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A36: The Late prehistoric and historical archaeology of

sub-Saharan Africa

Course information

Overview

While Africa’s role in the evolution of humankind is widely known, the continent’s later archaeology tends to

receive much less popular attention. This neglect is unfortunate because Africa’s later past is rich and has much

to contribute to Africa itself as well as to global understandings of history and prehistory.

This course aims to introduce the later archaeology of sub-Saharan Africa c. 140,000 BP to AD 1900 with

particular focus on the last 10,000 years. It will begin with an overview of Africa, its physical geography,

peoples, languages and the history of the study of African archaeology. It will then deal with a diverse range of

thematic topics including later African hunter-foragers, African domesticates, African crafts and technologies

(including metal working), rock art, African complex societies, historical archaeology, connections with the

wider world, and current issues in African heritage and post-colonialism. Particular attention will be paid to the

integration of diverse data-sets, including linguistics, oral histories and palaeoecology and to links between the

African past and global themes such as trade, urbanism, state formation and complexity. The course will also

critically assess popular perceptions of Africa and it’s past and consider the relevance of African archaeology in

today’s world.

Teaching will comprise sixteen lectures plus eight hours of practical classes on techniques and approaches in

African archaeology. The practicals will include analysis of African crafts and ceramics, African ‘art’, and a

visit to an African museum collection. The paper will be assessed by written examination.

Contact

Dr Matthew Davies: md564@cam.ac.uk

General Reading

Key introductory/overview texts

Barham, L. and Mitchell, P. 2008. The First Africans: African archaeology from the earliest tool makers to the

most recent foragers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Phillipson, D.W. 2005. African Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (3rd

edition).

Stahl, A. ed. 2005. African Archaeology: a critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Connah, G. 2005. Holocene Africa. pp. 350-391. in Scarre, C. ed. The human past: World prehistory and the

development of human societies. London: Thames and Hudson. Basic but a nice quick overview. [You could also

read the Africa part in Fagan’s: ‘People of the Earth’ for a very quick intro, but this is now highly dated].

More specialised overviews

Connah, G. 2001. African Civilisations: an archaeological perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press. (2nd

edition). A bit dated, but a good general overview of Africa’s ‘civilisations’.

McIntosh, S.K. ed. 1999. Beyond Chiefdoms: pathways to complexity in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press. Sophisticated critique of notions of complexity as applied to Africa but with global relevance.

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Mitchell, P. 2005. African Connections: archaeological perspectives on Africa and the wider World. New York:

AltaMira Press.

Mitchell, P. 2002. The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sutton, J.E.G. 1990. A thousand years in east Africa. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.

Schedule of Lectures

Lectures are at 9am on Tuesdays in the NLR

Lecture Title/Topic

1 Between Evolution and Ethnography: an introduction to African archaeology

2 People and places: an introduction to Africa and its people

3 The first Africans: modern human origins to food production

4 Africa's first farmers and herders

5 African rock art: contested images

6 African technologies, crafts and metalworking

7 Later African farmers and herders

8 Later hunter-foragers in Africa: intensification, diversification and interactions with food producers

9 The Upper Nile Valley and Ethiopia

10 The Swahili coast and the interior

11 Complex mosaics in Central and Eastern Africa

12 The Zimbabwe Plateau

13 West African complex societies

14 Thinking about African complexity and urbanism

15 Historical Ecology in Africa

16 Historical, colonial and post-colonial archaeology in Africa

Practicals

There will be two museum practicals examining aspects of African material culture in the Keyser room Fridays

2-4 pm dates, followed by a field trip to the Sainsbury Centre for World Art at the University of East Anglia,

Norwich. Dates TBC

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Reading by lecture

1. Between evolution and ethnography: an introduction to African archaeology

Barham, L. and Mitchell, P. 2008. The First Africans: African archaeology from the earliest tool makers to the

most recent foragers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robertshaw, P. 1990. A history of African archaeology. Oxford: James Currey. Introduction and chapters on

South, East and West Africa.

