- Anthropology, Archaeology, African Iron Age, Landscape Archaeology, Complex Societies, Trade and Exchange, and 9 moreSocial Archaeology, Archaeology of Identity, Social Inequality (Anthropology), Human-Environment Relations, Political Economy, Spatial analysis (Archaeology), Museums and Identity, Memory Studies, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)edit
This article describes the mineralogy and sources for a spectacular stone bead industry associated with the first pastoralists in eastern Africa ca. 5000-4000 CAL B.P. Around Lake Turkana, northwest Kenya, early pastoralists constructed... more
This article describes the mineralogy and sources for a spectacular stone bead industry associated with the first pastoralists in eastern Africa ca. 5000-4000 CAL B.P. Around Lake Turkana, northwest Kenya, early pastoralists constructed at least seven mortuary monuments with platforms, pillars, cairns, and stone circles. Three sites-Lothagam North, Manemanya, and Jarigole-have yielded assemblages of stone and ostrich eggshell beads that adorned interred individuals. Mineralogical identification of the stone beads reveals patterns of material selection, including notable differences among the pillar sites. Geological sourcing indicates use of many local raw materials and two (amazonite and fluorite) whose known sources lie > 200 km away. The data suggest that bead-making represented a significant investment by early pastoralists in personal ornamentation. New sociopolitical factors emerged, such as access to grazing grounds and water, and definitions of self and society manifested in novel mortuary traditions as people coped with a drying, cooling climate.
Research Interests: Mineralogy, Geoarchaeology, Archaeometry, Archaeology of Personal Adornment, Megalithic Monuments, and 9 morePastoralism (Archaeology), Mortuary archaeology, Beads, African Archaeology, Stone Raw Material Sources, Turkana, Archaeometallurgy, Mineralogy, Archaeometry, Stone beads, and Eastern African Archaeology
Spatial data, under the broader umbrella of digital data, is becoming increasingly integral to all stages of archaeological research design and dissemination. As archaeologists lean toward reuse and interoperability, with ethics on their... more
Spatial data, under the broader umbrella of digital data, is becoming increasingly integral to all stages of archaeological research design and dissemination. As archaeologists lean toward reuse and interoperability, with ethics on their minds, how to treat spatial data is of particular importance. This is because of the complexities involved at every life-cycle stage, from collection to publication, including black box issues that may be taken for granted, and because the size of spatial data can lead to archiving difficulties. Here, the "DIY" momentum of increasingly accessible spatial methods such as photogrammetry and handheld lidar is examined alongside forthcoming changes in publication policies that will impact the United States in particular, framed around a conversation about best practices and a call for more comprehensive training for the archaeological community. At its heart, this special issue seeks to realize the potential of increasingly digitized-and increasingly large amounts of-archaeological data. Within cultural resource management, this means anticipating utilization of data through widespread standardization, among many interrelated activities. A desire to enhance the utility of archaeological data has distinct resonances with the use of spatial data in archaeology, as do some wider challenges that the archaeological community faces moving forward.
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The prehistory of Botswana concerns the sophisticated environmental knowledge, economic strategies, and social networks of the hunter-gatherer, pastoralists, and agropastoralist communities that have called Botswana home. Diverse... more
The prehistory of Botswana concerns the sophisticated environmental knowledge, economic strategies, and social networks of the hunter-gatherer, pastoralists, and agropastoralist communities that have called Botswana home. Diverse subsistence strategies and societal structures ranging from heterarchical to hierarchical have coincided and responded flexibly to climate and environmental variables. Botswana has also played a central, but often overlooked, role in precolonial trade within the interior of Africa and across the Indian Ocean.
Botswana contains well-preserved archaeological records for the Middle Stone Age, Late Stone Age, and Iron Age periods, including one of the highest concentrations of rock art in the world at Tsodilo Hills. The prehistory of Botswana extends over 100,000 years and includes successful, innovative, and adaptive occupations in a wide variety of environmental zones, from the Okavango Delta to the Kalahari sandveld, and better-watered hardveld areas in the east. Stone Age peoples adapted to both arid and wet lands, and the archaeological record includes early evidence for freshwater fish exploitation. Hunting with bone points dates to 35,000 years ago, with additional evidence for poisonous, reversible arrowheads between 21,000 and 30,000 years ago. Evidence for ritualized behavior through rock paintings, rock carvings, and the intentional destruction and abandonment of stone tools at Tsodilo Hills provides further insights to the social dimensions of early peoples. In the Iron Age, hunter-gatherer communities and agropastoralists participated in a regional and later protoglobal trade across the Indian Ocean for a thousand years before European involvement; as the regional economy intensified, large polities such as Bosutswe and even kingdoms such as the Butua state emerged, controlling access to resources such as game, ivory, salt, specularite, and gold. In the modern era, the historical archaeology of sites such as Old Palapye (Phalatswe) provide additional insight to historical documents that can contradict Eurocentric understandings of Botswana’s past.
