Mapping Ancient Africa: Climate, vegetation & humans

April 14, 2026
WDG

The Mapping Ancient Africa (MAA) special issue in Quaternary International (QI) is now complete. Many thanks to all who contributed to the issue, and special thanks to my co-guest editors Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr and Rahab Kinyanjui, and QI editor Evdokia Tema, for their efforts in putting this together.

To wrap up the MAA special issue the guest editors have written an editorial covering the work of this multi-year project. In this we draw out key themes that have emerged from the work (vegetation dynamics, fire, and human behavior), review the project activities (including workshop photos), and highlight other publications by MAA members (lots of other exciting work going on). You can read all about it in:

The MAA multi-year project supported by INQUA is now in its final stages. We have delivered our final workshop (South Africa), our special issue, and created a body of online resources via this blog and the YouTube channel (>50 MAA videos!) that will hopefully inform and inspire researchers interested in past environmental change in Africa. Most importantly I hope that we have build a network of people (>140 members on our email list at the time of writing) who are passionate and engaged with understanding how climate, vegetation and humans have helped shape the African continent. I hope that these connections will keep building over the coming years and new projects, papers and insights will emerge.

The Ecology of the Past blog will continue, however, it will – of course – miss the regular input from the MAA project. Therefore, if anyone has suitable academic content that they wish to communicate through the blog please do not hesitate to get in contact.

A final thanks to INQUA Palaeoclimate commission (PALCOM) and Humans and Biosphere commission (HABCOM) for their support for MAA since its inception in 2021. Without this funding none of the work would have been possible.

For full list of MAA articles click here.

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From Writing to Rock Art: A Week at the Mapping Ancient Africa Workshop

March 21, 2026
bouwegroeneveld

By Bouwe Groeneveld (MSc Biological Sciences, track Ecology & Evolution, University of Amsterdam)

From 2 to 6 March, I joined the Mapping Ancient Africa Research and Writing Workshop at Fountainhill Estate near Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. The week brought together focused writing, interdisciplinary exchange, and time in the landscape.

We began with a speed dating session that set an open and collaborative tone. Participants introduced their research backgrounds, ranging from botany and ecology to geography. The group was highly international, with participants from Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and the Netherlands. This diversity quickly proved valuable, as different perspectives naturally complemented one another throughout discussions.

The second day centred on the challenges of academic writing and publishing. Through group conversations and smaller sessions, we reflected on common difficulties such as structuring arguments and navigating the publication process. Later that afternoon, we walked across the estate to the Holley Shelter archaeological site. During the walk, I noticed how the surrounding landscape offered a sense of calm that contrasted with the intensity of writing. Along the way, we encountered a giraffe standing only a few metres from us, quietly feeding on acacia leaves.

The shelter itself was striking. A clear waterfall flowed down the rock face, catching the sunlight as it filtered into the green valley below. The interplay of water, rock, and light created a remarkably beautiful and tranquil setting, making the site feel both impressive and deeply serene.

Holley Shelter archaeological site
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Herbivory and vegetation openness in a pre-farming European landscape

November 19, 2025
WDG

Plant Ecology & Diversity

Gosling, W. D., de Wolf, I. K., Witteveen, N. H., de Zwaan, S. B., Van Teulingen, C., Föllmi, D., Thissen, W., Vink, V. B., Woutersen, A., Philip, A. L., van Herk, M. J., Nascimento, M. N., Prins, M. A., & McMichael, C. N. H. (2025). Herbivory and vegetation openness in a pre-farming European landscape. Plant Ecology & Diversity, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/17550874.2025.2576566

This manuscript has been developed over many years through the contributions of many MSc and BSc students based at the University of Amsterdam.

Hugo de Vries Prijs winner!

June 18, 2025
WDG

Ecology of the Past blog contributor Nina Witteveen was awarded the Hugo de Vries prize on 13 June 2025 at the Botanic Gardens in Nijmegen. The Hugo de Vries prize is awarded by the KNbv (Royal Dutch Botanical Society) and the Stichting Hugo de Vries fonds (Hugo de Vries foundation) for the best PhD thesis in Botany defended at a Dutch University. This years prize was awarded to Nina for her thesis “Long-term Forest Recovery in Amazonia: Insights from Phytolith Analysis” (University of Amsterdam) which was completed under the supervision of Crystal McMichael.

