Cataloging Cowries: A Standardized Strategy to Record Six Key Species of Cowrie Shell from the West African Archaeological Record (original) (raw)
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Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory
Archaeological explorations of the meaning of ‘trade objects’, such as glass beads and cowrie shells, remain hampered by theoretical and methodological limitations in both their analyses and interpretations. In this paper, we develop a methodology for critically engaging in multi-scalar questions of the circulation, exchange, and value of cowrie shells in African archaeological contexts. Species, size, dorsal modifications, and depositional contexts were compared across five sites from South Africa dating between 750 and 1350 CE. These results were positioned within a review of cowries from archaeological sites in the region and compared to the documented distribution of cowries from wider African archaeological contexts. Monetaria annulus were the prevalent cowrie species in southern African archaeological contexts over the last 2000 years, with a notable absence of Monetaria moneta, prevalent at contemporaneous sites in West Africa, as well as a variety of endemic southern African...
Comparative analysis of Middle Stone Age artifacts in Africa (CoMSAfrica)
Evolutionary Anthropology, 2019
The workshop “Comparative Analysis of Middle Stone Age Artefacts in Africa (CoMSAfrica)” aimed to reflect upon a common and replicable analytical framework, as well as proposing concrete solutions for its implementation. It builds on previous efforts to standardize panAfrican comparisons which focused on higher taxonomic entities specific categories of stone artifacts, or individual regions. Organized by C. Tryon and M. Will, the workshop brought together 12 international scholars (see author list) working in different periods and regions of Africa, with varied methodological backgrounds. The workshop was held between November 5th and 6th 2018 at Harvard University (USA), and funded through the Accelerator Workshop Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (https://projects.iq.harvard. edu/comsafrica). The meeting included short introductory presentations by all participants followed by a series of more focused roundtable discussions to define the main problems and issues confronting comparative lithic analyses of African MSA assemblages. The final goal was the development of a unified analytical approach. As a two-day workshop was obviously insufficient to solve problems of such magnitude, the final discussion focused on outlining a working model and roadmap for future meetings and collaborations through the CoMSAfrica network.
Land Snail Shell Beads in the Sub-Saharan Archaeological Record: When, Where, and Why?
African Archaeological Review, 2018
Shell beads are well established in the archaeological record of sub-Saharan Africa and appear as early as 75,000 BP; however, most research has focused on ostrich eggshell (OES) and various marine mollusc species. Beads made from various land snails shells (LSS), frequently described as Achatina, also appear to be widespread. Yet tracking their appearance and distribution is difficult because LSS beads are often intentionally or unintentionally lumped with OES beads, there are no directly dated examples, and bead reporting in general is highly variable in the archaeological literature. Nevertheless, Achatina and other potential cases of LSS beads are present at over 80 archaeological sites in at least eight countries, spanning the early Holocene to recent past. Here, we collate published cases and report on several more. We also present a new case from Magubike Rockshelter in southern Tanzania with the first directly dated LSS beads, which we use to illustrate methods for identifyi...
Recent Archaeological Research and Dates from West Africa
1986
This article reports over 250 new radiocarbon dates relevant to recent archaeological research in West Africa. Thanks to the continuing trend towards series of dates from either single sites or groups of related sites, some major blanks on the archaeological map of West Africa have been replaced by well-dated regional sequences. An example is the Malian Sahara, where palaeoenvironmental and archaeological investigations at a large number of sites have clarified the relationship between Holocene climatic change and Late Stone Age occupation. Other areas that were largely archaeological unknowns until the research reported in this article was undertaken include the middle Senegal valley, the Inland Niger Delta, and the Bassar region in Togo. Other research included here reinterprets previously studied, ‘classic’ Late Stone Age sequences, such as Adrar Bous, Kintampo and Tichitt. There are also new dates and details for early copper in Niger and Mauritania which prompt a reconsideration of the true nature of this proposed ‘Copper Age’. Of particular significance to general reconstructions of West African prehistory is the documentation of regional and long-distance trade accompanying the emergence of complex societies along the Middle Senegal and Middle Niger in the first millennium A.D. The article begins with a brief commentary on calibration, in view of the recent publication of high-precision calibration curves. Several prevalent misconceptions of what calibration is and what it ought to do are addressed. We suggest that archaeologists and historians should routinely make reference to calibration in order to avoid misinterpreting radiocarbon results.
