- Anthropology, Archaeology, Ethnoarchaeology, Ethiopia, Anthropology of Ethiopia, African Archaeology, and 34 moreCeramic Technology, Ceramic Analysis (Archaeology), East Africa, Ground Stone Technology, Indigenous Archaeololgy, Landscape Archaeology, Neolithic Archaeology, Ceramics (Archaeology), Pottery (Archaeology), Historical Archaeology, Social Archaeology, Gender Archaeology, Ethiopian Studies, Caste and Untouchability, Religion, Prehistoric Archaeology, History of Archaeology, Archaeological Method & Theory, Archaeology of Beer and Cereal Fermentation, Star Carr, Mesolithic Archaeology, Mesolithic Europe, African Late Neolithic/Later Stone Age, Weeden Island, Late Woodland and Mississippian societies, Florida Archaeology, Archaeology of Caves and Caverns (Archaeospeleology), Archaeology of Ritual and Magic, Ritual, Ritual Theory, Archaeology of Ritual, Organic Residues Analysis of Pottery, Residue Analysis (Archaeology), and Anthropology of Alcoholedit
- My present research focuses on interpreting social stratification and food production from African archaeological an... moreMy present research focuses on interpreting social stratification and food production from African archaeological and living contexts. Currently, since 2005, I have been engaged in a project with Kathryn Arthur and Matthew Curtis on studying the history and prehistory of the Gamo people, who live in the highlands of southwestern Ethiopia, through the dialogue between oral history, ethnoarchaeology, life histories, and archaeology. We have revealed the origin, location, and organization of historical settlements in the region and have found evidence of households belonging to different caste groups. This research is briefly described in the Society for American Archaeology Archaeological Record published in the January 2010 issue. We have recently published in the journal Science describing a 4,500 year old male human skeleton that has provided the first complete ancient human genome sequenced from the African continent. http://blog.aaanet.org/2015/10/14/bayira-an-ancient-ethiopian-skeletal-provides-the-earliest-african-genome/
My previous ethnoarchaeological research used the life cycle approach (i.e., procurement to discard), to view the many contexts that ceramics can undergo in a complex stratified society, revealing that household ceramics are an excellent indicator of household social stratification. This research is the focus of my book published in 2006 by the University of Utah Press Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry Series and is titled, Living with Pottery: Ethnoarchaeology among the Gamo of southwest Ethiopia and peer-reviewed articles (African Archaeological Review 2014, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2014, Asian and African Study Monographs, Kyoto University 2013, American Antiquity 2009). My studies in Ethiopia also indicated that beer production is visible in the form of residues on archaeological ceramics, and as a consequence beer producing elite households can be distinguished from non-beer producing commoner households, (Anthropology Now 2014, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 2002 and World Archaeology 2003). In addition to my research in Ethiopia, I have collaboratively written with Kathryn Weedman Arthur about the methodological importance of ethnoarchaeology, which is the study of present-day material culture to help interpret the archaeological past (Handbook of Archaeological Methods 2005).
Since 2009, I have begun to work at the Weedon Island site (8PI1) in Pinellas County, Florida with USFSP students doing small test units near the shell mound. While training our students in archaeological methods, we are trying to delineate house features and to develop a method of understanding calories from the different shells we’re uncovering. By looking at the resources Native Americans were utilizing a 1000 years ago to today, we hope to determine the ecological changes Tampa Bay has has undergone over the last millennia.
I am a proud member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.edit
Beer: A Global Journey Through the Past and Present offers a comprehensible and readable worldwide perspective on the dynamic origin and impact of beer, as well as rich descriptions of its continued importance among Indigenous societies... more
Beer: A Global Journey Through the Past and Present offers a comprehensible and readable worldwide perspective on the dynamic origin and impact of beer, as well as rich descriptions of its continued importance among Indigenous societies today. Ancient and contemporary beers from the Near East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas document the remarkable influence Indigenous beers have had in shaping the development of food production, state level societies, and is an essential food for contemporary Indigenous societies inspiring their social and economic actions. In the past and present beer was and is more than an intoxicating substance, it was and is an essential food integral to maintaining good health. Control over the technological knowledge and resources to produce beer created space for status differentiation and its use as capital motivated laborers. Beer also serves to unite people and connects the living with their ancestral past. The innovations by Indigenous brewers are now transforming the types of ingredients and flavors produced by the global craft brew industry. This unique book focuses on past and present non-industrial beers highlighting its significance in peoples’ lives through four themes: innovating new technologies, ensuring health and well-being, building economic and political statuses, and imbuing life with ritual and religious connections.
