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Four Millennia of Cultural History in Nigeria (ca. 2000 B.C.–A.D. 1900): Archaeological Perspectives
Abstract
This essay is an analysis of archaeological contributions to the understanding of Nigeria's cultural history between ca. 2000 B.C. and A.D. 1900 focusing on the following themes: the origins of food production; development and transformations in metallurgical traditions; the beginnings of social complexity; and the character of state formation and urbanism. The transformations in everyday material life as a result of the entanglement with the Atlantic commerce and ethnoarchaeological approaches to understanding material culture and archaeological contexts also receive attention. The essay provides pathways to some of the turning points in Nigeria's cultural history, shows the convergence and divergence of cultural historical developments in different parts of the country, and identifies the critical gaps in archaeological research agenda.
... Subsequently, they became established locally in the form of camps, then farms which led to the first villages, with the economy remaining based on agriculture (Clist, 2005;Neumann et al., 2012). Towards the middle of the last millennium, several important megapoles appeared for the first time, capitals of great empires where, among other activities, metallurgical and even mining practices were developed (Ogundiran, 2005(Ogundiran, , 2013Monroe, 2013). ...
... As mentioned, there are no archaeological remains on the slopes of Lake Bosumtwi attesting to direct human impact influencing environmental changes. However, on the scale of the last two centuries ( § 8.1), changes in C/N and δ 13 C became decoupled from the other geochemical proxies and the inferred rise in lake level, and it has been suggested that this reflects the influence of anthropogenic processes (Ogundiran, 2005). Generally, today, lowland rainforest vegetation in southern Ghana has been heavily modified by logging and shifting agricultural practices, resulting in large regions with secondary regrowth forest and an abundance of fast-growing pioneering taxa, especially along footpaths, surrounding villages, and in fallow fields or abandoned farms (Oas et al., 2015). ...
... Located west of the Niger River, in what is now southern Nigeria, they both had dense urban populations. Ile-Ife emerged as an urban centre near the close of the first millennium CE, and at its peak in the 14th-15th centuries likely had 70,000-150,000 people (Ogundiran, 2005(Ogundiran, , 2013, while oral histories place the dynasty of Benin being between the 9th and 13th centuries CE (Nevadomsky et al., 2014). In contrast, the work of de Barros et al. (2020) shows in the Bassar territory (Togo) an early start in metallurgy before our era of iron production and its intensification from the 14th century. ...
The vast tropical rainforests of West and Central Africa were impacted by marked climatic deterioration, which mainly developed between 2500 and 2000 cal yr BP. However, the incidence of human intervention in these rainforests appears all the more speculative, although this was the period when the first stages of Bantu migration occurred towards the south. On the scale of the last millennium, which has seen increasing penetration and colonization of these Bantu peoples, one can envisage a priori a more accentuated anthropogenic pressure on the forest landscape.
The combined observations of the environmental processes during the last 1000 years, as preserved in sediments from lakes, swamps, flooded forests and even oceanic environments, are presented on the basis of 24 records. The dominant number of sites in the humid forest or wooded savannas recorded only processes of relatively small size and local effects influencing vegetation cover almost simultaneously around 1000 and 500 cal yr BP; nothing is comparable with the devastating effect on a very large scale of the 2600 cal yr BP forest crisis. Conversely, other sites located in more perennial forest or savanna did not reveal any discontinuity. In all the examples of sedimentary archives considered, no out-of-phase or unusual event, possibly linked to human population and its impact, was observed. However, in more recent times, in intensive iron-ore mining/smelting areas, changes in the vegetal cover could be a legacy of charcoal production impacting forest biomass. Nevertheless, despite the clear cultural and socio-political importance of iron, its role in shaping vegetation communities in the Central African forest is generally presumed to be negligible.
The oceanic causes of these climatic oscillations are more widely accepted. On a larger scale, the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age are climatic anomalies visible in a number of palaeoenvironmental records worldwide and date to ~1600–1000 cal yr BP and ~ 700–100 cal yr BP, respectively. These events are less visible or sometimes not present in some palynological records of tropical Africa, whereas reconstructions from lacustrine records in Atlantic equatorial Africa show overall reductions in lake levels and increases in pollen belonging to light-demanding and pioneer vegetation formations in relation to these two oscillations.
To reply to what was more important «the potential influence of human activities on regional climate, or the vulnerability of societies to environmental variability», it appears clearly to date, that the second paradigm is most likely. However, today, the ongoing combined efffects of climate change and human impact, including the decimation of the diversity of seed dispersers necessary to regenerate the rainforests of West and Central Africa, may have irreparable and unforeseen consequences.
... These groups could be sedentary where resources were sufficiently abundant, or semi-nomadic, but always near a major river, lake, or ocean. These groups had pottery and would have mostly used LSA or SMA tools; though some adopted iron or copper technology later on, such as the transitional LSA/EIA communities along Indian Ocean littoral (Breen and Lane, 2004), the LSA/EIA communities documented along the Niger bend (Ogundiran, 2005) and delta (Nzewunwa, 1980), and the Kisalian sites in the Upemba Depression of the upper Congo River (de Maret, 2013). In the Great Lakes Region, several Kansyore tradition sites fit this category (Lane et al., 2007) and show the flexibility and development of this way of life. ...
... The Atlantic Coast Kingdoms of the later Iron Age were located in the rainforest belt of West Africa (Akan and Yoruba States) and in the western Congo Basin (Kongo, Loango, Tio) (Ekholm, 1972;Kriger, 2005;Ogundiran, 2005;Ogundiran, 2013;de Maret, 2013;Monroe, 2013;Nevadomsky et al., 2014;Denbow, 2014). These societies were closely linked to the Kingdoms of the Sahel and the trans-Saharan trade, but relied on a different set of subsistence and cash crops due to their rainforest or rainforest-fringe locations. ...
... Located west of the Niger River in what is now southern Nigeria, they both contained extensive earthworks, had dense urban populations, housed skilled artisans, and supported an elite political class system. Ile-Ife emerged as an urban center near the close of the first millennium AD, and at its peak in the 14th-15th centuries likely housed 70,000-150,000 people (Ogundiran, 2013;Ogundiran, 2005). While oral histories place the founding dynasty of Benin between the 9th and 13th centuries (Nevadomsky et al., 2014), archaeological evidence points to urbanism and political centralization at Benin City closer to the end of that range (Ogundiran, 2013). ...