Lane, P.J.L. 2005. Barbarous Tribes and unrewarding gyrations? The changing role of ethnographic imagination

in African Archaeology. p.p. 24-54, in Stahl, A. ed. African Archaeology: a critical introduction. Oxford:

Blackwell.

Stahl, A. 2005. Introduction: changing perspectives on Africa’s past. p.p. 1-23, in Stahl, A. ed. African

Archaeology: a critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

2. People and places: an introduction to Africa and its people

Blench, R. 2006. Archaeology, language and the African past. New York: Altamira. Part II. AND/OR Heine,

B. and Nurse, D. eds. 2000. African Languages: an introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge university Press.

Hassan, F. A. ed. 2002. Droughts, food and culture: ecological change and food security in Africa’s later

prehistory. New York: Kluwer. Chapters 1 and 2 by Hassan; Chapter 4 by Vernet. AND/OR Hassan, F.A.

1997. Holocene Palaeoclimates of Africa. African Archaeological Review 14:213-230. AND/OR Grove, A.T.

1993. Africa’s climate in the Holocene. p.p. 32-42. in Shaw, T., Sinclair, T., Andah, B. and Okpoko, A. eds. The

archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge.

MacEachern, S. 2000. Genes, Tribes and African History. Current Anthropology 41:357-384.

Mitchell, P. 2005. African Connections: archaeological perspectives on Africa and the wider World. New York:

AltaMira Press. Introduction.

Phillipson, D.W. 2005. African Archaeology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (3rd

edition).

Introduction.

Eggert, M. 2005. The Bantu Problem and African Archaeology. p.p. 301-326, in Stahl, A. ed. African

Archaeology: a critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

3. The first Africans: modern human origins and the roots of symbolic culture

Barham, L.S. and Mitchell, P. 2008. The First Africans: African Archaeology from the Earliest Toolmakers to

Most Recent Foragers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Chapters 6 and 7].

Henshilwood, C.S. and Marean, C.W. 2003. The origin of modern human behaviour: a review and critique of

models and test implications. Current Anthropology 44(5): 627–651.

Mbida, C. M., Van Neer, W., Doutrelepont, H. & Vrydagh, L. 2000. Evidence for banana cultivation and animal

husbandry during the first millennium BC in the forest of southern Cameroon. Journal of Archaeological

Science 27: 151-162.

McBrearty, S. and Brooks, A.S. 2000. The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origin of modern

human behavior. Journal of Human Evolution 39: 453-563.

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Willoughby, P.R. 2007. The Evolution of Modern Humans in Africa. Lanham: AltaMira Press.

4. Africa's first farmers and herders

Andah, B. W. 1993. Identifying early farming traditions of west Africa. In: Shaw, T., Sinclair, P. J. J., Andah, B.

W. & Okpoko, A. (eds) The Archaeology of Africa: Foods, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge, pp. 240-254.

Anquandah, J. 1993. The Kintampo complex: a case study of early sedentism and food production in sub-

Sahelian west Africa, p.p. 255-260, in Shaw, T., Sinclair, P. J. J., Andah, B. W. & Okpoko, A. (eds) The

Archaeology of Africa: Foods, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge.

Amblard, S. 1996. Agricultural evidence and its interpretation on the Dhars Tichitt and Oualata, south-eastern

Mauritania. In: G. Pwiti & R. Soper (eds) Aspects of African Archaeology, pp. 421-428. Harare: University of

Zimbabwe Press.

Barker, G. 2009. The agricultural revolution in prehistory: why did foragers become farmers? Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Bower, J. 1991. The pastoral Neolithic of East Africa. Journal of World Prehistory 5:49-82.

Casey, J. 2005. Holocene occupations of the forest and Savanna. p.p. 225-248, in Stahl, A. ed. African

Archaeology: a critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Cunningham, P. 2000. Genetics and the origins of African cattle. In: R. M. Blench & K. C. MacDonald (eds)

The Origins and Domestication of African Livestock, pp. 240-243. London: UCL Press.

D’Andrea, A. C., Klee, M. & Casey, J. 2001. Archaeobotanical evidence for pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum)

in sub-Saharan West Africa. Antiquity 75: 341-348.

