scholarly journals Climatic and cultural changes in the west Congo Basin forests over the past 5000 years

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1625) ◽  
pp. 20120304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Oslisly ◽  
Lee White ◽  
Ilham Bentaleb ◽  
Charly Favier ◽  
Michel Fontugne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Pennisetum Glaucum ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Cultural Changes ◽  
The Past

Central Africa includes the world's second largest rainforest block. The ecology of the region remains poorly understood, as does its vegetation and archaeological history. However, over the past 20 years, multidisciplinary scientific programmes have enhanced knowledge of old human presence and palaeoenvironments in the forestry block of Central Africa. This first regional synthesis documents significant cultural changes over the past five millennia and describes how they are linked to climate. It is now well documented that climatic conditions in the African tropics underwent significant changes throughout this period and here we demonstrate that corresponding shifts in human demography have had a strong influence on the forests. The most influential event was the decline of the strong African monsoon in the Late Holocene, resulting in serious disturbance of the forest block around 3500 BP. During the same period, populations from the north settled in the forest zone; they mastered new technologies such as pottery and fabrication of polished stone tools, and seem to have practised agriculture. The opening up of forests from 2500 BP favoured the arrival of metallurgist populations that impacted the forest. During this long period (2500–1400 BP), a remarkable increase of archaeological sites is an indication of a demographic explosion of metallurgist populations. Paradoxically, we have found evidence of pearl millet ( Pennisetum glaucum ) cultivation in the forest around 2200 BP, implying a more arid context. While Early Iron Age sites (prior to 1400 BP) and recent pre-colonial sites (two to eight centuries BP) are abundant, the period between 1600 and 1000 BP is characterized by a sharp decrease in human settlements, with a population crash between 1300 and 1000 BP over a large part of Central Africa. It is only in the eleventh century that new populations of metallurgists settled into the forest block. In this paper, we analyse the spatial and temporal distribution of 328 archaeological sites that have been reliably radiocarbon dated. The results allow us to piece together changes in the relationships between human populations and the environments in which they lived. On this basis, we discuss interactions between humans, climate and vegetation during the past five millennia and the implications of the absence of people from the landscape over three centuries. We go on to discuss modern vegetation patterns and African forest conservation in the light of these events.

scholarly journals Isotopic and microbotanical insights into Iron Age agricultural reliance in the Central African rainforest

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine Bleasdale ◽  
Hans-Peter Wotzka ◽  
Barbara Eichhorn ◽  
Julio Mercader ◽  
Amy Styring ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Pennisetum Glaucum ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Dental Calculus ◽  
Subsistence Strategies ◽  
Animal Remains ◽  
Environmental Requirements

Abstract The emergence of agriculture in Central Africa has previously been associated with the migration of Bantu-speaking populations during an anthropogenic or climate-driven ‘opening’ of the rainforest. However, such models are based on assumptions of environmental requirements of key crops (e.g. Pennisetum glaucum) and direct insights into human dietary reliance remain absent. Here, we utilise stable isotope analysis (δ13C, δ15N, δ18O) of human and animal remains and charred food remains, as well as plant microparticles from dental calculus, to assess the importance of incoming crops in the Congo Basin. Our data, spanning the early Iron Age to recent history, reveals variation in the adoption of cereals, with a persistent focus on forest and freshwater resources in some areas. These data provide new dietary evidence and document the longevity of mosaic subsistence strategies in the region.

Frameworks for Europe’s Past

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Douglas Price
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Archaeological Research ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Growth And Change ◽  
Early Human ◽  
Prehistoric Time

