Although the Mapping Ancient Africa project is officially drawing to a close, researchers within the network are still actively collaborating and publishing. Periodically I will aim to collate and comment on member outputs that I come across. If you have a paper that should be highlighted here please get in contact and I will be happy to include it.
I have recently come across four papers these cover the role of disease in human evolution (Colucci et al., 2026), the identification and interpretation of charcoal fragments in sedimentary records from western Africa (Cornet et al., 2026), and archaeological evidence for past human activity in Nigeria (Omigbule et al. 2026; Orijemie et al., 2026).
- Colucci, M., Leonardi, M., Blinkhorn, J., Irish, S. R., Padilla-Iglesias, C., Kaboth-Bar, S., Gosling, W. D., Snow, R. W., Manica, A., & Scerri, E. M. L. (2026). Malaria shaped human spatial organization for the past 74 thousand years. Science Advances, 12(17), eaea2316. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aea2316
- Cornet, F., Montade, V., Bodin, S. C., Descloitre, J., Réjou‐Méchain, M., Viennois, G., Aleman, J. C., Assi‐Kaudjhis, C., Kenney, W. F., Oslisly, R., Tossou, M. G., Bremond, L., & Favier, C. (2026). From shape to source: Sedimentary charcoal morphology as a proxy for tropical burned biomass composition. Journal of Quaternary Science, 41(3), 490–506. https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.70053
- Omigbule, A. O., Akogun, M. O., Orijemie, E. A., & Ogunfolakan, A. B. (2026). Aspects of garden-based agroforestry at Igbó-Orítàá, Ìwó, southwest Nigeria (c.14th-17th centuries CE). Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 72, 105768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2026.105768
- Orijemie, E. A., Opadeji, O. A., & Alabi, R. A. (2026). Archaeological and palynological evidence of iron smelting and its ecological consequences in the Ijebu Forest, Nigeria. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 61(1), 110–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2025.2594901
Ecology of the past 