| Formation | pre-1947 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Louis Leakey |
President | Freda Nkirote |
| Website | www |
The PanAfrican Archaeological Association (PAA) is a pan-African professional organisation for archaeologists, geologists and palaeoanthropologists. [1]
The association was founded by Louis Leakey and its first congress was held in Nairobi in January 1947. [2] At the event, Abbé Henri Breuil was elected as the association's first president, and Robert Broom, as vice-president; a constitution was adopted. [2] Three sub-committees were created at the event: geology and climatology, prehistoric archaeology and human palaeontology. [2] Perhaps the most significant action taken at the first congress was the rejection of European geological periods for Africa and the adoption of continent-wide and continent-specific nomenclature. [3]
At the 1963 congress in Tenerife, it was decided to begin publishing a systematic inventory of diagnostic archaeological assemblages from Africa, under the title of Inventaria Archaeologica Africana, following the example of the Inventaria Archaeologica series published by the International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences). [4]
In 1977 a new constitution was adopted, in order to better reflect the need for the PAA to be constituted by African-born scholars and to reflect their needs. [2]
At the 1983 congress, held at Jos in Nigeria, the PAA passed a resolution condemning apartheid in South Africa and called for a cessation of ties to South African institutions. [5] The resolutions were proposed by John Onyango-Abuje, and seconded by P Sinclair and David Kiyaga-Mulindwa. [5] According to Caleb Folorunso, some non-African attendees opposed the resolutions, citing their opinion that archaeology was concerned with "science not politics". [5]
Two conferences have been hosted in partnership with the Society of Africanist Archaeologists: at University Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) in Dakar in 2010 and at the University of Witwatersrand in 2014. [6] [7] [8]
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai Gorge with his wife, fellow palaeoanthropologist Mary Leakey. Having established a programme of palaeoanthropological inquiry in eastern Africa, he also motivated many future generations to continue this scholarly work. Several members of the Leakey family became prominent scholars themselves.
The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended between 4000 BC and 2000 BC, with the advent of metalworking. It therefore represents nearly 99.3% of human history. Though some simple metalworking of malleable metals, particularly the use of gold and copper for purposes of ornamentation, was known in the Stone Age, it is the melting and smelting of copper that marks the end of the Stone Age. In Western Asia, this occurred by about 3000 BC, when bronze became widespread. The term Bronze Age is used to describe the period that followed the Stone Age, as well as to describe cultures that had developed techniques and technologies for working copper alloys into tools, supplanting stone in many uses.
The Oldowan was a widespread stone tool archaeological industry (style) in prehistory. These early tools were simple, usually made by chipping one, or a few, flakes off a stone using another stone. Oldowan tools were used during the Lower Paleolithic period, 2.9 million years ago up until at least 1.7 million years ago (Ma), by ancient Hominins across much of Africa. This technological industry was followed by the more sophisticated Acheulean industry.
Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape which is now believed to be ancestral to humans. She also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, eastern Africa. For much of her career she worked with her husband, Louis Leakey, at Olduvai Gorge, where they uncovered fossils of ancient hominines and the earliest hominins, as well as the stone tools produced by the latter group. Mary Leakey developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. She discovered the Laetoli footprints, and at the Laetoli site she discovered hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old.
The International Union of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences is a learned society, linked through the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies to UNESCO, and concerned with the study of prehistory and protohistory. In the words of its constitution:
Glynn Llywelyn Isaac was a South African archaeologist who specialised in the very early prehistory of Africa, and was one of twin sons born to botanists William Edwyn Isaac and Frances Margaret Leighton. He has been called the most influential Africanist of the last half century, and his papers on human movement and behavior are still cited in studies a quarter of a century later.
Henri Édouard Prosper Breuil, often referred to as Abbé Breuil, was a French Catholic priest, archaeologist, anthropologist, ethnologist and geologist. He is noted for his studies of cave art in the Somme and Dordogne valleys as well as in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, China with Teilhard de Chardin, Ethiopia, British Somali Coast Protectorate, and especially southern Africa.
