Archaeology in Africa continues to be shaped by a long history of asymmetrical perspectives—colonial, Eurocentric, and post-colonial—that often reduce the continent to a passive recipient of outside interpretations. However, “Africa is various”, writes Kwame Anthony Appiah (1992) and Shepherd remembers one decade later (2002). Yet, as the contributions to this issue of Ex Novo demonstrate, African archaeologies are anything but static. They are dynamic fields of inquiry that interweave natural and cultural heritage, confront systemic challenges, and challenge entrenched stereotypes while generating new educational and social opportunities.

This study presents an interdisciplinary investigation into a fragmentary wooden drum found in the abandoned village of Sibi Kili, located in the Niokolo Koba National Park in Senegal. Combining ethnobotanical and ethnoarchaeological research, qualitative ethnographic interviews and wood anatomical analyses, the study offers new insights into the material and spiritual culture of Mandinka communities. Drum-related information emerged through open-ended and follow-up conversations during fieldwork in villages near the park. The drum – historically used as a communicative and ritual instrument – was identified through microscopic analysis and ethnographic evidence as being crafted from Cordyla pinnata, a culturally significant and increasingly endangered tree species. The study reveals the material’s durability, symbolic resonance, and ecological context. More than a musical object, the drum served as a medium of spiritual, social, and political communication, deeply embedded in rites of passage, community mobilisation, and traditional authority. This case highlights the importance of ephemeral artefacts in African archaeology and calls attention to the preservation of wooden cultural materials as repositories of intangible heritage. The findings affirm the value of integrative research approaches for understanding the long-term human-environment interactions and the cultural biographies of objects.

The Tangier Peninsula, located on the northwestern African side of the Strait of Gibraltar, occupies a unique geostrategic position that has operated since the Late Stone Age as a connecting gateway between Europe and Africa, as well as the inner Atlantic and the Mediterranean. This paper explores how, from c. 3000 to 500 BC, such all-round connectivity is reified in the occurrence of a rich mosaic of burial traditions, ritual practices, symbolic sites, rock art, and unique megalithic monuments that span imposed modern continental divides. Through fieldwork, radiocarbon dating, and GIS-based analysis, this study suggests that the ritual landscapes of the Tangier Peninsula are far more complex and widespread than previously assumed, with their closest parallels in late prehistoric southern Iberia and the Sahara. By providing the first radiocarbon date for a northwest African cist, that at Daroua Zaydan, this paper also establishes an Early Bronze Age terminus post quem for this burial tradition. This new evidence challenges prevailing narratives and underscores the need to reevaluate the colonial biases that have shaped scholarly discourse in North African archaeology. By shedding light on the social, cultural, and economic dynamics of northwestern Africa, this paper highlights the region’s significant role in trans-regional networks, offering new insights into the broader dynamics of the late prehistoric western Mediterranean and inner Atlantic.

ABSTRACTArchaeological field research in South African archaeology has been dominated by rock shelters. While rock shelters provide the advantage of a defined area of investigation and more limited processes of erosion and sediment accumulation, they only capture part of the archaeological, environmental and landscape records. More of the record can be found in open‐air sites; however, these require a different methodological approach within which geophysical techniques can be used to provide information on the stratigraphy of a site and identify possible subsurface archaeological anomalies, potentially reducing uncertainty and time‐and‐labour costs associated with traditional survey and excavation techniques. This study uses two geophysical methods, electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and magnetometry, to further understand the stratigraphy and archaeology of Klein Hoek 1, an open‐air site located adjacent to the Doring River in South Africa. This site contains one of the most important collections of bifacial points in southern Africa, which is a key region for understanding the emergence of behaviourally modern humans. The results of the ERT survey demonstrate that the stratigraphic unit from which the cluster of bifacial points protrudes extends throughout the subsurface of the site and is at least 8 m thick. The magnetometry survey reveals evidence of possible hearth anomalies within the subsurface, which are interpreted as areas of archaeological potential due to a correlation between the cluster of bifacial points and prehistoric burning. The results of this survey demonstrate that geophysical methods can be effective components of archaeological investigations in a southern African open‐air context.

Abstract Lead isotopic analysis (LIA) has become a powerful tool in archaeology for identifying the geological source, or provenance, of non‐ferrous metals and their alloys. Most applications have historically focused on Europe, but there is also a long, and rapidly expanding, history of LIA application to the archaeological record of Africa. Here we highlight how Africanist archaeologists can apply LIA to understand materials provenance and circulation, and we discuss why this technique works well in Central and southern Africa but requires a more nuanced approach for applications in North, West, and East Africa.

