Title: Climate frameworks for the Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age in Northwest Africa
Related publication: Boisard, S. & Arous, E.B. (2024) A critical inventory and associated chronology of the Middle Stone Age and Later Stone Age in Northwest Africa. Journal of Open Archaeology Data 12, 5. DOI: 10.5334/joad.121
The seminar will be delivered via Zoom. The link for the seminar can be obtained from the MAA Slack channel or by contacting the chair of this seminar (William Gosling). If you want to know more about the Mapping Ancient Africa project visit our web pages and please do not hesitate to get in contact if you want to get involved.
The “Fire in Human Evolution” international Symposium will take place at the University of Leiden (10-11 June 2024). The meeting is being organized by Femke Reidsma and Amanda Henry. The meeting will include talks and discussion on:
The Mapping Ancient Africa (MAA) writing workshop is currently in full swing in Kenya. Running from 3 June until the 6 June 2024 a diverse range of skills related to academic publishing is being delivered by our international team, including: structuring a scientific article, managing references and revision strategies. There is also plenty of time set aside for writing and getting feedback from more experienced academic writers. The manuscripts being developed at the workshop are being designed to be submitted to the MAA special issue of Quaternary International.
On the 20 June 2024 (17:00-18:00 CEST) the next Mapping Ancient Africa (MAA) online seminar will take place. This talk will introduce a parallel INQUA funded project “PalaeoHome” (@PalaeoHome). It is hoped that there can be complimentary lines of research identified between PalaeoHome and the MAA projects.
Title: PalaeoHome Palaeolithic Hominins and Habitats: Out of Africa to South Asia
Abstract: Evidence of enduring preference among hominins for particular geographic places or habitats over long periods is a global phenomenon in the Palaeolithic. Sites such as Attirampakkam (India), have evidence of Early Pleistocene Acheulian occupation contemporary with some sites in East Africa and elsewhere. Ongoing work at Sendrayanpalyam in the vicinity of ATM, suggest more variability than expected in Lower Palaeolithic assemblages in India. Comparative studies between Lower Palaeolithic assemblages and their ecological settings in key areas of both Africa and India as well as along regions of population migration, carry implications for investigating debates on the routes and timing of migrations and evolution of Oldowan and Acheulian technocomplexes. Here, we discuss aspects of research that seeks to bring together experts working in India, Africa, Arabia, and SW and E Asia to address major issues related to multiple questions on the ‘Out of Africa’ story as related to chronology, palaeoenvironments and behavioural variability over the Lower Palaeolithic (Early to Middle Pleistocene), exploring similarities as also differences in evolutionary trajectories. We plan to establish inclusive global networks of scientists with similar interests, embracing diversity and differences in views, to organise hybrid meetings (online, in-person in India and Ethiopia) uniting established scientists and with a prominent ECR component. A key part includes skill development amongst ECRs who will also join us in engaging in public outreach and science communication to generate an awareness of prehistory among children, teachers and the wider public. Above all, this project seeks to build global networks of scientists from diverse disciplines to share ideas that can culminate in publications that explore diverse opinions on topics of key interest in the Lower Palaeolithic of India and Africa.
The seminar will be delivered via Zoom. The link for the seminar can be obtained from the MAA Slack channel or by contacting the chair of this seminar (Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr). If you want to know more about the Mapping Ancient Africa project visit our web pages and please do not hesitate to get in contact if you want to get involved.
On Friday 24 May 2024 the Palynologische Kring (Dutch palynological society) held a seminar series and laboratory workshop at the Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics (University of Amsterdam). During the afternoon we had the annual meeting of the society, the presentation of our MSc Thesis prize, four seminars and two laboratory demonstrations. The MSc thesis prize “Florschütz Award” was won by Caroline Goossens (VU Amsterdam) for her thesis entitle: “An Eemian-Early Weichselian sequence in the Amersfoort Basin, the Netherlands”; the project was supervised by Natalie Van der Putten, Cees Kasse and Jeroen Schokker. We hope that Caroline will present her thesis at a future Palynologishe Kring meeting.
Teye Aukes presenting on the diatoms of ancient Rome
The talk series was kicked off by Nina Witteveen (University of Amsterdam) who presented part of her PhD thesis (currently awaiting defense), entitled: “Long-term forest recovery in Amazonia insights from phytolith analysis”. Nina discussed the impact of past peoples on the vegetation of Suriname based on her work identifying phytoliths in soil samples collected at varying distances from an archaeological site. The second talk was given my Amanda Henry (Leiden University) who demonstrated how the analysis of starch grains extracted from archaeological context can provide insights in to past diets. She used these evidences to suggest that early humans and Neanderthals had a similar diversity of plants in their diets. The third talk was given by University of Amsterdam MSc researcher Teye Aukes and focused upon his identification of diatoms from an swampy lagoon environment near Ostia (Italy). He drew conclusions from these data about the antiquity of salt production in ancient Rome. The final talk was given online by Welmoed Out (Moesgaard Museum) who presented a detailed analysis of inter- and intra-analyst variability in phytolith morphometric analysis.
After the seminars we moved upstairs to the microscope laboratory where Nina Witteveen and Ana Smuk (University of Groningen) showed off phytoliths from their study site in South America and the Netherlands.
Some of the Palynologische Kring members enjoying some refreshment after the event.
The SASQUA congress will kick off next week (19-24 May 2024) in Cango Valley (South Africa). Sessions cover many aspects of Quaternary science and range from archaeology through palaeoclimate to geological topics. The full program is now available to download.
Quick, L.J & Asithandile, N. (2024) Proceedings of the XXIV Biennial Congress of the Southern African Society for Quaternary Research (SASQUA), Cango Valley, South Africa, 19-24 May 2024. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11125697
To find out more about the meeting and other SASQUA activities you can also visit the organizations web pages: https://sasqua.co.za/
The 17th online Mapping Ancient Africa seminar took place on Thursday 16 May 2024. The seminar was delivered by N’dji dit Jacques Dembele and was entitled “Evidence of recent seismicity in the West African Craton: The Bamako seisemites Mali”. In the seminar surprising new evidence for Quaternary seismic activity within the West African Craton – which was thought to be tectonically stable – was presented. Specifically, the identification of clastic dykes and deformation within sedimentary and lacustrine deposits was used to suggest past high magnitude earth quakes in the last 170,000 years.
The next Mapping Ancient Africa seminar will take place online at 17:00 CEST on 16 May 2024.
Speaker: N’dji dit Jacques Dembele (President of WAQUA, Université des sciences sociales et de gestion de Bamako, Mali)
Title: Quaternary period seismicity on the West African Craton
The seminar will be delivered via Zoom. The link for the seminar can be obtained from the MAA Slack channel or by contacting the chair of this seminar (Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr). If you want to know more about the Mapping Ancient Africa project visit our web pages and please do not hesitate to get in contact if you want to get involved.
The 16th Mapping Ancient Africa seminar took place online on Friday 12th April 2024. The seminar was delivered by Stéphanie Bodin (Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt). In the seminar Stéphanie demonstrated how the examination of ancient charcoals found in caves used for shelter by hunter-gather populations living in Ethiopia at the end of the African Humid Period (4,000-2,000 years ago) can provide insights into vegetation and human selection of woody resources.
Ecology of the past 