This book is about the prehistoric archaeology of Europe—the lives and deaths of peoples and cultures—about how we became human; the rise of hunters; the birth and growth of society; the emergence of art; the beginnings of agriculture, villages, towns and cities, wars and conquest, peace and trade—the plans and ideas, achievements and failures, of our ancestors across hundreds of thousands of years. It is a story of humanity on planet Earth. It’s also about the study of the past—how archaeologists have dug into the ground, uncovered the remaining traces of these ancient peoples, and begun to make sense of that past through painstaking detective work. This book is about prehistoric societies from the Stone Age into the Iron Age. The story of European prehistory is one of spectacular growth and change. It begins more than a million years ago with the first inhabitants. The endpoint of this journey through the continent’s past is marked by the emergence of the literate societies of classical Greece and Rome. Because of a long history of archaeological research and the richness of the prehistoric remains, we know more about the past of Europe than almost anywhere else. The prehistory of Europe is, in fact, one model of the evolution of society, from small groups of early human ancestors to bands of huntergatherers, through the arrival of the first farmers to the emergence of hierarchical societies and powerful states in the Bronze and Iron Ages. The chapters of our story are the major ages of prehistoric time (Stone, Bronze, and Iron). The content involves the places, events, and changes of those ages from ancient to more recent times. The focus of the chapters is on exceptional archaeological sites that provide the background for much of this story. Before we can begin, however, it is essential to review the larger context in which these developments took place. This chapter is concerned with the time and space setting of the archaeology of Europe.

New Evidence of Human Activities During the Holocene in the Lowland Forests of the Northern Congo Basin

Radiocarbon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Morin-Rivat ◽  
Adeline Fayolle ◽  
Jean-François Gillet ◽  
Nils Bourland ◽  
Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Intermediate Phase ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Bimodal Distribution ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Botanical Remains

In the last decade, the myth of the pristine tropical forest has been seriously challenged. In central Africa, there is a growing body of evidence for past human settlements along the Atlantic forests, but very little information is available about human activities further inland. Therefore, this study aimed at determining the temporal and spatial patterns of human activities in an archaeologically unexplored area of 110,000 km2 located in the northern Congo Basin and currently covered by dense forest. Fieldwork involving archaeology as well as archaeobotany was undertaken in 36 sites located in southeastern Cameroon and in the northern Republic of Congo. Evidence of past human activities through either artifacts or charred botanical remains was observed in all excavated test pits across the study area. The set of 43 radiocarbon dates extending from 15,000 BP to the present time showed a bimodal distribution in the Late Holocene, which was interpreted as two phases of human expansion with an intermediate phase of depopulation. The 2300–1300 BP phase is correlated with the migrations of supposed farming populations from northwestern Cameroon. Between 1300 and 670 BP, less material could be dated. This is in agreement with the population collapse already reported for central Africa. Following this, the 670–20 BP phase corresponds to a new period of human expansion known as the Late Iron Age. These results bring new and extensive evidence of human activities in the northern Congo Basin and support the established chronology for human history in central Africa.

New radiocarbon dates for Eastern and Southern Africa

1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. G. Sutton
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Congo Basin ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Eastern And Southern Africa

This article is a follow-up to that of Mr D. W. Phillipson published in this Journal in 1970, and to the six earlier lists compiled for the whole of sub-Saharan Africa by Dr B. M. Fagan. I have endeavoured to include here all radiocarbon dates for archaeological sites of the Iron Age and most of those of the end of the Stone Age in the eastern and southern part of Africa—that is from Ethiopia, the Upper Nile and the Congo Basin southward—which have been published or made available since the preparation of the former articles. Some of these dates are already included in recent numbers of the Journal Radiocarbon, or have been mentioned in publications elsewhere, as indicated in the footnotes. A large proportion of these new dates, however, have not yet been published, and are included here through the agreement of the various individual archaeologists and research bodies, all of whom I wish to thank for their cooperation. In particular, I am indebted to Mr David Phillipson for his willing assistance in providing a number of contacts and relaying information from southern Africa.

The Prehistoric Sequence at Nakapapula Rockshelter, Zambia

1970 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 172-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Phillipson
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Late Stone Age ◽  
Age Sequence ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Considerable attention has recently been paid to the start of the Iron Age in East and Central Africa. One of the most interesting problems concerning this period is that of the relationship of the Early Iron Age farming people to the hunter-gatherers of the Late Stone Age whom they eventually displaced. Very few archaeological sites are known, and none have yet been published, which illustrate the Late Stone Age/Iron Age transition in Central Africa, and discussions of this and related problems have so far been largely based on conjecture. Evidence concerning this important transition was recently unearthed at Nakapapula rockshelter in the Serenje District of central Zambia. Here a long and relatively homogeneous Late Stone Age sequence of Nachikufan type was seen to continue into the 2nd millennium A.D., that is, well after the first appearance of Early Iron Age pottery at this site and elsewhere in Zambia. Nakapapula has also yielded the first archaeological evidence for the date of schematic rock art in Central Africa and confirmed its contemporaneity with the Early Iron Age.