Abstract The paper discusses the relevance of the term ‘Bronze Age’ as a chronological term in Northeast Africa by taking a closer look at definitions and the presence of bronze objects especially in Nubia. As chronological classification very much depends on the area under consideration, the use of regional chronologies is proposed.

Abstract Stone artifacts (lithics) preserve for extended periods; thus they are key evidence for probing the evolution of human technological behaviors. Africa boasts the oldest record of stone artifacts, spanning 3.3 Ma, rare instances of ethnographic stone tool‐making, and stone tool archives from diverse ecological settings, making it an anchor for research on the long‐term temporal and spatial trends in human evolution. This paper reviews the application of scientific methods for studying African stone artifacts and highlights several popular research themes on the continent, including the origins of flaked stone technology, hunter‐gatherer mobility and landscape use, technological variability, function, biocultural evolution, and ancient human cognition. We conclude by outlining some key challenges to future lithic research in Africa.

East Africa boasts one of the longest histories of humankind. From hominid origins to the present, people have roamed, interacted with one another, and influenced the environment in innumerable ways. To teach about the archaeology of East Africa is to engage with the deepest history of humankind, from Hominin evolution to historical archaeology and the archaeology of listening. Each topic has developed its own peculiar and complex analytical methodologies that require varied resources and degrees of intensity and investment in training and mentoring. This review discusses advances made over the past two decades in the research and dissemination of archaeological knowledge about East Africa. Beyond the major issues that stimulate scientific research and debates, what debates have been settled? Which emerging threats must East African archaeologists overcome to ensure a sustained practice of archaeology in the future?

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the assemblage of over 20,000 glass beads and several kilograms of production waste excavated from Igbo-Olokun, southwest Nigeria. It presents the classificatory model adopted to understand the physical attributes of the assemblage for comparison and to begin developing the first West African glass bead series. While most glass beads in the archaeological context in West Africa are designated ‘exotic’ with, sometimes, a degree of modification to meet local tastes and values, the assemblage from Igbo-Olokun presents a case of ‘total’ local production and provides a unique opportunity for the reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire of glass beads in Ile-Ife. Combining results from the classification and the chemical composition of the beads and waste, this paper argues that the Ile-Ife HLHA glass bead forms a series that warrants fuller consideration in West African archaeology. Understanding the production, consumption and broader distribution of this series allows a robust discussion on the ‘glass bead roads’, i.e. the commercial networks that criss-crossed the West African region. This notion of ‘glass bead roads’ moves the analysis of archaeological beads away from the realm of mere exotics or objects of personal adornment and places them instead at the centre of discourses of regional interaction, affirming their agency in the early commercial networks in West Africa.

Colonial aspects of African archaeology include how national archaeology institutions operate, how archaeological research is funded, how archaeological knowledge is produced and disseminated, and who is practicing archaeology. Most edited volumes about African archaeology continue to be dominated by European and North American authors, even several decades after scores of African archaeologists began to research and publish on the continent. Hence, it is essential to ask who and what determines the archaeological research agenda in African countries. This paper presents findings from the quest to historicise the archaeological research agenda in Uganda. It particularly identifies the archaeological research agenda in the last century, examines how it has directed the nature of archaeological research, and questions the role of Ugandan institutions and scholars. Primary and secondary sources in this research include archival research, individual interviews, and literature reviews. The results suggest that despite the well-established Ugandan institutions, including Makerere University, that deal with archaeology and the emergence of Ugandan archaeologists in the 2000s, funding sources continue to dictate the patterns and trends of archaeological research agendas and the impact of practitioners and institutions.

This paper explores the historical and contemporary significance of visibility in human interactions with their environments, particularly in the context of archaeology and the application of geographic information systems (GIS) for visibility analysis. The study highlights the role of visibility analysis in investigating not only the physical visibility of features in landscapes but also the cultural significance associated with seeing or not seeing them. It draws from the ‘visibility relates’ principle, which argues that individuals tend to establish connections with visible entities. The focus is on comparing nineteenth-century urban settlements (Kaditshwene, Molokwane, and Marothodi) in the Magaliesberg region of South Africa, particularly examining the strategic positioning of kraals within these Sotho-Tswana farming communities. These settlements are some of the more popular Late Farming Communities (AD 1300–1840) in South Africa; hence, they have archaeological background and are among the few, if not the only ones, that have LiDAR data coverage. The findings reveal distinctions in visibility at both settlement and household scalar levels, with Kaditshwene standing out as different from Marothodi and Molokwane. This suggests that kraals were strategically located to be more or less visible based on specific settlement circumstances, such as attracting people from other communities and concerns about cattle theft. This study contributes to GIS approaches to archaeological sites and landscapes in Africa and calls for more extensive use of geospatial statistics in African archaeology.

