African Archaeology

Ann Brower Stahl is Professor of Anthropology at Binghamton University, SUNY

"Ann Stahl has brought together a set of researchers at the height of their powers and incited them to write chapters that bring home to readers the challenge of the archaeological enterprise. This is the book I would give as a text to seniors and to which I would constantly refer if teaching the archaeology of sub-Saharan Africa to students of any and all levels."—Nicholas David, University of Calgary"This book moves beyond the usual seamless syntheses and looks critically at the quality of the evidence, the questions asked and unasked, and how these have been fashioned into narratives about the African past. It is a unique and indispensable resource for Africanist archaeologists, historians, and students of these disciplines."—Susan McIntosh, Rice University"I have long desired a text for African archaeology that presents a summary of African prehistory while highlighting the research questions and debates that make the study of the African past exciting; that book is now available. The book's coverage of sub-Saharan Africa is exemplary."—Peter Robertshaw, California State University, San Bernardino"This book is a showcase for African Archaeology and deserves a place on the bookshelves of all who teach world archaeology, as well as those who study biodiversity of wild and domestic resources, or care about the linguistics or history of Africa. I recommend 'African Archaeology' to you enthusiastically."—Journal of African Archaeology"This book achieves its main goals admirably. The twenty-three contributing authors (African, European, and North American) are all specialists in their respected fields... The individual chapters are remarkably consistent in tone, which I suspect shows a strong editorial hand, and really do summarize not only vast amounts of information, but also the current debates around significance and interpretation of the archaeological record. It is difficult to imagine a more comprehensive introduction without resorting to an encyclopedia format. The references are copious and up-to-date, which will make this a valuable resource for both lecturers and students."—African Studies Review"The great strength of the volume is its critical stance. Evidence is presented within its context, warts and all, not as 'the final truth'... The geographic coverage is remarkable...In summary, African Archaeology: A Critical Introduction is a success. It does exactly what its name suggests: leading students by example in evaluating evidence, and dismissing long-held misconceptions about the African past."—African History"A most welcome addition to the few available text-books on archaeologies of the African continent."—HOMO"The first ... stated objective ... [is] to give some account of the breadth of history .... The book does so admirably well."H-Net Reviews

• Series Editors’ Preface viiFigures viiiTables xNotes on Contributors xi1 Introduction: Changing Perspectives on Africa’s Pasts 1Ann Brower Stahl2 Barbarous Tribes and Unrewarding Gyrations? The Changing Role of Ethnographic Imagination in African Archaeology 24Paul J. Lane3 Discord after Discard: Reconstructing Aspects of Oldowan Hominin Behavior 55Thomas Plummer4 The Middle and Upper Pleistocene African Record for the Biological and Behavioral Origins of Modern Humans 93Curtis W. Marean and Zelalem Assefa Copyrighted Material5 A Late Pleistocene Archive of Life at the Coast, Klasies River 130H. J. Deacon and Sarah Wurz6 Modeling Later Stone Age Societies in Southern Africa 150Peter Mitchell7 Holocene “Aquatic” Adaptations in North Tropical Africa 174Augustin F. C. Holl8 Pastoralism and its Consequences 187Diane Gifford-Gonzalez9 Holocene Occupations of the Forest and Savanna 225Joanna Casey10 The Romance of Farming: Plant Cultivation and Domestication in Africa 249Katharina Neumann11 Metallurgy and its Consequences 276S.Terry Childs and Eugenia W. Herbert12 The Bantu Problem and African Archaeology 301Manfred K. H. Eggert13 The Archaeology of Sub-Saharan Urbanism: Cities and their Countrysides 327Adria LaViolette and Jeffrey Fleisher14 Interaction, Marginalization, and the Archaeology of the Kalahari 353Andrew Reid15 Southern Africa and the East African Coast 378Gilbert Pwiti16 Mosaics and Interactions: East Africa, 2000 b.p. to the Present 392Chapurukha M. Kusimba and Sibel B. Kusimba17 From Pottery Groups to Ethnic Groups in Central Africa 420Pierre de Maret18 Two Thousand Years of West African History 441Scott MacEachern Index 467