D’Andrea, A.C. and Casey, J. 2002. Pearl Millet and Kintampo Subsistence. African Archaeological Review

19:147-173.

Gifford-Gonzales, D. 2005. Pastoralism and its consequences. p.p. 187-224. in Stahl, A. ed. African

Archaeology: a critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Gifford-Gonzalez, D. 2000. Animal disease challenges to the emergence of pastoralism in sub-Saharan Africa.

African Archaeological Review 17: 95-140.

Grigson, C. 2000. Bos africanus (Brehm)? Notes on the archaeozoology of the native cattle of Africa, pp.38-60,

in R. M. Blench & K. C. MacDonald (eds) The Origins and Domestication of African Livestock, pp. 2-17.

London: UCL Press.

Haaland, R. 1996. A socio-economic perspective on the transition from gathering to cultivation and

domestication: a case study of sorghum in the middle Nile region. In: G. Pwiti and R. Soper (eds) Aspects of

African Archaeology, pp. 391-400. Harare: University of Zimbabwe Press.

Harlan, J. 1993. The tropical African cereals. p.p. 53-60, in Shaw, T., Sinclair, P. J. J., Andah, B. W. & Okpoko,

A. (eds) The Archaeology of Africa: Foods, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge.

Harlan, J. 1989. Wild grass seed harvesting in the Sahara and Sub-Sahara of Africa. In: D. R. Harris and F.

Hillman (eds) From Foraging to Farming, pp. 79-98. London: Unwin Hyman.

Holl, A.F.C. 2005. Holocene “Aquatic” adaptations in North tropical Africa, p.p. 174-186, in Stahl, A. ed.

African Archaeology: a critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

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Lane, P.J.L. 2004. The moving frontier and the transition to farming in Kenya. Azania 39:243-264

MacDonald, K. C. 2000. The origins of African livestock: indigenous or domesticated? In: R. M. Blench & K.

C. MacDonald (eds) The Origins and Domestication of African Livestock, pp. 2-17. London: UCL Press.

Manning, K., Pelling, R., Higham, T., Schwenniger, J. and Fuller, D. 2011. 4500-Year old domesticated pearl

millet (Pennisetum glaucum) from the Tilemsi Valley, Mali: new insights into an alternative cereal

domestication pathway. Journal of Archaeological Science 38:312-322.

Marshall, F. 2000. The origins and spread of domestic animals in East Africa. In: R. M. Blench & K. C.

MacDonald (eds) The Origins and Domestication of African Livestock, pp. 191-221. London: UCL Press.

Marshall, F and Hildebrand, E. 2002. Cattle before crops: the beginnings of food production in Africa. Journal

of World Prehistory 2:99-143.

Neumann, K. and Hildebrand, E. 2009. Early Bananas in Africa: the state of the art. Ethnobotany Research and

Applications 7:353-362.

Neumann, K. 2005. The Romance of Farming – Plant Cultivation and Domestication in Africa. p.p. 249-275, in

Stahl, A. ed. African Archaeology: a critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Phillipson, D.W. 1993. The antiquity of cultivation and herding in Ethiopia, p.p. 344-357, Shaw, T., Sinclair, P.

J. J., Andah, B. W. & Okpoko, A. (eds) The Archaeology of Africa: Foods, Metals and Towns. London:

Routledge.

Predergast, M.E. 2010. Kansyore fisher-foragers and transitions to food production in East Africa: the view

from Wadh Lang'o, Nyanza Province, Western Kenya. Azania 45:83-111. Plus other papers in this volume, esp.

Dale and Ashley.

Van der Veen, M. (ed.) 1999. The Exploitation of Plant Resources in Ancient Africa. New York: Plenum Press.

(particularly papers by Barakat & Fahmy, Klee & Zach, Neumann, Rowley-Conwy et al., Young & Thompson).

Vansina, J. 1995. A slow revolution: farming in subequatorial Africa. Azania 29-30:15-26.

5. African rock art: contested images

Whitley, D. ed. 2001. Handbook of rock art research. Walnut Creek: Altamira. Two chapters on Africa

Lewis-Williams, J.D. and Dowson, T. 1989. Images of power: understanding Bushman rock art. Johannesburg:

Southern.

