The Local Organizing Committee is excited that almost 70 sessions and workshops will occur at PanAF Moz 2026. Pan-African Association members and non-members are welcome to submit paper abstracts to specific sessions between Jan. 10th and March 15th.
If you have any questions about specific sessions, please email panaf2026moz@gmail.com and we will be happy to direct your inquries to the relevant session chairs.
See our session titles, abstracts and organizers below!
Session #1
New trends in African Archaeology over the last 10,000 years
Organizers: Malebogo Mvimi, Alemseged Beldados
The Holocene epoch in African archaeology has been a significant area of research for archaeologists over the past few decades. This research has focused on key topics such as the transition from foraging to farming, the beginnings of early agriculture, human-environment interactions, animal and plant domestication, the emergence of complex societies, trade, and state formations. The goal of the researchers has been to reconstruct the cultural history of people during the early, mid, and late Holocene periods. With this background, this session aims to assess the current state of archaeological research during the Holocene epoch across different regions of the African continent. It will serve as a platform to share advancements in the study of African archaeology, with a particular emphasis on the early, mid, and late Holocene periods. We invite submissions for papers that explore various proactive approaches related to the outlined topics. We strongly encourage studies that incorporate, but are not limited to, ethnoarchaeology, ethnography, zooarchaeology, archaeobotany, isotopic analysis, linguistic archaeology, data science and other relevant methodologies. The session organizers especially welcome research and progress reports from graduate students.
Session #2
Beyond the Colonial Shipwreck: Envisioning a Transformative African Maritime Archeology
Organizers: Cezar Mahumane, Luis Felipe Santos, Madicke Geye
Until recently maritime archaeological research received little attention from African scholars, due in part to a lack of resources and specific training programs, but also because those few interventions that did occur in the African region typically sought shipwrecks that spoke to colonialist-centered histories and often embodied the extractive and exploitative objectives of salvage.
This panel will bring together African, diasporan, and international scholars, who are contributing to an exponential increase in maritime archeological research across Africa – to plot new directions for a more inclusive maritime heritage research and practice
It will consider how a less wreck centric paradigm – that draws upon archeological, heritage, archival, and oral history sources – might recover long neglected histories of African seafaring, but also capture the waterway practices that have always played a fundamental role in shaping African economic, political, social, and cultural life not only along its coasts but throughout its interior. They will also discuss the challenges to overcome in order to achieve a decolonized African maritime archeology that not only recovers neglected pasts but also harnesses heritage work to the task of multi-dimensional transformative empowerment in the present by contributing to local community well-being and finding solutions for securing genuine sustainability for African professional maritime heritage practice.
Session #3
The emergence of Swahili communities in East Africa: interactions between coast, hinterland and the Indian Ocean world
Organizers: Celso Simbine, Diogo Oliveira
Archaeological research on the east coast of Africa and the Indian Ocean has focused on combining data from archaeological survey and excavation with documentary and ethnographic sources to reconstruct the long-term cultural and ecological history of Swahili communities.
This panel aims to reflect on the cultural and historical investigations of the Swahili maritime landscape and to discuss the emergence of diversified lifestyles among Swahili communities on the mainland and the islands of coastal East Africa, with special attention to their cultural practices in private and public spaces.
The panel will address several aspects of Swahili life, including (1) connections between peoples of the hinterland to communities along the coast and the wider Indian Ocean world, (2) the dominant material culture typologies and functions (potteries, dhows, houses, mosques, etc.), (3) chronologies, and (4) geographic distribution, to further our understanding the Swhaili coast and its culture of consumption and social significance. This panel will reflect on the material culture of commerce and commercial interactions among Africa, Asia, Europe, and America from AD 800 to AD 1900.
Session #4
Discovering African Archaeology and Heritage with Borders: Novel Approaches, Perspectives, and Interpretations on African Linear Earthworks
Organizer: Tomos Llywelyn Evans
African linear earthworks are among the largest historical structures on the African continent and, indeed, the entire world. Yet they remain relatively understudied by archaeologists. Pioneering survey work at monumental linear earthwork enclosure sites, such as the Benin iya and Sungbo’s Eredo (Nigeria), suggested them to be complex architectural constructs,
combining sophisticated technological skill with elaborate structures of labour mobilisation, anf focused primarily on their utilitarian functions as structures of physical protection and prestige. Renewed research on earthworks has built on these early studies through the undertaking of rigorous excavations, and via the employment of novel theoretical and methodological approaches. These recent studies contemplate earthworks as polysemic, multiplex monuments, with a multiplicity of functions and meanings. They foreground the connections between African
concepts of socio-political power and cosmological notions in which physical demarcation is intimately associated with spirituality and the need to regulate dangerous esoteric forces. They have also explored practices of memory-making in recalling the specific deities, ancestors, and events inhabiting these linear earthwork landscapes, such as their associated gateways, ditches, roadways, shrines, and sacred groves. Furthermore, technological advancements have led to new innovations in archaeological methods used to study these earthworks, including improvements in radiometric dating, geoarchaeology, GPR, and remote sensing techniques such as LiDAR and photogrammetry. This panel will explore this novel research on linear earthworks, considering their important uses as fortifications, enclosures, monuments, and
mnemonic landscapes, while also exploring their implications for understanding past technologies and socio-political and labour relations pertaining to their construction and maintenance.
Session #5
African landscapes and geospatial technologies
Organizers: Lamine Badji, Stefania Merlo
The study of archaeological landscapes in Africa is constrained by vast territorial scales, difficult environmental conditions, limited infrastructure, scarce research resources, and ongoing political and security instabilities. These factors hinder long-term investigations of landscape dynamics and contribute to the scarcity of systematic data essential for the sustainable management of Africa’s cultural heritage. In response, geospatial technologies are increasingly being embedded in fieldwork, modelling, and data analysis across the continent. Their growing use offers promising avenues for documenting, interpreting, and safeguarding endangered or poorly understood sites and landscapes, helping to develop new spatio-temporal analytical frameworks building on the body of knowledge so far generated using traditional methods. This session invites a collective reflection on how geospatial approaches can advance the study of African archaeological landscapes. It seeks to examine the opportunities, constraints, and methodological innovations associated with these tools, and to highlight research that integrates spatial, environmental, and cultural datasets in context-appropriate ways. By doing so, the panel aims to stimulate dialogue on strategies for enhancing archaeological knowledge and heritage protection across Africa.
Session #6
The role of digital heritage databases in shaping policy, improving site management, and enhancing decision-making for heritage preservation
Organizers: Dana Salamin, Omar Paulo, Thabo Kgosietsile
Digital heritage documentation is transforming archaeological research across Africa, yet its impact on policy and development planning remains limited. Despite significant advances in spatial databases, remote sensing, and digital recording systems, cultural heritage is still rarely treated as a priority within national development agendas, where economic growth, infrastructural development, and extractive industries often dominate decision-making. This session critically examines this disconnect and explores how digital heritage data might gain greater traction within policy processes. Drawing on current debates about cultural heritage governance, sustainable development, and the legacies of exclusionary policy frameworks, the session asks when digital documentation can challenge rather than reinforce the marginalisation of cultural resources. The session’s aim is to consider how digital tools enhance risk assessment, site monitoring and protection, while analysing the political, institutional, and structural barriers that prevent such data from informing development choices. Central questions include: How can digital documentation be translated into persuasive policy evidence? What institutional reforms are needed for heritage to be recognised as a development asset? In what ways can digital data challenge entrenched exclusions within heritage governance? And how can collaborative, community-centred documentation strengthen stewardship and advocacy? By identifying gaps in existing systems and proposing actionable strategies to integrate heritage into planning and policy, the session invites critical reflection on how digital documentation can reposition cultural heritage as a meaningful component of sustainable development in Africa. We invite papers that address these themes—conceptually, methodologically, or through case studies—and that offer fresh insights into bridging the divide between digital documentation, heritage management, and policy formulation. Key words: Digital heritage databases; Heritage policy and governance; Sustainable development; Decision-making; African archaeology.
Session #7
Tracing Uganda’s Archaeology and Heritage: Research across disciplinary, societal, and administrative boundaries
Organizers: Herman Muwonge, Catherine Namono
This session invites papers that explore Uganda’s archaeology and heritage as shared national resources that stretch across cultural, environmental, and administrative lines. Although the country carries many cultural divisions, research has progressively revealed deep threads of connection linking communities to a long and varied past. At the same time, researchers often work within colonial administrative boundaries and uneven access to sites, which shape how questions are formed, how knowledge moves, and how communities are engaged. We welcome contributions that show how material culture, landscapes, archives, and oral traditions can help us rethink common heritage, while also reflecting on the practical and ethical challenges of navigating these inherited boundaries.