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Citation only. Full text is available through publisher’s web site at http://blog.aaanet.org/2015/10/14/bayira-an-ancient-ethiopian-skeletal-provides-the-earliest-african-genome/
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Research Interests: Geography, Archaeology, Geology, Anthropology, Historical Archaeology, and 15 moreEthnoarchaeology, Archaeozoology, Ethiopia, Horn of Africa, Prehistory, Quaternary, Craft, African Archaeology, Leatherworking, Caste, Human Settlement, Hide Tanning, Zebu, Eastern African Archaeology, and consumption sociology
ABSTRACT This article focuses on our collaboration with the Boreda of southern Ethiopia to document the ways in which their cultural heritage knowledge is entwined with Ochollo Mulato, one of their nine tangible senior ancestral... more
ABSTRACT This article focuses on our collaboration with the Boreda of southern Ethiopia to document the ways in which their cultural heritage knowledge is entwined with Ochollo Mulato, one of their nine tangible senior ancestral landscapes or Bayira Deriya. Through the interface between oral traditions, life histories, and the archaeological record, we grew increasingly aware of the descendant community’s wide range of alternative but equally valid memories and attachments to their ancestral lands. Articulated through the landscape at Ochollo Mulato, Boreda demonstrated to us the various historical paths for defending assertions of seniority between youths and elders and between farmers and craft-specialists.
Research Interests: Geography, Archaeology, Anthropology, Historical Archaeology, Public Archaeology, and 14 moreAfrican History, Africa, Ethiopia, Africana Studies, Craft, Community Archaeology, African Archaeology, Eastern Africa, Ethiopian archaeology, Community archaeology and heritage interpretation, Archaeological Anthropology, Eastern African Archaeology, Seniority, and Descendant
Lesur Joséphine, Gutherz Xavier, Jallot Luc, Diaz Amélie, Arthur John. Late Holocene Societies from Southern Ethiopia: Results from Archaelogical Project in Nechisar National Park. In: Annales d'Ethiopie. Volume 29, année 2014. pp.... more
Lesur Joséphine, Gutherz Xavier, Jallot Luc, Diaz Amélie, Arthur John. Late Holocene Societies from Southern Ethiopia: Results from Archaelogical Project in Nechisar National Park. In: Annales d'Ethiopie. Volume 29, année 2014. pp. 265-268
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Cet article presente les resultats d’une prospection archeologique menee en novembre 2009 dans le Parc National de Nechisar, dans le Sud de l’Ethiopie. Au cours de cette mission, deux abris sous roche, Mome Gongolo 1 et Mome Gongolo 2,... more
Cet article presente les resultats d’une prospection archeologique menee en novembre 2009 dans le Parc National de Nechisar, dans le Sud de l’Ethiopie. Au cours de cette mission, deux abris sous roche, Mome Gongolo 1 et Mome Gongolo 2, ont ete decouverts sur les pentes de la montagne Mome, en contrebas du plateau Somali. Des sondages ont ete realises dans les deux sites, revelant la presence de niveaux d’occupation anthropiques livrant du materiel li -thique, des fragments osseux ainsi que, dans l’un d’entre eux, de la ceramique. Mome Gongolo 1, date du VI e siecle de notre ere, a ete interprete comme un camp de chasse. Mome Gongolo 2 a, lui, ete occupe pendant le XVI e siecle apres J.-C., egalement par des chasseurs comme le montre la presence de petites armatures tranchantes et d’ossements d’animaux sauvages. Les occupants ont par ailleurs produit localement une ceramique qui presente des similarites stylistiques avec celle des Borada qui occupaient alors les montagnes du Gamo voisin. Toutefois, un important travail de prospection et de fouille reste a accomplir dans cette region d’Ethiopie pour comprendre le developpement des societes de l’Holocene recent.