Coulson, D. And Campbell, A. 2001. African rock art: paintings and engravings on stone. New York: Harry N

Abrams.

Clottes, J. 2002. World rock art. Getty Trust Publications.

6. African technologies, crafts and metalworking

Ashley, C. 2010. Towards a socialised archaeology of ceramics in Great Lakes Africa. African Archaeological

Review 27:135-153.

Barbour, J. and Wandibba, S. 1989. Kenyan pots and potters. Oxford University Press Tanzania. (Not available)

Chirikure, S., Burret, R., and Heimann, R.B. 2009. Beyond furnaces and slags: a review study of bellows and

their role in indigenous African metallurgical processes. Azania 44:195-215.

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Childs, s.T. and Herbert, E.W. 2005. Metallurgy and its consequences, p.p. 276-300, in in Stahl, A. ed. African

Archaeology: a critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Childs, S. T. 1991. Style, technology and iron smelting furnaces in Bantu-speaking Africa. Journal of

Anthropological Archaeology 10: 332-359.

Childs, S.T. and Killick, D. 1993. Indigenous African Metallurgy: Nature and Culture. Annual Review of

Anthropology 22:317-337.

Collett, D. P. 1993. Metaphors and representations associated with precolonial iron-semlting in eastern and

southern Africa. In: Shaw, T., Sinclair, P. J. J., Andah, B. W. & Okpoko, A. (eds) The Archaeology of Africa:

Foods, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge, pp. 499-511.

Connah, G. 1996. Kibiro: the salt of Bunyoro, past and present. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa.

David, N., Sterner, J. and Gavua, K. 1988. Why pots are decorated. Current Anthropology 29:365-389.

De Barros, P. 1988. Societal repercussions of the rise of large-scale traditional iron production: a West African

example. African Archaeological Review 6: 91-113.

Haaland, R. and Haaland, G.2004. Furnace and Pot: why the iron smelter is a big pot maker: a case study from

south-western Ethiopa. Azania 34:146-165.

Herbert, E.W. 1993. Iron, Gender and Power: Rituals of transformation in African societies. Bloomington:

Indiana University Press.

Herbert, E. W. 1984. Red Gold of Africa: Copper in Precolonial History and Culture. Madison: University of

Wisconsin Press.

Hodder, I. 1982. Symbols in action: ethnoarchaeological studies of material culture. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Iles, L. and Martinon-Torres, M. 2009. Pastoralist iron production on the Laikipia Plateau, Kenya: wider

implications for archaeometallurgical studies. Journal of Archaeological Science 30:1-13.

Killick, D. 2009. Cairo to Cape: the spread of metallurgy through eastern and Southern Africa. Journal of World

Prehistory 22:399-414

Miller, D. E. and Van der Merwe, N. J. 1994. Early metal-working in sub-Saharan Africa: a review of recent

research. Journal of African History 35: 1-36.

Reid, A. and MacLean, R. 1995. Symbolism and the social context of iron production in Karagwe. World

Archaeology 27: 144-161.

Sassoon, H. 1983. Kings, cattle and blacksmiths: royal insignia and religious symbolism in the interlacustrine

states. Azania 18: 93-106.

Schmidt, P.R. 1997. Archaeological views on a history of Landscape change in East Africa. The Journal of

African History 38:393-421. Not so useful for this essay but important reading.

Schmidt, P.R. 1996. The culture and technology of African Iron production. Gainsville. AND/OR Schmidt, P.

1997. Iron technology in East Africa: symbolism, science and archaeology. Bloomington: Indiana University

Press.

Schmidt, P.R. and Childs, T. 1985. Innovation and industry during the Early Iron Age of East Africa: the KM2

and KM3 sites of northwest Tanzania. The African Archaeological Review 3:53-94.

Schmidt, P.R. and Avery 1983. More evidence for an advanced prehistoric iron technology in Africa. Journal of

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field archaeology 10:421434.