We also encourage papers reflecting on restitution, return, and community response. Recent returns of cultural objects to Uganda revealed a range of reactions: some objects sparked strong stories and memories, while others prompted quieter reflections, uncertainties, or new questions about meaning and custodianship. Research that engages these varied responses, addresses archival gaps, or proposes new ways of caring for heritage is especially welcome.
Session #8
Exhibitions and Education in West African Museums: Challenges and Innovations
Organizers: Daniel Kumah, Getrude Eyifa-Dzidzienyo, Mark Amenyo-Xa, Ishaq Isah Ishaq
This session focuses on the evolving role of museums in West Africa, examining how they respond to shifts in audiences, restitution debates, and digital innovation. It centers on how exhibitions, educational programs, and public engagement are being reimagined to reflect local histories and global connections, while addressing sustainability, accessibility, and relevance in rapidly changing contexts.
Presenters are encouraged to share case studies on community museums, national museums, and university museums, demonstrating innovative strategies and challenges in curating exhibitions and fostering engagement. The session specifically aims to discuss how West African museums can advance education, enhance accessibility of heritage, and create inclusive cultural futures.
Session #9
Cultural Roots for Food Futures: Reviving Indigenous Knowledge and Environmental Stewardship Across Africa
Organizers: Unified Culture Promotion Foundation
Africa’s food heritage is one of its strongest cultural assets, shaped by indigenous knowledge, local crops, and environmental wisdom. However, rapid modernization, climate change, and the loss of traditional agricultural systems are putting this heritage at risk. Across the continent, many indigenous seeds, plants, and materials once used to produce cultural foods, tools, and crafts are disappearing due to deforestation, land degradation, and poor environmental management. This loss weakens both food security and cultural identity, as communities become more dependent on imported crops and processed foods that disconnect people from their traditions. The paper examines how the decline of environmental resources directly affects Africa’s ability to sustain its food cultures and reproduce cultural expressions that rely on natural materials. It argues that reviving indigenous farming practices, traditional cuisine, and environmental conservation is essential for restoring cultural pride, promoting biodiversity, and achieving sustainable development. Through a comparative look across African regions, the study highlights how reconnecting culture, ecology, and food heritage can foster cross-border collaboration and strengthen community resilience. It calls for integrating cultural preservation into food and environmental policies as a pathway to building a united and self-sustaining Africa.
Session #10
95 years of the Zimbabwe culture: ruins, reactions, and reimaginations
Organizers: Robert T. Nyamushosho, Abigail J. Moffett
Ninety-five years ago, in her landmark 1931 publication, ‘The Zimbabwe culture: ruins and reactions’, Gertrude Caton-Thompson gave the world new vocabulary – Zimbabwe culture – for framing one of Africa’s most remarkable ancient civilizations renowned in global archaeology for its breathtaking stone-walled monuments (madzimbabwe). More than 200 sites, spread across present-day Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, and Botswana, testify to its wide reach and enduring significance for understanding Africa’s precolonial past. Its most celebrated expression, Great Zimbabwe, remains the largest precolonial urban complex in sub-Saharan Africa, second in scale only to the Egyptian pyramids, and continues to inspire new scholarship, methodologies, and interpretations. The historiography of the Zimbabwe culture is inseparable from the intellectual history of African archaeology. From antiquarian speculation to processual and post-processual approaches, and now into the current decolonial turn, research on the Zimbabwe culture reflects the broader political and theoretical transformations of the discipline. Yet this legacy is also deeply entangled with colonialism: widespread looting and vandalism scattered thousands of objects across European and North American collections, while colonial narratives reframed it’s past to serve imperial ideologies. The present moment offers an opportunity to critically revisit these legacies while highlighting innovative research being undertaken today. To mark the 95th anniversary of the coining of the term Zimbabwe culture, and in recognition of Caton-Thompson’s enduring contributions to the Pan-African Archaeological Association, we invite submissions for a special collection of papers. This collection seeks to foster critical dialogue, showcase emerging scholarship, and reimagine the Zimbabwe culture not only as a regional archaeological tradition, but also as part of a broader global conversation in archaeology, heritage, and museum studies.
Session #11
Sharing a common language in African Archaeology: a critical reflection on concepts and practical applications
Organizers: Orhun Uäÿur, Faye Lander
The use of terms to define and categorise the past including landscapes, buildings, monuments, sites, artefacts and chronological periods, to name a few, has a long tradition in Archaeology. Like many other disciplines, the naming of “things” along formal systems of reference offer us the ability to order and make meaning out of the “things” we wish to describe. The use, for example, of a list of controlled vocabularies in a digital environment, provides a standardised and consistent framework for describing heritage data including its retrieval and exploration. By standardising concepts it allows us to share information with one another, using a shared form of communication – a common language – that can be understandable and easily discoverable by all. There however remains a caveat. Whether working with analogue or digital records, we recognise that the naming and classification of objects, places, site types, chronological periods and so forth are often subjectively defined, dependent on context, and can be non-transferrable across different regions, time periods, and linguistic groups.
This session welcomes contributions that critically reflect on the theoretical and practical implications of applying different concepts to describe archaeology in Africa including, for example, the challenges of dealing with the “site” concept and its application in site documentation and spatial analysis. We also welcome papers that reflect on broader themes involving:
- African archaeological nomenclature in postcolonial contexts
- The use of glossaries to standardise African heritage information
- Grappling with conflicting concepts for defining sites
4.Multilingual Controlled Vocabularies and their challenges in transcription and transliteration - The use of International Authority Vocabularies such as Getty AAT/TGN/CONA and Wikidata, etc. in an African context?
Session #12
Reconstructing Africa’s Past Using Genetic, Archaeological, and Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Organizers: Carina Schlebusch, Ezekia Mtetwa
Africa holds the deepest roots of human history. Its unparalleled cultural, archaeological and genetic diversity, offers key insights into the origins, dispersals, and adaptations of our species. In recent decades, advances in ancient DNA, genomics, bioarchaeology and archaeological science have significantly expanded our ability to reconstruct Africa’s complex demographic histories and cultural trajectories across the continent, with increasing resolution.
However, these approaches often remain constrained within the boundaries of each discipline. This session seeks to bridge genetics, archaeology, linguistics, and palaeoenvironmental research to address long-standing questions regarding migration and admixture, population continuity and replacement, technological and subsistence transitions (including plant and animal domestication), and the impacts of climatic and ecological change through time.
We invite contributions that span key phases in Africa’s human past – from the emergence of early Homo and the development of behavioural complexity to the Holocene large-scale population movements, biological and cultural adaptations, and inter-regional interactions. We also welcome methodological contributions that showcase innovative applications of genomic, isotopic, or computational tools to reconstruct demographic, ecological, or cultural histories. In particular, we encourage case studies that integrate ancient and/or modern DNA with archaeological evidence that shed light on mobility, diet and social organization. In addition, we invite critical cross-disciplinary discussions on professional ethics, heritage, data governance, equitable partnerships, and capacity-building within African contexts. By bringing together scholars from across Africa and beyond, this session aims to foster interdisciplinary collaboration, strengthen continental research networks, and underscore Africa’s central role in shaping our understanding of human evolution and diversity.
Session #13
Archaeology and Heritage Studies in West Africa: Trends, Perspectives and the Way Forward
Organizers: Daniel Kumah, Kodzo Gavua, William Gblerkpor
This session seeks to critically examine the current state and future directions of archaeology and heritage studies in West Africa. Over the past two decades, scholarship in the region has expanded beyond traditional excavation and survey to embrace interdisciplinary approaches that integrate community collaborations in the area of environmental and developmental matters, archival research, museum practice, digital archaeology, site conservation and heritage tourism development. Presentations will highlight emerging trends such as community based archaeology, biocultural heritage, restitution debates, and the use of innovative technologies in documentation and public engagement.
By drawing on case studies from across West Africa including ancient trade centers, shrine economies, colonial heritage sites, and contemporary museum initiatives’ the session will provide diverse perspectives on how archaeology informs cultural resource management and heritage policy. Contributors will also address pressing challenges such as site encroachment, mining, climate change, and the politics of restitution, while proposing strategies for sustainable heritage futures.
