Editorial

Azania Archaeological Research in Africa · 2026-01-02

Developing Geo-Ethnoarchaeological Methods for Studying Archaeological Pastoral Sites: the CAMP project

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory · 2026-02-10

Abstract This paper presents the aims, methods, and some initial results of the project ‘(Re)Constructing the Archaeology of Mobile Pastoralism (CAMP)’, a multi-disciplinary investigation into anthropogenic deposits from pastoral contexts in dryland regions. Ethnoarchaeology has played a pivotal role in transforming the study of pastoralism, particularly in environments where material traces are often ephemeral and underrepresented in the archaeological record. By linking contemporary practices with their material signatures, ethnoarchaeology has reshaped both the interpretation of pastoralist material remains and broader understandings of pastoral societies, revealing them as adaptive and innovative actors in highly variable environments. Building on recent theoretical and methodological advances—especially in geo-ethnoarchaeology—CAMP seeks to develop a robust interpretive framework for identifying chemical proxies that can be linked to specific human activities. Research in the first stage has focused on three ecologically and culturally distinct regions: Maitengwe (Tutume Dist., Botswana), Khor Rori (Dhofar, Oman), and Loreamatet (Turkana, Kenya), with supplementary test areas to evaluate the broader applicability of the developed protocol. Fieldwork has targeted three site categories: inhabited campsites, to document the relationship between activities and their anthropic markers; abandoned campsites, to assess post-depositional and diagenetic transformations; and key archaeological pastoral sites, to reinterpret ancient deposits using models derived from present-day contexts. Preliminary results presented in this paper highlight significant differences in the composition of chemical elements across activity areas within settlements, underscoring the potential of these proxies to distinguish activity-specific signatures. By integrating ethnoarchaeology, geoarchaeology, and geochemistry, the project advances methods for detecting and interpreting pastoral signatures in the archaeological record, while contributing to the repositioning of drylands as dynamic centers of resilience and innovation.

Editorial

Azania Archaeological Research in Africa · 2025-01-02

This issue marks the start of the sixtieth volume of Azania to appear in print since the journal's foundation in 1966.Looking back to the comments made by the British Institute in Eastern Africa's then President, Lawrence Kirwan, in his Foreword to that first Azania we note the commitment made to 'the publication of detailed material from our field of archaeological and historical research' undertaken in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in the first instance, as well as the wider 'great central region of Africa not served by an appropriate periodical' (Kirwan 1966: vi).Writing the first Azania editorial on the following page, Neville Chittick (1966a: vii) reiterated that promise of geographical breadth along with additional commitments to publish in French, not just English -a tradition we are proud to continue -and to provide both general reviews and detailed accounts of excavations or other forms of fieldwork.His own work at the key Swahili urban centre of Kilwa demonstrated this in that first issue (Chittick 1966b), while a few pages later -and moving beyond a strict definition of what constitutes East Africa -Pierre Vrin (1966) reviewed Malagasy archaeology in what was Azania's first Francophone paper.Sixty volumes and almost six decades on, we are delighted to reaffirm both commitments, noting that this first issue of 2025 includes its own papers on the Swahili (by Elinaza Mjema on early colonial era ceramics from Tanzania) and the complexities of Madagascar's past (by Guido Schreurs and colleagues) -along with others from as far afield as Somaliland, Djibouti and Ethiopia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.Writing that first editorial, Chittick (1966: vii) lamented how sixty years ago so

Technological Variability at Mochena Borago Rockshelter, Ethiopia: a Contribution to Understanding MIS 3 Cultural Change in the Horn of Africa

Journal of African Archaeology · 2025-12-16

Abstract Non-Levallois core reduction strategies for producing elongated flakes or blades appear early in the African Middle Stone Age ( MSA ) but have rarely been studied in detail. In this paper we present a detailed comparative analysis of non-Levallois lithic technologies at Mochena Borago Rockshelter, SW Ethiopia, from strata dating to around 46 to 36 ka, with a focus on the technological solutions and quality of blade production. Although there is an increase in the frequency of laminar production as well as improved technological capabilities over time, the numerical importance of laminar products remains small. Only the youngest assemblages (~39–36 ka) show the beginning of a technological transformation, with clear features of intentional blade production. Several factors may explain this transformative process: functional changes in tool production, raw material availability, climatic change, cultural developments and/or population movements.