Schmidt, P. and Mapunda, B. 1997. Ideology and the archaeological record in Africa: interpreting symbolism in

iron smelting technology. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 16:73-102.

Wynne-Jones, S. and Mapunda, B. 2008. “This is what pots look like here”: ceramics, tradition and

consumption on Mafia Island, Tanzania. Azania 43:1-17.

7. Later Africa farmers and herders

Adams, W. M. 1989. Definition and development in African indigenous irrigation. Azania 24: 21-27.

Eggert, M. 2005. The Bantu Problem and African Archaeology. p.p. 301-326, in Stahl, A. ed. African

Archaeology: a critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Hakansson, T. 1989. Social and political aspects of intensive agriculture in East Africa: some models from

cultural anthropology. Azania 24:12-20. This is a special edition of Azania, also browse the other papers.

Kusimba, C.M. and Kusimba, S.B. 2005. Mosaics and interactions: East Africa 2000 B.P. to present. p.p. 392-

419, in Stahl, A. ed. African Archaeology: a critical introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

Mitchell, P. 2002. The Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 8, 9

and 12.

Soper, R. 1996. The Nyanga terrrace complex of eastern Zimbabwe. Azania 31: 1-36.

Sutton, J.E.G. ed. 1996. The growth of farming communities in Africa from the Equator southwards. Nairobi:

British Institute in Eastern Africa. This is also a double special addition of Azania issue numbers 29-30.

Widgren, M and Sutton, J.E.G. 2004. Islands of Intensive Agriculture in Eastern Africa. Oxford: James Currey.

Introduction by Widgren and paper on ‘Engaruka’ by Sutton.

8. Later hunter-foragers in Africa: intensification, diversification and interactions with food producers

Barham, L.S. & Mitchell, P. 2008. The First Africans: African Archaeology from the Earliest Toolmakers to

Most Recent Foragers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 9 and 10.

Barnard, A. 2007. Anthropology and the Bushman. Oxford: Berg

Kent, S. 1996. Cultural Diversity Among Twentieth-Century Foragers: An African Perspective. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Kusimba, S.B. 2003. African Foragers. Lanham: AltaMira Press. Chapters 7 and 8.

9. The Upper Nile Valley and Ethiopia

Bard, K.A.; R. Fattovich; A. Manzo, C. Perlingieri, 1997. Archaeological Investigations at Bieta Giyorgis

(Aksum), Ethiopia: 1993–1995 Field Seasons, Journal of Field Archaeology 24(4): 387-403.

Edwards, D.N. 2004. The Nubian Past: an archaeology of the Sudan. New York: Routledge.

Finneran, N. 2009. Settlement archaeology and oral history in Lasta Ethiopia: some preliminary observations

from a landscape study of Lalibela. Azania: archaeological research in Africa 44:281-291.

Fattovich, R. 2010. The development of ancient states in the Northern Horn of Africa, c. 3000 BC-AD 1000: An

archaeological outline. Journal of World Prehistory 23:145-175.

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Hassan, F.A. 2007. The Aswan High Dam and the international rescue Nubia campaign. African Archaeological

Review 24:73-94

Michels, J.W. 2005. Changing settlement patterns in the Aksum-Yeha region of Ethiopia: 700 BC-AD 850.

Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

Munro-Hay, S.C. 1991. Aksum: an African civilisation of late antiquity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Munro-Hay, S.C. 1989. Excavations at Aksum: an account of research at the ancient Ethiopian capital directed

in 1972-4 by the late Dr. Neville Chittick. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.

Phillipson, D.W. 2012. Foundations of an African Civilisation. Oxford: James Currey.

Phillipson, D.W. 1997. The Monuments of Aksum: an illustrated account of the 1906 Deutsche Aksum

Expedition. Addis Ababa University Press and British Institute in Eastern Africa.

Phillipson, D.W. 1998. Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum its antecedents and successors. London: British Museum

Press.

Phillipson, D.W. 2000. Archaeology at Aksum, Ethiopia 1993-7 (with the principal assistance of Jacke Phillips).

Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.

Sernicola, L. and Phillipson, L. 2011. Aksum’s regional trade: new evidence from archaeological survey.