Ultimately, this session aims to foster dialogue among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers on the way forward for archaeology and heritage studies in West Africa. It emphasizes collaborative methodologies, regional networks, and the democratization of heritage knowledge as essential pathways for strengthening the discipline and ensuring its relevance to communities and global scholarship alike.
Session #14
Archaeologies of Coexistence: Humans, Animals, and Environmental Change Across Sub-Saharan Africa
Organizers: Marta Osypinska, Piotr Osypinski
Contemporary conflicts and instability in the Sahel countries are pushing archaeological teams working there to look for new research areas. Many of them are finding inspiring fields of study in East and Southern Africa, continuing their programmes in completely new contexts. The “northern” perspective, resulting from research experiences in the Sahara or the Nile Valley, sheds new light on the past of other regions of Africa, previously known mainly locally, opening a discussion on the links between different areas of Africa in a new, broader perspective. The central theme of the proposed session is the enduring relationship between humans and animals – a relationship that has shaped communities, migrations and survival strategies for millennia. We encourage archaeologists, zooarchaeologists, bioarchaeologists, ethnoarchaeologists and historians working on both prehistory and historical periods to share their thoughts. We are interested in the earliest human adaptations and hunting specialisations of the Palaeolithic, the environmental breakthroughs of the Pleistocene and Holocene, pastoral migrations, the migration paths of humans and animals in antiquity, as well as the changes in human-animal and human-environment relationships over the last few hundred years.
The scope of research is broad: from analyses of animal and human remains, biomarkers in micro-residues on tools and vessels, isotopic analyses, to artistic creation/rock art, iconography, sculpture, and small-scale art. Of particular interest are interdisciplinary approaches that combine material archaeology with environmental research, zooarchaeology, palaeoecology and cultural history. The session aims to create a platform for the exchange of knowledge and experiences between archaeologists from different regions of North-East, East and Sub-Saharan Africa, which will allow for a better understanding of the dynamics of human-animal coexistence, migration and the evolution of communities in a changing environment. We invite researchers representing different eras, regions and methodologies to share their research and inspiring perspectives.
Session #15
Creative community engagement practices in African archaeology
Organizers: Ibrahima Thiaw, Lamine Badji
Today, archaeological practice in Africa invites for forms of interactions and engagements with local communities for better appropriation and more digestible consumption of archaeological knowledge. The development of a sovereign African archaeology would necessarily involve ‘epistemic disobedience’ and creativity rooted in praxis and local modes of meaning making in order to break with methods inherited from colonization. Taking local communities as ‘ethical clients’ these approaches draw on endogenous knowledge and modes of actions to rethink how archaeological knowledge is produced, disseminated, and consumed. This session proposes to explore forms of community or public archaeology inspired by endogenous African practices of meaning making, heritage preservation, and/or memorialization. Particular attention will be paid to alternative practices of mediation and circulation of archaeological knowledge, promoting service to communities, co-production of knowledge, and recognition of communities as true partners in research and heritage preservation protocols and processes. The session will pay particular attention to researchers’ creativity in developing new narrative approaches (African oral traditions and languages in archaeological practices, involvement of local groups such as griots, use of music or poetry; innovative forms of museum display, curative care in sensitive contexts such as the management of human remains. By bringing together these different perspectives, this session aims to have a lasting impact on field practices for archaeological renewal and decolonial and inclusive heritage preservation, aligned with the local sociocultural realities in Africa.
Session # 16
Archaeologies of the contemporary past in Africa
Organizers: Rui Gomes Coelho, Nancy Rushohora, Abigail Moffett
Africa has been described as the cradle of humanity or civilisation, tropes that have stimulated many generations of archaeologists. The centrality of African in world history, however, is far from being just about our origins. The modern world, in its current economic and political configuration, emerged out of processes that have been taking shape in continent since the late 19th century or were at least greatly influenced by relationships with the African continent. This session explores the emergence and development of modernity in Africa, and how its materiality has engendered new life-worlds. We welcome papers that deal with imperialism, past and present, and its legacies, but also histories of refusal and resistance. We are also interested in contributions that examine the ways in which the project of modernity and its notions of progress and development, despite their colonial roots, have been claimed and reinvented from within. We encourage community-engaged contributors to speak about their experiences while doing heritage work and to discuss how research on recent events and histories carry potential for social change, or present particular challenges. We hope the session will encourage reflections on the role and relevance of contemporary archaeology in Africa.
Session #17
Pan-African Homo sapiens evolution: linking processes with data
Organizers: Lucy Timbrell, Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias
The evolution of Homo sapiens is increasingly understood as a continent-wide process, demanding models that integrate cultural and biological evolution across space and time. Moving beyond isolated regional sequences, contemporary frameworks emphasise structured populations and complex interactions operating at multiple scales. This session foregrounds these perspectives, examining how concepts such as cumulative cultural evolution, niche construction, innovation diffusion and environmental adaptation can be meaningfully linked with empirical datasets. Emerging evidence reveals a dynamic African landscape of interacting populations embedded within shifting ecological mosaics. By integrating fossil, archaeological, genetic and palaeoenvironmental records, this session highlights how multidisciplinary data illuminate mechanisms underlying population diversification, convergence and resilience during the emergence of H. sapiens.
We focus particularly on how cultural evolutionary processes, including the maintenance of technological traditions, the emergence of symbolic behaviours, and the co-evolution of social networks and environments, shaped early Homo sapiens and interacted with our biological evolution. Central to the session is the role of regional variation, from the Sahara to the East African Rift, Central African Rainforests, southern savannas, and coastal ecotones, in shaping our species’ cultural and biological repertoires. Papers should address themes including cultural transmission across fluctuating biomes, the gene-culture coevolution, evolutionary processes reflected in empirical data, and the interplay between environmental change and mobility in influencing our evolutionary trajectory. We invite contributions that promote methodological innovation and cross-border, and cross-disciplinary research. Together, these perspectives aim to build a continental-wide understanding of Homo sapiens origins that recognises Africa as an interconnected demographic and cultural landscape.
Session #18
Current directions in eastern African Middle and Late Pleistocene Archaeology
Organizers: Amanuel Beyin, Yonatan Sahle
The Middle and Late Pleistocene (c. 750 – 12 ka) archaeological record of eastern Africa plays a key role in understanding crucial episodes and processes in the cultural and biological evolution of our species: Homo sapiens. Among other things, this time span saw the fluorescence and diversification of technological innovations, ecological niche expansion, and the development of symbolic culture by our lineage, all believed to have been facilitated by increased cognitive capacity. Discoveries from eastern Africa provide valuable insights into these developments. This Session invites contributions from ongoing international and interdisciplinary field projects investigating the Middle and Late Pleistocene archaeology of the region to gauge emergent theoretical and methodological perspectives on data collection, analysis, and interpretation. The aim is to highlight i) current trends in research design (e.g., interdisciplinarities, methodological innovations, and data sharing), ii) major questions driving research, and iii) to celebrate progress being made in all facets of research into the Middle and Late Pleistocene Archaeology of eastern Africa. The session welcomes presentations that focus on results from recent field research projects, revisits of sites/museum collections, chronological and paleoecological contexts relevant to the archaeology of the period, and/or case studies showcasing methodological advances in the broader field.
Session #19
79 years after Nairobi – revisioning the Middle and Later Stone Age in sub-Saharan Africa
Organizers: Gregor Bader, Will Archer and Decio Muianga
Seventy-nine years ago, the landmark 1947 Pan-African Congress of Prehistory and Related Studies took place in Nairobi. It was the first major international gathering to highlight African prehistory in a global scientific context. In this session, we revisit and reimagine the study of the Middle and Later Stone Ages in sub-Saharan Africa. While the Nairobi Congress was a pivotal moment in the recognition of African prehistory as integral to understanding human origins, it took place at a time when research methodologies such as excavation technique, chronometric dating and other scientific analysis were only about to emerge. This panel brings together new archaeological, paleoenvironmental, and technological perspectives that redefine the temporal, cultural, and geographical contours of these key periods.
Contributions engaging with emerging evidence from excavations, chronometric dating, lithic analysis, and environmental reconstruction are invited, as are contributions interrogating interpretive frameworks, terminologies, and the politics of knowledge production. While the congress in Nairobi was certainly influenced by colonial epistemologies and restricted access for African scholars, we are now shifting towards decolonising archaeology, offering important new perspectives on human prehistory. By juxtaposing the intellectual ambitions of the 1947 Congress with current methodological and theoretical innovations, the panel aims to foster a renewed vision of the Middle and Later Stone Ages as dynamic, interconnected and locally grounded chapters in the story of human evolution and cultural development.