Bethwell Allan Ogot is a Kenyan historian and eminent African scholar who specialises in African history, research methods and theory. One of his works starts by saying that "to tell the story of a past so as to portray an inevitable destiny is, for humankind, a need as universal as tool-making. To that extent, we may say that a human being is, by nature, historicus.
Wonderwerk Cave is an archaeological site, formed originally as an ancient solution cavity in dolomite rocks of the Kuruman Hills, situated between Danielskuil and Kuruman in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. It is a National Heritage Site, managed as a satellite of the McGregor Museum in Kimberley. Geologically, hillside erosion exposed the northern end of the cavity, which extends horizontally for about 140 m (460 ft) into the base of a hill. Accumulated deposits inside the cave, up to 7 m (23 ft) in-depth, reflect natural sedimentation processes such as water and wind deposition as well as the activities of animals, birds, and human ancestors over some 2 million years. The site has been studied and excavated by archaeologists since the 1940s and research here generates important insights into human history in the subcontinent of Southern Africa. Evidence within Wonderwerk cave has been called the oldest controlled fire. Wonderwerk means "miracle" in the Afrikaans language.
Chief Charles Thurstan Shaw CBE FBA FSA was an English archaeologist, the first trained specialist to work in what was then British West Africa. He specialized in the ancient cultures of present-day Ghana and Nigeria. He helped establish academic institutions, including the Ghana National Museum and the archaeology department at the University of Ghana. He began working with the University of Ibadan in 1960, where he later founded and developed its archaeology department. He led this for more than 10 years before his retirement in 1974.
The Kathu Archaeological Complex is a cluster of significant archaeological, principally Stone Age, exposures situated in and near Kathu, a mining town in the Northern Cape Province, South Africa. The sites include a suite of sinkhole exposures, the Kathu Pan sites, north west of the town, the immensely rich spread of artefacts at what is referred to as Kathu Townlands on the eastern side of Kathu, and surface and subsurface horizons including handaxes on farms further eastward. These are subject to on-going archaeological research.
Clarence van Riet Lowe was a South African civil engineer and archaeologist. He was appointed by Jan Smuts as the first director of the Bureau of Archaeology and was among the first group to investigate the archaeological site of Mapungubwe.
Miles Crawford Burkitt was a British archaeologist and prehistorian, who is known for his work, mainly on the Stone Age, in Europe, Asia and especially Africa, where he was one of the first pioneers of African archaeology. He was the first Cambridge University lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology.
Shirley Cameron Coryndon (1926–1976) was a British paleontologist and authority on fossil hippopotami.
The African Association, known as the Pan-African Association after 1900, was an organization formed by leaders of African descent to "promote and protect the interests of all subjects claiming African descent, wholly or in part, in British colonies and other place, especially Africa, by circulating accurate information on all subjects affecting their rights and privileges as subjects of the British Empire, by direct appeals to the Imperial and local Governments." Henry Sylvester Williams initiated the creation of the African Association, which was formalized on September 14, 1897, at its headquarters in London. The Association is best known for organizing the First Pan-African Conference, which took place in London in July 1900.
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".
Luis Pericot Garcia was a Spanish archaeologist and historian, specializing in prehistory. He was President of the PanAfrican Archaeological Association from 1963 to 1967.
Beatrice Sandelowsky is a Namibian archaeologist. She was a co-founder of The University Centre for Studies in Namibia (TUCSIN).
Archaeological explorations in Angola have been carried out since the late 19th century. Much of the early research was funded and led by Portuguese colonial interests in Angola, fueled by the Scramble for Africa. The 1890 British Ultimatum on the expansion of the Portuguese Empire led to the latter's further emphasis on colonial development in central Africa, including Angola, and the exploration of its cultural resources to strengthen its colonial system. In the 20th century, archaeology in Angola focused largely on the Stone Age, driven by colonial interests in evolutionary anthropology, until Angolan independence in 1975. During that time, several research institutions and museums were opened, and fieldwork was largely tied to mission trips into the country to document the cultures of native Angolans. In recent decades, partnerships have formed between Angolan archaeologists and those from France and Portugal to continue research. Calls to repatriate artifacts back to Angola from overseas collections have also gained momentum in recent decades.