This book is FREE for download through OAPEN.

What is OAPEN? The OAPEN Library contains freely accessible academic books, mainly in the area of humanities and social sciences. OAPEN works with publishers to build a quality controlled collection of open access books, and provides services for publishers, libraries and research funders in the areas of deposit, quality assurance, dissemination, and digital preservation.

About the book:

Confronting national, linguistic and disciplinary boundaries, contributors to African Archaeology Without Frontiers argue against artificial limits and divisions created through the study of ‘ages’ that in reality overlap and cannot and should not be understood in isolation. Papers are drawn from the proceedings of the landmark 14th PanAfrican Archaeological Association Congress, held in Johannesburg in 2014, nearly seven decades after the conference planned for 1951 was re-located to Algiers for ideological reasons following the National Party’s rise to power in South Africa.

Contributions by keynote speakers Chapurukha Kusimba and Akin Ogundiran encourage African archaeologists to practise an archaeology that collaborates across many related fields of study to enrich our understanding of the past. The nine papers cover a broad geographical sweep by incorporating material on ongoing projects throughout the continent including South Africa, Botswana, Cameroon, Togo, Tanzania, Kenya and Nigeria. Thematically, the papers included in the volume address issues of identity and interaction, and the need to balance cultural heritage management and sustainable development derived from a continent racked by social inequalities and crippling poverty.

Edited by three leading archaeologists, the collection covers many aspects of African archaeology, and a range of periods from the earliest hominins to the historical period. It will appeal to specialists and interested amateurs.

Keynote Address 1 Imagining an African Archaeology Without Frontiers Chapurukha M. Kusimba
Keynote Address 2 Collapsing Boundaries: A Continental Vision for African Archaeology Akin Ogundiran
Chapter 1 The ‘Useable’ Archaeology Of Recent African Farming Systems: Comparative and Collaborative Perspectives from East (Marakwet), West (Tiv) and South (Bokoni) Africa  Matthew Davies, Caleb Adebayo Folorunso, Timothy Kipkeu Kipruto, Freda M’Mbogori, Henrietta L. Moore, Emuobosa Orijemie and Alex Schoeman
Chapter 2 What Is It? – Cultural Heritage Resources among the Makonde Community of Mtwara Region of Tanzania  Festo W. Gabriel
Chapter 3 The Indigenous Roots of Swahili Culture in Pangani Bay, Tanzania: Continuity and Change in an Archaeological Assemblage   Elinaza Mjema
Chapter 4 Is this an anvil? The multi-functionality of iron bloom crushing (Likumanjool) sites in the Bassar region of Northern Togo   Philip de Barros and Gabriella Lucidi
Chapter 5 Rock Art in Cameroon, Knowledge, New Discoveries and Sub-Regional Extension  Narcisse Santores Tchandeu
Chapter 6 Archaeological Studies on Iron Age Settlement History in the Northwestern Congo Basin  Dirk Seidensticker
Chapter 7 Glass Trade Beads at Thabadimasego, Botswana: Analytical Results and Some Implications  Adrianne Daggett, Marilee Wood and Laure Dussubieux
Chapter 8 Blurring Boundaries: Forager-Farmer Interactions and Settlement Change on the Greater Mapungubwe Landscape, Southern Africa   Tim Forssman
Chapter 9 Challenges Facing Heritage Management in South Africa: Implementation of a Web-Based National Heritage Management System  Kate Smuts and Nick Wiltshire

Karim Sadr, Amanda Esterhuysen and Christine Sievers are all based at the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

This set of conference proceedings will be a classic, like all the others, and consulted long after its immediate applicability has waned … It captures the depth and breadth of archaeological research on the African continent and reflects the state of archaeology at a particular point in time.
— Natalie Swanepoel, Department of Anthropology & Archaeology, University of South Africa

This book is FREE for download through OAPEN.

What is OAPEN? The OAPEN Library contains freely accessible academic books, mainly in the area of humanities and social sciences. OAPEN works with publishers to build a quality controlled collection of open access books, and provides services for publishers, libraries and research funders in the areas of deposit, quality assurance, dissemination, and digital preservation.