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Department of Archaeology

 
Read more at: Archaeological Science and Technology in Africa Initiative (ASTA)

Archaeological Science and Technology in Africa Initiative (ASTA)

The archaeology of Sub-Saharan Africa is rapidly gaining momentum, thanks to renewed efforts to decolonise and empower indigenous narratives of agency and creativity that have been bolstered further by the increasing application of scientific methods. However, important challenges remain. One is the scarcity of training and archaeological science capacity in sub-Saharan Africa, which is necessary to make these efforts sustainable.


Read more at: Cape Verde

Cape Verde

The Archaeology of Cape Verde

At the invitation of a local university and the island's Ministry of Culture's IPC, the CHRC  - Chris Evans & Marie Louise Stig Sørensen - have been investigating its early Portuguese town of Cidade Velha since 2006. Founded in the middle decades of the 15th century, and then for some three centuries the Islands' capital, it became a major hub of the Atlantic Slave Trade, with thousands of Africans transhipped each year to the Americas.


Read more at: How old are the trade routes in Central Africa? Developing a history of the exchange networks through the cases of Copperbelt and Niari Basin copper deposits

How old are the trade routes in Central Africa? Developing a history of the exchange networks through the cases of Copperbelt and Niari Basin copper deposits

Long-distance exchange networks played key roles in the socio-political history of Central Africa before the 20th century, but they are poorly known prior to the 19th century owing to a scarcity of written sources covering the earlier centuries. Archaeological data, however, suggest that major 19th-century trade routes were well established several centuries before.


Read more at: Keros Project

Keros Project

Excavations at the settlement adjoining the prehistoric sanctuary on Keros in the Cycladic Islands of Greece, the earliest maritime sanctuary in the world (2750-2240BC).


Read more at: NEMO-ADAP Project

NEMO-ADAP Project

A project investigating Modern human dispersal into Eurasia and its relation to Neanderthal extinction during the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition.


Read more at: No dollar too dark: free trade, piracy, privateering and illegal slave trading in the northeast Caribbean, early 19th century

No dollar too dark: free trade, piracy, privateering and illegal slave trading in the northeast Caribbean, early 19th century

This project integrates maritime archaeology, history, geophysical survey and anthropology to investigate illicit trade between the Caribbean islands St. Eustatius, Saba, St. Thomas, St. Bartholomew and St. Maarten from 1816 to c.1840 with the aim of understanding:

-The entanglements between international, regional and local factors that drove these islands to engage in illicit trade.

-How these islands functioned together as a network for illicit trade, smuggling and laundering, the processes involved, and how long it occurred.


Read more at: Palaeoanalytics

Palaeoanalytics

Human evolution is a central research area in biology and anthropology and has a history of research going back more than 150 years. For most of that time, evidence has come from digging up fossils and archaeological remains. Research in human evolution has been transformed by the impact of genomics and the development of ancient DNA methodologies, producing new insights into past demography, dispersal and admixture patterns, social behaviour, selection, disease history, and more.


Read more at: PaleoErgo: Exploring Hand-Stone Tool Interactions in Early Hominins

PaleoErgo: Exploring Hand-Stone Tool Interactions in Early Hominins

How did the biomechanics and ergonomics of the human hand influence the use and production of Palaeolithic stone tools? Traditionally, stone tools have been analyzed for their morphological properties and technological characteristics to infer the cognitive and social evolution of early hominins and modern humans. However, the role of musculoskeletal aspects in the effective use of these tools has been largely overlooked, resulting in an incomplete understanding of Palaeolithic technologies.


Read more at: Pastoralist Mobility, Diet, and Resilience in East Africa: Developing Deep Time Historical Ecologies of Sustainability

Pastoralist Mobility, Diet, and Resilience in East Africa: Developing Deep Time Historical Ecologies of Sustainability

This project is a response to calls to build long-term sustainability and resilience into pastoral social-ecological systems in sub-Saharan Africa through provision of deep histories of human-environment interactions. It focuses on collecting and analysing archaeological and related data on the responses of pastoralist communities inhabiting the Laikipia and Leroghi plateaus, northern Kenya, to cycles of extreme drought and enhanced rainfall over the last millennium.


