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Department of Archaeology

 
Read more at: ENTANGLED: Entangled materialities and new global histories from southern Africa

ENTANGLED: Entangled materialities and new global histories from southern Africa

Research into global connections, which formed the basis for the spread of objects, ideas, innovations, religions and empires, continues to fundamentally shape our understanding of the development of contemporary society. While the historiography of global connections is dominated by a European perspective, new research into overlooked vantage points combined with innovative methodological and theoretical approaches provide important opportunities to challenge and enrich perspectives of global history. 


Read more at: Landscape Historical Ecology and Archaeology of Ancient Pastoral Societies in Kenya (LHEAAPS)

Landscape Historical Ecology and Archaeology of Ancient Pastoral Societies in Kenya (LHEAAPS)

LHEAAPS aims to reconstruct the past adaptive strategies of East African pastoralists, and their relative resilience to environmental shocks under different systems of land management, rangeland access, and population and livestock densities across Kenya. The research is designed to generate knowledge that has applied value geared toward enhancing the socio-ecological and cultural resilience and sustainable livelihood strategies of contemporary pastoral societies in the face of current global challenges.

 

The project has four main research questions:


Read more at: Rethinking Efficiency: Insights from Ancient Ironworking Techniques in the Bassar Region, Togo

Rethinking Efficiency: Insights from Ancient Ironworking Techniques in the Bassar Region, Togo

Colonial and post-colonial ethnographic records across West Africa reveal a remarkable diversity in furnace morphology, iron production scales, and the technical organisation of smelting practices. This variability reflects the rich cultural, technological, and economic contexts that shaped iron production across the region. Yet, the factors driving this heterogeneity remain poorly understood, and archaeometallurgy still lacks a robust and widely applicable methodology for comparing multiple ironmaking techniques.