Tracing Connections: Chemical composition analysis of archaeological pottery as indicator of interregional contacts in Western and Saharan Africa before AD 1300

追踪联系：考古陶器的化学成分分析作为公元 1300 年之前西非和撒哈拉非洲区域间接触的指标

• 批准号: 467208885
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Sonja Magnavita Santos
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Abteilung III: Vor- und Frühgeschichte
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Priority Programmes
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/467208885?language=en
• 关键词: Tracing; Connections; Chemical; composition; analysis

The main goal of the project is to generate unbiased evidence of interregional contacts between archaeological areas and regions in western and Saharan Africa during the 1st to early 2nd millennia AD by means of comprehensive analyses of the chemical composition of pottery. Thus far, archaeological studies of interregional contacts within Africa have mainly relied on the archaeometric analysis of prestige goods or so-called exotica (e.g., glass beads) to trace such connections in an objective manner. For instance, a number of hitherto examined artifacts appear to corroborate the suggestions from written sources that various major historical places in West Africa and the Sahara – e.g., Gao, Essouk-Tadmekka and Marandet – were once connected to each other through trade routes from/to North Africa. Beyond this, however, we are still poorly informed about the interaction of those places with others in the wider region, either because there are no written sources on such traffic or because exotica are lacking or were not analyzed. The proposed project steps down from the pure analysis of exotica by demonstrating that pottery, as the most frequent artifact class in archaeological sites of the period, is equally fully suitable for tracing connections between sites and areas from adjacent regions. In fact, preliminary work by the applicant has shown that chemical composition analysis of archaeological pottery is a powerful tool for even highlighting thus far unknown interregional connections. The project intends to uncover potential interregional interactions within a research area encompassing the Libyan Sahara to the north, the Middle Niger Valley to the west and the Lake Chad Basin to the east.

该项目的主要目标是通过对陶器的化学成分进行全面分析，为西非和撒哈拉非洲考古区和地区在公元1至2千年初之间的区域间接触提供公正的证据。到目前为止，对非洲区域间联系的考古研究主要依靠对名贵物品或所谓的异国情调(如玻璃珠)的考古分析，以客观的方式追踪这种联系。例如，迄今研究过的一些文物似乎证实了书面来源的说法，即西非和撒哈拉沙漠的各个主要历史地点--例如加奥、埃苏克-塔德梅卡和马拉德特--曾经通过往返北非的贸易路线相互联系。然而，除此之外，我们对这些地方与更广泛区域内其他地方的互动仍然知之甚少，要么是因为没有关于这种交通的书面来源，要么是因为缺乏或没有分析异域风情。拟议的项目不再单纯分析异国情调，而是证明陶器作为那个时期考古遗址中最常见的人工制品类别，同样完全适合追踪遗址和邻近地区之间的联系。事实上，申请人的初步工作表明，考古陶器的化学成分分析是一个强有力的工具，甚至可以突出迄今未知的区域间联系。该项目打算在一个研究区域内发现潜在的区域间相互作用，该区域北至利比亚撒哈拉，西至尼日尔中部河谷，东至乍得湖盆地。