THE TURKANA BASIN DURING THE LATE QUATERNARY: DYNAMIC NATURAL AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS

Abstracts with programs - Geological Society of America · 2024-01-01

Editorial

Azania Archaeological Research in Africa · 2024-01-02

One hundred years ago the skull of a small child discovered in a quarry in South Africa was brought to the attention of palaeoanthropologist Raymond Dart.Though widely ignored for decades by a discipline still committed to the erroneous view that human evolution must have been centred in Europe, the Taung hominin, which Dart (1925) named Australopithecus africanus, catalysed much further work, first in South Africa (e.g.Broom 1936; Clarke 2021) and then at multiple sites across eastern Africa, beginning at Olduvai Gorge (Leakey 1959).Looking back on those initial discoveries and all that has flowed from them using the techniques of archaeology, physical anthropology, and genetics, we can now say with confidence thatas Darwin (1871) suspected -Africa is where not only our own species, but also our genus and the wider group of animals to which it belongs, had their origins.Put another way, human societies everywhere have been shaped by the fact that it was on African soil and in African ecologies that Homo sapiens evolved and our distinctive behavioural and cognitive capacities took shape.A century on from the discovery of the Taung child Africa and Africanist archaeologists have much to celebrate about the unravelling of many, though by no means yet all, of the details of our evolutionary story.It was thus a shock to the archaeological community to see two key components of that storythe type specimens of A. sediba and H. naledicatapulted into space on 8 September last year on the spurious grounds that their visit to Earth's outermost atmosphere would boost awareness of humanity's African ancestry and the value of South African palaeoanthropological research.Awareness was indeed widely boosted, but of the extraordinarily lax and not-fit-for-purpose permitting system of the South African Heritage Resources Agency and of the appetite for publicity-seeking stunts on the part of those involved.No genuine scientific purpose wasor could have beenserved by this reckless act, which was rightly and roundly condemned by the scientific community.Along with archaeologists in South Africa (Callaway 2023; Morris 2023), professional associations as diverse as the Eastern African Association for Palaeoanthropology and Palaeontology (https://eaappinfo.wordpress.com/), the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution (https://twitter.com/ESHE_society/status/1701890583319450029?s=20) and the British Association for Biological Anthropology (https://babo.org.uk/babao-statement-onthe-sending-of-hominin-fossils-to-space/)all issued formal statements of concern.Back on the ground, the chief proponent of sending these fossils into space, Prof. Lee Berger, and his colleagues also raised eyebrows with claims about the small-brained, archaic-looking Middle Pleistocene Homo naledi fossils they have been recovering from South Africa's Rising Star cave system.In a Netflix documentary and three pre-print papers

Supplementary Data 2 from The name of the game: palaeoproteomics and radiocarbon dates further refine the presence and dispersal of caprines in eastern and Southern Africa

Figshare · 2023-01-01

All specific peptides list of modern referential with PSMs count per modern sample.

Supplementary Data 3 from The name of the game: palaeoproteomics and radiocarbon dates further refine the presence and dispersal of caprines in eastern and Southern Africa

Figshare · 2023-01-01

MaxQuant search result evidence table for all archaeological samples analysed in this study.

Mochena Borago Rockshelter, Ethiopia

2023-01-01 · 44 citations

Supplementary Data 4 from The name of the game: palaeoproteomics and radiocarbon dates further refine the presence and dispersal of caprines in eastern and Southern Africa

Figshare · 2023-01-01

MaxQuant search result peptides table for all archaeological samples analysed in this study.