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Ancient African helps to explain the present Tracing the migrations of anatomically modern humans has been complicated by human movements both out of and into Africa, especially in relatively recent history. Gallego Llorente et al.... more
Ancient African helps to explain the present Tracing the migrations of anatomically modern humans has been complicated by human movements both out of and into Africa, especially in relatively recent history. Gallego Llorente et al. sequenced an Ethiopian individual, “Mota,” who lived approximately 4500 years ago, predating one such wave of individuals into Africa from Eurasia. The genetic information from Mota suggests that present-day Sardinians were the likely source of the Eurasian backflow. Furthermore, 4 to 7% of most African genomes, including Yoruba and Mbuti Pygmies, originated from this Eurasian gene flow. Science , this issue p. 820
Research Interests: Archaeology, Anthropology, Biological Anthropology, Bioarchaeology, Ethiopian Studies, and 15 moreBiology, East Africa, Anthropology of Ethiopia, Ethiopia, Ancient DNA Research, Anthropology of the Horn of Africa, African Archaeology, Europe, Ethiopian archaeology, Asia, Genome, Biological evolution, Archaeology of the Horn of Africa, Genetic variation, and Ancient Eritrea
Significance The microbiome plays key roles in human health, but little is known about its evolution. We investigate the evolutionary history of the African hominid oral microbiome by analyzing dental biofilms of humans and Neanderthals... more
Significance The microbiome plays key roles in human health, but little is known about its evolution. We investigate the evolutionary history of the African hominid oral microbiome by analyzing dental biofilms of humans and Neanderthals spanning the past 100,000 years and comparing them with those of chimpanzees, gorillas, and howler monkeys. We identify 10 core bacterial genera that have been maintained within the human lineage and play key biofilm structural roles. However, many remain understudied and unnamed. We find major taxonomic and functional differences between the oral microbiomes of Homo and chimpanzees but a high degree of similarity between Neanderthals and modern humans, including an apparent Homo -specific acquisition of starch digestion capability in oral streptococci, suggesting microbial coadaptation with host diet.
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Multiple lines of genetic and archaeological evidence suggest that there were major demographic changes in the terminal Late Pleistocene epoch and early Holocene epoch of sub-Saharan Africa1–4. Inferences about this period are challenging... more
Multiple lines of genetic and archaeological evidence suggest that there were major demographic changes in the terminal Late Pleistocene epoch and early Holocene epoch of sub-Saharan Africa1–4. Inferences about this period are challenging to make because demographic shifts in the past 5,000 years have obscured the structures of more ancient populations3,5. Here we present genome-wide ancient DNA data for six individuals from eastern and south-central Africa spanning the past approximately 18,000 years (doubling the time depth of sub-Saharan African ancient DNA), increase the data quality for 15 previously published ancient individuals and analyse these alongside data from 13 other published ancient individuals. The ancestry of the individuals in our study area can be modelled as a geographically structured mixture of three highly divergent source populations, probably reflecting Pleistocene interactions around 80–20 thousand years ago, including deeply diverged eastern and southern ...
Research Interests: Geography, Archaeology, Southern Africa, Middle Stone Age (Archaeology), Kenya, and 15 moreCentral Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Medicine, Multidisciplinary, Pleistocene, Nature, Malawi, African Archaeology, Population, Eastern Africa, Holocene, Population History, Ancient DNA, and Later Stone Age archaeology
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Research Interests: Geography, Archaeology, Anthropology, Ethnoarchaeology, Ethiopian Studies, and 15 moreAnthropology of Ethiopia, Ethiopia, Lithics, Horn of Africa, African Archaeology, Archaeology of food, Archaeology of Caves, Early Holocene archaeology, Ethiopian History, Archaeological Anthropology, Archaeology of the Horn of Africa, Later Stone Age Hunting Technologies, Later Stone Age archaeology, Eastern African Archaeology, and Anthropogenic deposits
Multiple lines of genetic and archaeological evidence suggest that there were major demographic changes in the terminal Late Pleistocene epoch and early Holocene epoch of sub-Saharan Africa1,2,3,4. Inferences about this period are... more
Multiple lines of genetic and archaeological evidence suggest that there were major demographic changes in the terminal Late Pleistocene epoch and early Holocene epoch of sub-Saharan Africa1,2,3,4. Inferences about this period are challenging to make because demographic shifts in the past 5,000 years have obscured the structures of more ancient populations3,5. Here we present genome-wide ancient DNA data for six individuals from eastern and south-central Africa spanning the past approximately 18,000 years (doubling the time depth of sub-Saharan African ancient DNA), increase the data quality for 15 previously published ancient individuals and analyse these alongside data from 13 other published ancient individuals. The ancestry of the individuals in our study area can be modelled as a geographically structured mixture of three highly divergent source populations, probably reflecting Pleistocene interactions around 80–20 thousand years ago, including deeply diverged eastern and southern African lineages, plus a previously unappreciated ubiquitous distribution of ancestry that occurs in highest proportion today in central African rainforest hunter-gatherers. Once established, this structure remained highly stable, with limited long-range gene flow. These results provide a new line of genetic evidence in support of hypotheses that have emerged from archaeological analyses but remain contested, suggesting increasing regionalization at the end of the Pleistocene epoch.
