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NEW RADIOCARBON DATES FROM ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN PARTS OF IGBOLAND, SOUTHEASTERN NIGERIA
- Kenechukwu Chidiogo Daniel, Anselm Maduabuchi Ibeanu, Jacinta Uchenna Ikegwu, Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie
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- Journal:
- Radiocarbon / Volume 64 / Issue 1 / February 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 13 January 2022, pp. 35-50
- Print publication:
- February 2022
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- Article
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This paper presents new results of radiocarbon (14C) ages from archaeological sites in northern Igboland. The study was designed to shed more light on early human occupation and activities in the study area based on sediments from cave and iron-smelting sites. The approach consisted of ethnographic, archaeological, palynological, and slag analyses; these were complemented with 14C dates. The technology adopted as well as the paleoenvironmental conditions that prevailed during the period of human settlement in both sites was revealed. These data, complemented by 14C dates, highlight the human behavioral and subsistence patterns within the region and are comparable to those from similar sites in southeastern Nigeria.
1 - The ‘Useable’ Archaeology of African Farming Systems
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- By Matthew Davies, lecturer in African Studies at University College London, Caleb Adebayo Folorunso, professor at the University of Ibadan with a particular interest in ethnoarchaeology, historical archaeology and heritage management, Timothy Kipkeu Kipruto, Marakwet Research Station in north-west Kenya., Freda Nkirote M'mbogori, assistant director at the British Institute in Eastern Africa and a member of the Marakwet research team., Henrietta L. Moore, director of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London and chair of Culture, Philosophy and Design, Emuobosa Akpo Orijemie, holds a PhD in Environmental Archaeology from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria., Alex Schoeman, senior lecturer in Archaeology in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
- Chapurukha M. Kusimba, Santores Tchandeu, Dirk Seidensticker, Adrianne Daggett, Marilee Wood, Laure Dussubieux, Tim Forssman, Kate Smuts, Nick Wiltshire, Akin Ogundiran, Matthew Davies, Caleb Adebayo Folorunso, Timothy Kipkeu Kipruto, Freda M'Mbogori, Henrietta L. Moore, Emubosa Orijemie, Alex Schoeman, Festo W Gabriel, Elinaza Mjema, Philip de Barros, Gabriella Lucidi, Narcisse
- Edited by Karim Sadr, Amanda Esterhuysen, Christine Sievers
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- Book:
- African Archaeology Without Frontiers
- Published by:
- Wits University Press
- Published online:
- 15 March 2018
- Print publication:
- 31 December 2016, pp 1-31
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Summary
Abstract
Rural African farming has often been viewed as ephemeral, shifting cultivation with low output and high unreliability. At the same time, it is often understood as static and relatively unchanged for centuries. More recent historical and archaeological studies of African ‘intensive’ farming systems have challenged this narrative, yet detailed analyses of such systems and the potential to draw ‘lessons’ from them for the future remain limited and restricted to relatively few locations. This paper presents an overview of a new research network designed to share and generate insights into African farming systems across the continent. The network links projects in Kenya (Marakwet), Nigeria (Tiv) and South Africa (Bokoni) in an attempt to develop comparative and pan-African approaches, as well as build unique research capacity, experience, approaches and knowledge in Africa and for Africa. In the paper we introduce each of the partner projects and the specific interdisciplinary and locally engaged approaches under development. We highlight some of the main theoretical and methodological issues addressed by the network, including diachronic approaches to physical geography (soils, water, vegetation), demography (population densities, settlement patterns), farming practice (crops and crop regimes, fallowing, fertility), regional exchange (reciprocity, market exchange, related pastoral systems), broad cultural changes (the nation/region, governance, religion), land tenure (kinship and inheritance, land law), landscape (mapping, perception, temporality), challenges of integrating science and humanities disciplines (social anthropology, landscape archaeology, geo-archaeology, archaeo-botany, paleo-ecology) and local community engagement (public anthropology/archaeology, indigenous knowledge).
Introduction
Most archaeological research into African farming has tended to focus on origins, domestication and spread (see Lane 2004; Casey 2005; Neumann 2005; Manning et al. 2011), with comparably less emphasis on recent developments, diversification, specialisation and intensification (although see Widgren & Sutton 2004 for an exception). Diverse bodies of research are, however, demonstrating how Africa's present-day environments are the products of deep human engagements with nature (such as Johnson & Anderson 1988; Leach & Mearns 1996), and how these complex, recursive human– environment histories must be understood if we are to effectively manage the present and plan for the future (see Lane 2011; Davies 2012; Marchant & Lane 2013; Stump 2013). This process involves understanding the ongoing environmental trends that extend across the pre- to the postcolonial (Davies 2012, 2013: 21–22), alongside deeper understandings of indigenous knowledges and technologies (Lane 2011; Stump 2006, 2013; Davies et al. 2014a, b).