Botswana contains well-preserved archaeological records for the Middle Stone Age, Late Stone Age, and Iron Age periods, including one of the highest concentrations of rock art in the world at Tsodilo Hills. The prehistory of Botswana extends over 100,000 years and includes successful, innovative, and adaptive occupations in a wide variety of environmental zones, from the Okavango Delta to the Kalahari sandveld, and better-watered hardveld areas in the east. Stone Age peoples adapted to both arid and wet lands, and the archaeological record includes early evidence for freshwater fish exploitation. Hunting with bone points dates to 35,000 years ago, with additional evidence for poisonous, reversible arrowheads between 21,000 and 30,000 years ago. Evidence for ritualized behavior through rock paintings, rock carvings, and the intentional destruction and abandonment of stone tools at Tsodilo Hills provides further insights to the social dimensions of early peoples. In the Iron Age, hunter-gatherer communities and agropastoralists participated in a regional and later protoglobal trade across the Indian Ocean for a thousand years before European involvement; as the regional economy intensified, large polities such as Bosutswe and even kingdoms such as the Butua state emerged, controlling access to resources such as game, ivory, salt, specularite, and gold. In the modern era, the historical archaeology of sites such as Old Palapye (Phalatswe) provide additional insight to historical documents that can contradict Eurocentric understandings of Botswana’s past.
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Field research requires careful preparation so as to protect the integrity of archaeological studies and ensure the health and wellness of our students and field crews. In this special issue, we hope to lay a foundation for securing... more
Field research requires careful preparation so as to protect the integrity of archaeological studies and ensure the health and wellness of our students and field crews. In this special issue, we hope to lay a foundation for securing health and wellness as elements of the ethical practice of archaeology fieldwork through discussions of common hazards and tools to prevent, prepare for, and address safety incidents in the field. Even as archaeology and other field sciences grapple with serious safety concerns such as sexual harassment and mental health, it can be tempting to view field sites as extensions of the classroom or office. But field research can be a high-risk endeavor where we are exposed to a range of hazards not typically encountered in a traditional learning or work environment. We reach across disciplinary boundaries toward outdoor leadership and backcountry medicine to introduce the concept of wilderness context to describe the remote-and not-so-remote-locations and conditions common to archaeology field research. These are places where small or unanticipated problems can quickly become serious incidents. By rethinking research sites as wilderness activity sites, we highlight how methodical preparation can help us craft more robust and ethical health and safety practices for all members of our teams.
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Graduate schools provide students opportunities for fieldwork and training in archaeological methods and theory, but they often overlook instruction in field safety and well-being. We suggest that more explicit guidance on how to conduct... more
Graduate schools provide students opportunities for fieldwork and training in archaeological methods and theory, but they often overlook instruction in field safety and well-being. We suggest that more explicit guidance on how to conduct safe fieldwork will improve the overall success of student-led projects and prepare students to direct safe and successful fieldwork programs as professionals. In this article, we draw on the experiences of current and recent graduate students as well as professors who have overseen graduate fieldwork to outline key considerations in improving field safety and well-being and to offer recommendations for specific training and safety protocols. In devising these considerations and recommendations, we have referenced both domestic and international field projects, as well as those involving community collaboration.
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Chronic diseases and preexisting conditions shape daily life for many archaeologists both in and out of the field. Chronic issues, however, can be overlooked in safety planning, which more often focuses on emergency situations because... more
Chronic diseases and preexisting conditions shape daily life for many archaeologists both in and out of the field. Chronic issues, however, can be overlooked in safety planning, which more often focuses on emergency situations because they are considered mundane, or they are imperceptible to project directors and crews until a serious problem arises. This article focuses on asthma, diabetes, and depression as common medical conditions that impact otherwise healthy archaeologists during fieldwork, with the goal of raising awareness of these conditions in particular, and the need to be more attentive to chronic diseases in general. Archaeological fieldwork presents novel situations that put those with chronic diseases and preexisting conditions at risk: environmental hazards, remoteness from medical and social resources and networks, lack of group awareness, and varying cultural norms. As a result, if chronic diseases are not attended to properly in the field, they can lead to life-threatening situations. Managing the risk presented by these conditions requires a group culture where team members are aware of issues, as appropriate, and collaborate to mitigate them during fieldwork. Descriptions of how chronic diseases affect archaeologists in the field are followed by "best practice" recommendations for self-management and for group leaders.