Session #20
Zooarchaeology Across Borders: Faunal Evidence for Understanding Hunter-Gatherer and Pastoralist Economies in Sub-Saharan Africa
Organizers: Maria Joao Valente, Louisa Hutten, Kathryn Croll
The transition from hunting and gathering to agropastoral economies represents one of the most significant subsistence transformations in African prehistory. This session brings together zooarchaeologists working across neighbouring regions in Sub-Saharan Africa to examine the dynamic relationships between human communities, faunal assemblages, and economic strategies during the Holocene. Focusing on zooarchaeological evidence, the session explores how communities responded to ecological change, adopted new practices, and maintained cultural continuity across diverse landscapes.
Zooarchaeological assemblages provide direct, quantifiable data on animal exploitation, diet, and landscape use, revealing the complexities of subsistence transitions. Comparative analyses of hunter-gatherer and early pastoral sites allow identification of regional variation in adoption timelines, species preferences, and taphonomic signatures, helping clarify whether shifts were rapid, gradual, or geographically variable. Bone and shell assemblages from well-preserved archaeological contexts offer insights that complement broader environmental and settlement datasets.
African zooarchaeology presents unique methodological challenges and opportunities for cross-regional research. Differences in research protocols, preservation conditions, specialist expertise, and institutional access can hinder comparative studies. However, Africa’s archaeological record holds remarkable potential for illuminating regional trajectories. This panel aligns with the PANAF 2026 theme by explicitly addressing these challenges while charting new approaches for international collaboration in zooarchaeological research.
Presentations within this session may address:
1) Faunal assemblage characterisation and species identification protocols across regional contexts.
2) Taphonomic processes affecting faunal preservation in open-air, rockshelter, and cave sites.
3) Quantitative methods for assessing subsistence intensity and dietary breadth.
4) Integration of zooarchaeological data with isotopic, genetic, proteomic, and paleoenvironmental methods.
Session #21
Functional Studies in Archaeological Research: Giving Meaning to dead objects
Organizer: Okopi Ade
The traditional methods for analysing and interpreting Prehistoric artefacts stone tools, bone tools, ceramics, etc. has always been techno-morphological analysis, raw material properties and contextual analysis as well as typological classification. However, since Semenov’s pioneering use wear research that resulted in his “Prehistoric Technology”, this approach has been employed for the analysis and understanding of lithic assemblages and various archaeological artefacts from different parts of the globe. This has significantly improved on the insight gleaned from lithic artefacts bone tools, ceramics, metal objects etc. Use wear analysis is the systematic observation of wear and tear marks on archaeological/experimental tools through the aided and unaided eyes in order to tell the functions of such tools. It is an attempt by the specialist to infer qualitative inferences on artefactual remains on the basis of marked quantitative attributes represented on the artefacts which could have been as a result of natural/cultural factors. The main goal of use wear studies is to infer artefact design and function. This is because traces of use present invaluable clue to the interpretation and understanding of a wide scope of stone tools in the light of their distinct functions and the task they were used to achieve.
This session will focus submissions on material studies that employs technological, morphological, typological and functional analyses in the unravelling of the functional relevance/use of prehistoric artefacts.
Session #22
Contributions of prehistory and archaeology to the sustainability and well-being of African communities
Organizers: Luiz Oosterbeek, Djibril Thiam, Ziva Domingos
Prehistoric research conveys a kind of knowledge of the past which is characterized by a rare combination of drivers: the very large time scales; the dealing with often completely different and for most unknown patterns of behavior, beliefs and ecosystems constraints; the building of understandings of the past that are primarily anchored on tangible evidence; the understanding of the unity of Humanity as being structured through its adaptive diversity; the permanent interdisciplinary nature of prehistoric science, from its dawn, two centuries ago. Furthermore, the socialization of prehistoric knowledge starts, also from its onset, with field work, engaging a vast majority of non-scholars (workers, undergraduate students, other volunteers) in the process of building the science data-sets (in surveys, excavations, site finds processing, and beyond). This, in turn, sits at the center of transdisciplinarity, since prehistoric research required, always, the input from other layers of knowledge, even when these were not acknowledged as such.
Sustainability concerns facing global and local challenges on the basis of; an understanding of the intertwined relation between human agency and the ecosystems; a valorization of science within a transdisciplinary framework; an integrated approach to different scales of human intervention; an integrated approach to the unity and diversity of humans, not as opposites but as complementary dimensions of a single species, precluding any racist or related divides.
Prehistoric research in Africa plays a paramount role in the understanding of the origins and evolution of humans, but it also contributes to enhance the relevance and diversity of precolonial cultural expressions, including insights into African traditions in domains like aesthetics, technology, networking, foresight, philosophical understandings and beyond. All these dimensions are fundamental for sustainability.
This session invites contributions that may bring reflections, examples and strategies to evidence the contributions of prehistory and archaeology for sustainability and the wellbeing of African communities.
Session #23
Experimental Archaeology as a Media for Artefacts Analysis and Interpretation
Organizer: Okopi Ade
Experimental archaeology allows researchers to replicate tool production and usage, providing a controlled framework to distinguish authentic functional patterns from those caused by post-depositional processes or handling. By integrating experimental approaches with advanced microscopy and spectroscopy and other ethnographic methods, analytical and interpretive frameworks for archaeological objects become attainable and fashionable there by refining interpretations of prehistoric tool use.
Experimental programme also could provide a robust framework for understanding the functional roles as well as symbolic roles of artefactual remains, thus contributing to broader discussions on prehistoric technology and human adaptation. By integrating experimental and microscopic approaches, such study offers insights into the behavioral and cultural contexts of prehistoric societies.
Accordingly, this session would focus on the different experimental studies involving on ethnographic and archaeological data aimed at enhancing and updating our analysis and interpretations of artefacts assemblages as people interested in the study of the past and its materiality.
Session #24
Archaeology of liminality and transition: eco-cultural strategies in African prehistoric ecotones
Organizer: Rocco Rotunno, Martina Di Matteo, Marianna Fusco, Olivier Scancarello
In ecology, an “ecotone” refers to a transition zone between two biological communities, often marked by tension and interaction between distinct ecological systems. Derived from eco (ecology) and tonos (tension), it is a space where diverse ecosystems converge, creating unique conditions.
This session seeks to extend this concept into the archaeological and cultural realm, focusing on liminal, transitional, and tension-filled landscapes, marked by extreme or critical climates, abrupt environmental changes, and ecological dichotomies, that prehistoric communities inhabited and shaped.
We aim to explore the adaptive strategies employed by prehistoric African communities as they navigated spaces where overlapping or merging habitats demanded diverse settlement and subsistence techniques. These landscapes were not only ecological thresholds but also cultural ones, centres of significant innovation and adaptation.
The session invites inter- and multidisciplinary approaches, bringing archaeologists, anthropologists, and environmental scientists together discussing how various forms of liminality – spatial, temporal, cultural – inform our understanding of prehistoric landscapes. Participants are encouraged to consider scales ranging from the micro-landscapes of excavation trenches to the macro, regional-scale environments.
This session is particularly intended for scholars specialising in African Quaternary prehistory, covering the period from the Pleistocene to the Late Holocene. It aims to foster interdisciplinary discussions that integrate ecological, palaeoenvironmental, archaeological, and cultural perspectives on human interactions with diverse environments.
We welcome contributions employing diverse analytical and methodological approaches, including ancient DNA, palaeoproteomics, residue analysis, material culture, eco-cultural modelling, and bioarchaeological evidence as proxies for exploring transitions, thresholds, and liminal dynamics in prehistoric contexts.
Session #25
Beyond the frontiers in Palaeoscience: renewing chronological, geoarchaeological, palaeolandscape and palaeoenvironmental approaches to the African Pleistocene
Organizers: Eslem Ben Arous, Emuobosa Orijemie, Tebogo Makhubela, Makarius Itambu
This session explores how recent advances in palaeoscientific methods – geochronology, geoarchaeology, and palaeolandscape approache – are transforming our ability to explore, interpret, and reconstruct Africa’s deep-time record.
Over the past decades, innovations in dating techniques, high-resolution palaeolandscape and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, and new geoarchaeological tools are breaking down long-standing methodological and geographic boundaries. When integrated across diverse African ecoregions (tropical forests, grasslands, savannas, deserts) and a wide range of archaeological contexts (open-air sites, caves, and rock shelters), these approaches have enabled researchers to build increasingly nuanced narratives of human evolution, environmental change, and landscape dynamics across the continent.