African Biomes

Ecology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony R.E. Sinclair ◽  
Rene L. Beyers
Keyword(s):  
Protected Areas ◽  
National Park ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Niche Partitioning ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Ecosystem Dynamics ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
North West ◽  
The Past

Africa has a great diversity of environmental conditions. It is bisected by the equator so that the seasons are six months out of phase north and south of it. There are tropical forests on the west side as well as in the center of the continent. In roughly concentric rings out from the forest, there are progressively drier vegetation types from woodland, savanna, and grassland to desert. There are several major rivers flowing north, west, and east. Africa has also been the center of evolution of many large mammal groups. It has a high diversity of birds and insects. It is also the origin of the human species, and humans have influenced and modified the landscape for hundreds of thousands of years. Humans evolved there over the past four million years. The environment and the biomes that result from it in turn shaped the evolution of humans. Over the Pleistocene (past two million years), the environment swung from warm and wet to cool and dry several times, and consequently the biomes changed in extent from continuous forest (that stretched from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean) to dry savanna and desert with only small patches of forest in West and Central Africa. These changes that were connected to the ice ages of temperate regions affected human populations. In the past millennium, human numbers have increased and migrations have moved peoples southward through the forests of Central Africa and into eastern and southern Africa. These movements have modified the biomes through grazing pressures on grasslands and agriculture in savanna. In the 20th century, forests were modified through deforestation. Wildlife conservation and ecotourism are prominent in Africa. There are several large protected areas especially in eastern and southern savanna Africa, with some less-known areas of forest reserves. Scientific studies on these protected areas over several decades describe the biology and ecosystem dynamics perhaps better than any other continent. There are scientific syntheses on the Kruger National Park, South Africa, and the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Both highlight how the whole ecosystem changes over time with climate change, human population increases, disease outbreaks, and other disturbances. The following sections first cover the vegetation types that are called Biomes; two abiotic environmental factors, climate and fire (Climate Variability and Patterns of Drought and Fire); prominent animal groups characteristic of Africa (Large Mammals, Primates, and Birds); dominant processes such as herbivory, predation, niche partitioning, facilitation, and migration (Herbivory, Predators and Predation, Niche Partitioning, Facilitation, and Migrations); and finally the expansion of human impacts on biomes and the related aspects of traditional livelihoods and conservation (Traditional Human Livelihoods and Conservation). Social and political history also modify human impacts but are not covered in this review.

scholarly journals THE INVISIBLE MOATS OF THE MUN RIVER VALLEY, NE THAILAND: THE EXAMINATION OF WATER MANAGEMENT DEVICES AT MOUNDED SITES THROUGH GROUND PENETRATING RADAR (GPR)

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Duke ◽  
Nigel J Chang ◽  
Ian Moffat ◽  
Wayne Morris
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Ground Penetrating Radar ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ground Penetrating ◽  
Non Destructive

<p>The Mun River valley is well known for its moat-bound mounded archaeological sites that are usually associated with Iron Age occupation (~500BC- AD500).  The investigation of these sites has provided a wealth of information on the changing social and environmental conditions during prehistory.  In recent years, research has identified a greater diversity of site morphologies in the region, many of which, importantly, do not appear to have moats surrounding them.  This paper seeks to investigate whether the apparently ‘non-moated’ mound site of Non Klang (Nong Hua Raet village) was actually moated in the past, and if such, now in-filled features can be investigated through non-destructive Ground Penetrating Radar methodology.  Additionally, while large external moats can be observed in the modern day topography at sites such as Ban Non Wat, excavation has demonstrated that further, invisible, water management features exist beneath the surface within the current mound boundary of the site.  These are probably Iron Age precursors to the later more extensive and still visible moats.  This paper seeks to answer several fundamental questions: What application can GPR have at mounded sites in Southeast Asia?  Do invisible moats exist?  How will this affect our understanding of the broader prehistoric landscape in the Upper Mun River Valley?  </p>

scholarly journals Population Dynamics and Human Strategies in Northwestern Patagonia

