Laboratoire Archéologie et Peuplement de l'Afrique (APA)
Le laboratoire APA développe des études ayant trait au peuplement humain en Afrique, de la Préhistoire à l’époque contemporaine, et à ses relations avec les variations climatiques et environnementales. Ces recherches englobent différentes approches, tant archéologiques et historiques (préhistoire, archéozoologie, archéobotanique, …) qu’actualistes (ethnoarchéologie, ethnologie, ethnobotanique, …).
Recherche
Les recherches du laboratoire APA portent essentiellement sur la reconstitution de l'histoire du peuplement humain du continent africain et de ses relations avec les variations climatiques et environnementales. L’approche pluridisciplinaire est privilégiée.
Projets de recherche FNS
Peuplement humain et paléoenvironnement en Afrique de l'Ouest - Projet Falémé
Foodways in West Africa: an integrated approach on pots, animals and plants
CHronology of Rapid Climatic changes and Human adaptation in West Africa (CHeRCHA)
Tracking Humans in Pre-colonial West Africa: Bio-Archaeological Study in the Dogon Country (Mali)
Enseignements
Les membres du laboratoire APA assurent des enseignements, de niveaux bachelor et master, destinés aux étudiants des Facultés des sciences et des lettres. Ces enseignements peuvent également être choisis comme cours à choix par l’ensemble des étudiants et auditeurs, quelle que soit la faculté d’attache.
Direction
Dr Anne Mayor
Research Directors
- Dr Jocelyne Desideri
- Dr Katja Douze
Contact
Middle Stone Age Bifacial Technology and Pressure Flaking at the MIS 3 Site of Toumboura III, Eastern Senegal..
Over the past decade, the increasing wealth of new archaeological data on the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in Senegal and Mali has broadened our understanding of West Africa’s contributions to cultural developments.
Within the West African sequence, the phase of Marine Isotope Stage 3 (MIS 3, ca. 59-24 ka) yielded so far the best known and extensive archaeological information. The site of Toumboura III encompasses an occupation dated by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to between 40 ± 3 ka and 30 ± 3 ka. It provides the largest, well-dated, and stratified lithic assemblage in West Africa for the MSA and sheds light on an unprecedented cultural expression for this period, adding to the notable diversity of the late MSA in this region. We conducted a technological analysis of the lithic components following the chaîne opératoire approach.
The lithic assemblage features a prevalence of bifacial technology and the exploitation of flakes as blanks for tool production. The craftspeople manufactured distinct types of bifacial tools, including small bifacial points shaped by pressure technique. The new data from Toumboura III demonstrate behavioral patterns that are entirely new in the region. By revealing behavioral innovations and technological particularities, these results on the techno-cultural dynamics during the MIS 3 phase of the MSA enhance our understanding of the complex Pleistocene population history in this part of Africa.
- Oct 2021 - Afr Archaeol Rev
The Howiesons Poort lithic sequence of Klipdrift Shelter, southern Cape, South Africa.
Howiesons Poort (HP) sites, over the past decades, have provided exceptional access to anthropogenic remains that are enhancing our understanding of early modern human behaviour during the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa. Here, we analyse the technological and typological trends in the lithic record that form part of these behaviours, based on the HP sequence recently excavated at Klipdrift Shelter, located on the southern Cape coast of South Africa.
This study contributes to enhance knowledge on the mechanisms of changes that occurred during the transition to the post-HP. Despite patterns of continuity observed, notably for core reduction methods, the seven successive lithic assemblages show significant changes in the typological characteristics and raw material selection but also in the relative importance of blade production over time. However, these changes are not necessarily synchronic and occur either as gradual processes or as abrupt technological shifts.
Consequently, we cross-examine the association between the lithic phasing and other anthropogenic remains within the HP sequence at Klipdrift Shelter. We explore the implications of these patterns of changes in terms of cultural behaviours and population dynamics during the HP and we highlight the relationship between the different phases of the HP sequence at Klipdrift Shelter and those from other South African HP sites.
Pays Dogon: Quand l'environnement crée la céramique
Des tessons de céramique de plus de 10'000 ans en Afrique subsaharienne! La découverte de l'équipe d'Eric Huysecom en pays Dogon illustre l'influence du climat sur les développement technique...Ou comment, à la faveur d'un changement climatique, le désert laisse place aux grandes plaines herbeuses.
RSR1 - Impatience, 12 mai 2011
Espace 2 - Babylone, 14 sept. 2011
Traditions céramiques dans la boucle du Niger
Ethnoarchéologie et histoire du peuplement au temps des empires précoloniaux
Par Anne Mayor.
Africa Magna Verlag, Frankfurt a.M. 352 pp., 132 figures, 21 tables, 8 colour plates, annexes, English chapter abstracts. Aug 2011.
Anne Mayor a remporté le SAfA book prize 2012 pour son ouvrage monographique publié dans la série des Journal of African Archaeology monograph series.