African Archaeology at the Crossroads

Twenty-four years ago, the National Heritage Resources Act, No. 25 of 1999 (NHRA) was enacted in South Africa. This was a moment of change, when the heritage of those marginalised during the colonial and Apartheid eras would finally be given its rightful place on the national heritage list. There was a sense of optimism amongst politicians that the African past was finally to be recognised in an inclusive and representative future. This was echoed in archaeology, given its central role in uncovering and telling the story of precolonial South Africa. The discipline slowly opened its doors to academics of all ethnic groups and new perspectives were identified. But an examination of the practical consequences and impact of this progressive legislation for transforming officially declared heritage in the past 24 years shows surprisingly little change in the overall body of recognized, listed heritage. Recent studies of transformation in South African archaeology have focussed on institutional transformation; possible transformation of the types and frequency of sites declared as national and provincial heritage sites has not yet been examined. It is this issue which our paper addresses. The paper presents analysis that relies on the South African Heritage Resources Information System (SAHRIS) database covering the period 1936 to mid-2022. Whilst sites associated with European colonialism still predominate, there has been a change in the frequency of types of heritage declared since 1999, with an increase in sites associated with the Black liberation struggle. Yet the list remains very unbalanced, with only a single heritage site connected to the precolonial past of Black South Africans having been declared as a national heritage site since 1999. We discuss and classify the types of heritage declared since 1999 and suggest reasons for the distortion.

The African Archaeology Review (AAR) journal recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. To mark this occasion, a special issue was compiled with an innovative theme: Archaeology for Education. To achieve this, the AAR editorial team assembled a group of academic researchers in archaeology with the proposition of writing articles collaboratively with educators that would make their research centred on Africa’s rich pasts accessible for use in school learning. The goal is to change the stories we tell about Africa both within and outside the continent.

African Epistemologies and Ontologies: Building a Pathway that Elevates African Ways of Constructing the World as Part of a Future African Archaeology

Training and Collaboration in African Archaeology

Archaeology holds great potential to enrich and enhance culturally responsive school learning within and beyond Africa. Archaeology reveals hidden and forgotten history and brings longterm perspective to contemporary issues like those foregrounded by the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through inquiry that combines scientific methods with cultural understandings, archaeology sheds light on how people in past societies related to one another and with communities around them. It provides evidence of how people sustained well-being, interacted with resources on which they relied, and engaged with wider landscapes. It lends insight into daily practices as well as long-term perspectives on how people affected their environments and how environments shaped people's actions. Given its wide scope and interdisciplinary

The land, ‘things’/objects, and memory in the form of narratives and metaphors are intricately bound together. They all constitute the iconography of a shared set of ideas, beliefs, feelings, values, practices, and performances that objectify collective identities. Respectively, these complex entangled tangible and spiritual/invisible indices of identities situated in places deserve special archaeological devotion. However, since African archaeology and history remains trapped in Eurocentric colonial metanarratives, indigenous epistemologies and ontologies have somehow remained on the margins of knowledge production processes. This deliberate erasure and silencing continues to impede archaeology’s capacity to explore hidden meanings and values that people imbue to places and landscapes through time. Owing to this setback, multiple precolonial group identities in parts of Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique such as Torwa, Twamamba, Rozvi, Singo, and Venda, among others, remain vague and subjectively tied to the archaeology of Butua/Torwa (AD 1400–1644) and Rozvi (AD 1685–1830) state systems. The failure to read the landscape as both a repository of memory and an agent for collective identities continues to compound our archaeological challenges. Against this background, Rozvi oral narratives and the Insiza cluster Khami-phase sites in southwestern Zimbabwe are subjected to renewed scrutiny. Following a critical review of colonial archives and Rozvi traditions, it turned out that instead of contradicting ‘science’, oral traditions actually amplify our reading of the archaeological record, only if handled properly.

Glass in African Archaeology: A New Methodology Offers New Opportunities

David Phillipson: An Illustrious Synthesizer of African Archaeology