... They also specialized in wood carving, calabash carving, bead and leather works (Bascom 1969). Products emanating from these industries were mobilized for use in every aspect of life; guilds produced for the society at the instance of the kings and leaders (Ogundiran 2005). We would argue that other members of the communities/villages also acquired and used the products to aid survival. ...
... The only difference between the provisions of the Ordinance and the Decree was the establishment of a robust institution and of heritage management processes. The Decree retained the categorization of heritage using 1918 as a benchmark, not minding the fact that research has shown (and continues) to show that there is continuity in Nigerian people's cultural practices (see Andah 1985;Ogundiran 2005). These findings are continuously ignored because heritage was already dismissed as an ancient treasure whose historical time is in the past. ...
This paper examines the principles of cultural heritage conservation in pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial Nigeria. It uncovers how cultural heritage is used and cared for in pre-colonial time based on its ‘utilitarian values’ and the ways colonialism isolated and appropriated cultural heritage from utilitarian communities to create museums/secluded sites for exclusive national narrative. The article interrogates how local worldviews and the intricate relationship of people and environment play around heritage and identity, and how the discourses include or exclude indigenous/local people in the national heritage-making processes. It goes further to show that post-colonial Nigeria has continued with the heritage binaries (e.g. local and national, past and present) created by colonialism, which reflects some approaches that obscure more complex underlying cultural continuities in villages/local communities. The paper argues more generally for a review of national heritage conservation policies and practices to accommodate side-lined local heritage knowledge systems in Africa.
... Despite the diverse cultural histories of Nigeria, many social memories still exist as convergences of developments. According to Ogundiran (2005), these convergences are outgrowths of common historical processes and flows experienced by different peoples and societies as far back in time as about 2000 B.C. They were the result of commerce, agricultural productions, inter-marriages, and military alliances. ...
This editorial is in recognition of a gap in Nigerian development thinking. Nigerian development, especially in the postcolonial era, has been a subject of concern, not only to academics, but also to global stakeholders in development. Considering the enormous potential, including but not limited to cultural diversities, human capitals and natural resources, it is unthinkable to have a country like Nigeria still crawling in the 21st century. It is unthinkable to still have an underdeveloped nation despite its rich natural resources and abundance of fauna and flora. It is therefore assumed that Nigeria, with its rich diversity of cultures should not be a poor country in the 21st century. It is indeed unthinkable that Nigeria should experience such a magnitude of ethnic violence and displacement as it does in the 21st century, despite the precolonial years of interconnectedness among the Nigerian people. Of course, from the Stone Age to now, Nigeria is a very different country. Having passed through many phases of developmental efforts, one also might think that transitional cultural history, which narrates the ups and downs and cultural evolutions would inspire Nigeria to correct its developmental efforts. Yet, in the 21st century, all Nigerian development sectors have seen no significant improvement, suggesting that no lesson has been learnt from Nigeria’s history. While previous analyses of underdevelopment in Nigeria have ignored the impact of cultural history in national development, this editorial critically examines Nigerian history and challenges of postcolonial development from a cultural perspective. Cultural history is an indispensable tool to understand development. It examines the collective memories and accumulated experiences of individual human groups across the ages. So, every society must appreciate the centrality of cultural history to development. Thus, in this editorial, we assemble critical opinions from different academic disciplines to engage with the discourses of cultural history and development in Nigeria. This effort, therefore, produces farreaching discussions on different aspects of Nigerian cultural history which sees colonisation as a turning point of Nigerian development trajectories. Specifically, the central themes in this editorial are: inter-ethnic relations and cultural cohesion; trade contacts; Nigeria’s political system; the evolution of the education system; issues which arise from linguistic differences; women in leadership; nationalism and the Biafran war; trafficking of important cultural objects; and corruption in Nigeria.
As a rethinking of cultural history, which focuses on the analysis of developmental issues in postcolonial Nigeria, it is hoped that this editorial will be insightful for researches with regards to concerns about Nigerian development in the 21st century.
... As a possible alternative to the narrative of continuity of occupation since the Late Stone Age, what implications might this hold for the development of cultures and technologies in the later first millennium before Igbo-Ukwu makes its archaeological appearance? The first millennium fin de siècle may have been a time of dynamic mobility and interaction, and subject to a wide range of "panregional interconnections and cultural exchanges" (Ogundiran, 2005a(Ogundiran, , 2005b, including migrations, trade relations, intermarriages, and ritual practices (Oriji, 2011). Certain cultural elements may have forest origins beyond Nigeria. ...
As an introduction to several papers from the “Igbo-Ukwu at 50” symposium in September 2021, this article reviews the history of the discoveries and excavations, the early debates over chronology, and more recent research contributions that refine and expand our understanding of this unique site. These include new field investigations at Igbo Ukwu, new radiocarbon dates, textile analysis, chemical analyses of glass, and carnelian beads plus lead isotope analyses of leaded bronze and copper artifacts to identify source areas, and metallographic studies.
... The increased aridity of the Sahara caused pastoralistic groups to migrate South in the Late Holocene. By 4000 years ago, pastoralistic societies and herding practices were archaeologically detected in Nigeria [45] and by 3000 years in Cameroon [46]. Sub-Saharan Western Africa displays low diversity of M. bovis genotypes. ...
Mycobacterium bovis is the pathogenic agent responsible for bovine tuberculosis (bTB), a zoonotic disease affecting mostly cattle, but also transmittable to humans and wildlife. Genetic studies on M. bovis allow to detect possible routes of bTB transmission and the identification of genetic reservoirs that may provide an essential framework for public health action.
We used a database with 1235 M. bovis genotypes collected from different regions in Africa with 45 new Mozambican samples. Our analyses, based on phylogeographic and population genetics’ approaches, allowed to identify two clear trends. First, the genetic diversity of M. bovis is geographically clustered across the continent, with the only incidences of long-distance sharing of genotypes, between South Africa and Algeria, likely due to recent European introductions. Second, there is a broad gradient of diversity from Northern to Southern Africa with a diversity focus on the proximity to the Near East, where M. bovis likely emerged with animal domestication in the last 10,000 years.
Diversity indices are higher in Eastern Africa, followed successively by Northern, Central, Southern and Western Africa, roughly correlating with the regional archaeological records of introduction of animal domesticates. Given this scenario M. bovis in Africa was probably established millennia ago following a concomitant spread with cattle, sheep and goat. Such scenario could translate into long-term locally adapted lineages across Africa.