Focusing on the Middle to Late Pleistocene – a critical period for understanding major episodes of technological and behavioral innovation that occurred during the Early Stone Age (ESA) and Middle Stone Age (MSA) – this session invites contributions that showcase how emerging analytical methods, field techniques, and conceptual models are advancing palaeoscientific research in Africa. We particularly welcome papers presenting cross-disciplinary case studies that integrate human evolution and palaeoscientific data, including advances in geochronology, geoarchaeology, palaeoenvironmental tools, and landscape reconstruction, as well as research from archaeological sequences in underrepresented regions (e.g., western and central Africa).
Session #26
Beyond heterarchy: new approaches to socio-political complexity in Africa
Organizers: Rennan Lemos, Abigail Moffett, Matthew Davies, Robert Nyamushosho
In the 25+ years since the seminal publication of “Beyond Chiefdoms”, historical and archaeological studies of African socio-political complexity have made broad advances. Embracing various understandings of heterarchy and rejecting simple Neo-evolutionary typologies, Africanist archaeologists working across the continent, have developed a series of exciting regional approaches to social organisation, power and agency. Socio-political structures in particular have been re-conceptualised as fluid with competing loci of power and the possibility for rapid transitions between less and more centralised forms. This session will therefore critically interrogate these myriads of socio-political systems, consider their fundamental material conditions, and re-theorise the processes underlying these uniquely complex societies. We challenge contributors to move beyond the superficial use of concepts such as hierarchy and heterarchy. Contributions to this session will range from the mid-Holocene onwards, and we encourage perspectives from the Nile Valley, Horn, Eastern, Central, Southern and West Africa and North Africa, the Sahel and Sahara. We suggest that we may now be at an opportune moment to review and synthesise these innovations and map out future agendas for the study of African “complex” societies in a more inclusive way.
Session #27
Reading Human-Animal Interactions through Zooarchaeology in Sudan and Beyond: Towards a North African Perspective
Organizer: Zainab Albshir
Despite growing interest in North African prehistory, zooarchaeological research in Sudan remains underrepresented within the regional context. This session seeks to address this gap by re-examining the complex and evolving relationships between humans and animals across Sudan and the wider North African region. Through the lens of zooarchaeology, it aims to reconstruct subsistence strategies, trace transitions from hunting to herding and farming, and assess how environmental change shaped human lifeways and cultural identities over time.
Sudan provides a key point of departure, where the interplay between the Nile Valley, savanna, and desert environments offers unique insights into human adaptation and resilience. The rich archaeological record from these zones invites renewed examination through both classical and advanced analytical techniques, including isotopic analysis, ZooMS, and radiocarbon (C14) dating.
At the same time, the session welcomes contributions from across North Africa that provide comparative perspectives, stimulate discussion, and help illuminate broader cultural and environmental trajectories across the region. By juxtaposing case studies, methodological innovations, and theoretical reflections, this session aims to advance a more integrated understanding of the role of animals in shaping human history and identity.
We invite papers focusing on faunal analysis, taphonomy, isotopic studies, ZooMS, radiocarbon dating, and other interdisciplinary approaches that contribute to exploring the dynamic and changing human–animal relationship across temporal and spatial scales.
Session #28
Maritime Archaeology of the Slave Trade: Past, present and future perspectives
Organizers: Cezar Mahumane, Steve Lubkeman, Celso Simbine, Gabrielle Miller
This session will provide a critical synopsis of recent–and potential–contributions of maritime archaeology to the history of the African slave trade, discussing questions, methods, and theoretical approaches through which maritime archeology might contribute to African and global historiographies from the 15th century onward. Drawing upon ongoing archaeological research carried out across multiple sites, we propose strategies for developing a maritime archeology devoted to recovering a fuller history of the slave trade–both as it was experienced by enslaved Africans and as a process that fundamentally shaped the modern world. We also consider how the maritime archeology of the slave trade can critically engage with the enduring legacies of this past in the present by fostering multiple forms of diversity, by centering stakeholder engagement and public education, by pursuing new models for heritage conservation and protection, and that challenges maritime archeology itself to re-consider its long neglect of this past and to rethink its role and its responsibilities in the present.
Session #29
African Archaeological Perspectives on the Human Engagement with Fire
Organizers: Michael Chazan, Candice Shaw
Fire is a critical element of the natural world that has been drawn into almost every aspect of human experience. The earliest archaeological evidence of fire has been identified at African sites and over the millennia fire became essential to activities as varied as cooking, agriculture, smelting, and religious observance. This session will bring together researchers working across the continent and through all time periods to work towards an African long-term archaeology of fire.
Session #30
Linking past-present-future through Biocultural Heritage
Organizers: Anneli Ekblom, Pascoal Gota
Within the field of Biocultural Heritage, methodologies and concepts are developed to learn from past- and present-day examples of low-intensity management of soil, fire, forests, farms, and water. The heritage extension stresses the importance of place-based practices, memory, and knowledge, and allows us to fuse our interests and experiences from both cultural heritage management and biodiversity conservation. In addition, community projects have led to the formation of a fascinating knowledge-practice philosophy in collaboration with academia. Landscape archaeology, soil archaeology, place-based and landscape-scale archaeobotanical and palaeoecological approaches, and remote sensing and spatial analyses are essential methods in this endeavour. We invite researchers to participate in a discussion on methods, concepts and practices of biocultural heritage on the continent.
Session #31
New approaches to pre-colonial architecture in the southern and Eastern Africa: integrating insights from “traditional” and “community-based” heritage practices with archaeology
Organizers: Solange Macamo, Isequiel Alcolete, Abigail Moffett, Nuno Gonçalves
In the southern and eastern regions of Africa, there exists a rich variety of pre-colonial architectural heritage that has been studied for decades. However, such studies have often tended to emphasise particular features rather than exploring their interconnections, for instance, between Zimbabwean and Swahili architecture, or to be undertaken by specialists of particular disciplines, such as conservation architects and archaeologists, without cross-disciplinary collaboration. This panel seeks to examine the material expressions of social systems and cosmologies through pre-colonial architecture by integrating insights from a variety of perspectives and approaching an understanding of architecture as not merely a technical product but also as a symbolic and political manifestation. The session will provide an opportunity for an in-depth analysis of the dynamics, continuities, and transformations of African architectural practices, from the pre-colonial period through to the colonial and postcolonial contexts. This approach promotes the understanding of architectural heritage as a living knowledge system, whose interpretation requires a constant dialogue between the material, the symbolic, and the ecological, particularly regarding preservation, the integrity of protected areas, and community participation. For instance, the Madzimbabwe described by T. Huffman, as stone palaces, are found across southern Africa. They use dhaka houses comparable with makuti houses, in the Swahili architecture. This material construction, alongside historical sources and comparative methods, allow for an understanding of the processes of origin, transformation and disappearance of such architectural forms.
The panel invites discussion of pre-colonial architecture, where “traditional” and “community” heritage are recognised as material expressions of cosmological systems.
Session #32
Digital Data Collection in African Archaeology: Tools, Practices, and Future Directions [MAEASaM]
Organizers: Pamela Ochongo, Lamine Badji
Archaeological practice across Africa is undergoing a digital transformation, with growing reliance on mobile and web-based platforms for field data collection, management, and dissemination. Traditional paper-based methods, while still common, often limit accuracy, accessibility, and long-term preservation of information. Digital platforms provide new opportunities to capture data in real time, integrate geospatial information, standardize survey approaches, and share results more effectively across institutions and borders.
This session invites papers that explore the methods, applications, and challenges of digital data collection in archaeology and heritage management. Contributions may address the use of mobile applications, open-source platforms such as KoboToolbox and ODK, integration with GIS and remote sensing, participatory mapping with communities, or comparative studies of digital versus traditional practices. We particularly welcome case studies from diverse African contexts that highlight how digital tools are shaping archaeological research, heritage preservation, and collaborative knowledge production.
The session aims to foster discussion on best practices, capacity building, ethics, and the future of standardized digital data collection in African archaeology.
