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Intra-African relations between rain forest and Mediterranean, ca. 6000 - 500 BP

The DFG Priority Programme “Entangled Africa: Inner African relations between the rainforest and the Mediterranean, around 6000 – 500 years ago” (SPP 2143) was established by the Senate of the German Research Foundation (DFG) in April 2017 for a period of 6 years.

The aim of the programme is to explore intra-African relations and networks of the last 6,000 years up to the beginning of the colonial period. The focus is on the transfer of objects and knowledge as well as the mobility of people and the mechanisms and motivations behind these processes. In close cooperation with our African partner institutions, we try to critically question national research traditions and European perspectives and to develop new perspectives for joint archaeological research in Africa.

In 2018, 12 projects including a coordination and a data management project were approved for an initial period of 3 years.

In 2021, a positive evaluation was carried out by the DFG and, as a result, the vast majority of projects were extended for a further 3 years until 2025; in addition, a new, 13th project was added.

The researchers of the SPP continuously publish their results in a number of academic publications. Furthermore, the results will be presented to the interested public in the “Planet Africa” exhibition starting in 2024.

Entangled Africa News

ENTANGLED AFRICA - NEWS

The aim of the programme is to explore intra-African relations and networks of the last 6,000 years up to the beginning of the colonial period. The focus is on the transfer of objects and knowledge as well as the mobility of people and the mechanisms and motivations behind these processes. In close cooperation with our African partner institutions, we try to critically question national research traditions and European perspectives and to develop new perspectives for joint archaeological research in Africa.

In 2018, 12 projects including a coordination and a data management project were approved for an initial period of 3 years.

In 2021, a positive evaluation was carried out by the DFG and, as a result, the vast majority of projects were extended for a further 3 years until 2025; in addition, a new, 13th project was added.

The researchers of the SPP continuously publish their results in a number of academic publications. Furthermore, the results will be presented to the interested public in the “Planet Africa” exhibition starting in 2024.

Join us on the journey

The Entangled Africa projects research in both relatively well known and almost unfamiliar regions south of the Sahara. Hand in hand, the humanities and natural sciences try to decipher the complex web of far-reaching relationships and interactions of Africa’s past.

In our Entangled Africa short films the projects present their goals and results. Discover with us which everyday objects and materials connect the past and the present as well as different regions of the continent. Accompany us and our African partner institutions on new paths of archaeology in Africa.

New release

Last in spring 2020, the team of project Connecting Foodways (P02) was able to visit Sudan and carry out archaeological research on ceramics and other finds of various excavations between the 5th and 6th cataract of the Nile. Additionally ethnographic information and samples for scientific analyses were collected.


With film footage of the projects: Connecting Foodways (P02), Borrowed words and shared objects (P09), Archeology and palaeoecology in the Inner Congo Basin (P10) and The Lake Chad region as a crossroad (P04).


Produced by Text + Bild Media Production and the SPP Coordination Project (P12).

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Last in spring 2020, the team of project Connecting Foodways (P02) was able to visit Sudan and carry out archaeological research on ceramics and other finds of various excavations between the 5th and 6th cataract of the Nile. Additionally ethnographic information and samples for scientific analyses were collected.


With film footage of the projects: Connecting Foodways (P02), Borrowed words and shared objects (P09), Archeology and palaeoecology in the Inner Congo Basin (P10) and The Lake Chad region as a crossroad (P04).


Produced by Text + Bild Media Production and the SPP Coordination Project (P12).

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Borrowed words

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Entangled Africa 2020
Kanem/Chad © C.Magnavita.
Borrowed words 2020
Entangled Africa 2020
Kanem/Chad © C.Magnavita.
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