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As with many field-oriented sciences, the COVID-19 pandemic has created enormous challenges for traditional archaeological research, which often involves traveling to remote locations and living and working closely with large teams of... more
As with many field-oriented sciences, the COVID-19 pandemic has created enormous challenges for traditional archaeological research, which often involves traveling to remote locations and living and working closely with large teams of people, often for extended periods (Scerri et al. 2020). Current requirements for social distancing and remote work have highlighted needs for better online research and teaching tools in archaeology, as well as reinvigorating interest in research that makes use of existing digital and archival data (e.g., https://digitalarchaeologyweb.wordpress.com/2020/03/). The University of Arkansas’s Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies (CAST) and the National Science Foundation–funded Spatial Archaeometry Research Collaborations (SPARC) Program, based at CAST, Dartmouth College’s Spatial Archaeometry Lab (SPARCL), and the University of Glasgow have collectively developed collaborative research projects that leverage an emerging suite of spatial analytic methods and remote sensing technologies to explore complex questions about the human past. Below, we highlight a range of recent CAST and SPARC projects that illustrate some exciting new ways to undertake archaeological research in the time of COVID-19 and beyond.
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Field research in archaeology and biological anthropology exists in many different environments, each with implicit hazards to the well-being of the research team. It is considered standard practice for the principal investigator or... more
Field research in archaeology and biological anthropology exists in many different environments, each with implicit hazards to the well-being of the research team. It is considered standard practice for the principal investigator or academic team leader to be responsible for the well-being of the research team. It is not, however, a common requirement that field team leaders have specific training in how to ensure that the team is well prepared to safeguard its medical and psychological well-being during a field season. The most systematic study of health and safety among anthropology field camps was performed in 1986-87 and published in Current Anthropology (Howell 1988, 1990). The three greatest hazards identified (motor vehicle collisions, malaria, and hepatitis) have been mitigated due to a series of engineering and medical advances; however, hazards still abound. The Combined Anthropology Medical Preparation Survey (CAMPS) reassesses the hazards faced during field research in archaeology and biological anthropology and gauges the desire among field researchers for additional training or resources on medical readiness. As a medical needs assessment, it is intended to serve as a foundation for designing a systematic approach for team leaders to protect the well-being of team members before, during, and after fieldwork. Online enhancements: appendix.
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The study of social space has become a central concern of African archaeology over the past three decades. Responding to critiques of the search for grand narratives (Stahl 1999), many scholars have turned their attention to more... more
The study of social space has become a central concern of African archaeology over the past three decades. Responding to critiques of the search for grand narratives (Stahl 1999), many scholars have turned their attention to more synchronic interpretations of social complexity and subjective experience in specific times and places-a move that encourages more critical analyses of socio-spatial relations within sites and across landscapes. In this way, an explicit concern with space aligns with calls for greater theory building in African archaeology (Wynne-Jones and Fleisher 2015) as we pose new questions, and revisit old ones, concerning human-environment interactions (e.g., Chami et al.
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Early herders in eastern Africa built elaborate megalithic cemeteries ~ 5000 BP overlooking what is now Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya. At least six 'pillar sites' were constructed during a time of rapid change: cattle, sheep, and... more
Early herders in eastern Africa built elaborate megalithic cemeteries ~ 5000 BP overlooking what is now Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya. At least six 'pillar sites' were constructed during a time of rapid change: cattle, sheep, and goats were introduced to the basin as the lake was shrinking at the end of the African Humid Period. Cultural changes at this time include new lithic and ceramic technologies and the earliest monumentality in eastern Africa. Isolated human remains previously excavated from pillar sites east of Lake Turkana seemed to indicate that pillar site platforms were ossuaries for secondary burials. Recent bioarchaeological excavations at four pillar sites west of the lake have now yielded ≥49 individuals, most from primary and some from secondary interments, challenging earlier interpretations. Here we describe the mortuary cavities, and burial contexts, and included items such as adornments from Lothagam North, Lothagam West, Manemanya, and Kalokol pillar sites. In doing so, we reassess previous hypotheses regarding pillar site construction, use, and inter-site variability. We also present the first osteological analyses of skeletons buried at these sites. Although the human remains are fragmentary, they are nevertheless informative about the sex, age, and body size of the deceased and give evidence for health and disease processes. Periosteal moulds of long bone midshafts (n = 34 elements) suggest patterns of terrestrial mobility. Pillar site deposits provide important new insights into early herder lifeways in eastern Africa and the impact of the transition to pastoralism on past human populations.