After much debate the jury decided to award two first prizes this year, with the other prize also going to a tropical PhD thesis. That of Tomonari Matsuo for his thesis “Drivers and mechanisms of tropical secondary forest succession” (Wageningen University & Research).

To find out more about the prize and how to submit a thesis for the award visit: https://www.knbv.eu/hugo-de-vries-prijs/

Follow Nina’s journey into tropical palaeoecology through her blog posts here: https://ecologyofthepast.info/?s=nina+witteveen

Nina presenting here PhD thesis at the prize giving of the Hugo de Vries award 2025!

Past fire dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa during the last 25,000 years: Climate change and increasing human impacts

July 31, 2024
WDG

Mapping Ancient Africa Quaternary International Special Issue article

Open access link (50 days limit) here

Bremond, L., Aleman, J.C., Favier, C., Blarquez, O., Colombaroli, D., Connor, S.E., Cordova, C.E., Courtney-Mustaphi, C., Dabengwa, A.N., Gil-Romera, G., Gosling, W.D., Hamilton, T., Montade, V., Razafimanantsoa, A.H.I., Power, M.J., Razanatsoa, E., Yabi, I. & Vannière, B. (2024) Past fire dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa during the last 25,000 years: Climate change and increasing human impacts. Quaternary International. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2024.07.012

Floristic homogenization of South Pacific islands commenced with human arrival

January 17, 2024
WDG

Strandberg, N.A., Steinbauer, M.J., Walentowitz, A., Gosling, W.D., Fall, P.L., Prebble, M., Stevenson, J., Wilmshurst, J.M., Sear, D.A., Langdon, P.G., Edwards, M.E. & Nogué, S. (2024) Floristic homogenization of South Pacific islands commenced with human arrival. Nature Ecology & Evolution. DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02306-3

Mapping Ancient Africa: Video of seminar 11

March 28, 2023
WDG

The 11th Mapping Ancient Africa seminar took place on Thursday 16 March (2023). The seminar was delivered by Hannah Keller (Yale University) and highlighted her ongoing research into ostrich egg shells and environmental change she is undertaking as part of the “Malawi Ancient Lifeways and Peoples” project.

Details of this seminar can be found here. You can find more Mapping Ancient Africa seminar videos on the “Ecology of the Past” YouTube channel.

To find out more and keep up to date with new insights from this research visit the project web sit here.

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The Holocene

March 24, 2023
WDG

I am excited to announce that I have recently joined the “Advisory Editorial Board” of The Holocene journal. Many thanks to editor-in-chief John Matthews for the invitation. Interesting to join a very experienced team, which includes both my PhD and post-doc supervisors; the esteemed Frank Mayle and Mark Bush! I look forward to receiving interesting new papers to examine.

The Holocene journal publishes research, review and forum papers focused on environmental change during the Holocene (last 11,700 years). It encourages the submission of manuscripts with an interdisciplinary approach covering palaeoenvironments, palaeoclimate, palaeoecology, palaeohydrology, palaeopedology, palaeoceanography and geo-archaeology. So if you have a some research in this area that you are looking for a home for please check out the details aims and scope, and criteria on the journal web page, click here.

Palaeoecology course 2022 goes archaeology…

September 16, 2022
WDG

As part of this years BSc Palaeoecology course at the University of Amsterdam we visited the Department of Archaeology. Organised by Anja Fischer we visited the human bone collection, the animal bone collection and the archaeobotany section. Amazing collections and lots of opportunities for cross faculty projects and teaching.

In addition to explaining the physical reference collections Anja also explained how she has been developing data mining techniques to allow information to be synthesised from the thousands of archaeological reports across the Netherlands.

She used this approach to make new discoveries about the role of urban farming and ruralisation in Dutch history. Her findings formed a report for the Dutch national heritage organisation (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed) which can be downloaded for free (in English).

Fischer, A., van Londen, H., Blonk, A., Visser, R.M. & Renes, J. (2021) Urban Farming and Ruralisation in The Netherlands (1250-1850): Unravelling farming practice and the use of (open) space by synthesising archaeological reports using text mining. Nederlandse Archeologische Rapporten 68. Download free here.

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