Session #33
Transition from the Later Stone Age to the Early Farming Communities in Africa: Rethinking the Roles of Hunter-Gatherers and Farmers
Organizers: Decio Muianga, Martha Kayuni
The transition from the Later Stone Age (LSA) to the Early Farming Communities (EFC) in Africa was neither sudden nor uniform, but rather a gradual, regionally diverse process involving social, economic, and technological changes. This period is often viewed through a dichotomy that contrasts “foragers” with “farmers”. However, recent archaeological, genetic, and ethnographic research challenges these rigid boundaries. This panel will explore the dynamic interplay between indigenous hunter-gatherer groups and incoming or locally emerging agro-pastoral and iron-producing communities across sub-Saharan Africa during the first and early second millennia CE. New evidence from settlement archaeology, ceramic, and metallurgical analyses, as well as ancient DNA, dietary, and environmental reconstructions, reveals that the LSA/EFC interface involved complex processes of interaction, including exchange, co-residence, technological borrowing, intermarriage, and the creation of hybrid cultural practices. Instead of following a linear replacement model, many regions exhibit evidence of prolonged periods of coexistence, during which hunter-gatherers played an active role. They served as intermediaries in terms of landscape knowledge, guardians of symbolic traditions, and participants in the early economies of metalworking and food production. Similarly, early farming and iron-working groups adapted to and integrated aspects of forager subsistence strategies, mobility patterns, and social networks.
By focusing on local trajectories and the mutual contributions of both hunter-gatherers and farmers, this panel aims to re-evaluate assumptions about cultural boundaries and technological “progress”. By examining comparative case studies from eastern, central, and southern Africa, we demonstrate how this transition reshaped social and cultural identities, resource use, and regional interactions, ultimately contributing to the diverse cultural landscapes observed at the dawn of farming communities.
Session #34
Human-Insect Worlds in African Archaeology
Organizers: Jeremy Farr, Siyakha Mguni, Benny Qihao Shen
For human societies, insects are part of shared ecologies involving the gamut of symbiotic relations. Insects (and arthropods more widely) have been receiving increasing attention from environmental archaeologists in recent years as the discipline has seen a greater focus on its contributions to life sciences, natural histories, and multispecies studies. In this session we intend to advance an understanding of the multifaceted roles of insects for humans within socioecological systems and within the discipline of archaeology itself. This ranges from the biology and ecology of insects, human insect interactions, insects as archives of archaeological information, and insects as they are encountered in the excavation and through research collections. Taking in this diverse set of roles we aim to advance an understanding of insects as ever-present fellow travellers, actors, and actants in a shared human-insect world.
From the earliest humans to contemporary communities across Africa, archaeological, palaeoecological, and ethnographic evidence attests to a rich spectrum of human/insect relations. This session foregrounds African cases that examine insects as ecosystem engineers, disease vectors, archives of past environments and mobilities, agents of bioturbation in archaeological deposits, and cultural signifiers in ritual, cosmology, and rock art. We invite contributions relating to archaeoentomology, geomorphology, taphonomy, anthropology, and rock art studies to explore how insects shape and are shaped by African lifeworlds, landscapes, and knowledge systems, and how these insights speak to wider debates on adaptation, health, heritage, and contemporary environmental challenges.
Session #35
Holocene Climate Change and Human-Environmental Dynamics in southeastern Africa and the Western Indian Ocean World
Organizers: Elena Skosey-LaLonde, Ana Isabel Gomes
This session examines Holocene climate variability and its far-reaching influence on human-environmental systems across southeastern Africa and the Western Indian Ocean world. Throughout the Holocene, centennial- to millennial-scale shifts in precipitation and temperature reorganized ecological baselines, reshaping coastal landscapes, mobility pathways, and variable modes of subsistence. Recently, high-resolution paleoenvironmental archives and refined chronologies in coastal, island, and maritime archaeological contexts have transformed our understanding of how Holocene communities responded to episodic aridification, resource fluctuation, and shoreline change. Yet significant gaps remain in linking localized climate signals to broader regional socio-ecological trajectories and in reconciling contrasting interpretations across research traditions.
The session aims to bring together scholars working at the intersection of archaeology, paleoenvironmental science, and historical ecology to explore causal connections between climate variability and key social and ecological processes. We invite papers that address sub-themes of paleoclimate reconstructions, coastal settlement dynamics, subsistence transitions, site-formation processes and ecological resilience. Methodologically innovative, interdisciplinary, and comparative perspectives are especially encouraged, as are studies that explicitly bridge research across regions, an essential dimension for understanding this transnational seaboard.
By situating local and regional case studies within wider climatic and cultural frameworks, this session will highlight southeastern Africa and the Western Indian Ocean as critical spaces for studying long-term adaptation to environmental change. The session aims to contribute a space where international and collaborative inquiry on climate change can take place while offering new insights into how coastal societies navigated Holocene transformations and what these narratives mean for understanding vulnerability and resilience today.
Session #36
Caves and Karstic Systems: Their Relevance to Archaeological Research in Africa
Organizers: Laurent Bruxelles, Decio Muianga, Manoah Muchanga
Caves and karstic systems have played a fundamental role in shaping the archaeological record of Africa, serving as both natural archives of human and environmental history and as cultural spaces integral to past lifeways. Across the continent, from the Maghreb and the Ethiopian Highlands to southern Africa’s dolomitic basins, such contexts have preserved exceptional evidence of human evolution, behaviour, and adaptation. Their stable microenvironments promote the preservation of organic materials, sediments and stratigraphic sequences, enabling high-resolution reconstructions of palaeoecology, subsistence strategies and technological innovation.
Key insights have been gained into symbolic behaviour, tool industries and climatic resilience during the Middle and Later Stone Age by studying karstic caves, such as those found in Africa. Beyond their palaeoanthropological importance, caves are also cultural and ritual landscapes, offering evidence of burial practices, rock art, and continued spiritual significance for descendant communities.
Methodologically, the study of caves in African archaeology requires an interdisciplinary framework combining geology, geomorphology, mapping, geoarchaeology, stratigraphy, micromorphology, geochemistry, palaeogenetics, and dating, including Bayesian chronological modelling, which together refine our understanding of site formation processes and temporal depth. Furthermore, ongoing research highlights the need to integrate local knowledge systems and heritage values, as many karstic landscapes remain living cultural sites.
Caves and karstic systems thus represent not only repositories of Africa’s deep past but also critical loci for examining the interaction between humans and their environments over hundreds of millennia. Investigation must continue, with both scientific innovation and community engagement, so that the continent’s role in the global story of human origins and cultural diversity can be properly reconstructed.
Session #37
Repositioning Built Heritage in African Archaeology: critical reflections and practical solutions
Organizers: Angela Kabiru, Stefania Merlo, Stephanie Wynne-Jones
Built heritage is increasingly recognised as a crucial component of archaeological research in Africa, yet standing buildings remain one of the most contested and least theorised elements within this heritage landscape. This may be due to the prevalence of colonial structures—forts, courthouses, prisons, mission stations, military installations, railway towns, and administrative centres—yet many precolonial societies also left their mark in the landscape, with palaces, walls, mosques, shrines, and tombs found across the continent. The interpretation of this built heritage raises important questions about memory, identity, ownership, and the legacies of colonialism. This session invites papers that critically explore the place of architecture within African archaeology and reflect on the pre-eminence of colonial architectonic forms as built heritage in archaeological and built heritage catalogues. How should archaeologists engage with structures that are materially significant but politically sensitive? What methodologies—archival analysis, architectural recording, community-based research, digital documentation—best support their study? And how do these buildings interact with precolonial and Indigenous cultural landscapes, especially where colonial and local built forms overlap or co-exist? By foregrounding African perspectives and case studies, the session seeks to examine how colonial architecture can be understood not only as evidence of imperial power but also as part of longer histories of settlement, labour, mobility, resistance, and adaptation. Contributors are encouraged to consider how communities reinterpret or repurpose built structures, how national heritage institutions negotiate competing values, and how archaeologists might address the ethical challenges of preserving, transforming, or de-emphasising colonial built legacies while giving space to other built heritage forms. Ultimately, the session aims to reposition built heritage—including but not limited to colonial architecture—as an essential dimension of African archaeological inquiry.
Session #38
Rethinking African Archaeology and Heritage Management: Practices and Research
Organizer: Abdulmalik Abdulrahman
There are compelling demands to decolonise archaeological and heritage management practices in Africa. Over the past decades, the continent has witnessed significant and rapid development in archaeological and heritage-related disciplines, increasing contacts and relations between researchers and community members. Curiosity about the outcome and benefit of archaeological and heritage research increases among many community members.
The continuous investigations in Africa support the withdrawal from the colonial-era methodologies to the empowerment of indigenous communities and their narratives.