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Geospatial technologies such as GIS, remote sensing, and GNSS are transforming landscape archaeology, particularly in research areas that are hard to access due to geographical size, environmental challenges, lack of infrastructure,... more
Geospatial technologies such as GIS, remote sensing, and GNSS are transforming landscape archaeology, particularly in research areas that are hard to access due to geographical size, environmental challenges, lack of infrastructure, and/or political instability. In the following article, we explore the potential of high-resolution, multispectral satellite imagery for building a predictive model of the settlement pattern of the Iron Age polity of Bosutswe (700–1650 CE) in Botswana. While the case study lies in Africa, the problems that Africanists experience extend far beyond the continent. With limited funding, poor access to survey regions, and countless others, predictive modelling has the potential to identify more robust archaeological landscapes.
Using ArcGIS 10.6, ENVI 5.4, and WorldView 2 and 3 imagery, we catalog 22 prospective archaeological sites within a 5 km radius of Bosutswe (100 sq. km), demonstrating the potential for image classification to identify sites difficult to locate in a traditional pedestrian survey. The discovery of these new, often small sites has implications for past environmental utilization and for regional sociopolitical dynamics. We describe our test excavation at one new site, Letlalolanoga, to demonstrate how it may contribute towards a growing body of literature that favors heterarchical power relations within African complex societies.
Using ArcGIS 10.6, ENVI 5.4, and WorldView 2 and 3 imagery, we catalog 22 prospective archaeological sites within a 5 km radius of Bosutswe (100 sq. km), demonstrating the potential for image classification to identify sites difficult to locate in a traditional pedestrian survey. The discovery of these new, often small sites has implications for past environmental utilization and for regional sociopolitical dynamics. We describe our test excavation at one new site, Letlalolanoga, to demonstrate how it may contribute towards a growing body of literature that favors heterarchical power relations within African complex societies.
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Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in differ- ent environmental and economic settings... more
Monumental architecture is a prime indicator of social complexity, because it requires many people to build a conspicuous structure commemorating shared beliefs. Examining monumentality in differ- ent environmental and economic settings can reveal diverse reasons for people to form larger social units and express unity through architectural display. In multiple areas of Africa, monumentality developed as mobile herders created large cemeteries and practiced other forms of commemoration. The motives for such behavior in sparsely populated, unpredictable landscapes may differ from well- studied cases of monumentality in predictable environments with sedentary populations. Here we report excavations and ground- penetrating radar surveys at the earliest and most massive monu- mental site in eastern Africa. Lothagam North Pillar Site was a communal cemetery near Lake Turkana (northwest Kenya) con- structed 5,000 years ago by eastern Africa’s earliest pastoralists. Inside a platform ringed by boulders, a 119.5-m2 mortuary cavity accommo- dated an estimated minimum of 580 individuals. People of diverse ages and both sexes were buried, and ornaments accompanied most individuals. There is no evidence for social stratification. The uncer- tainties of living on a “moving frontier” of early herding—exacer- bated by dramatic environmental shifts—may have spurred people to strengthen social networks that could provide information and assistance. Lothagam North Pillar Site would have served as both an arena for interaction and a tangible reminder of shared identity.