Azania: archaeological research in Africa 46:190-204

Shinnie, P.L. 1967. Meroé: a civilisation of the Sudan. London: Thames and Hudson.

Sulas, F., Madella, M. And French, C. 2009. State formation and water resources management in the Horn of

Africa: the Aksumite Kingdom of the northern Ethiopian highlands. World Archaeology 41:2-15.

Welsby, D.A. 2002. The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia: pagans, Christians and Muslims along the Middle Nile.

London: British Museum Press.

10. The Swahili coast and the interior

Abungu, G. H. O. & Mutoro, H. W. 1993. Coast-interior settlements and social relations in the Kenya coastal

hinterland. In: Shaw, T., Sinclair, P. J. J., Andah, B. W. & Okpoko, A. (eds) The Archaeology of Africa: Foods,

Metals and Towns. London: Routledge, pp. 694-704.

Chami, F. A. 1998. A review of Swahili archaeology. African Archaeological Review 15:199-218.

Chittick, N., & Africa, B. I. E. (1984). Manda: excavations at an island port on the Kenya coast. British

Institute in Eastern Africa Nairobi.

Neville Chittick, K. (1974). An Islamic Trading City on the East African Coast, 2 vols. Nairobi: British Institute

in Eastern Africa.

Connah, G. 2000. African Civilizations: Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa: An Archaeological

Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Chapter 7).

Fleisher, J. & Laviolette, A. 1999. Elusive wattle-and-daub: finding the hidden majority in the archaeology of

the Swahili. Azania 34: 87-108.

Horton, M. (1996). Shanga: A Muslim Trading Community on the East African Coast. British Institute in

Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya.

Horton, M. C. & Middleton, J. 2000. The Swahili. Oxford: Blackwell.

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Mitchell, P. 2005. African Connections: archaeological perspectives on Africa and the wider World. New York:

AltaMira Press. Chapter 4.

Sutton, J. E. G. 1990. A Thousand Years of East Africa. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.

Wright, H. T. 1993. Trade and politics on the eastern littoral of Africa, AD 800-1300. In: Shaw, T., Sinclair, P.

J. J., Andah, B. W. & Okpoko, A. (eds) The Archaeology of Africa: Foods, Metals and Towns. London:

Routledge, pp. 658-672.

Wynne-Jones, S. (2005). Scale and Temporality in an urban settlement system: Fieldwork in Kilwa Region,

southern Tanzania. Nyame akuma, (64), 66–71. University of Calgary, Department of Archaeology.

11. Complex mosaics in Central and Eastern Africa

Ashley, C.Z., 2010. Towards a Socialised Archaeology of Ceramics in Great Lakes Africa. African

Archaeological Review, 27, pp.135-163.

Hamilton, A., Taylor, D. & Vogel, J., 1986. Early forest clearance and environmental degradation in south-west

Uganda.

Reid, D., 1996. Ntusi and the development of social complexity in southern Uganda. In Aspects of African

Archaeology, Papers from the 10th Congress of the PanAfrican Association for Prehistory and Related Studies.

University of Zimbabwe Press Harare, pp. 621–8.

Reid, A., 2001. Bananas and the archaeology of Buganda. Antiquity, 75(290), pp.811–812.

Reid, A. and Ashley, C. 2008. A context for the Luzira Head. Iron Age, 82:99-112.

Robertshaw, P., 1994. Archaeological Survey, Ceramic Analysis, and State formation in Western Uganda.

African Archaeological Review, 12, pp.105-131.

Robertshaw, P., 1997. Munsa Earthworks: a preliminary report on recent excavations. Azania, (32), pp.1-20.

Robertshaw, P. 1999. Seeking and Keeping Power in Bunyoro-Kitara, Uganda. pp. 124-135. In McIntosh, S.K.

(ed). Beyond Cehifdoms: Pathways to complexity in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Robertshaw, P., 2010. Beyond the Segmentary State: Creative and Instrumental Power in Western Uganda.

Journal of World Prehistory, 23, pp.255-269.

Robertshaw, P. & Taylor, D., 2000. Climate Change and the Rise of Political Complexity in Western Uganda.