Many of the recent findings of archaeological and heritage research in Africa are contributing to the crucial debates and discussions on global and local issues, including socio-cultural identity, climate change, urban development, evolution, adaptation, politics and conflict resolution. Yet, archaeological and heritage practices in Africa require further input on how archaeological and heritage practices are administered, how they were negotiated with local communities, and made relevant to the African context, how they complement traditional academic approaches, and how the knowledge is produced, generally.
This session attracts papers in two dimensions. Firstly, it seeks papers on recent findings on the archaeology and heritage of Africa. Secondly, it calls for intriguing papers on the re-evaluation of archaeology and heritage practices in Africa. As such, scholars in archaeology, heritage, museum studies, anthropology, ethnography, and art history are welcome to submit their outputs to this session.
Session #39
Archaeological Heritage & Development in Africa: Case Studies
Organizer: Solange Macamo, Miguel Raimundo, Filipe Alage, Chantal Radimilahy
This session brings together archaeologists and heritage professionals from across Africa and beyond to examine the contributions and challenges of archaeology and heritage management in advancing sustainable development. It will explore how the concept of development has been interpreted and theorized within African contexts, highlighting methodological and practical challenges encountered by archaeologists, heritage scholars, and related researchers. Emphasis is placed on the diverse typologies of archaeological heritage, terrestrial sites, built structures, cultural landscapes, intangible heritage, and submerged resources, which serve as vital archives for scientific research and require effective protection to support community-centred development initiatives. In line with the Nairobi Outcome on Heritage and Authenticity, which recognizes the role of communities in generating and transmitting knowledge, the session welcomes case studies demonstrating how African communities sustain, reinterpret, and mobilize their heritage for social and economic benefit. Development-oriented heritage models will be discussed, including interpretive centres, museums, and community markets. Examples such as the World Heritage Site of Mozambique Island and the Archaeological and Biocultural Park of Chongoene and Xai-Xai, both in Mozambique, illustrate how in situ preservation can directly benefit local populations. The Community Cultural Market operates as an innovative mechanism for empowerment by
integrating archaeological knowledge with traditional crafts, cultural revitalization, and income-generation.
Persistent gaps are addressed in heritage protection, including misconceptions that frame underwater cultural heritage as “treasure” thereby complicating legal safeguards. Aligned with the UN sustainable development agenda, the session incorporates perspectives on environmental sustainability, social inclusion, economic development, peacebuilding, and resilience in contemporary African societies.
Session #40
People, climate, and landscape dynamics in African drylands
Organizers: Sara Scaglia, Sara Krubeck, Wudu Abiye
African drylands offer unique opportunities for examining population dynamics and the resilience of socio-ecological systems across Holocene climatic shifts. In the current context of climate change and land degradation, understanding the long-term human-environment interactions is critical for shaping sustainable futures. This session explores the relationship between land use and land cover, and subsistence practices in response to changing climatic and environmental conditions, linking past long-term adaptations to future challenges within African drylands. We invite contributions that investigate the emergence, spread, and intensification of agriculture, animal husbandry, and pastoralism in prehistoric and historical contexts. Complementing the focus on food production, studies on hunting, gathering and fishing are equally welcome. Additionally, we expect contributions on human-environment interactions, anthropogenic impacts, and long-term sustainability. Archaeology, heritage studies, and ethnography offer key perspectives on traditional ecological knowledge, local practices, and their relevance to contemporary sustainable policies in food production and ecosystem management. We encourage both empirical and modelling approaches, ranging from field and laboratory studies to statistical analyses and process-based simulations of land use and land cover dynamics. By highlighting interdisciplinary approaches, from archaeology and paleoenvironmental studies to ethnography, history, ecology, and policy research, this session seeks to foster dialogue on resilience, adaptation, and vulnerability in Holocene African drylands. Together, we aim to foster cross-disciplinary discussion on how societies in the past and present navigate risks, adapt to changing livelihoods, and shape their landscapes in response to environmental challenges.
Session #41
Sudan Prehistory from African Perspectives: Discoveries, Challenges, and Future Prospects
Organizers: Azhari Sadig, Ahmed Nassr
Sudan lies at the heart of Africa, distinguished by its abundant natural resources and diverse heritage across time. The Nile and the surrounding deserts provided fertile ground for human settlement and environmental adaptation during the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. More than a century of archaeological research in Sudan has uncovered a unique prehistoric context, closely connected to East and North Africa in many cultural dimensions. Paleolithic sites along the Nile and in the deserts have yielded stratified materials dating back nearly half a million years. Mesolithic and Neolithic sites document the emergence and development of foraging and agro-pastoral communities, marked by distinctive pottery, evidence of food production, and increasingly complex social structures. Bronze Age and Kerma sites reveal the remains of sedentary pastoral-agricultural groups, laying the foundations for the rise of civilization.
Archaeological surveys, excavations, and laboratory analyses have yielded a wealth of material for addressing key questions in African archaeology. These findings illuminate the dispersal of early hominin groups out of Africa through Sudan, the expansion of pastoral communities, the emergence of food-producing societies, and the rise of early civilizations during the late prehistoric and protohistoric periods.
Sudan’s unique cultural heritage currently faces significant challenges, including the impacts of climate change, limited field facilities, and ongoing conflicts. These factors hinder the continuation of research projects and constrain efforts to explore Sudan’s broader significance within the African context. Nevertheless, archaeological work remains active, with new field discoveries and laboratory findings emerging on a regular basis. Many critical research questions still await further development, particularly those concerning the design of sustainable research strategies and the establishment of local community awareness and engagement.
In this session, we aim to address issues related to Sudan’s prehistory within the broader framework of African prehistoric archaeology. Our contribution seeks to underscore the importance of this heritage, highlight the current challenges it faces, and advance plans for its exploration, interpretation, and preservation.
Session #42
Citizen Science and Interdisciplinary Collaboration for Innovative Archaeological Practice
Organizers: Victoria Twum-Gyamrah, Winnie Sowah
Positioning citizen science as a methodological centrepiece, this panel explores archaeology’s interdisciplinary foundations and its meaningful engagement with communities, as well as both tangible and intangible heritage.
The University of Ghana’s Department of Archaeology highlights the growing trend of interdisciplinary collaboration, especially with fields such as marine and fisheries sciences, geology, earth sciences, geography, etc, marking a dynamic evolution in archaeological scholarship.
Notably, the Department of Marine and Fisheries has effectively used citizen science approaches. Citizen science, which relies on public participation and collaboration, makes scientific research more accessible by enabling broader data collection, encouraging public engagement, and fostering innovative, distributed knowledge production.
This panel spotlights how community-led disciplines employ citizen science to generate and share knowledge within and beyond their fields and examines how citizen science methodologies are integrated into archaeology. It aims to critically assess the effectiveness of such approaches and discusses the implications of dynamic, interdisciplinary collaborations for advancing archaeological research and heritage management. Additionally, through these discussions, we aim to demonstrate the transformative impact of citizen science, particularly in catalysing innovation, forging meaningful, authentic community connections, and making research more rigorous and engaging.
Session #43
Mobility, Technology, and Food Systems in the Early Iron Age of Southern Africa
Organizers: Mica Jones, Russell Kapumha, Alice Williams, Shadreck Chirikure
The Early Iron Age of southern Africa (c. 1st millennium CE) was a period of profound technological, economic, and social transformation. Across the subcontinent, the movement and spread of ironworking, pottery traditions, and food production systems created new networks of interaction and exchange that reshaped landscapes and lifeways. These processes were neither uniform nor linear. Recent advances in dating and geospatial methods, archaeometallurgy, and bioarchaeology reveal striking regional diversity and innovation. Together, these findings challenge long-standing diffusionist and “package” models of cultural change.
This open session invites papers that explore all dimensions of Early Iron Age life in southern Africa. We welcome contributions addressing:
1) settlement patterns, subsistence, and environmental adaptation;
2) exchange and interaction among farming and foraging groups;
3) the formation of social identities and cultural traditions;
4) new scientific and theoretical approaches to movement, connectivity, and transformation.
We particularly encourage interdisciplinary research integrating archaeological, linguistic, genetic, and historical perspectives, as well as community-based and heritage-focused studies. Comparative papers linking southern Africa to wider sub-Saharan contexts are also welcome.
By bringing together diverse evidence and perspectives, the session aims to advance dialogue on the Early Iron Age as a dynamic mosaic of interconnected communities and innovations. In doing so, It highlights the first millennium CE as a foundational era in Africa’s deep history of technological creativity, mobility, and social change.
