Peter Mitchell. 2022. African islands: a comparative archaeology. Oxford: Routledge; 978-1-032-15691-0 paperback £35.99.

Antiquity · 2023-04-24

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The North Atlantic cod trade: A meta-analysis of the North American and European archaeological records

The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology · 2022-06-09 · 7 citations

Although the trans-Atlantic cod trade linked North American and European socioeconomic spheres, few studies analyze both regions concurrently to understand the impact and extent of cod trade at a wider scale. We summarize new results of zooarchaeological analysis from Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, Canada, a major North American cod-trading port, and consider its role in the wider trans-Atlantic trade network by conducting a meta-analysis of the archaeological record of cod trade during the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. We show that though cod remains are abundant in assemblages from the Northeast and Atlantic Canada where they were caught and processed, they are relatively rare in other North American assemblages, including Caribbean plantations where cod was imported in large quantities to support slave laborers. Furthermore, though North Atlantic cod have been identified isotopically in European assemblages, they are found primarily within the known habitat range of Atlantic cod at this time. Finally, by comparing European and North American datasets we demonstrate that length is unlikely to be reliable as a means of sourcing cod. This examination contributes to our understanding of cod’s important economic role in the development of trans-Atlantic connections between North American and European trading ports.

Diet, economy, and culinary practices at the height of precolonial Swahili urbanism

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology · 2022-03-11 · 17 citations

Swahili cuisine is known across Africa and globally as a highly distinctive product of a cosmopolitan, coastal, urban society. Here we present a comprehensive study of precolonial Swahili diet and culinary practices at the coastal town of Songo Mnara, positioning archaeological and ethnographic understandings of cuisine in a long-term coastal tradition. We explore contemporary food cultures and then present the first direct evidence for precolonial cuisine by combining ceramic lipid residue analysis with archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and faunal and human stable isotopic data. Integrating these datasets produces a detailed picture of diet at the site of Songo Mnara during the peak of precolonial Swahili urbanism. Lipid residue analysis demonstrates how plant and animal products were consumed and valued in ways not discernible from plant and animal remains alone. We also note special treatment for particular foodstuffs, including an association of fish consumption with high-status spaces and vessels, and preferential management of cattle for milk. A more complex picture of urban life emerges, recognizing influences of taste, class, and culture. Our findings demonstrate the potential of multi-layered anthropological studies for exploring cuisine and urban life in coastal contexts across the globe.

Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat (Rattus rattus) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history

Nature Communications · 2022 · 54 citations

• Biology
• Geography
• Zoology

The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we first generate a de novo genome assembly of the black rat. We then sequence 67 ancient and three modern black rat mitogenomes, and 36 ancient and three modern nuclear genomes from archaeological sites spanning the 1st-17th centuries CE in Europe and North Africa. Analyses of our newly reported sequences, together with published mitochondrial DNA sequences, confirm that black rats were introduced into the Mediterranean and Europe from Southwest Asia. Genomic analyses of the ancient rats reveal a population turnover in temperate Europe between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, coincident with an archaeologically attested decline in the black rat population. The near disappearance and re-emergence of black rats in Europe may have been the result of the breakdown of the Roman Empire, the First Plague Pandemic, and/or post-Roman climatic cooling.

Connecting Continents: Archaeology and History in the Indian Ocean World. KRISH SEETAH, editor. 2018. Ohio University Press, Athens. viii + 419 pp. $90.00 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-8214-2326-4.

