Four of the projectile point fragments recovered from Kuumbi Cave: (A, C and G) impact fractures; (B and D) possible retrieval cut marks; (E) rounded tip; (F) post-depositional fracture revealing bone surface; (H) change in surface appearance. Magnification: A, C, G, and H at 65x; B at 85x; D at 100x; E at 200x. Image credit: Michelle C. Langley et al.
Historic International Criminal Court Trial Concerning Cultural Heritage Destruction in Mali Begins in The Hague
See the BBC story reporting on the first International Criminal Court trial concerning cultural heritage destruction.
The incredible quest to find the African slave ships that sank in the Atlantic
Check out the Washington Post's recent article "The incredible quest to find the African slave ships that sand in the Atlantic" by Kevin Sieff concerning underwater archaeology off the coast of Senegal. The story features archaeologist, Ibrahima Thiaw, and the Slave Wrecks Project.
2016 SAfA Book Prize
The Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA) has awarded its biennial SAfA Book Prize to Alfredo González Ruibal for, An Archaeology of Resistance: Materiality and Time in an African Borderland (2014, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 400 pages, ISBN 13: 978-1442230903).
From Rowman & Littlefield: An Archaeology of Resistance: Materiality and Time in an African Borderland studies the tactics of resistance deployed by a variety of indigenous communities in the borderland between Sudan and Ethiopia. The Horn of Africa is an early area of state formation and at the same time the home of many egalitarian, small scale societies, which have lived in the buffer zone between states for the last three thousand years. For this reason, resistance is not something added to their sociopolitical structures: it is an inherent part of those structures—a mode of being. The main objective of the work is to understand the diverse forms of resistance that characterizes the borderland groups, with an emphasis on two essentially archaeological themes, materiality and time, by combining archaeological, political and social theory, ethnographic methods and historical data to examine different processes of resistance in the long term.
2014 Book Review in Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa by Diane Lyons
2014 Book Review in Journal of African Archaeology by Jonathan R. Walz
Fossil footprints discovered in Eritrea
As reported on The Local in Italy, History.com, and Archaeology Magazine, researchers from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy and the National Museum of Eritrea have announced the discovery of fossil footprints likely dating to 800,000 years ago. The researchers contend that these footprints, found in the northern Danakil Depression of Eritrea, are probably those of Homo erectus.
