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Description
This book presents a comprehensive account of how archaeology in Africa evolved, was challenged, and reimagined. Moving from nineteenth-century antiquarianism through independence to today, the book dismantles dark continent myths, foregrounds African ways of knowing, and argues for a praxis of archaeologies: multivocal, community-engaged, and methodologically rigorous. Case-led chapters demonstrate how trade, mobility, religion, and the environment have produced diverse African pasts, while contemporary sections address restitution, heritage policy, tourism, and climate risk.
The book begins by clarifying what Africa signifies in scholarly and public discourse, then dismantles the enduring dark continent trope by setting colonial narratives against African intellectual traditions and evidence. Subsequent chapters track the emergence of archaeology, beginning with collections, amateurs, and missionaries, and progressing to professional excavations, surveys, and archaeological science, as well as the discipline s theoretical shifts, from culture history and processualism to post-processual and postcolonial critique, all examined through African case studies. The closing chapters set out why the past matters now: for identity, education, livelihoods, and environmental stewardship.
Clear prose, focused case studies (spanning deep prehistory to the second-millennium trade horizons), and a continent-wide lens make this volume essential for students and researchers, while its emphasis on ethics and engagement resonates with heritage professionals and the broader public. The result is a clear, compelling account of what African archaeology is, how it differs from older traditions, and why it matters for scholarship, for heritage stewardship, and for public life.
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. From darkness to dawn: dispelling the dark continent myth.- Chapter 3. The birth of archaeology.- Chapter 4. Antiquarianism, collections, missionaries: the early years.- Chapter 5. The emergence of archaeology in Africa.- Chapter 6. Archaeology comes of age during Africa s independence.- Chapter 7. Archaeology s diaspora across Africa.- Chapter 8. Why archaeology in Africa matters.- Chapter 9. From then, to now, to beyond: an archaeological-naissance.
Tim Forssman is an Associate Professor in Archaeology at the University of Mpumalanga, South Africa, and an affiliated researcher at the University of Pretoria. His research interests include forager and farmer histories, landscape archaeology, socio-political complexity, trade, exchange and craft networks, and social interactions. He currently leads an interdisciplinary study examining the social context and rise of Thulamela, and southern Africa s Indian Ocean trade networks. Tim is well-published and has written several books, most recently Foragers in the Middle Limpopo Valley: Trade, place-making, and complexity. Tim is also passionate about archaeological education and community outreach, and has co-developed a mobile museum initiative to advance the spread of archaeological knowledge.