This work describes a novel scenario for the spread of M. bovis in Africa using the available genetic data, opening the field to further studies using higher resolution genomic data.
... Rulers of the city of Ile-Ife emerged along the northern fringe of the forest zone and likewise tapped into opportunities for trade provided by the expansion of Sudanic polities; other Yoruba city-states proliferated across the Nigerian forest by the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 36 To the south, similar factors encouraged the rise of the capital of the Edo Kingdom of Benin, an expansive regional polity that was probably the source of several forest resources for the northern trade ( Figure 10.4). 37 The extensive earthwork systems surrounding the urban cores of Benin City, Ile-Ife, and Oyo-Ile represent centralized control over vast quantities of labor. ...
... Based on available data, most scholars identify the 11 th -15 th centuries as the period of Ile-Ife's fluorescence, characterized by specialization and technical sophistication in the crafts of brass casting and glass working (e.g. Eyo, 1974;Ogundiran, 2005;Blier, 2014). ...
The site of Igbo Olokun on the northern periphery of Ile-Ife has been recognized as a glass-working workshop for over a century. Its glass-encrusted crucibles and beads were viewed as evidence of secondary processing of imported glass until the high lime, high alumina (HLHA) composition of the glass was recognized as unique to the region. Archaeological excavations conducted at Igbo Olokun recovered more than twelve thousand glass beads and several kilograms of glass-working debris. Fifty-two glass beads from the excavated assemblage were analyzed by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) and scanning electron microscopy-energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) to understand the chemical characteristics of the Igbo Olokun glass beads in comparison with previously analyzed beads. The analyses affirm the prevalence of HLHA glass beads, and provide firm evidence of a new compositional group characterized by low lime, high alumina (LLHA); no imported soda-lime glass beads were among the analyzed samples. The evidence from crucibles indicates that LLHA glass was worked together with HLHA glass at Igbo Olokun and may have been made locally as part of the same technological tradition. Most likely, granitic sand with or without added calcium carbonate was used to produce these two types of glass, and colorants rich in MnO, Fe2O3, CuO, and CoO were intentionally added. Its occurrence in other West African societies, and the presence of some soda-lime glass beads in other sites in Ile-Ife suggest that Ife was involved in regional and inter-regional networks during the early to mid 2nd millennium AD and possibly earlier.
... Although often interpreted essentially as fortifications, such landscape features also served an important symbolic role in materializing social space (Aguigah 1986;Posnansky 1981;Quarcoopome 1993). In Nigeria's forest zone, furthermore, urbanism emerged in relation to a combination of local and long-distance forces (Ogundiran 2005). Rulers of the city of Ile-Ife emerged along the northern fringe of the forest zone and likewise tapped into opportunities for trade provided by the expansion of Sudanic polities, and other Yoruba city-states proliferated across the Nigerian forest by the 15th and 16th centuries (Smith 1969). ...
Sub-Saharan Africa has long been seen as lacking the potential for autochthonous urban development, and Near Eastern and European contact provided ready explanations for the emergence of precolonial cities across the continent. In the past few decades, the pace of archaeological work on African cities has accelerated, and archaeologists have increasingly deployed a functional model of the city, in which cities are defined in relation to broader hinterlands rather than particular traits. As a result, deeply rooted urban traditions have been identified in all corners of the continent. Despite the antiquity of urban traditions across Africa, however, long-distance forces clearly had wide-reaching impacts on urban developmental trajectories, and proponents of the functional model have yet to explain the specific role of long-distance forces in the process of urbanization. This review examines how multiscalar forces shaped urban trajectories in West Africa, specifically. I examine how local political entrepreneurs took advantage of the opportunities provided by local, interregional, and global forces, resulting in a heterogeneous set of urban traditions across West Africa, ranging from trading entrepôts to regional capitals. Throughout I emphasize how local agency articulated with multiscalar social and economic forces, transforming the nature of regional integration, economic specialization, and the materialization of social difference, defining qualities of urban life.
... Nigeria was mostly trading agricultural or inferior products with tribes in neighbour states or the northern kingdoms as well as with merchants from Arabic countries. The first kingdoms which had grown to a recognisable size due to Governmental stability were the southern kingdoms of Yoruba and Benin and the northern kingdom of Hausa (Akinwumi, 2005). Still, these three kingdoms had completely different backgrounds and ways of expanding. ...
... Deep within the forest zone to the south, Akan communities produced impressive earthworks around substantial communities between the ninth and fourteenth centuries AD (DeCorse & Chouin 2010). In Nigeria's forest zone, important urban civilizations emerged under similar circumstances (Ogundiran 2005). The kingdom of Ife (ninth to fourteenth centuries) emerged along the northern fringe of the forest zone and likewise tapped into opportunities for trade provided by the expansion of Sahelian polities. ...
Precolonial African polities have emerged in recent years as fertile ground for the comparative archaeological study of social complexity and the state. For much of the twentieth century, precolonial African states were misinterpreted as the product of outside stimuli. Recent archaeological research on such polities, however, has revealed the autochthonous origins of social complexity and the state in Africa, providing valuable new insights for the comparative study of state formation in the past. This review outlines how archaeologists have tackled the precolonial state in Africa, beginning with an outline of colonial-era discourse on the nature of the state and civilization in Africa, followed by a discussion of how archaeological perspectives on power provide insights into political processes across the continent. Key examples are examined within four broadly defined subregions. Throughout this review, I highlight (a) the agency of indigenous political entrepreneurs in driving state formation across the continent, and (b) how alternative modes of power shaped the political contours of these precolonial African states.
... Settlement histories inferred from historical linguistics have reached a critical mass of example and nuance (Ehret 2002). Regional studies by archaeologists, sometimes taking historical linguistics into consideration (Mitchell 2002;Reid 2003;Ogundiran 2005;Lane et al. 2007;Ashley 2010;Fleisher and Wynne-Jones 2010), and other times leaving them aside (McIntosh 1998(McIntosh , 2005, likewise have attained new levels of resolution. But the promise of anthropological genetic evidence, produced over the last two decades, is limited by inconsistent collection protocols and differential degrees of resolution. ...
