Archaeology and Settlement Histories Along the Pra River, Southern Ghana, Circa 500 B.C. – Ad 1970

Archaeological and historical data are used to examine transformations in settlement organizationand settlement patterns along the Pra River, southern Ghana, from the first millennium BC to the mid-twentieth century. The study\u27s focus is on Supomu Island and Wawase, two abandoned settlement sites located in the lower reaches of the Pra River, 15 kilometers north of the coastal trading and port town of Shama. Mapping of surface features, surface collections, shovel test pits, and test excavations are used to document intra- and inter-site artifact distributions. These lines of evidence are used in conjunction with historical sources to explore the processes of settlement formation, expansion, and abandonment at Supomu and Wawase over the past three millennia. The study illustrates how local and the emerging global processes of the Atlantic world played out within the settlement histories of these communities. The assemblage of European trade materials including ceramics, pipes, glass beads, and liquor bottles, and local materials like pottery, stone beads, and lithics from the sites are analyzed and compared. Although limited, this study provides the first local ceramic chronology of this locality. Archaeological evidence of a lithic component that underlies the Atlantic era at Wawase suggests a long-term continuous sequence of occupation at the site. This evidence is supported by a series of radiocarbon dates, which place the earliest occupation levels at Wawase in the first millennium BC. By contrast, at Supomu, archaeological and documentary evidence suggest an occupation period between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Supomu may have functioned as a sociopolitical and commercial center in the Shama hinterland during the Atlantic period. This is evidenced in the number and variety of European trade goods and census data in 1891, as well as transitions in the Supomu toponym and modern political organization in the Shama traditional area. The island\u27s importance in the region may have derived from its strategic location in the Pra River, which made it ideal for trade particularly in contraband, possibly including a continued trade in slaves during the nineteenth century following the abolition. The locality\u27s comparative isolation again played out in Wawase, the successor town of Supomu in the second quarter of the twentieth century, which expanded along the plains on the east bank of the Pra River adjacent to Supomu. The Wawase settlement appears to have actively participated in and profited from the burgeoning illegal liquor trade in the Gold Coast colony and postcolonial period

Isolation and Irradiation-Modification of Lignin Specimens from Black Liquor and Evaluation of Their Effects on Wastewater Purification

In this study, crude lignin extracted from the black liquor generated by a pulp and paper mill was modified by different doses of irradiation. The crude and irradiation-modified lignins were used to treat wastewater that was generated during the production of starch glucoamylase. Changes to the physical and chemical properties and structure of the irradiation-modified lignins were determined using scanning electron microscopy, solubility analysis, elemental analysis, analysis of phenolic hydroxyl group, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Irradiation reduced the phenolic hydroxyl content in the lignin but increased its solubility by about 40%; analysis revealed that irradiation also destroyed the skeletal structure of the benzene ring in the lignin. After four minutes of settling, the total nitrogen (TN) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the wastewater reached 7.0 mg/L and 1573.1 mg/L, respectively. The settled solids content and protein recovery were 1.12 g/L and 98%, respectively. This study suggested that irradiation-modified lignin extracted from black liquor generated in the pulp and paper industry can be used to treat wastewater from the production of starch glucoamylase

Insights into Past Ritual Practice at Yikpabongo, Northern Region, Ghana

Varied interpretations have been provided for the figurine mound sites located in Koma Land and in the Mogduri District, Northern Region, Ghana, including that they represent burial mounds or shrines. In particular, the producers or affiliates of the mounds are unknown, as the traditions of the present inhabitants of the archaeological region dissociate themselves from the mounds. Current excavations of the mounds have provided considerable contextual information, leading the excavation team to hypothesise that the mounds are best understood within a shrine context and that the figurines, possibly representing ancestors or other beings, were used in ceremonies aimed at communicating with the supernatural world for healing or other purposes