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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Mapping Ancient Africa: Scientists

March 31, 2026
WDG

The Mapping Ancient Africa (MAA) research and writing workshop took place in South Africa during March 2026 (click here for more details). During the workshop four of the scientists participating were interviewed by MAA leader Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr to find out more about them, what they are focused on, and their aspirations for the future. These are now avaliable on the Mapping Ancient Africa YouTube playlist along with all the other videos from the project.

Participants

Zahra Omarjee (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)

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INQUA Fellowship journey: Alfred Hougnon (field work)

October 19, 2024
WDG

INQUA fellow Alfred Hougnon continues his research into past environmental change in the Dahomey Gap (Benin). In the fourth video documenting his progress a short background to the project, and insights into field work, are given. Field work took place near the Ewe-Adakplame forest in the south east of Benin and involved the recovery of sediments using a Russian corer. The video also shows how interactions and engagement with the local community was developed during the research expedition.

To find out more above Alfreds project read posts on:

To watch more videos about past environmental change visit the Ecology of the Past YouTube channel.

Mapping Ancient Africa: Scientists

August 14, 2024
WDG

During the Mapping Ancient Africa writing workshop in Kenya (3-6 June 2024) Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr conducted a series of short interviews with the scientists attending. In this, final, instalment of the interviews the thoughts of the instructors on the course are presented. Watch all the Mapping Ancient Africa videos on the Mapping Ancient Africa YouTube Playlist.

The instructors

Bruk Lemma (Free University of Berlin, Germany)

Rahab Kinyanjui (National Museums of Kenya, Kenya & Max Plank Institute for Geoanthropology, Germany)

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Mapping Ancient Africa: Scientists

August 13, 2024
WDG

During the Mapping Ancient Africa writing workshop in Kenya (3-6 June 2024) Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr conducted a series of short interviews with the scientists attending. Below you can find part 2 (of 2) of the interviews with the participants in the workshop. Watch the videos to find out their scientific stories and top tips for academic writing. Watch all the Mapping Ancient Africa videos on the Mapping Ancient Africa YouTube Playlist.

The participants (part 2 of 2)

Ruth Kiely (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Husna Mashaka (Arizona State University, USA & National Museums of Kenya, Kenya)

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Mapping Ancient Africa: Scientists

August 12, 2024
WDG

During the Mapping Ancient Africa writing workshop in Kenya (3-6 June 2024) Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr conducted a series of short interviews with the scientists attending. During the interviews she asked the participants and instructors to describe their scientific background, what had motivated them to take part in the writing workshop, and what they thought the most important thing they had gained from it. You can now meet the first four of these scientists now by watching the videos below, or catch up with all the latest videos on the Mapping Ancient Africa YouTube Playlist.

The participants (part 1 of 2)

Olugbenga Boboye (University of Ibadan, Nigeria)

Angela Effiom (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)

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Mapping Ancient Africa: Writing workshop

June 5, 2024
WDG

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.

Scientific writing in action:

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Mapping Ancient Africa: Seminar 15

March 4, 2024
WDG

The fifteenth Mapping Ancient Africa seminar will take place on 15 March 2024 (17:00 CET)

  • Speaker: Bruk Lemma (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany; Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute – EBI)
  • Title: Nature’s Fingerprints: Exploring the Use of Biomarkers and Stable Isotopes in Unraveling Chemotaxonomy and (Paleo-)Climate Dynamics of the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia

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.

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Mapping Ancient Africa: Video of Seminar 12

April 14, 2023
WDG

The seminar delivered by Emma Mbua (National Museums of Kenya) on the 13th April 2023 was the twelfth in the Mapping Ancient Africa series. The seminar highlighted new finds from archaeological sites in eastern Africa that have yielded bones of various animals, including early humans.

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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Mapping Ancient Africa: Seminar 12

March 27, 2023
WDG

The twelfth Mapping Ancient Africa online seminar will take place on 13 April 2023 (17:00 CEST – Please note switch to European summer time).

  • Speaker: Emma Mbua (National Museums of Kenya)
  • Title: Newly discovered fossil sites in Kenya and their implications in human evolution discussions
  • Related publication: Mbua, E., Kusaka, S., Kunimatsu, Y., Geraads, D., Sawada, Y., Brown, F.H., Sakai, T., Boisserie, J., Saneyoshi, M., Omuombo, C., Muteti, S., Hirata, T., Hayashida, A., Iwano, H., Danhara, T., Bobe, R., Jicha, B. & Nakatsukasa, M. (2016) Kantis: A new Australopithecus site on the shoulders of the Rift Valley near Nairobi, Kenya. Journal of Human Evolution 94, 28-44. DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2016.01.006
  • Find out more about Emma’s work by visiting her “Trowel Blazers” profile.

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 Rahab Kinyanjui. 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.

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