This study investigates the migration and settlement of the Ron people of Daffo on the Jos Plateau, using a mixed-method approach combining archaeological excavation, oral traditions, and radiocarbon dating. Focusing on the ancestral homes of Fier, Lankan, and Daffo, it explores cultural continuity from the 9th century AD to modern times. Findings show that the Ron are a hybrid population formed from early settlers and Chadic speakers from Kanem-Borno. Migration due to spatial contestation led to movement from Fier to Lankan and Daffo. Archaeological features across the sites include house foundations and ceremonial centres. Excavated materials, including pottery and smoking pipes, show strong cultural links between the three sites, with radiocarbon dating establishing settlement timelines from 9th-20th century AD.
A comparison of European and African depictions of the Kingdom of Benin from the fifteenth through late nineteenth centuries that reads the two bodies of evidence with and against one another
This datasheet on Dioscorea cayenensis covers Identity, Overview, Distribution, Dispersal, Diagnosis, Biology & Ecology, Environmental Requirements, Natural Enemies, Impacts, Uses, Further Information.
Archaeologists have increasingly broadened considerations of what is “monumental” and what relations with art, architecture, and landscapes constitute monumentality. This article documents the monumentality of ditches through an examination of 11 Scioto Hopewell ditches. Well known for their ornate crafts of exotic raw materials and massive geometric earthworks – constructed of ditches and embankments, usually in tandem – Scioto Hopewell was comprised of small-scale societies of the Middle Woodland period (1950–1550 BP) of the Scioto River Valley of southern Ohio. Though garnering archaeological attention for over two centuries, most research directed at understanding earthwork construction in this region has been relatively recent and primarily focused on embankment wall construction. This article represents the first exploration of Scioto Hopewell ditch construction and demonstrates that these ditches are monumental architecture that carry various meanings and whose construction was ritualized. Establishing a basis for the monumentality of Scioto Hopewell ditches has broad implications, as there is a global record of ditches that were multivalent and multi-functional landscape features that remain understudied beyond their possible functional or pragmatic purposes. This article demonstrates the value of the systematic archaeological examination of these features and the informational potential they hold.
Off the coast of Cameroon, Bioko Island was populated by the Bubi at an early stage of the Bantu expansion, although surprisingly they did not use iron until the arrival of the Europeans much later. Unfortunately, despite some research having been undertaken, mostly during the Spanish colonial period, the local archaeological sequence remains poorly known. On the basis of some short excavations carried out on Bioko, this paper evaluates the state of knowledge of the island’s archaeology. There is a pressing need for more research on the island, in contrast to the continent, where archaeological knowledge has made significant progress in recent decades. So far there are no clear archaeological connections between the two. However, some clues suggest that the Bubi’s ancestors may have inhabited the mainland in southwestern Cameroon before emigrating to the islands, perhaps 2000 years ago. In view of the rapid development of infrastructure on Bioko, as well as on the mainland of Equatorial Guinea, a major multidisciplinary research programme centred on archaeology should be launched without further delay.
The development of agriculture has often been described as the most important change in all of human history. Volume 2 of The Cambridge World History explores the origins and impact of agriculture and agricultural communities, and also discusses issues associated with pastoralism and hunter-fisher-gatherer economies. To capture the patterns of this key change across the globe, the volume uses an expanded timeframe from 12,000 BCE–500 CE, beginning with the Neolithic and continuing into later periods. Scholars from a range of disciplines, including archaeology, historical linguistics, biology, anthropology, and history, trace common developments in the more complex social structures and cultural forms that agriculture enabled, such as sedentary villages and more elaborate foodways, and then present a series of regional overviews accompanied by detailed case studies from many different parts of the world, including Southwest Asia, South Asia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
The development of agriculture has often been described as the most important change in all of human history. Volume 2 of The Cambridge World History explores the origins and impact of agriculture and agricultural communities, and also discusses issues associated with pastoralism and hunter-fisher-gatherer economies. To capture the patterns of this key change across the globe, the volume uses an expanded timeframe from 12,000 BCE–500 CE, beginning with the Neolithic and continuing into later periods. Scholars from a range of disciplines, including archaeology, historical linguistics, biology, anthropology, and history, trace common developments in the more complex social structures and cultural forms that agriculture enabled, such as sedentary villages and more elaborate foodways, and then present a series of regional overviews accompanied by detailed case studies from many different parts of the world, including Southwest Asia, South Asia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
The development of agriculture has often been described as the most important change in all of human history. Volume 2 of The Cambridge World History explores the origins and impact of agriculture and agricultural communities, and also discusses issues associated with pastoralism and hunter-fisher-gatherer economies. To capture the patterns of this key change across the globe, the volume uses an expanded timeframe from 12,000 BCE–500 CE, beginning with the Neolithic and continuing into later periods. Scholars from a range of disciplines, including archaeology, historical linguistics, biology, anthropology, and history, trace common developments in the more complex social structures and cultural forms that agriculture enabled, such as sedentary villages and more elaborate foodways, and then present a series of regional overviews accompanied by detailed case studies from many different parts of the world, including Southwest Asia, South Asia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
The development of agriculture has often been described as the most important change in all of human history. Volume 2 of The Cambridge World History explores the origins and impact of agriculture and agricultural communities, and also discusses issues associated with pastoralism and hunter-fisher-gatherer economies. To capture the patterns of this key change across the globe, the volume uses an expanded timeframe from 12,000 BCE–500 CE, beginning with the Neolithic and continuing into later periods. Scholars from a range of disciplines, including archaeology, historical linguistics, biology, anthropology, and history, trace common developments in the more complex social structures and cultural forms that agriculture enabled, such as sedentary villages and more elaborate foodways, and then present a series of regional overviews accompanied by detailed case studies from many different parts of the world, including Southwest Asia, South Asia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
The development of agriculture has often been described as the most important change in all of human history. Volume 2 of The Cambridge World History explores the origins and impact of agriculture and agricultural communities, and also discusses issues associated with pastoralism and hunter-fisher-gatherer economies. To capture the patterns of this key change across the globe, the volume uses an expanded timeframe from 12,000 BCE–500 CE, beginning with the Neolithic and continuing into later periods. Scholars from a range of disciplines, including archaeology, historical linguistics, biology, anthropology, and history, trace common developments in the more complex social structures and cultural forms that agriculture enabled, such as sedentary villages and more elaborate foodways, and then present a series of regional overviews accompanied by detailed case studies from many different parts of the world, including Southwest Asia, South Asia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