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Since the earliest class-based societies, social leveling mechanisms have limited, actively as well as unconsciously, social stratification. Understanding how such power structures have operated in the past and present requires the... more
Since the earliest class-based societies, social leveling mechanisms have limited, actively as well as unconsciously, social stratification. Understanding how such power structures have operated in the past and present requires the integration of social dimensions to the political economy in a way that does not assume that elites and/or urban centers drive the course of history. Here, the Middle and Late Iron Age in southern Africa (AD 900–1650) highlight the importance of these local dynamics in tandem with broader regional changes. At a time when protoglobal trade links Africa to the Middle East and Asia, cities emerged up to 1,000 km inland along with the material evidence for hereditary inequality. Yet the population at the trade center of Bosutswe at the eastern edge of the Kalahari responded flexibly to environmental and social variables, which, perhaps unintentionally, limited the consolidation of power in the hands of the elite. The following case study of Khubu la Dintša, a small agropastoral site near Bosutswe, reminds us that, even as hegemony exists, an emphasis on the social networks that tie together local and disparate groups results in not just daily patterns of behavior but also significant social change.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Anthropology of Power, Social Inequality (Anthropology), Agency (Archaeological Theory), and 14 moreIron Age (Archaeology), Ancient Trade & Commerce (Archaeology), Botswana, African Archaeology, Indian Ocean Archaeology, Dual Process Theory, Social Complexity (Archaeology), Southern African archaeology, Heterarchy, Complex Society, Social Inequality, Prehistoric Archaeology, Extraversion, Political Economy and History, Archaeology of Power, and South African Iron Age
The materialization of memory is one way in which the past becomes a powerful agent for negotiating the present. Today in Botswana, archaeological sites have become sites of memory where ancestors have been invoked for healing in response... more
The materialization of memory is one way in which the past becomes a powerful agent for negotiating the present. Today in Botswana, archaeological sites have become sites of memory where ancestors have been invoked for healing in response to the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS. This paper concentrates on one site, Khubu la Dintša, where a local community practiced an ancestral healing ceremony, phekolo, as a way to restore spiritual balance. Told through a set of narratives that integrate ethnographic interviews with one of the former church elders, Russia, the article chronicles the trajectory of the church, the perceived power and active role of the ancestors in this ceremony, and the complex web of morality and practicality in which alternative narratives emerge during a time of social disruption and later fall apart. This paper complements the others in this issue by focusing on how memory, place, time, and material culture are recursively engaged: a process that includes formal and accepted to marginal and even ephemeral viewpoints and holds lessons for how we as archaeologists approach and curate the past.
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A Phase II survey team collected samples of ceramics from the Benta Valley in the western Carpathian Basin of Hungary to identify secondary (rural) sites, determine their extent and density, and investigate everyday economic and social... more
A Phase II survey team collected samples of ceramics from the Benta Valley in the western Carpathian Basin of Hungary to identify secondary (rural) sites, determine their extent and density, and investigate everyday economic and social routines. By comparing ceramic attributes such as function, decoration, and exterior finish, the authors argues that studies of ceramics from plow zone contexts can address nuanced questions of how social and economic behavior played out beyond what can be investigated in traditional excavations, which are principally focused on tell centers. The efficient, low-cost survey demonstrates the potential of plow zone archaeology in studies of socioeconomic relations within settlement systems. This micro-regional approach and the methods involved can be employed on other survey projects in Hungary and beyond, as rescue excavations across the region are becoming standard practice.
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Mmadipudi Hill (CE 550–1200) is an Iron Age site in east-central Botswana approximately 3 km west of Bosutswe, a major Iron Age trade center at the eastern edge of the Kalahari Desert. A 5,000-m 2 electromagnetic induction (EMI) survey... more
