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13 Sub-Saharan Africa: archaeology
The Encyclopedia of Global Human Migration, 2013
This chapter discusses human migrations south of the Sahara during the Holocene, focused mainly on pastoral populations in eastern Africa and the migrations of Bantu speakers during the past 3000 years. The dating provided by archaeology currently places these migrations more recently than that derived from linguistics.
Dark Side Archaeology: Climate Change and Mid-Holocene Saharan Pastoral Adaptation
African Archaeological Review
High-resolution paleoenvironmental research allows us to pinpoint the tempo and amplitude of past climate changes. Abrupt climate events have axiomatically triggered cascades of adjustments, in vegetation, fauna, humans, and pathogens. This essay focuses on the abrupt end of the African Humid Episode (9000-6000 cal BP), ca. 5000 cal BP in the Sahara. Neolithic pastoralists, practicing transhumance between sandy lowlands and Saharan mountains, adopted new cultural practices: cattle burials and livestock bone deposits in built installations. Their ritual nature is indisputable. But ritual for what? If considered from the perspective of livestock zoonoses, such practices may point to the "dark side" of cultural adjustments-strategies to counter human and livestock diseases. Livestock zoonoses are constant sources of emerging infectious diseases (EID) in the present, as they were in the past. Sustained research on livestock and human health are of paramount importance given the accelerating rate of world urbanization. Résumé La haute résolution des recherches paléoenvironnementales actuelles permet de préciser la chronologie et l'amplitude précises des changements climatiques passés. Axiomatiquement, de brusques changements climatiques ont déclenché des cascades d'ajustements, de la végétation, la faune, les humains et les agents pathogènes. Cet article porte sur la fin abrupte de l'Episode Humide Africain (9000-6000 Cal yr BP), autour de 5000 calBP dans le Sahara. Les pasteurs néolithiques, transhumant entre les basses terres sablonneuses et les montagnes sahariennes, ont adopté de nouvelles pratiques culturelles: enterrements de bétail et dépôts de leurs os dans des installations construites. Leur nature rituelle est incontestable. Mais rituel pour Quoi? Si elles sont prises en considération du point de vue des zoonoses du bétail, de telles pratiques peuvent indiquer le « côté obscur » des ajustements culturels, des stratégies de lutte contre les maladies humaines et du bétail. Les zoonoses sont des sources constantes de maladies infectieuses émergentes [EID] dans le présent, ainsi que dans le passé, en effet. En raison de l'urbanisation acceleree, les recherches soutenues sur la santé humaine et du bétail sont d'une importance capitale.
Archaeological sites and palaeoenvironments of Pleistocene West Africa
Journal of Maps, 2022
African paleoanthropological studies typically focus on regions of the continent such as Eastern, Southern and Northern Africa, which hold the highest density of Pleistocene archaeological sites. Nevertheless, lesser known areas such as West Africa also feature a high number of sites. Here, we present a high-resolution map synthesising all well contextualised Pleistocene archaeological sites present in Sub-Saharan West Africa. A detailed elevation and ecoregional map was developed and correlated with palaeoanthropological sites. This map is supplemented with 1,000-and 2000-year interval climate reconstructions over the last 120,000 years for three subregions of high archaeological interest. The presented archaeological sites were compiled by reviewing published literature, and selected based on: (1) documented archaeological stratification or >10 characteristic artefacts, (2) published coordinates, and (3) published chronometric ages or relative dating. The data presented here elucidates the current state of knowledge of Pleistocene West Africa, highlighting the regional potential for human evolutionary studies.