American Antiquity · 2022-01-20

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67,000 years of coastal engagement at Panga ya Saidi, eastern Africa

PLoS ONE · 2021-08-26 · 26 citations

The antiquity and nature of coastal resource procurement is central to understanding human evolution and adaptations to complex environments. It has become increasingly apparent in global archaeological studies that the timing, characteristics, and trajectories of coastal resource use are highly variable. Within Africa, discussions of these issues have largely been based on the archaeological record from the south and northeast of the continent, with little evidence from eastern coastal areas leaving significant spatial and temporal gaps in our knowledge. Here, we present data from Panga ya Saidi, a limestone cave complex located 15 km from the modern Kenyan coast, which represents the first long-term sequence of coastal engagement from eastern Africa. Rather than attempting to distinguish between coastal resource use and coastal adaptations, we focus on coastal engagement as a means of characterising human relationships with marine environments and resources from this inland location. We use aquatic mollusc data spanning the past 67,000 years to document shifts in the acquisition, transportation, and discard of these materials, to better understand long-term trends in coastal engagement. Our results show pulses of coastal engagement beginning with low-intensity symbolism, and culminating in the consistent low-level transport of marine and freshwater food resources, emphasising a diverse relationship through time. Panga ya Saidi has the oldest stratified evidence of marine engagement in eastern Africa, and is the only site in Africa which documents coastal resources from the Late Pleistocene through the Holocene, highlighting the potential archaeological importance of peri-coastal sites to debates about marine resource relationships.

Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat ( <i>Rattus rattus</i> ) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · 2021-04-14 · 1 citations

Abstract The distribution of the black rat ( Rattus rattus ) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we generated a de novo genome assembly of the black rat, 67 ancient black rat mitogenomes and 36 ancient nuclear genomes from sites spanning the 1 st -17 th centuries CE in Europe and North Africa. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA confirm that black rats were introduced into the Mediterranean and Europe from Southwest Asia. Genomic analyses of the ancient rats reveal a population turnover in temperate Europe between the 6 th and 10 th centuries CE, coincident with an archaeologically attested decline in the black rat population. The near disappearance and re-emergence of black rats in Europe may have been the result of the breakdown of the Roman Empire, the First Plague Pandemic, and/or post-Roman climatic cooling.

Swahili Urban Foodways and Feasts: From Village to Town

The 86th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology · 2021-01-01

Anthropological contributions to historical ecology: 50 questions, infinite prospects

UNC Libraries · 2020-04-21

This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research questions for historical ecology obtained through crowdsourcing, literature reviews, and in-person workshopping. A deliberative approach was designed to maximize discussion and debate with defined outcomes. Two in-person workshops (in Sweden and Canada) over the course of two years and online discussions were peer facilitated to define specific key questions for historical ecology from anthropological and archaeological perspectives. The aim of this research is to showcase the variety of questions that reflect the broad scope for historical-ecological research trajectories across scientific disciplines. Historical ecology encompasses research concerned with decadal, centennial, and millennial human-environmental interactions, and the consequences that those relationships have in the formation of contemporary landscapes. Six interrelated themes arose from our consensus-building workshop model: (1) climate and environmental change and variability; (2) multi-scalar, multi-disciplinary; (3) biodiversity and community ecology; (4) resource and environmental management and governance; (5) methods and applications; and (6) communication and policy. The 50 questions represented by these themes highlight meaningful trends in historical ecology that distill the field down to three explicit findings. First, historical ecology is fundamentally an applied research program. Second, this program seeks to understand long-term human-environment interactions with a focus on avoiding, mitigating, and reversing adverse ecological effects. Third, historical ecology is part of convergent trends toward transdisciplinary research science, which erodes scientific boundaries between the cultural and natural.

Supplemental material for Toward a just and inclusive environmental archaeology of southwest Madagascar

Figshare · 2019-01-01

Supplemental Material for Toward a just and inclusive environmental archaeology of southwest Madagascar by Kristina Douglass, Eréndira Quintana Morales, George Manahira, Felicia Fenomanana, Roger Samba, Francois Lahiniriko, Zafy Maharesy Chrisostome, Voahirana Vavisoa, Patricia Soafiavy, Ricky Justome, Harson Leonce, Laurence Hubertine, Briand Venance Pierre, Carnah Tahirisoa, Christoph Sakisy Colomb, Fleurita Soamampionona Lovanirina, Vanillah Andriankaja and Rivo Robison in Journal of Social Archaeology