Mmadipudi Hill (CE 550–1200) is an Iron Age site in east-central Botswana approximately 3 km west of Bosutswe, a major Iron Age trade center at the eastern edge of the Kalahari Desert. A 5,000-m 2 electromagnetic induction (EMI) survey conducted in 2011 revealed a cattle post arranged in the Central Cattle Pattern, including a central animal kraal with at least three clusters of houses flanking the eastern edge. A test trench confirmed the presence of a Taukome daga structure , possibly a house, 100–150 cm in depth. The EMI survey is one of, if not the first, archaeogeophysical surveys conducted in Botswana. It has proven invaluable as a means to understand the settlement organization and to pinpoint excavations to gain a more detailed understanding of the material culture. The perspective it offered on thorn brush fencing would not have been possible through excavation alone. Although small in scope, the test excavation yielded Taukome and Toutswe artifacts related to the larger sets of issues the Bosutswe region faced as Indian Ocean trade transformed the local political economy. The nature of the relationships between Bosutswe and its surrounding communities likely evolved due to the rise of a prestige goods economy, growing inequality, and environmental degradation around CE 1200. The occupation at Mmadipudi Hill would have immediately preceded these changes. By determining the spatial organization of Mmadipudi Hill, this article begins a crucial first step towards exploring what the local settlement pattern looked like prior to CE 1200 and understanding what the relationships among sites may have been. Résumé Mmadipudi Hill (CE 550-1200) est un site datant de l'âge du fer dans le centre-est du Botswana, environ trois kilomètres à l'ouest de Bosutswe, un centre commercial majeur au cours de l'âge du fer, situé à l'extrémité est du désert du Kalahari. Une prospection en utilisant l'induction électromagnétique (EMI) menée en 2011 sur une superficie de 5000 mètres carrés a révélé un poste de bovins disposé dans " le motif bétail central " , y compris un kraal animalerie centrale avec au moins trois groupes de maisons adjacentes à la bordure orientale. Un sondage a confirmé la présence d'une surface de la maison Taukome, 100-150cm en profondeur. La prospection EMI est l'un des, sinon le premier prospection archeo-géophysique menée au Bo-tswana. Il a joué un rôle important en tant que moyen de comprendre la nature l'échelle du paysage du site, et de repérer les fouilles pour élucider une compréhension plus détaillée de la culture matérielle. La perspective qu'il offre sur l'escrime épine aurait pas été possible simplement par excavation. Bien qu'il soit petit, le sondage a révélé des artefacts de la Taukome et Toutswe, liées au questions importantes que la région Bosutswe confronté au moment quand le commerce de l'océan Indien transformé l'économie politique locale. La nature des relations entre Afr Archaeol Rev
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We describe the Bronze Age ceramic economy of the Benta Valley in Hungary. In the Bronze Age, longdistance trade in metals, metal objects, and other specialty items became central to expansive prestige goods exchange through Europe. Was... more
We describe the Bronze Age ceramic economy of the Benta Valley in Hungary. In the Bronze Age, longdistance trade in metals, metal objects, and other specialty items became central to expansive prestige goods exchange through Europe. Was that exchange in wealth, however, linked to broader developments of an integrated market system? The beginnings of market systems in prehistory are poorly understood. We suggest a means to investigate marketing by studying the changing ceramic economy of a region, rather than at a
single site. Analysis of the ceramic inventory collected as part of the Benta Valley Project strongly suggests that, although ceramic production was quite sophisticated and probably specialized, exchange was highly localized (mostly within 10 km) and conducted through personalized community networks. Our ceramic study used three progressively finer-scaled analyses: inventorying ceramic forms and decoration to evaluate consumption patterns, petrographic analysis to describe manufacturing sequences, and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to describe exchange. We conclude that, based on present evidence, market systems had not developed in Hungary during the Bronze Age.
single site. Analysis of the ceramic inventory collected as part of the Benta Valley Project strongly suggests that, although ceramic production was quite sophisticated and probably specialized, exchange was highly localized (mostly within 10 km) and conducted through personalized community networks. Our ceramic study used three progressively finer-scaled analyses: inventorying ceramic forms and decoration to evaluate consumption patterns, petrographic analysis to describe manufacturing sequences, and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) to describe exchange. We conclude that, based on present evidence, market systems had not developed in Hungary during the Bronze Age.
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Beads are amongst the oldest artifacts associated with modern humans (Bar-Yosef Mayer and Bosch 2019). Early shell and eggshell beads found at Middle Stone Age sites in Africa and Middle Paleolithic sites in Israel have been interpreted... more
Beads are amongst the oldest artifacts associated with modern humans (Bar-Yosef Mayer and Bosch 2019). Early shell and eggshell beads found at Middle Stone Age sites in Africa and Middle Paleolithic sites in Israel have been interpreted as examples for symbolic thinking, social signaling, and long-distance transportation of bead materials (Bar-Yosef Mayer et al. 2020; Steele et al. 2019). When glass was developed in the Middle East around 2500 BCE, beads were some of the first objects produced from this new technology (Henderson 2013:8; Moorey 1985). This long-standing and intimate connection between beads and humans makes them ideal objects for addressing a variety of anthropological questions related to their manufacture, trade, use, and meaning. In this chapter, we review a variety of case studies that demonstrate how glass beads in particular have been used to examine trade and economic systems, intercultural interactions and colonialism, social identity, and technological practices.