The development of agriculture has often been described as the most important change in all of human history. Volume 2 of The Cambridge World History explores the origins and impact of agriculture and agricultural communities, and also discusses issues associated with pastoralism and hunter-fisher-gatherer economies. To capture the patterns of this key change across the globe, the volume uses an expanded timeframe from 12,000 BCE–500 CE, beginning with the Neolithic and continuing into later periods. Scholars from a range of disciplines, including archaeology, historical linguistics, biology, anthropology, and history, trace common developments in the more complex social structures and cultural forms that agriculture enabled, such as sedentary villages and more elaborate foodways, and then present a series of regional overviews accompanied by detailed case studies from many different parts of the world, including Southwest Asia, South Asia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
The development of agriculture has often been described as the most important change in all of human history. Volume 2 of The Cambridge World History explores the origins and impact of agriculture and agricultural communities, and also discusses issues associated with pastoralism and hunter-fisher-gatherer economies. To capture the patterns of this key change across the globe, the volume uses an expanded timeframe from 12,000 BCE–500 CE, beginning with the Neolithic and continuing into later periods. Scholars from a range of disciplines, including archaeology, historical linguistics, biology, anthropology, and history, trace common developments in the more complex social structures and cultural forms that agriculture enabled, such as sedentary villages and more elaborate foodways, and then present a series of regional overviews accompanied by detailed case studies from many different parts of the world, including Southwest Asia, South Asia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
The development of agriculture has often been described as the most important change in all of human history. Volume 2 of The Cambridge World History explores the origins and impact of agriculture and agricultural communities, and also discusses issues associated with pastoralism and hunter-fisher-gatherer economies. To capture the patterns of this key change across the globe, the volume uses an expanded timeframe from 12,000 BCE–500 CE, beginning with the Neolithic and continuing into later periods. Scholars from a range of disciplines, including archaeology, historical linguistics, biology, anthropology, and history, trace common developments in the more complex social structures and cultural forms that agriculture enabled, such as sedentary villages and more elaborate foodways, and then present a series of regional overviews accompanied by detailed case studies from many different parts of the world, including Southwest Asia, South Asia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
The development of agriculture has often been described as the most important change in all of human history. Volume 2 of The Cambridge World History explores the origins and impact of agriculture and agricultural communities, and also discusses issues associated with pastoralism and hunter-fisher-gatherer economies. To capture the patterns of this key change across the globe, the volume uses an expanded timeframe from 12,000 BCE–500 CE, beginning with the Neolithic and continuing into later periods. Scholars from a range of disciplines, including archaeology, historical linguistics, biology, anthropology, and history, trace common developments in the more complex social structures and cultural forms that agriculture enabled, such as sedentary villages and more elaborate foodways, and then present a series of regional overviews accompanied by detailed case studies from many different parts of the world, including Southwest Asia, South Asia, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Europe.
The chapter provides an anthropological analysis of the sociopolitical system of the Benin Kingdom (in contemporary Southwestern Nigeria) from coming to power of the Second (Oba) Dynasty presumably in the mid-13th century till the British conquest in 1897. The course of formation of this system of institutions and its basic characteristic features are outlined. It is argued that the Benin Kingdom of the 13th–19th centuries was a supercomplex system of institutions (society) but not a state, as it was not based on suprakin (territorial) social ties and there was no professional (bureaucratic) administration in it. The kin-based extended family community always remained this society’s focus, and supracommunal institutions were built up by its template, what is impossible in a state. So, being no less complex and developed than many so-called early states (Claessen and Skalník 1978) or archaic states (Feinman and Marcus 1998), Benin was not a state but rather a specific alternative to the state. This form of sociopolitical organization can be called “megacommunity” and depicted as four concentric circles of institutions forming an upset cone: the extended family, the community, the chiefdom and finally the kingdom.
A reconstruction of the travel histories of vehicles, using palynomorphs (pollen and spores) recovered from dust and soot from their car air filters, in Nigeria was attempted. The vehicles traveled to different localities with distinct vegetation types including rainforest, savanna and montane forest in the country. Fifteen vehicles, representing 75% of the total number of sampled vehicles, yielded palynomorph types which were consistent with the vegetation types of their routes and destinations. Palynomorphs recovered from five other vehicles had little or no bearing on the vegetation of their travel routes and/or localities but could be traced to other localities. The occurrence of pollen of forest species was significantly lower than those of savanna, montane forest and grasses. The recovery of the pollen of Alnus cf. glutinosa from localities in the north-westernmost region of Nigeria indicated the influence of trade winds from the Mediterranean via the Sahara in that area. Human subsistence was revealed by pollen of cultivars (Citrus sp. and Zea mays), and those of weeds and fungal spores (cultigen commensals) associated with farm lands and crops. This study demonstrates that palynomorphs from car air filters can reveal geographical origins of vehicles, and such data have potentials in solving vehicle-related crimes.
Climate and environmental changes since the Last Glacial Maximum in the tropical zone of West Africa are usually inferred from marine and continental records. In this study, the potential of carbonate pedo-sedimentary geosystems, i.e. Vertisol relics, to record paleoenvironmental changes in the southwestern part of Chad Basin are investigated. A multi-dating approach was applied on different pedogenic organo-mineral constituents. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating was performed on the soil K-rich feldspars and was combined with radiocarbon dating on both the inorganic (¹⁴Cinorg) and organic carbon (¹⁴Corg) soil fractions. Three main pedo-sedimentary processes were assessed over the last 20 ka BP: 1) the soil parent material deposition, from 18 ka to 12 ka BP (OSL), 2) the soil organic matter integration, from 11 cal ka to 8 cal ka BP (¹⁴Corg), and 3) the pedogenic carbonate nodule precipitation, from 7 cal ka to 5 cal ka BP (¹⁴Cinorg). These processes correlate well with the Chad Basin stratigraphy and West African records and are shown to be related to significant changes in the soil water balance responding to the evolution of continental hydrology during the Late Quaternary. The last phase affecting the Vertisol relics is the increase of erosion, which is hypothesized to be due to a decrease of the vegetation cover triggered by (i) the onset of drier conditions, possibly strengthened by (ii) anthropogenic pressure. Archaeological data from Far North Cameroon and northern Nigeria, as well as sedimentation times in Lake Tilla (northeastern Nigeria), were used to test these relationships. The increase of erosion is suggested to possibly occur between c. 3 cal ka and 1 cal ka BP. Finally, satellite images revealed similar geosystems all along the Sudano-Sahelian belt, and initial ¹⁴Cinorg ages of the samples collected in four sites gave similar ages to those reported in this study. Consequently, the carbonate pedo-sedimentary geosystems are valuable continental paleoenvironmental archives and soil water balance proxies of the semiarid tropics of West Africa.
