Beads as Chronological Indicators in West African Archaeology: A Reexamination

Drawing primarily on data obtained from recent excavations at Elmina, Ghana, this report examines the potential use of beads as temporal markers in West African archaeology. It is argued that although beads from West-African contexts are difficult to date, they provide more information than has previously been suggested. The Elmina beads are of particular interest as they can be closely dated by associated European trade materials. Preliminary results from the analysis of the 30,000 European and locally-made glass beads are discussed and findings from other West-African sites are evaluated

Ghana\u27s Vanishing Past: Development, Antiquities, and the Destruction of the Archaeological Record

Ghana\u27s past is being destroyed at a rapid rate. Although the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board has in some instances successfully intervened to stop the illicit trading of antiquities, the destruction of archaeological sites as a consequence of development over the past two decades has been staggering and the pace is accelerating. The potential of the legislation that established the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board and empowered it to manage and preserve the country\u27s archaeological past has not been realized. The lack of political action, limited relevant public education, insufficient funding, and the poverty of the majority of the Ghanaian populace have allowed for the widespread destruction of both sites and historic buildings. Conspicuously, both the absence of integrated development planning by the Ghanaian government and the inability of development partners (both foreign and domestic) to recognize the potential value of cultural resources have contributed significantly to the continued loss of the archaeological record. While the antiquities trade is a continuing threat to Ghana\u27s cultural resources, it is, in fact, tourism and economic development that pose the major menace to the country\u27s archaeological past. This article reviews the history of cultural resource management in Ghana, including both traditional attitudes toward preservation and current legislation. Case studies are used to illustrate the problems faced

Low-Fired Earthenwares in the African Diaspora: Problems and Prospects

Local earthenware associated with enslaved African populations in the Americas, variously called “Colono-Ware,” “Afro-CaribbeanWare.” “Yabbas,” and “Criollo ware,” has received considerable attention from researchers. What unifies this disparate group of ceramics is not method of manufacture, design and decoration, or even form and function but the association or potential association with African diaspora populations. The ceramics incorporate some skills and techniques possibly brought by African potters to the Americas, as well as skills reflecting European and Native American traditions, and local adaptations in form, function, and manufacture.Analogies linking African ceramic traditions to American industries have at times been employed uncritically and have relied on generalized characteristics to infer overly specific meanings. With particular reference to low-fired earthenwares from Jamaica, this paper examines the historical and cultural context of these ceramics and the methodological and theoretical problems faced in their interpretation

West African Archaeology and the Atlantic Slave Trade

Recent archaeological research in the New World has focused on slave dwellings and post-emacipation communities, providing a great deal of insight into slave life and the emergence of African-American culture. In contrast, the material record in West Africa has supplied little new information on the slave trade. Numerous European forts and barracoons serve as pervasive reminders of its existence. However, excavation of these sites is only likely to attest to the meagre possessions of the slaves and their treatment prior to the middle passage, offering little insight into their cultural and ethnic origins. European forts were collection points; the slaves often being brought from diverse areas and comprising ethnically heterogeneous groups. Furthermore, identification of these slave populations within African communities is extremely difficult, perhaps impossible, within an archaeological context. This was illustrated by recent excavations at the site of the African settlement of Elmina, Ghana, a major trading centre between the fifteenth and the nineteenth centuries

Plate IIB - Beads As Chronological Indicators in West African Archaeology: A Reexamination

Elmina: Diagnostic glass beads: R.1-2; R.3, #1,2: 19th-century wound beads. R.3, #3-8: 19th-century mandrel-pressed beads. R.4, #1,2: 19th-century moulded beads. R.4, #3-7: pre-19th-century bead varieties. R.5: imported beads and glass shards modified locally. R.6, #1-4: beads manufactured from glass chips. R.6, #5-7; R.7, #1,2: powdered-glass beads with glass-chip and trailed-glass decoration. R.7, #3,4: 19th-century non-European wound beads. R.7, #5-8: 20th-century powdered-glass beads. Photo by R. Chan and K. Karklins.https://surface.syr.edu/beads-gallery_vol1/1005/thumbnail.jp