Conflict, 41, pp.1-28.

Robertshaw, P. et al., 2004. Famine, climate and crisis in Western Uganda. Past Climate Variability through

Europe and Africa, pp.535–549.

Schoenbrun, D.L. 1999. The (in)visible roots of Bunyoro-Kitara and Buganda in the Lakes Region: AD 800-

1300. pp. 136-150. In McIntosh, S.K. (ed). Beyond Cehifdoms: Pathways to complexity in Africa. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Sutton, J.E.G., 1990. A thousand years of East Africa, British Institute in Eastern Africa Nairobi.

Sutton, J.E.G., 1993. The Antecedents of the Interlacustrine Kingdoms. The Journal of African History, 34(1),

pp.33-64.

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Taylor, D., Robertshaw, P. & Marchant, R. a., 2000. Environmental change and political-economic upheaval in

precolonial western Uganda. The Holocene, 10, pp.527-536.

See also various papers in the Journal Nyame Akuma by Roberstshaw (1991, 1993), Robertshaw and Reid

(1987), Reid (1990) and Reid and Meredith (1993).

12. The Zimbabwe Plateau

Beach, D.N. 1998 Cognitive archaeology and imaginary history at Great Zimbabwe, Current Anthropology 30:

47-73.

Beach, D.N., Boudrillon, M.F.C., Denbow, J., Hall, M., Lane, P., Pikirayi, I. and Pwiti, G. 1997 Reviews of

T.N. Huffman, Snakes and crocodiles: power and symbolism in ancient Zimbabwe, South African

Archaeological Bulletin 52: 125-138. ESSENTIAL READING

Collett, D. P., Vines, A. E. & Hughes, E. G. 1992. The chronology of the Valley Enclosures: implications for

the interpretation of Great Zimbabwe. African Archaeological Review 10: 139-162.

Garlake, P. 1973. Great Zimbabwe. London: Thames & Hudson.

Garlake, P. 1978. Pastoralism and Zimbabwe. Journal of African History 19: 479-493.

Herbert, E. W. 1996. Metals and power at Great Zimbabwe. In: G. Pwiti and R. Soper (eds) Aspects of African

Archaeology, pp. 641-654. Harare: University of Zimbabwe Press.

Holl, A. 1996. Review of: K. T. Chipunza, A Diachronic Analysis of the Architecture of the Hill Complex at

Great Zimbabwe. African Archaeological Review 13 (1): 77-85.

Huffman, T. N. 1996. Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Ancient Symbolism in Zimbabwe. Johannesburg:

Witwatersrand University Press. ESSENTIAL READING

Huffman, T.N. 2009. Mpungubwe and Great Zimbabwe: the origins and spread of social complexity in Southern

Africa. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 28:37-74.

Huffman, T.N. 2010. Revisiting Great Zimbabwe. Azania: archaeological research in Africa 45:321-328.

Mitchell, P. J. 2002. Archaeology of Southern Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 11.

Pikirayi, I. 2001. The Zimbabwe Culture: Origins and decline in southern Zambezian states. Walnut Creek:

AltaMira Press.

Pikirayi, I. and Chirikuri, S. 2011. Debating Great Zimbabwe. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

46:221-231.

Pwiti, G. 1997. Review of T. N. Huffman: Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Ancient Symbolism in Zimbabwe.

Antiquity 71: 779-782.

Pwiti, G. 2005. Southern Africa and the East African Coast, in A. Stahl (ed.) African archaeology: a critical

introduction, pp. 378-391. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Schoeman, M.H. 2006. Imagining Rain places: rain control and changing ritual landscapes in the Shashe-

Limpopo confluence area, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 61:1520165

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Sinclair, P., I. Pikirayi, G. Pwiti, and R. Soper 1993. Urban trajectories on the Zimbabwean plateau, in Shaw

et al. (eds.) The Archaeology of Africa: Food, metals and towns, pp. 705-731. London: Routledge.

Soper, R. 1997. Review of T. N. Huffman: Snakes and Crocodiles: Power and Ancient Symbolism in Zimbabwe.