Recent excavations at the site of Igbo Olokun in the Yoruba city of Ile-Ife, in south-western Nigeria, have shed light on early glass manufacturing techniques in West Africa. The recovery of glass beads and associated production materials has enabled compositional analysis of the artefacts and preliminary dating of the site, which puts the main timing of glass-working between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries AD. The results of these studies suggest that glass bead manufacture at this site was largely independent of glass-making traditions documented farther afield, and that Igbo Olokun may represent one of the earliest known glass-production workshops in West Africa.
Mining, smelting and fabrication created usable objects which were instrumental in addressing lower and higher order societal needs. This chapter takes this theme further by focusing on the social role of metals across different layers of society. The impact of metals was only gradually felt after their introduction but when well established the influence of metals virtually extended to each and every corner of society. Metals were fashioned into tools for agriculture which increased food production and also made spears and axes which were critical for territorial integration and defense. Musical instruments too were critical for relaxation purposes. Furthermore, metal became a medium of representation from temple accessories in Egypt to the palaces of Benin and Asante in West Africa. The exploitation of metals also had strong social consequences because it created opportunities for wealth accumulation, social differentiation and intensified urbanism. Different availability gradients resulted in localized, regionalized and internationalized trade which created a maze of networks at all levels. Thus Africa was enchained to Eurasia via the trans-Saharan trade and the Indian Ocean based systems. This interaction foreshadowed by millennia, current attempts at regional integration through initiatives such as the BRICS bloc. Trade brought in new forms of wealth such as exotic commodities which have traditionally been seen as a source of power through unequal access by different strata in society. In Southern Africa, it appears that these categories of imports were luxuries which were used to express power, but the power base rested on the more predictable factors such as land, cattle, ancestors and metals. In any case, it is very risky to base power on luxury and something which the elites could not control given the strong challenges with bureaucratic control. Finally, not all imports were accepted and achieved the same level of success. Unlike the very popular glass beads, Chinese ceramics possibly failed to dislodge local ceramics which were wrapped up in the trinity of ancestors, containment and reproduction. This makes sense because the adoption of objects follows pre-existing logics which are protected by different vellums that impose order in a community.
James Kirkman (1957) first used the term “historical archaeology” pertaining to work in Africa to characterize his study of Islamic sites in East Africa, but we might regard much of the archaeology on the continent as historical even though it is not officially designated as such. This is in large part due to the interdisciplinary nature of African archaeology. The more traditional (Americanist) forms of historical archaeology are primarily found in two African subregions, namely western and southern Africa, perhaps because these two regions have histories that shared features with the North American experience and were of interest to Americanists.
In West Africa during the later Holocene, villages occupied by multiple family or lineage-based groups appeared, enabled by new subsistence technologies, including agriculture, that increased output and supported a larger number and density of people. Greater sedentism, either seasonally or year round, is reflected by labor investment in durable construction technologies and large quantities of items that are not easily portable, such as grindstones and pottery. Although the development and spread of village life associated with food production has been a source of interest and detailed investigation in the Near East since the 1950s, comparable studies in West Africa involving excavation and recovery of archaeobotanical samples are relatively recent and rare. Our understanding of early village life and subsistence in West Africa is therefore fragmentary at present and likely to change significantly as new data become available. This applies equally to the development of cities and states.
Historical archaeology is a growing and vibrant field of inquiry in West Africa. Since the 1980s, there has been a steady increase in the number studies related to the Atlantic trade and indigenous-European interaction. As the departure point for Africans entering the diaspora, West Africa should be at the forefront of the African Atlantic archaeology, a concept recently championed by A. Ogundiran and T. Falola. Despite the logistical challenges that often inhibit fieldwork, as well as difficulties in communication between Western and African scholars, significant amounts of work have been carried out in West Africa that can inform diaspora and African Atlantic archaeology. By presenting the current state of West African historical archaeology as it relates to common questions and themes within African diaspora studies, the following review serves as a means of initiating an in-depth engagement and discussion among researchers in all related fields and in every region of the Atlantic basin.
The history of forested West Africa before the 15th century remain poorly understood. In spite of major archaeological discoveries in the 20th century, the region never aroused the same level of interest from the scientific community than Sahara and Sahel did, especially in terms of the study of processes of urbanization. Yet, from Côte d’Ivoire to Nigeria, complex systems of earthworks attest of the rise of medieval networks of entrenched urban centers and territories. The study of the chronology, expansion, organization and abandonment of these earthworks, which probably fulfilled a variety of functions, has the potential to radically change our perception of regional long-term history. The article also suggests that earthworks were massively abandoned in the 14th century, possibly as a result of the global plague pandemic (Black Death).
This article presents the results of recent archaeological research investigating changes and continuity in site patterning and material culture in the Savè area of the Republic of Bénin. Our research indicates that by AD 1000 the area was inhabited by iron-using agriculturalists. The establishment of the Shabe kingdom in the seventeenth century is associated with multiple changes in the area: increased settlement size, a dispersed settlement pattern and a greater variety of pottery decoration practices. Non-local artefacts demonstrate connections between the Savè area and the broader region, as well as participation in global economic networks. Instability in the nineteenth century led to a settlement pattern centred on fortified sites. Though many settlements were destroyed and/or abandoned during this period, the Shabe kingdom incorporated other refugee groups into its political system and increased its presence in the Yoruba-Edo region.
E. Zangato’s 2007 book on the Oboui archaeological site in the Central African Republic has been read and commented. This contextualised reading leads to questioning some of the data published in the Journal of African Archaeology in 2010. At that time a very old date for the earliest iron smelting south of the Sahara was suggested. However, a detailed examination of chronological data from West, Central and East Africa leads one to date the more robust evidence for the start of iron smelting after 800 cal BC. Furthermore, important ideas are brought up, amongst others, about the reliability of radiocarbon dating, the required degree of accuracy during archaeological field work and problems of stratigraphy.
This is a critical review of regional settlement pattern archaeology published in the last decade. The regional approach proves
to be highly productive of new ideas and lasting results. Cultural resource/heritage databases are increasingly important.