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During the first millennium CE, trade in gold and ivory linked developing trade centers in sub-Saharan Africa to a vast Indian Ocean exchange network spanning a diverse array of markets in Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and... more
During the first millennium CE, trade in gold and ivory linked developing trade centers in sub-Saharan Africa to a vast Indian Ocean exchange network spanning a diverse array of markets in Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and Southeast Asia (Beaujard 2019; Mitchell 2005). This Indian Ocean trade supported the flow of exotic goods such as glass beads and ideas to eastern and southern Africa (Mitchell 2005; Wood 2015). The dispersal of Indian Ocean glass beads has helped archaeologists reconstruct over 1500 years of trade links across multiple continents. This chapter will discuss Indian Ocean glass beads found in east-central Botswana (southern Africa): their chemical composition, the relationship to known typologies, and how these bead types relate to the sociopolitical and economic changes taking place in the southern African interior from approximately the 7th-17th centuries CE.
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Africa is the continent that provides the longest track record of personal ornaments, back to the earliest use by our hominid predecessors. Beads made of marine shell, ostrich eggshell, stones, and later glass appear consistently in... more
Africa is the continent that provides the longest track record of personal ornaments, back to the earliest use by our hominid predecessors. Beads made of marine shell, ostrich eggshell, stones, and later glass appear consistently in Africa's archaeological record from the Middle Stone Age onward, and have long been linked with indexing ethnic and interpersonal identity (Bednarik 2001, 2008; McBrearty & Brooks 2000; Sciama and Eicher 2015). As one of the most enduring artifacts in human history, beads have served in cultural, cognitive, and communicative systems of language, art, and symbolism. Beads have played a central role in ethnographic studies, which have explored the range of cultural signals and meaning among various groups (Klumpp and Kranz 1992; Leach and Leach 1983; Malinowski 1922; Trubitt 2003). Yet, their role in social change is less explored.
This chapter is framed around two African contexts: first, in northwest Kenya, where the first pastoralists buried their loved ones and community members with brilliantly-coloured stone beads underneath megalithic monuments 5,000 years ago; and second at the edge of the Kalahari in Botswana, where 1,000 years ago and 1,000 km inland, societies used glass beads coming from India and the Middle East to index increasing inequality. In both situations, beads played a role in the ways these past African societies understood their lives at key moments of transformation: here, animal domestication and early monuments, and proto-global trade and stratification. Importantly, these societies—and their use of beads as personal ornaments—should not be conflated. The goal of focusing on two case studies is to demonstrate the breadth of the uses of beads in various historical processes, while providing enough depth within each example to examine the varying roles these material objects played.
***Please contact for chapter off-prints***
This chapter is framed around two African contexts: first, in northwest Kenya, where the first pastoralists buried their loved ones and community members with brilliantly-coloured stone beads underneath megalithic monuments 5,000 years ago; and second at the edge of the Kalahari in Botswana, where 1,000 years ago and 1,000 km inland, societies used glass beads coming from India and the Middle East to index increasing inequality. In both situations, beads played a role in the ways these past African societies understood their lives at key moments of transformation: here, animal domestication and early monuments, and proto-global trade and stratification. Importantly, these societies—and their use of beads as personal ornaments—should not be conflated. The goal of focusing on two case studies is to demonstrate the breadth of the uses of beads in various historical processes, while providing enough depth within each example to examine the varying roles these material objects played.
***Please contact for chapter off-prints***
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Central Africa had a diverse array of empires, states, and cultures in the precolonial era. The region encompasses all of part of the modern nations of Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo,... more
Central Africa had a diverse array of empires, states, and cultures in the precolonial era. The region encompasses all of part of the modern nations of Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equitorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Sao Tome and Principe, and Zambia.
Central Africa is an immense region, reaching far beyond the extensive equitorial forest. It includes the Atlantic coastline and trade links, expansive river networks that link together the forest to coastline and savanna areas, and throughout prehistory has been interacting with areas to the south and east. This vastness of territory makes it hard to synthesize under one rubric, and it remains further complicated by how understudied it has been by archaeologists in particular.
After a short review, this chapter will focus in on some of the unique political, religious, cultural, and economic structures of a number of these societies. It employs a number of case studies chosen for their historical importance, perceived readers' interests, and availability of published materials. Various cross-cultural examples from the Central African past provide insight into the relationship between status and power. They show how daily and ritual interactions between people and their environments transformed the region during the precolonial era.
Central Africa is an immense region, reaching far beyond the extensive equitorial forest. It includes the Atlantic coastline and trade links, expansive river networks that link together the forest to coastline and savanna areas, and throughout prehistory has been interacting with areas to the south and east. This vastness of territory makes it hard to synthesize under one rubric, and it remains further complicated by how understudied it has been by archaeologists in particular.
