Forests of History: Satellite Remote Sensing and Archaeological Survey in Southern Ghana

Abstract

Archaeological research shows that people have inhabited the southern Ghanaian forest zone for millennia. Yet the cultural landscape is poorly known due to enormous logistical challenges that have frustrated survey efforts for the past century. Establishing long-term archaeological and regional perspectives on the settlement landscape and patterns of material culture is necessary to address larger social, political, and economic questions regarding the precolonial and pre-Atlantic history of West Africa. I argue that satellite remote sensing, combined with topographic data and traditional pedestrian survey methods, provides an important tool for surveying the forests of southern Ghana. These methods are used to identify settlement sites on hilltops and low rises in the coastal hinterlands occupied during the first and early second millennia AD. Satellite imagery is a useful tool not only for expediting archaeological survey but also for visualizing human relationships with the densely vegetated landscapes of West Africa.