Azania 32: 123-127.

13. West African complex societies

Connah, G. 2000 (2nd

edition). African Civilizations: Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa: An

Archaeological Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Chapter 5).

Chikwendu, V. E., Craddock, P. T., Farquar, R. M., Shaw, T. & Umeji, A. C. 1989. Nigerian sources of copper,

lead and tin for the Igbo-Ukwu bronzes. Archaeometry 31: 27-36.

Craddock, P. T., Ambers, J., Hook, D. R., Farquhar, R. M., Chikwendu, V. E., Uneji, A. C. &

Shaw, T. 1997. Metal sources and the bronzes from Igbo-Ukwu, Nigeria. Journal of Field Archaeology 24: 405-

429.

Fletcher, R. 1998 African urbanism: scale, mobility and transformations. In: G. Connah (ed.) Transformations in

Africa: Essays on Africa’s Later Past, pp. 104-138. Leicester: Leicester University Press.

Insoll, T. 1994. The external creation of the western Sahel's past: use and abuse of the Arabic sources.

Archaeological Review from Cambridge 12: 39-50.

Insoll, T. 1996. Settlement and trade in Gao, Mali. In: G. Pwiti & R. Soper (eds) Aspects of African

Archaeology, pp. 663-670. Harare: University of Zimbabwe Press.

McIntosh, R. 2005. Ancient Middle Niger. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

McIntosh, R.J. 1998. The Peoples of the Middle Niger. Oxford: Blackwell..

McIntosh, R. J. 1993. Pulse theory: genesis and accommodation of specialization on the Middle Niger. Journal

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McIntosh, R. and S. McIntosh. 2003. ‘Early Urban Configurations on the Middle Niger: Clustered Cities and

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Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

McIntosh, R. J. & McIntosh, S. K. 1988. From siècles obscurs to revolutionary centuries on the Middle Niger.

World Archaeology 20: 141-165.

McIntosh, R. J. & McIntosh, S. K. 1981. The Inland Niger Delta before the Empire of Mali: evidence from

Jenne-Jeno. Journal of African History 22: 1-22.

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G.M. Feinman and J. Marcus (eds.), Archaic States. Santa Fe: SAR Press, 135-172.

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16. Historical, colonial, post-colonial and public archaeology in Africa

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15

A36 Supervisions:

Essay structure and style

Supervisions comprise of a written essay followed by in-depth tutorial discussion of the major issues raised.

Essays should be typed and around 2,500 words long. It is recommended that they are submitted with a typed or

hand-written essay plan which neatly breaks down the question and essay structure. The essay should be well

presented with a clear introduction stipulating the structure of the essay and the nature of the questions to be

answered. References should use the Harvard system and a bibliography should be included at the end of the

essay. Direct quotes must be placed in inverted commas and are often usefully italicised. Footnotes may be used

but should be kept to a minimum. Illustrations are often useful and are encouraged – they should also be

referenced. Pages should be numbered and the occasional use of sub-headings to structure the essay is

encouraged. Essays should be emailed directly to Dr Davies by 4pm on the evening before the supervision.

Learning techniques and questions

Reading lists are designed to provide a number of readily available sources many of which will overlap in

content. It is therefore not always necessary to read everything on the list and some direction will be given when

the topic is introduced. However, the more sources you read the greater the detail and variety of perspectives

you will encounter. You will have around two weeks to complete each essay and it is envisaged that you should

spend at least 2 days reading and planning and 1 day writing – this should leave ample for lectures, other essays

and fun!

The essay topics are designed to encourage independent learning and critical thought. You will have to spend

time researching and thinking about these topics on your own though you might usefully discuss things with

other students. Essays should, however, be all your own work and a good understanding of the basic details

alongside original, critical thinking is what achieves the highest marks. The experts are not always right so don’t

be afraid to challenge them.

Remember to enjoy your studies. There is certain satisfaction in discovering something new for yourself but

don’t get stressed if you don’t understand the topic. Take a break, step back from the question and come back to

it a little later. If you have any major problems you can email me at: md564@cam.ac.uk.

Examination

The course will be examined by written paper.