, Wolbert Smidt, Mariam Abdoulkader, Ibrahim Osman Ali
Antonia Umlauf

We report on the results of two geoarchaeological and ethnohistorical field surveys in northern Djibouti (prefecture of Tadjoura) carried out in 2023 and 2024. Three areas were selected for further investigation: Loubatanlé, a crater at wadi A͑ sa Fa ͑o, and Boli. We introduce the geomorphological setting of the sites and put the archaeological structures found at the surface in spatial context. We compare recovered pottery with assemblages from other sites in Djibouti. Together with morphological comparisons of tumuli or ceramics, radiocarbon ages provide an initial insight into the chronologies of these sites. We briefly discuss possible (historical) functions of the sites in the frame of interaction routes, trade relations, and possible trading goods such as incense.

Ahmed Pasha Kamal was the first Egyptian scholar to write his own ancient Egyptian dictionary, Le lexique de la langue Egyptienne ancienne totaling 22 volumes, including more than 13,000 hieroglyphic entries translated to French and Arabic, yet following different methodology. Kamal's knowledge production was varied in languages and in targeting audience. He published in Arabic for the Egyptian people and in French (mainly) and English for westerns. Among his publications is "The Dictionary of the Ancient Plants and Trees" Al-La’ali’ Al-Durriya fi Al-Nabatat wa Al-Ashjar Al-Qadima Al-Misriyya, which is an encyclopedic work that is considered one of the most important references in the study of ancient Egyptian flora. Published in the late 19th century, this dictionary provides comprehensive information about plants used in ancient Egypt, including their names in hieroglyphics, along with translations into Arabic and French. The dictionary is organized alphabetically, it includes detailed descriptions of specific plants and trees, noting their physical characteristics and traditional uses. Moreover, it outlines how these plants were used in religious rituals, medicinal treatments, and daily life, such as growing grains, preparing oils, and crafting wood. In this research paper, we will present an overview of the medicinal remedies discussed by Kamal in his study of the uses of plants in the Dictionary of Plants and Trees, to be compared with the terms found in his 22 volumes dictionary.

This article explores impacts of, and reactions to, colonial intrusion and migrancy on and among the Northern Sotho on the Makgabeng, South Africa. We reflect on the role rock art sites play as spaces in which the Northern Sotho articulated their agency responding to new colonial objects – wagons, trains, and trucks – and how these objects were re-signified and integrated into Northern Sotho iconography of initiation rock art. A close analysis of this rock art and a close reading of historical sources, as well as examination of ethnography on initiation and migrancy, offer an interpretation of trains, tracks, trucks, and wagons in the rock art repertoire of the Northern Sotho. We draw on Bhabha’s concept of “ambivalence of mimicry” to suggest that the rock art depictions of these trains, wagons, and things associated with migrancy represent subtle resistance to colonial intrusion and negotiation of realities. These experiences were framed by the Northern Sotho within an emic context of initiation.

Sehlogo se se tsinkela ditlamorago le dikarabelo tša go tsenelela  ga bokoloniale le go huduga gare ga Basotho ba Lebowa ba Makgabeng, Afrika Borwa. Re naganišiša ka tema yeo mafelo a bokgabo bja leswika a e e kgathago bjalo ka mafelo a wo go wona Basotho a Lebowa ba hlalošitšego boemedi bja bona bja go arabela dilo tše diswa tša bokoloniale – dikoloyana, ditimela, le dilori – le ka fao dilo tše di ilego tša swantšhwa gape le go kopanywa le seswantšho sa Sesotho sa Leboa sa bokgabo bja leswika go tša koma. Tshekatsheko ya kgauswi ya bokgabo bjo bja leswika le go bala kgauswi ga methopo ya histori, gammogo le go hlahloba thuto ya semorafe ka tša koma le go huduga, di fa hlathollo ya ditimela, diporo, dilori, le dikoloyana ka gare ga kgoboketšo ya tša bokgabo bja leswika ya Sesotho sa Lebowa. Re tšea kgopolo ya Bhabha ya “ambivalence of mimicry” (go ekiša mo go sa felelago) go šišinya gore diswantšho tša bokgabo bja leswika tša ditimela tše, dikoloyana le dilo tšeo di amanago le go huduga di emela kganetšo ye e sa lemogegego ya go tsenelela ga bokoloniale le ditherišano tša dilo tša kgonthe. Maitemogelo a a be a beakatšhitšwe ke Basotho ba Lebowa go ya ka seemo sa bona sa tša koma.

Osaga Odak first described the Kakapel rock art of western Kenya in 1977. His sketch concentrated on the site’s main central panel, capturing only the clearer images and he categorised the images present into humans, animals, artefacts and non-representational designs, proposing a sequence of two styles painted by two different groups. Odak further argued that Kakapel’s paintings were drawn before the arrival in the region of the Kalenjin, placing them before the reach of oral history and thereby making it impossible to ascribe an authorship or age to them. Fieldwork in 2011 was undertaken to answer Odak’s call for further research at the site. This paper presents the first millimetre-accurate redrawing of the main panel at Kakapel and places the site within the broader context of eastern African rock art to propose an age and authorship for the different painted traditions represented there. It thus builds on and extends current understandings of the rock art sequence of eastern Africa.

Con este trabajo contribuimos al mejor conocimiento de las ollas de cerámica de cocina norteafricana de la forma Hayes 200 y sus variantes, fechadas en los siglos II y III, y comunes en el litoral mediterráneo de Hispania. Se presenta una revisión de su definición tipológica y terminológica, que permite distinguir una variante clásica y una parva. Asimismo, se actualizan su cronología y difusión a partir de los contextos más relevantes y recientes del Mediterráneo occidental en los que se documentan. Las particularidades formales de estos recipientes, muy alejados del resto del repertorio de la cerámica de cocina tunecina de época romana, han sido propicias para profundizar también en aspectos de carácter funcional. Su distribución, ahora mejor conocida, tiene un carácter marcadamente hispano, un hecho singular y de difícil explicación. El presente trabajo aspira a sentar las bases para su estudio en un futuro.