Notable advances have been made in regional studies of Paleolithic and Holocene foragers, the reciprocal relations between
Neolithic communities and their regional societies, and in understanding states and empires. There are new research potentials
in comparisons, macroregional analysis, long-term change, and alternative pathways. Research designs should specify systematic
coverage at the regional scale and carry out spatial analysis in which social groups are the primary focus.
The archaeological record has revealed the advent of the Atlantic trade, including the traffic in enslaved Africans, as a period of dramatic change in West Africa. This period witnessed initial European contact, trade, and eventual colonization, the collapse and expansion of indigenous African states, and the emergence of anti-colonial Islamic African polities. While documentary records and oral traditions provide insight into these developments, these sources often have limited time depth, cover only circumscribed areas, and afford only limited insight into many of the transformations that occurred. Archaeology provides unique information--in many instances the only information--for the changes that occurred. For the first time, this volume brings together archaeological data from across West Africa, examining sites ranging from the Senegambia to the Cameroons and providing syntheses of the change and transformations in West Africa in the Atlantic World. This book is an important resource for West Africanists and all researchers interested indigenous responses to European expansion, as well as background for the archaeology of the African Diaspora.
Fragmentary glass-working crucibles, drawn glass beads and ritual glass objects (aje ileke) from Ile-Ife, southwestern Nigeria, were analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDS), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). The very unusual high-lime, high-alumina glass lining the crucibles matched the composition of the dark blue drawn beads and some of the blue and green glass fragments in the aje ileke. Similar crucible fragments, glass cullet and drawn glass beads were recovered during Frank Willett's excavations (1956-63) of two sites in Ile-Ife, and Claire Davison's unpublished chemical analyses from 1972 show the same high-lime, high-alumina glass from Ita Yemoo, with radiocarbon dates from the eleventh to thirteenth century CE, and Orun Oba Ado, with radiocarbon dates from the eighth to twelfth century. Such high-lime, high-alumina glass has been found only in West Africa, including Igbo-Ukwu in southern Nigeria, and is not known from Europe, the Middle East or Asia, ruling out the possibility that the glass was imported. We interpret these findings to propose the primary manufacture of high-lime, high-alumina glass in sub-Saharan Africa in the early second millennium CE, with production centred in southern Nigeria, and quite possibly in or near Ile-Ife. The results of our study, combined with those of Davison, provide the first strong evidence for early primary glass production in sub-Saharan Africa.
Over the last three decades archaeologists of Africa have developed distinctive perspectives in their use of oral traditions in historical archaeology and ethnoarchaeology. Many of these innovations reflect the cultural attitudes of Africans about their own history and have lead to an archaeology that is increasingly sensitive to questions of an African historical identity free from the Western structure of thought. The African archaeological tradition accepts, with materialist interpretations and explanations, the importance of symbolic subsystems in a synthetic and systemic approach. Consequently, the application of structural and symbolic analysis to interrelated archaeological and ethnographic information is an integral part of an anthropological approach to the later prehistory and history of Africa.
The paper reviews the patterns of emergence of complex social systems in the souther part of thye Chadian plain
In the last three decades subjects related to the development of socio-economic complexity in sub-Saharan Africa have become a major focus for African archaeology. Concerning the factors which started this process, there has been a general con-sensus that agricultural surplus, functional special-isation and finally trade definitely promoted the growth of complex communities and contributed to the rise of precolonial urban centres and states. Furthermore, scholars are now of the opinion that local and regional trade networks are much older than long-distance ones and that they played a fun-damental and pioneering role in the development of complex social systems of African societies (Connah 1987; Mclntosh 1995; Mclntosh 1998). Recent archaeological research and on-going stud-ies in the sahel-savanna belt of West Africa have been partly responsible for the understanding of the transformation processes experienced by those communities. Among other regions. the Inland Niger Delta and its environs rank as one of the best studied cul-tural landscapes in sub-Saharan Africa. Concerning the beginning of urbanisation, here one comes across the earliest known example for the indige-nous development of what is thought to have been a town. Excavations of the settlement mound of ~ e n n ~ -~ e n o in Mali and the investigation of its sur-roundings convincingly show a continuous growth of the site and nearby villages from the 3rd century BC onwards. During the first centuries AD, the vil-lage of Jenne-Jeno gradually but steadily increased into an area of more or less 6-7 ha and by 300 AD its size had exceeded 25 hectares (Mclntosh and Mclntosh 1980; Mcintosh 1995). Until recently, indication for the emergence of early urban settle-ment systems based on the appearance and expan-sion of local and regional trade lattices remained restricted to the evidence found in Mali. However, recent archaeological research camed out by the Frankfurt Project in the Lake Chad area of Nigeria probably makes necessary a revision of this posi-tion.
Why should Near Eastern archaeologists study the life of the Shuwa Arab pastoralists of Cameroon? Ethnoarchaeological research on their pastoral-nomad villages offers a model of how site-location strategies, settlement layout, material culture items, and subsistence strategies are used to maintain and reproduce ethnic identity.
A large number of structures that appear to be forges or smelting furnaces have been excavated by D. Grébénart in the Agadez region of Niger. Many of the calibrated radiocarbon dates from these structures fall in the second and third millennia BC, more than a millennium older than the earliest previous dates for metallurgy in sub-Saharan Africa. Chemical and microstructural studies of the fused materials from these structures show that most of the samples dated prior to 1000 be are partially vitrified soil and cannot be positively associated with a metallurgical process. The only positive evidence for metallurgy in this region in the second/third millennium BC is a single radiocarbon date of 1710 ± 110 be (GIF-5176) for a copper-working furnace. This date may reflect the use of old charcoal and should be viewed with caution until thermoluminescence dates can be obtained for this furnace.After 1000 BC, native copper and copper oxide minerals were processed in non-tapping shaft furnaces. Calcite, dolomite and aluminosilicate gangue minerals have combined to produce unusual red melilite slags. The scale of production appears to have been very small. Iron smelting came into general use in this region around 500 BC, but the origins of this technology are still unclear.
Recent critiques of neoevolutionary formulations that focus primarily on the development of powerful hierarchies have called for broadening the empirical base for complex society studies. Redressing the neglect of sub-Saharan examples in comparative discussions on complex society, this book considers how case material from the region can enhance our understanding of the nature, origins and development of complexity. The archaeological, historical and anthropological case materials are relevant to a number of recent concerns, revealing how complexity has emerged and developed in a variety of ways. Contributors engage important theoretical issues, including the continuing influence of deeply embedded evolutionary notions in archaeological concepts of complexity, the importance of alternative modes of complex organization such as flexible hierarchies, multiple overlapping hierarchies, and horizontal differentiation, and the significance of different forms of power. The distinguished list of contributors include historians, archaeologists and anthropologists.
