Overview

Archaeological research in Africa is particularly wide-ranging due to the richness of its cultural and natural resources. Because of drastic climatic changes during the recent Quaternary, the development of human cultures and techniques on the continent is strongly linked with the ecological background. Especially zooarchaeological studies have to deal with a highly diverse fauna that occupied many ecological niches from the very dry desert to the tropical forest, and with greatly complex regional patterning that to some extent includes endemism. Following the Archaeozoology of Holocene Africa session held at the 2010 meeting of the International Council of Archaeozoology (ICAZ) in Paris, this volume presents the results of recent research conducted in this field across the continent. Nine contributions grouped into two main thematic sections are assembled here. Papers from the first tackle themes such as domesticates morphology, symbolic use, migration routes, and herding practices. Those from the second section essentially discuss how past subsistence strategies of human populations were connected with the deep changes in the environment through time and with strong seasonal regimes, without losing sight of their relations to tradition and socio-cultural aspects.

Full Product Details

Author:   Helene Jousse ,  Josephine Lesur
Publisher:   Africa Magna Verlag
Imprint:   Africa Magna Verlag
Dimensions:   Width: 21.00cm , Height: 8.00cm , Length: 29.80cm
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9783937248271

ISBN 10:   3937248277
Pages:   146
Publication Date:   15 October 2011
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Foreword; Editorial Board; Preface; Part I - Herding in Africa: New data on its development and diffusion; Louis Chaix - A Review of the History of Cattle in the Sudan throughout the Holocene; Diane Gifford-Gonzalez - East African Pastoralism: Routes, Outcomes, Questions; Mary Prendergast - Hunters and herders at the periphery: the spread of herding in eastern Africa; Josephine Lesur, Francois Briois, Beatrix Midant-Reynes and Michel Wuttmann - Domesticates and wild game in the Egyptian Western Desert at the end of the 5th millennium BC: the fauna from KS 43, Kharga Oasis; Katie Manning - The first herders of the West African Sahel: inter-site comparative analysis of zooarchaeological data from the Lower Tilemsi Valley, Mali; Part II - Exploiting the faunal diversity in Africa since the last glacial maximum; Nadja Pollath - Surviving in a profoundly changing landscape: The mid-Holocene archaeofaunal record from Abu Tabari (NW-Sudan); Graham Avery - Holocene avian remains, human behaviour and seasonality on the South African coast; Souhila Merzoug - Faunal remains from Medjez II (Epipalaeolithic, Algeria): Evidence of ostrich consumption and interpretation of Capsian subsistence behaviors; Helene Jousse - African mammals over the last 18 000 years: Sharing data on their distribution, identification and biometry.

Reviews

The volume is devoted to archaeozoological research on Holocene Africa. It includes a well-balanced collection of papers presenting reviews as well as original data and analysis from recent research. Lior Weissbrod, University of Haifa, Israel (Journal of African Archaeology, vol. 10 (2), 2012).

Author Information

Helene Jousse is a PhD geologist and archaeozoologist, currently post-doctorating at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France). Specialised in the analyses of Holocene vertebrate African fauna, her main research focuses on the relation between human subsistence patterns, paleoenvironmental changes and past history of fauna (size, distribution). Josephine Lesur is a PhD archaeozoologist, Maitre de Conferences at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France) and member of the UMR 7209 - Archeozoologie, Archeobotanique : Societes, Pratiques et Environnements. Her research interests mainly concern the origin and diffusion of herding in the Horn of Africa and in Egypt as well as the exploitation of animal resources by humans during the Holocene in the same regions.

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