930 Geschichte des Altertums bis ca. 499, Archäologie
Refine
Document Type
- Article (9)
Has Fulltext
- yes (9)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (9)
Institute
- SFB 268 (9) (remove)
Les sites découverts dans la région d'Absouya constituent les témoins d'un peuplement préhistorique et protohistorique. La majorité est composée de sites de production du fer auxquels s'ajoutent des sites d'habitation et un atelier de taille d'outils lithiques. L'association sur certains sites de vestiges de natures et apparemment d'époques différentes pose le problème de leur appartenance culturelle et de leur position chronologique. Le seul repère actuel est l'épopée «Wubrienne» datée du XVe siècle. Il est probable que certains sites soient antérieurs à cette époque et d'autres postérieurs à cette date. Des fouilles systématiques accompagnées de datations isotopiques permettront de mieux cerner l'évolution de l'environnement géographique, végétal et de situer les sites sur le plan chronologique.
The Yobe valley is one of the many refugia that dotted the Chad basin after the commencement of the desiccation of the Sahara. It hypothetically must have been attractive to the population that had to move away from the aridized zone in search of favourable ecotones. As the Mega Chad receded from its Bama ridge shores, new lands were progressively made available for human occupation along the valley. It is one of the principal goals of the Yobe Valley Archaeological project to investigate how and when this new valley was occupied. This paper has been divided into three principal sections. The first section deals with the search for the earliest settlements of the Yobe valley. The excavations conducted at Garingada and Damakarwa were aimed at tackling this problem. The second section deals with the development of complexity. The excavation at Gambaru was directed towards this problem. The third section seeks to discuss on the bases of the excavations at the three sites, manenvironment relationship. The concluding part of the paper focuses attention on the problems and prospects of the Yobe Valley Archaeological Project.
The architecture and chemistry of a dug-out : the Dufuna canoe in ethno-archaeological perspective
(1993)
This research work emanated from a joint research project between the Johann-Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Germany and the University of Maiduguri, Nigeria; as outlined in the Bilateral Agreement of July 21st 1988.1 The research program is interdisciplinary in nature involving these areas: Archaeology, Geography, Linguistics and Historical Ethnology; all under the general theme of West African Savannah. Considerable research work has already been carried out in these areas by German explorers and scholars dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. The project is funded by the German Research Foundation. The present paper addresses itself purely to one and very important aspect of an archaeological campaign undertaken in the Chad Region of Nigeria in late 1990/1991 season. In consequence to reconnaissance survey and excavation conducted at a site called Gajiganna, abundant lithic materials were noticed and collected. The crucial question one poses to the site which lacks physical outcrops in and within the precinct of the settlement are, what could have been the source of the raw materials at the site? Were they transported from somewhere to the site? If so, why was it necessary for the materials to be brought to this site? These and other related questions posed a serious commodity problem for most sites in Borno with lithic materials.
The architecture and chemistry of a dug-out: the Dufuna Canoe in ethno-archaeological perspective
(1996)
It is the intention of this paper to highlight the processes involved in the production of a dug-out. Two disciplines appear strikingly clear in the title of this paper; architecture and chemistry. It is deliberate, exhibiting the multifaceted approach to issues in archaeology. The Dufuna canoe, the main subject of the discussion, is entirely an organic material, long used by prehistoric populations, abandoned and covered in a huge deposit of earth, unearthed by the spade in two streams of excavations for the purpose of dating, measurements, documentation, which yielded a date of 8500 years as the oldest canoe in Africa and one of the oldest in the world. Who could have produced such an "artefact"? These and other related questions are fundamental towards the understanding of the history and society that lived in that environment in prehistory. Since we are dealing with a single "artefact" produced by prehistoric populations, long gone and extinct, we would not be in a position to reconstruct the processes of manufacture of the dug-out by any source other than by ethno-archaeological and ethnographic investigation and experiment of the contemporary society which manipulates similar environment with a view to stimulating the past mode of production. The method used in the data collection was by oral interviews and field observation.
Wasserfahrzeuge sind die ersten Verkehrsmittel der Menschheit. Es gibt Überlegungen, ob sie eine zentrale Rolle beim Vordringen der neolithischen Lebensweise nach Mitteleuropa gespielt haben, aber auch zwingende Annahmen, dass sie bereits in weitaus früherer Zeit zur globalen Verbreitung des Menschen beigetragen haben. Im Rahmen des Frankfurter Sonderforschungsbereichs "Westafrikanische Savanne" wurden im nigerianischen Teil des Tschadbeckens Untersuchungen an einem Boot vorgenommen, dessen Alter eine neue Sicht über die Beteiligung Afrikas an der Geschichte der Verkehrsmittel erfordert. Das im Folgenden vorgestellte Boot stammt aus einer Zeit, die im Tschadbecken archäologisch nur außerhalb der damaligen Erstreckung des Mega-Tschads faßbar ist und die der Erfindung der ältesten Fortbewegungsmittel der Menschheit einen originär afrikanischen Ursprung verleiht.