Palaeoproteomics gives new insight into early southern African pastoralism
Nature, 2020
The advent of domestication is a major step that transformed the subsistence strategies of past human societies. In Africa, domestic caprines (sheep and goat) were introduced in the northeastern part of the continent from the Near East more than 9000 years ago. However, their diffusion southwards was slow. They are thought to have made their first appearance in the southern part of the continent ca. 2000 years ago, at a few Later Stone Age sites, including Leopard Cave (Erongo region, Namibia), which provided the oldest directly dated remains assigned to sheep or goat on the basis of morphology of bones and teeth. However, similarities in morphology, not only between these two domesticated caprine species, but also between them and the small wild antelopes, raised questions about the morphological species attribution of these remains. Additionally, the high fragmentation of the site's osteological remains makes it difficult to achieve species-level taxonomic identification by comparative anatomy. In this paper, we report molecular species identification of the Leopard Cave remains using palaeoproteomics, a method that uses protein markers in bone and tooth collagen to achieve taxonomic identification of archaeological remains. We also report new direct radiocarbon dates. Wild antelope remains from museum collections were used to enrich the available protein record and propose de novo type I collagen sequences. Our results demonstrate that the remains morphologically described as domesticates actually belong to a wild antelope species and that domestic caprines first appeared at Leopard Cave 1500 years later than previously thought. This study illustrates that the use of palaeoproteomics coupled with direct radiocarbon dates is particularly suited to complement classic zooarchaeological studies, in this case concerning the arrival of the first herding practices in arid environments. Understanding how past human populations interacted with their environment, and particularly with other animals, allows understanding large parts of societies, their organisation and their economy. Climatic change is one of the factors that may have pressured human populations to adapt their subsistence strategy and diet. With Saharan and Sahelian aridification starting at the end of the African Humid Period (ca. 14,800-5500 years before present [BP] 1), Africa experienced its last major climatic change 2 and humans had to adapt to new environments 3. Thus, the inception of domestication may have been constrained by fewer food resources and their increased unpredictability 4. Given that they have no wild representatives on the continent, it is now commonly accepted that domestic sheep (Ovis aries) and goat (Capra hircus) were introduced from the Near East 5,6. The first archaeozoological evidence of these species dates from the end of the 9th and the beginning of the 8th millennium BP, in the eastern part of the Sahara 7-13. Yet, their diffusion across the continent was slow: the first open 1 UMR 7209 Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements (AASPE), Muséum national
Biology, 2020
Simple Summary: Anthropologists reconstructing the spread of domesticated animals into new regions can often rely on the archaeological remains of those animals being readily distinguishable from the remains of wild species. In southern Africa there are several wild species with bones as resemble those of cattle. Non-morphological techniques must therefore be employed to identify cattle bones in southern African archaeological sites. We have used ancient DNA analyses to identify the species of bones from four southern African archaeological that we had hoped might be those of cattle. They were not. All the analyzed specimens came from wild species. Unfortunately this means that we must await further research to identify the earliest spread of domesticated animals to southern Africa. Abstract: Establishing robust temporal control of the arrival of domesticated stock and the associated husbandry skills and lifeways in Southern Africa remains frustrated by the osteological similarities between domestic stock and wild endemic fauna. We report the results of a systematic ancient DNA survey of appropriately sized bovid remains from Later Stone Age deposits in four South African archaeological sites. We show that none of the tested remains originated in domesticated cattle. The precise date of arrival of domestic cattle in the region awaits further study, although we also report new radiocarbon determinations which further refine the local chronology.