Innocent Pikirayi | |
---|---|
Alma mater | University of Zimbabwe Uppsala University |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | University of Pretoria |
Thesis | The archaeological identity of the Mutapa State : towards an historical archaeology of northern Zimbabwe (1993) |
Doctoral advisor | Paul Sinclair |
Innocent Pikirayi (born 1963) is Professor in Archaeology and Head of the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Pretoria. He works on the state and societies in southern Africa. Pikirayi was amongst the first Zimbabweans to train in archaeology after Zimbabwean independence.
Pikirayi was born in 1963 and grew up in Zimuto, Masvingo, Zimbabwe. He studied history at the University of Zimbabwe from 1983. [1] Under the influence of Peter Garlake and Horace Caesar Roger Vella he decided to take up archaeology. [1] In 1988 he began postgraduate study, supervised by Paul Sinclair at Uppsala University.
He completed his doctoral thesis in 1993 at the Department of Archaeology, Uppsala University, which resulted in a monograph on the historical archaeology of Mutapa State. [2] His research focuses on the state societies of the Zimbabwe plateau, African ceramic traditions over the last 2000 years, and the contemporary role of archaeology. [1] Pikirayi was a Visiting Commonwealth Fellow and Scholar at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford University in 2000 where he studied Khami-period material. [3] [1] In Zimbabwe he has worked as a Dean and Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at Midlands State University and as Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. [1] In 2009 Uppsala University appointed Pikirayi as Docent in Archaeology.
He works with the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe to establish management plans for World Heritage Sites in Zimbabwe, and mentors indigenous archaeologists in Zimbabwe. [1] His research focuses on the analysis of ceramics to investigate late farming communities in southern Africa. [1] The Zimbabwe Culture (2001) is a key text for the study of 2nd millennium Zimbabwe, combining archaeological, oral and archival evidence. [1]
Pikiraryi is on the executive committee of the Integrated History and future of People on Earth (IHOPE) initiative. [4] He sits on the editorial board of Azania: the Journal of African Archaeological Research, [5] the African Archaeological Review , [6] Antiquity [7] and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. [8] He is on the advisory committee of the Shanghai Archaeology Forum. [9]
A co-authored article was awarded the Antiquity prize in 2008 for the best article published that year. [10] In 2014 he was named the University of Pretoria Humanities Researcher of the Year. [11]
The history of Zambia experienced many stages from colonization to independence from Britain on October 24, 1964. Northern Rhodesia became a British sphere of influence in the present-day region of Zambia in 1888, and was officially proclaimed a British protectorate in 1924. After many years of suggested mergers, Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland were merged into the British Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Great Zimbabwe is a medieval city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Lake Mutirikwe and the town of Masvingo. It is thought to have been the capital of a great kingdom during the Late Iron Age, about which little is known. Construction on the city began in the 9th century and continued until it was abandoned in the 15th century. The edifices were erected by ancestors of the Shona and other groups located in Zimbabwe and nearby countries. The stone city spans an area of 7.22 square kilometres (2.79 sq mi) and could have housed up to 18,000 people at its peak, giving it a population density of approximately 2,500 inhabitants per square kilometre (6,500/sq mi). It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The Mapungubwe Collection curated by at the University of Gauteng Museums comprises archaeological material excavated by the University of Gauteng at the Mapungubwe archaeological site since its discovery in 1933. The archaeological collection comprises ceramics, metals, trade glass beads, indigenous beads, clay figurines, and bone and ivory artefacts as well as an extensive research collection of potsherds, faunal remains and other fragmentary material. The University of Gauteng established a permanent museum in June 2000, thereby making the archaeological collection more widely available for public access and interest beyond the confines of academia. The collection is kept on site for tourism purposes.
Dan Hicks, is a British archaeologist and anthropologist. He is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. His research is focused on contemporary archaeology, material culture studies, historical archaeology, and the history of archaeology, anthropology, and museum collections.