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 2-21
Author(s):  
Gustavo Neme ◽  
Marcelo Zárate ◽  
María de la Paz Pompei ◽  
Fernando Franchetti ◽  
Adolfo Gil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Probability Distributions ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Middle Holocene

In this paper we evaluate the role of human strategies in the Andean Piedmont from northern Patagonia across the Holocene. Specifically, we present the analysis of the Early Holocene-Late Holocene archaeological record of Salamanca cave (Mendoza-Argentina). We identified technological changes that occurred during the Late Holocene and the implications of a human occupation hiatus in the Middle Holocene. We follow a multiproxy approach by the analysis of radiocarbon dates, archaeofaunal remains, ceramic, lithics and XRF obsidian sourcing. We also discuss a detailed stratigraphic sequence by geomorphological descriptions, the construction of a radiocarbon sequence model and summed probability distributions, compared with other archaeological sites in the region. We conclude that after the Middle Holocene archaeological hiatus, human populations grew while guanaco populations dropped. The imbalance between demography and resources boosted the incorporation of new technologies such as ceramics and the bow and arrow, allowing people to exploit lower-ranked resources.

scholarly journals The invisible moats of the Mun River Valley, NE Thailand: The examination of water management devices at mounded sites through ground penetrating radar (GPR)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda Duke ◽  
Nigel Chang ◽  
Ian Moffat ◽  
Wayne Morris
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Ground Penetrating Radar ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ground Penetrating ◽  
Non Destructive

The Mun River valley is well known for its moat-bound mounded archaeological sites that are usually associated with Iron Age occupation (~500BC- AD500). The investigation of these sites has provided a wealth of information on the changing social and environmental conditions during late prehistory. In recent years, research has identified a greater diversity of site morphologies in the region, many of which, importantly, do not appear to have moats surrounding them. This paper seeks to investigate whether the apparently ‘non-moated’ mound site of Non Klang (Nong Hua Raet village) was actually moated in the past, and if such, now in-filled, features can be investigated using non-destructive Ground-penetrating radar. Additionally, while large external moats can be observed in the modern day topography at sites such as Ban Non Wat, excavation has demonstrated that further, invisible, water management features exist beneath the surface within the current mound boundary of the site. These are probably Iron Age precursors to the later more extensive and still visible moats. This paper seeks to answer several fundamental questions: What application can GPR have at mounded sites in Southeast Asia? Do invisible moats exist? How will this affect our understanding of the broader prehistoric landscape in the Upper Mun River Valley?

scholarly journals Population inter-connectivity over the past 120,000 years explains distribution and diversity of Central African hunter-gatherers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias ◽  
Lane Atmore ◽  
Jesus Olivero ◽  
Karen Lupo ◽  
Andrea Manica ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Effective Population ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The Past ◽  
Population Sizes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Local Differentiation

The evolutionary history of African hunter-gatherers holds key insights into modern human diversity. Here we combine ethnographic and genetic data on Central African hunter-gatherers (CAHG) to show that their current distribution and density is explained by ecology rather than by a displacement to marginal habitats due to recent farming expansions, as commonly assumed. We also predicted hunter-gatherer presence across Central Africa over the past 120,000 years using paleoclimatic reconstructions, which were statistically validated by dated archaeological sites. Finally, we show that genomic estimates of separation times between CAHG groups match our ecological estimates of periods favouring population splits, and that recoveries of connectivity would have facilitated subsequent gene-flow. Our results reveal that CAHG stem from a deep history of partially connected populations. This form of sociality allowed the coexistence of relatively large effective population sizes and local differentiation, with important implications for the evolution of genetic and cultural diversity in Homo sapiens.

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