Coastal Ghana in the first and second millennia AD

Cet article étudie les changements observables sur le littoral de l’actuel Ghana de la seconde moitié du premier millénaire de notre ère au début du dix-huitième siècle. La prospection et les fouilles des sites anciens révèlent l’existence de villages de taille modeste, tournés vers l’exploitation des ressources lagunaires. L’utilisation du fer et sa production sont attestées, mais à une échelle moindre, semble-t-il, que dans certaines zones forestières de l’intérieur. Ce tableau est radicalement modifié dans les siècles qui suivent l’arrivée des Européens sur les côtes à la fin du quinzième siècle. Les petits villages côtiers ont alors tendance à disparaître au profit de sites d’habitat plus étendus, situés non loin des enclaves commerciales où sont installés les Européens. Cette discussion intègre des données inédites provenant des fouilles du site côtier de ‘Coconut Grove’, à l’ouest d’Elmina.This article briefly surveys archaeological data from coastal Ghana, particularly focusing on change and transformation during the first and second millennia AD. Survey and excavation of archaeological sites dating between AD500 and 1500 reveal a pattern of comparatively small settlements focused on lagoonal resources. Evidence for iron and metal technology is represented, but appears limited compared to some areas of the forest hinterland. This pattern is radically modified in the centuries post dating the European arrival on the West African coast in the late fifteenth century. Smaller coastal villages disappear and larger settlements, located adjacent to European trading enclaves, expand. New data from the Coconut Grove Site are used to discuss change from the middle of the first millennium AD to the opening of the Atlantic world

Travail du laiton et production de mforowa parmi les Akan de la côte du Ghana du xviie au xxe siècle

Cet article traite de la fabrication et de la datation des ornements, outils et boites en laiton produits par les Akan dans les régions côtières du Ghana, en particulier les mforowa (sing. forowa), récipients en feuilles de laiton spécifiques utilisés pour y conserver le beurre de karité et qui sont associés à des rituels mortuaires. Les fouilles archéologiques ont permis de retrouver une variété d’artefacts fabriqués localement à partir de laiton européen importé, souvent en étroite association avec des objets de traite européens. Comme les gammes de production de nombreuses manufactures européennes sont connues et peuvent être bien circonscrites dans le temps – souvent à quelques décennies près –, les marchandises de traite offrent un moyen de dater précisément les artefacts qui leur sont associés et de manière plus assurée que ce qui est souvent possible pour les sites archéologiques africains des 500 dernières années. Cet affinage chronologique apporte un élément nouveau sur les traditions de travail des alliages de cuivre parmi les Akan côtiers, en particulier l’utilisation et la réutilisation du laiton importé. Cet article passe en revue les connaissances actuelles sur les origines de la métallurgie et la transformation du métal dans la région côtière du Ghana, et sur le développement du travail du laiton avec l’avènement du commerce européen. Les données archéologiques provenant de la ville africaine d’Elmina suggèrent que la production de mforowa a débuté au xviie siècle et que ses origines stylistiques trouvent leurs racines dans la tradition antérieure des nkuduo (sing. kuduo) en laiton coulé. Le contexte des découvertes archéologiques fournit également un aperçu des cadres culturels dans lesquels les mforowa ont été utilisés.This article discusses the manufacture and age of brass and other copper alloy ornaments, implements, and containers produced by the Akan of coastal Ghana, particularly mforowa (sg. forowa), distinctive sheet brass vessels used as containers for shea butter and associated with mortuary rituals. Archaeological excavations have recovered a variety of artifacts locally made from imported European brass in close association with European trade materials. Because the production ranges of many European manufactures are well known and can be closely dated—often within decades—they afford a means of more closely dating associated artifacts than is often possible on African archaeological sites of the past 500 years. This chronological control provides new insights into brass working traditions of the coastal Akan, particularly the use and reuse of imported brass. This article reviews current information on the origins of metallurgy and metal working in coastal Ghana, and the expansion of brass working with the advent of the European trade. Archaeological data from the African settlement of Elmina and other sites in the coastal hinterland support suggestions that mforowa production began during the 17th century and, further, that the stylistic origins of mforowa lie with the earlier nkuduo (sg. kuduo) brass casting tradition. The context of the archaeological finds also provides insight into the cultural settings in which mforowa functioned

Postcolonial or Not? : West Africa in the Pre-Atlantic and Atlantic Worlds

What do the labels “Historic period,” “historical archaeology,” and “Colonial” imply about the source materials drawn on, the time periods covered, and the conceptual vantages taken in interpre­ting the West African past? The historiographies presented are equally relevant to the understanding of the past—that is, the impacts of European contact, the Atlantic slave trade, and colo- nization—as they are to the present; the social, economic, and cultural landscapes of modernity, and how our views of the past shape these landscapes. This essay considers the varied episte­mological threads represented and their interpretive implica­tions. Although the hegemonic and transformative nature of Afri­ca's intersection with the Atlantic World is underscored, the need to situate these developments within the wider scope and tem­poral depth of the African past is also emphasized. Archaeology's central role in providing a holistic understanding of the temporal depth and complexity of African history, as well as archaeology's unique contribution to the understanding of the Atlantic world, is underscored