Drawing on evidence from several disciplines, Ann Brower Stahl reconstructs the daily lives of Banda villagers of west central Ghana, from the time that they were drawn into the Niger trade (around AD 1300) until British overrule was established early in the twentieth century. The case study aims to closely integrate perspectives drawn from archaeology, history and anthropology in African studies.
David Phillipson presents an illustrated account of African prehistory, from the origins of humanity through European colonization in this revised and expanded edition of his original work. Phillipson considers Egypt and North Africa in their African context, comprehensively reviewing the archaeology of West, East, Central and Southern Africa. His book demonstrates the relevance of archaeological research to understanding contemporary Africa and stresses the continent's contribution to the cultural heritage of humankind.
Ann B. Stahl. Making History in Banda: Anthropological Visions of Africa's Past. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. xix + 268 pp. Photographs. Drawings. Maps. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Price not reported. Cloth. Ann B. Stahl has provided an important and long-awaited contribution to the growing list of monograph-length archaeological studies of later African history. An examination of this period is crucial to developing an increasingly nuanced picture of the social, economic, and cultural dynamics of West Africa, and the ways in which interactions with European traders were negotiated in the complex political and economic relations that trade engendered. Stahl's research differs from most of the other long-term historical archaeological projects in West Africa by focusing on the Banda chieftaincy region in central western Ghana, an area lying in the hinterland of coastal interaction that was not associated with the major inland polities well known through historical records. This research helps to bring balance to the study of the wider region. Stahl frames her work as an "interrogation of silences" (xvii) that are legacies of the past, whether constructed from historical, anthropological, and archaeological perspectives, or through the production and use of local histories. She sets the stage by introducing a chieftaincy dispute she witnessed in Banda as an example of the way legitimacy is produced or undermined by contested histories. She then discusses the ways silences produced by differing epistemological frameworks (anthropological, historical, and archaeological) leave "interdisciplinary spaces" that can be productively engaged not by viewing their disjunctions as obstacles, but rather by viewing them supplementally as spaces that provide insights into the tensions that caused these silences. The second chapter critically explores the nature of the sources available for this study, including traditional histories, document-based histories, and archaeological data. The third and fourth chapters move from general theoretical issues of history to a focus on the Banda region by discussing the meanings of history (both local and official) in Banda itself and the ways it has been influenced by the changing geographies of the region as local autonomy diminished and centralized authority (first colonial and then Ghanaian state-based) became inscribed on the landscape. The fourth chapter elaborates the context of Banda history by describing the larger events (regional African trade networks, the trans-Atlantic trade, the rise of the Asante confederacy, the consolidation of British colonial rule and local administration) and how these developments affected the region. …
Over the past decade, sub-Saharan Africa has virtually disappeared from the screen of archaeologists engaged in broadly comparative, theoretical discussions on the emer-gence of complex society. Prior to the 1980s, the sub-continent was represented with some regularity at important archaeological conferences and discussions on these issues (e.g., Cohen and Service 1978; Friedman and Rowlands 1978; Moore 1974) even while the actual archaeology of sub-Saharan complex societies remained nascent. Since then, the visibility of Africa in comparative theoretical discussions has declined considerably, despite the surge of interest in societies organizationally inter-mediate between small-scale, non-stratified and locally autonomous groups and the internally differentiated state (e.g., Arnold 1996; Drennan and Uribe 1987; Earle 1987, 1991c; Gregg 1991; Price and Feinman 1995; Upham 1990) and despite the abundance and diversity of such societies throughout the subcontinent at the time of European colonial expansion. Sub-Saharan regions are represented briefly, if at all, in some widely cited works (Earle 1987, 1991c; Ehrenreich et al. 1995; Haas 1982; Price and Feinman 1995; Renfrew and Cherry 1986; Trigger 1993 is a notable exception). Ironically, the archaeology of complex societies in Africa has grown remarkably during this same period (see, e.g., Shaw et al. 1993). The primary objective of this volume is to reintroduce an African perspective into archaeological theorizing about complex societies. This is a daunting task because the subcontinent is vast (over three times the size of the United States) and in historic times has exhibited an astonishing diversity of sociopolitical formations. Thus, any attempt at general coverage will necessarily suffer from incomplete and unsatisfactory geographic repre-sentation, and leave a host of relevant topics and poten-tial insights unexplored. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify certain themes emerging from the recent archaeological literature that find a particular resonance in the African comparative material. The ongoing effort to broaden archaeology's focus beyond preoccupation with the development of vertical control hierarchies (with the Polynesian chiefdom as prototype) to include less hierarchical, more decentralized or horizontally complex configurations is one such theme (Arnold 1996; Crumley 1987, 1995; Ehrenreich et al. 1995; Nelson 1994; Spielmann 1994). A growing interest in the initial emer-gence of hierarchy, rather than with its elaboration into more state-like formations is another (Arnold 1996; Price and Feinman 1995; Upham 1990). Related to both of these is the critique of deeply embedded evolutionary notions which continue to subtly influence and shape archaeology's conceptualization of what constitutes complexity, and how it can be identified and studied (Rowlands 1989b; Morris 1997; Yoffee 1993). Emerging from this critique is, again, the growing concern with documenting variability in both the forms and, especially, the developmental trajectories of complexity (e.g., Blanton et al. 1996; Drennan 1996; Feinman and Neitzel 1984; Yoffee 1993). Virtually all the contributors to this volume engage critically with one or more of these issues. The result is, I hope, a persuasive argument for consider-ing Africa central to any and all comparative discussions concerning the diverse forms of and pathways to complexity. In this chapter I aim to outline in a general manner some of the ways that African case material can contrib-ute to archaeological discussions of these issues. Certain recurrent aspects of African society, such as the co-occur-rence of vertical hierarchies with multiple, horizontally arrayed, ritual associations, and particular notions of ritual power and leadership, offer opportunities to recon-sider how we think about power and how it is used in crafting polity. I also attempt to reinsert Africa into the evolutionary critiques of the past decade or two. I begin with a brief consideration of why it is that Africa has been absent from the discussion table for so long.