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A B S T R A C T Coastal archaeologists and historical ecologists are taking an increasingly robust interest in marine shell assemblages recovered from coastal villages and civic-ceremonial sites. These assemblages must be quantified... more
A B S T R A C T Coastal archaeologists and historical ecologists are taking an increasingly robust interest in marine shell assemblages recovered from coastal villages and civic-ceremonial sites. These assemblages must be quantified before archaeologists can make assessments of biomass flows and subsistence contributions. We present the results of an experimental allometric study on Melongena corona snails collected from the mangrove dominated shoreline of Weedon Island Preserve, Florida, USA. Our analysis produced regression constants for predicting tissue weight estimates from four independent linear shell metrics, including: length, aperture-length, height, and width. This study is unique in its integration of field and laboratory experimentation, and in the large sample size used to develop allometric constants. To exemplify the utility of our regression models, we apply our al-lometric constants to a late-Precolumbian (ca. 895–1268 CE) marine shell assemblage excavated from the...
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Coastal archaeologists and historical ecologists are taking an increasingly robust interest in marine shell assemblages recovered from coastal villages and civic-ceremonial sites. These assemblages must be quantified before archaeologists... more
Coastal archaeologists and historical ecologists are taking an increasingly robust interest in marine shell assemblages recovered from coastal villages and civic-ceremonial sites. These assemblages must be quantified before archaeologists can make assessments of biomass flows and subsistence contributions. We present the results of an experimental allometric study on Melongena corona snails collected from the mangrove dominated shoreline of Weedon Island Preserve, Florida, USA. Our analysis produced regression constants for predicting
tissue weight estimates from four independent linear shell metrics, including: length, aperture-length, height, and width. This study is unique in its integration of field and laboratory experimentation, and in the large sample size used to develop allometric constants. To exemplify the utility of our regression models, we apply our allometric constants to a late-Precolumbian (ca. 895–1268 CE) marine shell assemblage excavated from the Weeden Island site (8PI1), Pinellas County, Florida, USA.
tissue weight estimates from four independent linear shell metrics, including: length, aperture-length, height, and width. This study is unique in its integration of field and laboratory experimentation, and in the large sample size used to develop allometric constants. To exemplify the utility of our regression models, we apply our allometric constants to a late-Precolumbian (ca. 895–1268 CE) marine shell assemblage excavated from the Weeden Island site (8PI1), Pinellas County, Florida, USA.
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Research Interests: Ethiopia and Archeology
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Previous research has shown that there are many factors, such as vessel type, size, and function, producer skill, and market systems, that can influence pottery standardization/uniformity. In this paper, I use ethnoarchaeology to explore... more
Previous research has shown that there are many factors, such as vessel type, size, and function, producer skill, and market systems, that can influence pottery standardization/uniformity. In this paper, I use ethnoarchaeology to explore how the social and economic organization of the Gamo living in southwestern Ethiopia affects uniformity of pottery form and decoration. I compare uniformity at the community level to test our assumptions regarding potter specialization associated with potters who are full-time craft specialists living in a complex and highly stratified, caste society. In conclusion, I argue that distribution (i.e., market and patron-client) impacts the uniformity of pottery morphology and decoration.
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Few ethnoarchaeological studies have combined the production and use of groundstones and pottery as indicators of household variation in subsistence and socioeconomics. This ethnoarchaeological study explores how the Gamo people who live... more
Few ethnoarchaeological studies have combined the production and use of groundstones and pottery as indicators of household variation in subsistence and socioeconomics. This ethnoarchaeological study explores how the Gamo people who live in southwestern Ethiopia interact with their culinary tools of pottery and groundstones. One of the unique cultural features of the Gamo is their strict caste system, which forces artisans such as potters and groundstone makers into a full-time specialization. This paper uses a chaîne opératoire analysis regarding groundstone and pottery production and then addresses their use by drawing from household studies from three Gamo communities. The analysis discusses the role that social hierarchy can have on cooking and craft variation within households. Thus, these artisans bring to life crafts that give the Gamo tools to create their daily subsistence, and these tools and foods allow us to explore two key archaeological issues: subsistence and socioeconomic variation of people’s households.