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Thomas N. Huffman was Professor Emeritus of archaeology in association with the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He specialised in pre-colonial farming societies in southern Africa. Huffman is most well known for his identification of the Central Cattle Pattern at Mapungubwe, a pre-colonial state in southern Africa. This, in turn he argued as the main influence in the formation of the Zimbabwe Pattern at Great Zimbabwe. Arguably his seminal contribution to the field was A Handbook to the Iron Age: The Archaeology of Pre-Colonial Farming Societies in Southern Africa (2007), which has contributed to the understanding of ceramic style analysis and culture history focusing on these groups.
Peter Storr Garlake was a Zimbabwean archaeologist and art historian, who made influential contributions to the study of Great Zimbabwe and Ife, Nigeria.
Elisabeth Schellekens is a Swedish philosopher and Chair Professor of Aesthetics at Uppsala University. Previously, she was Senior Lecturer at Durham University (2006-2014). Schellekens is known for her works in aesthetics. Her research interests include aesthetic cognitivism and objectivism, aesthetic normativity, Hume, Kant, aesthetic and moral properties, conceptual art, non-perceptual or intelligible aesthetic value, the relations between perception and knowledge, the aesthetics and ethics of cultural heritage, and the interaction between aesthetic, moral, cognitive and historical value in art.
Sbusiso Xaba is the national chairman of Pan Africanist Congress of Azania from 2019. He was elected in PAC Mangaung National Congress and re-elected in 2022 Polokwane Congress.
The Kingdom of Zimbabwe was a medieval Shona (Karanga) kingdom located in modern-day Zimbabwe. Its capital, today's Masvingo, which is commonly called Great Zimbabwe, is the largest stone structure in precolonial Southern Africa. This kingdom came about after the collapse of the Kingdom of Mapungubwe.
Roger Summers (1907-2003) was a Zimbabwean archaeologist, who worked for the National Museums and Monuments Commission from 1947 - 1970 and was described as "a major influence in the formative years of Zimbabwean, then. Rhodesian, archaeology". He came into conflict with the Rhodesian government due to his refusal to deny African origins of Great Zimbabwe. He worked extensively on Great Zimbabwe, Nyanga and more generally on the Iron Age in Zimbabwe and on ancient mining in Zimbabwe
Timothy Insoll is a British archaeologist and Africanist and Islamic Studies scholar. Since 2016 he has been Al-Qasimi Professor of African and Islamic Archaeology at the University of Exeter. He is also founder and director of the Centre for Islamic Archaeology. Previously he was at the Department of Archaeology at the University of Manchester (1999–2016).
Graham Edward Connah is a British-born archaeologist who has worked extensively in Britain, West Africa and Australia.
Edward J. Matenga is a Zimbabwean archaeologist and the former director of the Great Zimbabwe World Heritage Site 1998 – 2004. He was a curator at the Zimbabwe Museum of Human Sciences in Harare from 1988 to 1994. He is now an independent heritage management consultant based in Pretoria, South Africa. He is a member of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
The architecture of Zimbabwe is composed of three architectural types: the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex, and the Great Enclosure. Both traditional and colonial architectures have influenced the history and culture of the country. However, post-1954 buildings are mainly inspired by pre-colonial, traditional architecture, especially Great Zimbabwe–inspired structures such as the Kingdom Hotel, Harare international airport, and the National Heroes' Acre.
Anthony Gervase Mathew was a Catholic priest and British academic. A member of the Dominican Order, he taught at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford. His elder brother, David Mathew, served as a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church.
Shadreck Chirikure is a professor at the University of Cape Town, and holds a British Academy Global Professorship within the School of Archaeology at Oxford. He is a leading archaeologist, studying pyrotechnology and southern Africa.
Gilbert Pwiti is an archaeologist. He is a pioneer of modern archaeological and heritage management research in southern Africa and Zimbabwe. Pwiti was amongst the first generation of indigenous historians to be trained in archaeology in postcolonial southern Africa and he was the first professor of Archaeology in Zimbabwe.
Amini Aza Mturi was a Tanzanian archaeologist and director of the Tanzanian Division of Antiquities between 1968 and 1981. He has been described as "one of the founding fathers of archaeology in Tanzania".
Anne Haour is an anthropologically trained archaeologist, academic and Africanist scholar. She is Professor in the Arts and Archaeology of Africa at the Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom. In July 2021 she was elected Fellow of the British Academy in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the social sciences, humanities and arts.