Read more at: Pragmatic Imperialism, Communities and Rituality at the Frontiers of Roman North Africa

Pragmatic Imperialism, Communities and Rituality at the Frontiers of Roman North Africa

The aim of this project will be to investigate the nature and impact of Roman imperialism on the frontiers of North Africa (specifically the Maghreb), especially in considering the role of Roman imperialism on the political economy of the region and its impact on both pre-existing communities and the formation of new communities in the provinces. The notion of frontier is wide-ranging and is inspired by Border Studies, and considers the impact of the frontier in community-formation at both the border and the provincial cores of the Roman Maghreb.


Read more at: Rescue excavations at Britain’s earliest Acheuean site, Fordwich 2022 - 2023

Rescue excavations at Britain’s earliest Acheuean site, Fordwich 2022 - 2023

Fordwich has been revealed to be the oldest directly-dated Acheulean occurrence in the United Kingdom, with artefacts dating from 560,000 to 620,000 years ago (MIS 15). This makes it the second oldest Acheulean site in north-west Europe, and the oldest to display a known handaxe assemblage numbering into the hundreds. The site is technologically diverse, with flakes, cores, handaxes, scrapers and retouched implements identified. This makes Fordwich a unique archaeological occurrence in northern Europe.


Read more at: Rising from the Depths AHRC-GCRF Network

Rising from the Depths AHRC-GCRF Network

The Rising from the Depths Network aims to identify ways in which the marine and maritime cultural heritage of Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar can be used to benefit coastal communities in these countries. Many of these communities are among the poorest in the region and are especially vulnerable to the impacts of geopolitical turmoil and environmental change.


Read more at: Shanidar Cave Project

Shanidar Cave Project

Shanidar cave viewed from the south (Photograph: Graeme Barker) 

The Shanidar Cave Project


Read more at: The Contemporary Archaeology of Agriculture in Elgeyo-Marakwet Kenya

The Contemporary Archaeology of Agriculture in Elgeyo-Marakwet Kenya

Agriculture in Africa faces multiple challenges. Climate extremes, ecosystem degradation and population growth continually prompt calls for the urgent transformation of food systems. Mainstream attempts remain focused on modernising paradigms in ways that overlook historic and contemporary smallholder practice as primary sources of innovation. This project challenges this narrative, adopting an archaeological framework to reconceptualise smallholder innovation as an iterative historic process harnessable as a mechanism for future agricultural design.


Read more at: The role of traumatic mortality in late human evolution from an integrated non-invasive bioarchaeological and taphonomic perspective

The role of traumatic mortality in late human evolution from an integrated non-invasive bioarchaeological and taphonomic perspective

Traumatic death affects our daily life, but how did traumatic mortality affect human behaviour from an evolutionary perspective? TRAUMOBITA aims to understand how traumatic mortality among prehistoric humans shaped our behaviour during the Late Pleistocene to the Middle Holocene. Confirming that how we died had an enormous influence on our ancestors and represents an enormous change in how we understand human societies.


Read more at: Transitions in early stone tool technologies: a computer vision and machine learning approach

Transitions in early stone tool technologies: a computer vision and machine learning approach

The transition from Oldowan to Acheulean technologies are hypothesised to be concomitant with advances in cognition and behaviour. However, the nature of these shifts, and their cultural and evolutionary implications are poorly defined and understood. While extensive literature exists on these technologies, significant differences in research methods and traditions make comparative and comprehensive analyses problematic.


Read more at: Yangshao Culture: 100 Year Research History and Heritage Impact

Yangshao Culture: 100 Year Research History and Heritage Impact

This project analyzes the historiography of the Yangshao Culture and its functioning as a heritage icon for the Chinese nation as well as its impact on various societal concerns.