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Résumé/Abstract Les archéologues ont exploré les relations entre la technologie de la céramique, la production de la poterie et ses usages à travers des techniques expérimentales et des interprétations théoriques, permettant de mieux... more
Résumé/Abstract Les archéologues ont exploré les relations entre la technologie de la céramique, la production de la poterie et ses usages à travers des techniques expérimentales et des interprétations théoriques, permettant de mieux connaître les ...
The Weedo(e)n Island site is well-known among archaeologists in the southeastern US as the type site of the Weeden Island culture, a mortuary complex shared by geographically wide-spread cultures ca. AD 200-900. Recent research (survey,... more
The Weedo(e)n Island site is well-known among archaeologists in the southeastern US as the type site of the Weeden Island culture, a mortuary complex shared by geographically wide-spread cultures ca. AD 200-900. Recent research (survey, excavation, analysis, radiocarbon dating) by multiple institutions focusing on the domestic sphere have added new details about the site’s history and use during the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods.
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This article is a case study that applies long-term ceramic ethnoarchaeology to recent archaeological research in the Gamo region of Ethiopia. The region is located on the western escarpment of the Great Rift Valley. Today, an important... more
This article is a case study that applies long-term ceramic ethnoarchaeology to recent archaeological research in the Gamo region of Ethiopia. The region is located on the western escarpment of the Great Rift Valley. Today, an important cultural characteristic of the Gamo is their caste system. They divide society into occupational castes including Mala farmers and Tsoma artisans who are segregated in their access to land and food resources. Working collaboratively with Gamo Boreda elders, we located a historic Mala household at the archaeological site of Ochollo Mulato (1270–1950 CE) and an artisan household at the archaeological site of Garu (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries CE). The historic archaeological pottery assemblages from Ochollo Mulato and Garu are considered in light of thirty years of Gamo ceramic ethnoarchaeological research to understand changes in subsistence and social organization through time.
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Joséphine Lesur, John W. Arthur, Kathryn Weedman Arthur, Matthew C. Curtis The Omotic-speaking Gamo represent one of the southern Ethiopia societies that are organized in a widely recognized caste system. The history of this society and... more
Joséphine Lesur, John W. Arthur, Kathryn Weedman Arthur, Matthew C. Curtis
The Omotic-speaking Gamo represent one of the southern Ethiopia societies that are organized in a widely recognized caste system. The history of this society and the development of its caste organization are still largely unknown. Between 2006 and 2012, we organized a collaborative project with people of the Gamo district of Boreda in an effort to combine their oral traditions and life histories with archaeological investigations regarding the history of their present-day caste system. Elders claimed nine mountain-top landscapes as the original locations for Boreda settlement. One of these settlements, Garu, is an abandoned historic village site of about 60 hectares that was occupied during the 18 th-19th century CE. Archaeozoological results from Garu suggest some continuity in the practices of leatherworkers particularly in their access to specific animal parts for consumption and processing. From a methodo-logical point of view, this study illustrates how atypical data can be used to understand the diversity of animal use and provide original leads in the interpretation of prehistoric sites elsewhere. Importantly, cattle remains from Garu indicate the earliest evidence of Zebu cattle from southern Ethiopia dating to the mid-18th century.
The Omotic-speaking Gamo represent one of the southern Ethiopia societies that are organized in a widely recognized caste system. The history of this society and the development of its caste organization are still largely unknown. Between 2006 and 2012, we organized a collaborative project with people of the Gamo district of Boreda in an effort to combine their oral traditions and life histories with archaeological investigations regarding the history of their present-day caste system. Elders claimed nine mountain-top landscapes as the original locations for Boreda settlement. One of these settlements, Garu, is an abandoned historic village site of about 60 hectares that was occupied during the 18 th-19th century CE. Archaeozoological results from Garu suggest some continuity in the practices of leatherworkers particularly in their access to specific animal parts for consumption and processing. From a methodo-logical point of view, this study illustrates how atypical data can be used to understand the diversity of animal use and provide original leads in the interpretation of prehistoric sites elsewhere. Importantly, cattle remains from Garu indicate the earliest evidence of Zebu cattle from southern Ethiopia dating to the mid-18th century.
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Kathryn Weedman Arthur, Yohannes Ethiopia Tocha, Matthew C. Curtis, John W. Arthur