Living in an Egyptian Oasis: Reconstruction of the Holocene Archaeological Sequence in Kharga

Within the Egyptian Western Desert, the Kharga Oasis was a particularly favourable and highly frequented area during the Holocene thanks to a permanent ground water supply. The high concentration and accessibility of archaeological sites here allows the cultural and economic changes to be documented at a local scale, when northeastern Africa was experiencing strong climatic variations and the transition to a food production economy. An expansive program led by the Institut français d’archéologie orientale (IFAO) which included systematic survey, sampling collections, tests and stratigraphic excavations has dramatically increased the amount of data available concerning the prehistory of the Kharga Oasis. Typo-technological analyses focusing on the lithic industries, and other aspects of material culture, plus a series of ¹⁴C dates have led to the definition of four main successive cultural phases: Kharga A, B, C and D. This paper describes this proposal of a new archaeological sequence for human occupation in the Kharga Oasis and discusses its integration in the wider frame of Egypt and the Eastern Sahara.     

Genealogies and Juxtapositions: Traces of Potting Communities and Firing Facilities in Lake Titicaca Basin

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory - In this paper, we develop a genealogy of practice approach for the historical analysis and comparison of Andean ceramic firing. This effort was set in...     

Leroi-Gourhan, a Philosopher of Technique and Evolution

With the publication of two volumes on technology—L'Homme et la matière and Milieu et technique in 1943–45, and Le geste et la parole (translated into English in 1993 as Gesture and Speech)—-Leroi-Gourhan asserted himself as a major social anthropologist, prehistorian, and the founder of the French schools of the ethnology of technique and of prehistoric ethnology. This paper analyzes the innovative concepts and the content of these original works, which draw their inspiration and data from biology, physiology, psychology, anthropology, and prehistory to study evolution, and technique as its medium, to create a global science of humanity.     

The Shay Culture of Ethiopia (Tenth to Fourteenth Century <Emphasis Type="SmallCaps">ad</Emphasis>): “Pagans” in the Time of Christians and Muslims

A new medieval culture called the “Shay culture” has recently been described in Ethiopia: it is characterised by hypogean and megalithic funerary structures, collective burial practices and a highly distinctive material culture including funerary potteries. These characteristics indisputably define a “Pagan” culture, in a region and at a time (tenth to fourteenth century ad) where Pagans could only face the expansion of Christianity and the development of neighbouring Muslim polities. While documenting some aspects of this cultural entity on archaeological grounds, this article re-envisions the Ethiopian Pagans no longer as “pre-Christians” and/or “pre-Muslims” but as historical competitors with, and economic partners of, their neighbours.