Thurstan Shaw, Bassey Andah, Alex Okpoko, Paul Sinclair

`Its immense coverage reveals not just the vibrancy of Africa's rich and diverse archaeological past, but also demolishes many misconceptions about the continent...this is a classic example of how vision and scholarship can be combined.' - - New Scientist`the existence of the volume is now so important, and carries so many implications, that we must record its availability in as many serious journals as possible' - - Literary Review`it will be a superb source for university students' - - The Independent`This is a competently and painstakingly edited volume, which gives the authentic flavour of the archaeological research carried out in Africa in recent years, and concludes with an eighty-page bibliography which will be of great value to the serious student.' - - Times Literary Supplement`Grit your teeth, shell out the pounds, and buy a copy of this important work: you will consult it many times.' - - Antiquity`simply a majestic book' - - Anthropology Today

• Introduction; 1: Africa's climate in the Holocene; 2: The climatic and vegetational history of the equatorial regions of Africa during the upper Quaternary; 3: The tropical African cereals; 4: The spread of domestic animals in Africa; 5: Ethnographic and linguistic evidence for the prehistory of African ruminant livestock, horses and ponies 1; 6: Nilo-Saharans and the Saharo-Sudanese Neolithic; 7: Recent developments in African language classification and their implications for prehistory; 8: Linguistic evidence for the use of some tree and tuber food plants in southern Nigeria; 9: Examination of botanical remains from early neolithic houses at Nabta Playa, Western Desert, Egypt, with special reference to sorghum grains; 10: Foraging and farming in Egypt: the transition from hunting and gathering to horticulture in the Nile valley; 11: The emergence of a food-producing economy in the Sahara; 12: Identifying early farming traditions of west Africa; 13: The Kintampo complex: a case study of early sedentism and food production in sub-Sahelian west Africa; 14: Intensification in the west African Late Stone Age: a view from central Ghana; 15: Agriculture and settlement among the Tiv of Nigeria: some ethnoarchaeological observations; 16: Central Africa and the archaeology of the equatorial rainforest: reflections on some major topics; 17: Transition from Late Stone Age to Iron Age in the Sudano-Sahelian zone: a case study from the Perichadian plain; 18: The antiquity of cultivation and herding in Ethiopia; 19: The beginnings of food production in southwestern Kenya; 20: The rise and fall of nomadic pastoralism in the central Namib desert; 21: The iron age peoples of east-central Botswana; 22: Iron age settlement and subsistence patterns in southern Malawi; 23: A question of identities: an anthropological enquiry and a historical narrative; 24: A perspective on archaeological research in Mozambique; 25: New evidence on early iron-smelting from southeastern Nigeria; 26: Changing perspectives on traditional iron production in west Africa; 27: Iron technology in the middle Sahel/Savanna: with emphasis on central Darfur; 28: Iron-making techniques in the Kivu region of Zaïre: some of the differences between the South Maniema region and north Kivu; 29: Ancient iron-working in Madagascar; 30: The iron-using communities in Kenya; 31: Metaphors and representations associated with precolonial iron-smelting in eastern and southern Africa; 32: The magical production of iron in the Cameroon Grassfields; 33: Town and village in ancient Egypt: ecology, society and urbanization; 34: Urbanism in bronze age Egypt and northeast Africa; 35: The land of Punt; 36: State development and urbanism in northern Ethiopia; 37: Cities without citadels: understanding urban origins along the middle Niger; 38: Urbanization and state formation in Ghana during the Iron Age; 39: The salt industries of west Africa: a preliminary study; 40: Trade and politics on the eastern littoral of Africa, Ad 800–1300; 41: Exploitation of marine resources: evidence for the origin of the Swahili communities of east Africa; 42: Coast—interior settlements and social relations in the Kenya coastal hinterland; 43: Urban trajectories on the Zimbabwean plateau; 44: Settlement area and communication in African towns and cities