At the SPP annual meeting held on Jan. 10, 2022, participants were able to enjoy the research results to date, along with exciting new findings.
On August 24, 2021, the time had finally come: During the 25th conference of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists, the virtual session "Entangled Africa: Interactions, relations and networks within Africa" organized by Alexa Höhn and Friederike Jesse took place. There was a lively discussion and exchange about prehistoric depictions of herdsmen up to the copper trade of the 19th century.
On Aug. 24, 2021, the 'Entangled Africa' research symposium "Interactions, relations and networks within Africa" will be held as part of SAfA 2021. From prehistoric pastoral representations in the Sahara to the 19th century copper trade, a wide range of topics will be discussed.
The remains of firewood, which was used at a daily basis in archaeological settlements, are indicators of the environment of a site and its changes due to climate and human impact. The first batch of SEM images of charcoal from Mege, Nigeria, was recently published in the webservice iDAI.objects. The open access images and data serve as a reference for colleagues and provide an introduction to charcoal research for young international scientists.
Entangled Africa' encompasses both the connectivity of people and the connectivity with and of ecosystems, plants, and landscapes. In the second meeting of the methodological working group "Natural Sciences", the course was set for collaborative research and data management across project boundaries.
We have all lacked the opportunity to exchange with colleagues from around the globe in the past year due to home office work and the cancellation of conferences. But now new formats have been found. Three projects of the 'Entangled Africa' program were able to present their research and engage in discussion with colleagues and friends on the topic of precolonial African history in the scope of the multi-platform conference “Extracting the past from the present” organized by Birgit Ricquier and her colleagues. [...]
Charcoal is a common find on archaeological sites. But the full range of information it contains is very often insufficiently used. Pieces of charcoal not only reveal their age (based on radiocarbon dating) but also which tree or group of tree species they once belonged to. This enables the reconstruction of vegetation types, landscapes and climate, and can even provide information about trade relations. [...]
The DFG Priority Programme (SPP) 2143: Entangled Africa and the TransArea Network Africa (TANA) have set themselves the task of illuminating Africa's history and integrating it into the knowledge network of the old world. [...]
Climate change and anthropogenic changes in the environment are two topics on which the projects working in the natural sciences in the SPP exchange information. [...]
The term "entangled" is associated with a great variety of meanings. We are anxious to network the projects and research branches within the programme and within Africa - the term has a long historical tradition. [...]