After a short review, this chapter will focus in on some of the unique political, religious, cultural, and economic structures of a number of these societies. It employs a number of case studies chosen for their historical importance, perceived readers' interests, and availability of published materials. Various cross-cultural examples from the Central African past provide insight into the relationship between status and power. They show how daily and ritual interactions between people and their environments transformed the region during the precolonial era.
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Southern Africa is a region rich in history. Its fame stretches from the first hominid fossil found to an era of precolonial Africa states and chiefdoms. In the period leading up to1800, smaller farming villages that raised livestock grew... more
Southern Africa is a region rich in history. Its fame stretches from the first hominid fossil found to an era of precolonial Africa states and chiefdoms. In the period leading up to1800, smaller farming villages that raised livestock grew in size and concentration as the region became increasingly involved in trade with East Africa, the Middle East, India, China, and Indonesia after the first millennium CE. These legendary states are still well-known today: the modern-country of Zimbabwe, for example, was named after the famous stone-walled sites associated with the Iron Age kingdom of Great Zimbabwe (1300-1450 CE).
This chapter covers Southern Africa to 1800 CE, emphasizing specifically the Middle and Later Iron Age periods (900-1800). The focus on this period helps the reader to learn about the complex mosaic of peoples on the southern African landscape. During the Iron Age, we see the first urbanism and inequality spread throughout the region as agropastoral communities grew in size. These villages, towns, cities and even kingdoms were connected across southern Africa though vast internal and external trade linkages that connected the region from the Congolese basin to the coast of Mozambique and beyond. The region referred to here as southern Africa includes the modern countries of Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, southern Zambia, and, in part, Mozambique. This chapter will, however, focus primarily on the areas of Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
The reader is first orientated to the geography as well as a brief summary of the earlier (late Pleistocene through Late Stone Age) periods to place these developments in context. Sections on the Early, Middle, and Late Iron Age periods trace these agropastoral communities as they grew from small agricultural villages and cattle posts to large kingdoms and states that controlled regional trade in ivory and gold. Links to the Indian Ocean trade and links to African interior place pre-1800 southern Africa within a regional and world-wide context. The remaining section covers how increasing political centralization and warfare and the growing involvement of the Europeans led to a period known as the Mfecane, during which many people lost their homes and homelands and which ultimately ended this era of flourishing trade and wealth.
This chapter covers Southern Africa to 1800 CE, emphasizing specifically the Middle and Later Iron Age periods (900-1800). The focus on this period helps the reader to learn about the complex mosaic of peoples on the southern African landscape. During the Iron Age, we see the first urbanism and inequality spread throughout the region as agropastoral communities grew in size. These villages, towns, cities and even kingdoms were connected across southern Africa though vast internal and external trade linkages that connected the region from the Congolese basin to the coast of Mozambique and beyond. The region referred to here as southern Africa includes the modern countries of Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, southern Zambia, and, in part, Mozambique. This chapter will, however, focus primarily on the areas of Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
The reader is first orientated to the geography as well as a brief summary of the earlier (late Pleistocene through Late Stone Age) periods to place these developments in context. Sections on the Early, Middle, and Late Iron Age periods trace these agropastoral communities as they grew from small agricultural villages and cattle posts to large kingdoms and states that controlled regional trade in ivory and gold. Links to the Indian Ocean trade and links to African interior place pre-1800 southern Africa within a regional and world-wide context. The remaining section covers how increasing political centralization and warfare and the growing involvement of the Europeans led to a period known as the Mfecane, during which many people lost their homes and homelands and which ultimately ended this era of flourishing trade and wealth.
Research Interests:
Graduate schools provide students opportunities for fieldwork and training in archaeological methods and theory, but they often overlook instruction in field safety and well-being. We suggest that more explicit guidance on how to conduct... more
Graduate schools provide students opportunities for fieldwork and training in archaeological methods and theory, but they often overlook instruction in field safety and well-being. We suggest that more explicit guidance on how to conduct safe fieldwork will improve the overall success of student-led projects and prepare students to direct safe and successful fieldwork programs as professionals. In this article, we draw on the experiences of current and recent graduate students as well as professors who have overseen graduate fieldwork to outline key considerations in improving field safety and well-being and to offer recommendations for specific training and safety protocols. In devising these considerations and recommendations, we have referenced both domestic and international field projects, as well as those involving community collaboration.