Session #44
Bioarchaeological Connections Across the Continent
Organizers: Robert J. Stark, Matthew V. Emery
The field of bioarchaeology plays a crucial role in understanding the lifestyles and lived experiences of past populations, shaping inferences and findings from archaeological contexts and placing the past within a humanised lens. Approaches to inter-regional connections shaped by archaeological insights are well established. A similar tone has, arguably, not as often been seen from a bioarchaeological perspective, with researchers often unintentionally siloed within their areas of focus which can limit engagement and awareness of broader trends and ongoing research in bioarchaeology across diverse regional, temporal, and methodological contexts. This understandable situation is often pronounced for the continent of Africa given the multifold diversity of landscapes, cultural time depth, and differing research traditions and legacies. This session aims to be an inclusive, continent-wide synthesis of current and future directions in bioarchaeological research across time and space in Africa. This session seeks to included papers dealing with ongoing projects, research syntheses, community engagement, biomolecular methods, and all other facets of bioarchaeological inquiry. Through the consideration of diverse bioarchaeological research spanning the continent, it is hoped that a deeper sense of the broader themes and research currently underway in African bioarchaeology can be further illuminated. This session aims to foster a multi-regional and diachronic approach, bolstering inter-disciplinarity and researcher connections, as well as potential routes for future collaboration across diverse and inter-connected African landscapes.
Session #45
Early and Middle Pleistocene Archaeology and Environment across North Africa
Organizers: Hocine Sahnoun, Razika Chelli Cheheb, Marta Arzarello, Gabriele Berruti
Over past decades, the archaeo-paleoanthropological field research has changed swiftly, partly due to new technologies, greater innovative analytical methods and computational abilities, and results from an increased emphasis on the inter-connectedness of organisms and their environment. Recent discoveries show that early hominins inhabited North Africa much earlier than previously thought, challenging the idea that East Africa is the single-cradle-of-humankind, and offering crucial perspectives into the emergence, evolution, and dispersal of early hominins. This highlights significant gaps in our understanding of the major environmental and climatic changes that arising biological adaptations and shaped various technological innovations in material cultures during the Early and Middle Pleistocene. These phases are characterised by a complex archaeological and environmental landscape that continues to intrigue scholars. Although the archaeological record reveals a wide diversity of lithic technologies including Oldowan, Acheulean, and Middle Stone Age (MSA) industries their overall understanding and environmental conditions remain limitedly documented. Growing evidence indicates that during the Green Sahara Periods (GSPs), the favourable climatic conditions created dynamic corridors for human migration, facilitating population movements between sub-Saharan Africa and the Mediterranean coast across the Sahara, which arguably has never been a bio-geographical barrier. To bridge gaps, high-resolution chronological, environmental, sedimentary and technological data is required to a comprehensive reconstruction of archaeological and environmental frameworks. Contributions addressing archaeology and environmental changes in North Africa during the Early and Middle Pleistocene are invited to this session. We encourage multidisciplinary research to foster exchanges on these critical transitional phases, across a Pan-African scale.
Session #46
Reconstructing the disease landscape of past populations
Organizers: Maja Vukovikj, Anja Meyer, Andrea Soler i Nũnez
Africa’s diverse biodiversity, ecological change, and unique human/animal interaction have long shaped the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. Over the last millennia, shifts in subsistence, settlement, and social organization exposed communities to new nutritional, infectious, and environmental stresses. Animal domestication increased opportunities for zoonotic transmission, and denser populations enabled wider circulation of pathogens. These transitions also reshaped physiological health through dietary changes, labor demands, and medical practices.
Paleopathology provides a key framework for reconstructing how ancient communities experienced illness, injury, and adaptation. When interpreted in archaeological and historical contexts, it clarifies how health, environment, and social organization were connected, and how people responded to changing lifeways and new risks. Despite Africa’s central role in human evolution and cultural history, its deep record of health and disease remains comparatively underexplored.
This session is a unique opportunity to bring together researchers from diverse fields, all working towards a common goal: understanding physiological health, disease exposure, transmission, expression, and physiological and/or sociological adaptation to disease and trauma in African archaeological contexts. We welcome contributions that combine skeletal, genomic, archaeological, or historical evidence to investigate aspects related to physiological health. We also encourage research on concepts related to care, frailty, and social support, as well as on work that reveals past diet and behavior. By integrating these approaches, participants will develop a broader understanding of when and where key health challenges emerged, their impact on human and animal communities, and how African populations adapted to long-standing infectious and ecological pressures.
Session #47
A Social Archaeology of African Foods: Perspectives from Across the Continent
Organizers: Eli Kuto, Shelby Ann Mohrs
Food has often been a topic explored by Africanist Archaeologists, however, this session seeks to push the field in new directions by “peopling the past.” We propose to center heritage and identity in archaeological investigations of African foodways/cuisines. For us Africanist scholars, one of the critical issues we are confronted with in our research on cuisines and culinary practices is the obvious diversity and complexity of African foodways. This presents conceptual and methodological challenges to our understanding of changing culinary practices through time. Therefore, theoretical rigor and methodological robustness are necessary to investigate the social archaeology of African foods. In this session, we revisit some of these ideas to tease out new directions for reframing and reconstituting “a social archaeology of food” that examines how everyday food traditions are entwined with social, cultural, political, and economic processes. We will also explore how local and traditional concepts of foodways offer new directions for reimagining the material realities of food heritage. This session also aims to explore the temporal dimension of African food practices, especially how ideas and knowledge of food production, consumption and distribution reconfigure and change through time. By doing so, we will contribute to an understanding of the role archaeology plays in tracing changing food practices in Africa. Finally, this session invites papers that explore a variety of social topics such as food security, food sovereignty and intangible culinary heritage.
Session #48
Functional research in Pleistocene African contexts: advancing analytical approaches to reconstruct past behaviours
Organizers: Patricia Bello-Alonso
Functional analyses in African Pleistocene contexts have developed into a consolidated line of research, offering critical insights into the design, use and performance of prehistoric tools. The marked variability of raw materials, technological strategies and artefact morphologies documented across wide temporal and environmental scales requires increasingly robust analytical approaches. Use-wear studies play a central role in this process, as the identification of microscopic and macroscopic traces provides direct evidence for reconstructing tool function, task organisation and broader behavioural patterns of past hominin groups.
The richness of African archaeological contexts has also encouraged the implementation of methodological innovations. Experimental reference collections, multi-proxy frameworks including residue analysis, petrographic assessments and evaluations of post-depositional processes and improved microscopic workflows have contributed to refining the reliability and resolution of functional interpretations. These developments have expanded the scope of functional research, situating it as a key analytical pathway for understanding the technological and economic strategies documented throughout the Pleistocene.
This session welcomes contributions focused on the functional study of lithic, bone, shell and wooden artefacts from African sites. By integrating multiscale approaches and discussing methodological protocols, analytical tools and emerging interpretive models, the session seeks to outline an updated overview of the discipline. Ultimately, it aims to highlight the capacity of functional research to illuminate the technological decisions, behaviours and social dynamics of early human groups, reinforcing its relevance within current debates on human evolution and cultural development.
Session #49
Historical and linguistic sources for the study of the history of Mozambique (16th-19th centuries)
Organizers: UEM Department of History
The historical period of Mozambique is closely linked to foreign presence, first by Arabs and then by Europeans. The former, around the 9th-10th centuries, marked their presence in the territory that would become modern Mozambique, contributing to its opening up to the outside world and leaving their mark on the economy, religion, linguistics and social organisation. The latter initially landed on the Mozambican coast at the end of the 15th century and, in addition to contributing to the opening up of Mozambique to the wider world, also left their mark on the various communities, clans, chiefdoms, kingdoms and empires. This panel aims to discuss historical and linguistic sources on Mozambique, insofar as, in addition to the marks left by foreigners on local languages, they (Arabs and Europeans) recorded their encounters with the natives in writing, although this recording did not take place under ideal conditions. Shipwrecked sailors, navigators, pirates, traders, missionaries and government officials produced a wealth of written evidence that allows us to reconstruct the history of Mozambique from the earliest moments of foreign presence. The panel also intends to consider written sources produced by Africans (e.g. Ajami script) and also to broaden the discussion to include oral histories, as communities throughout Mozambique preserve their memories and stories about the past, albeit with some gaps.
Session #50
Integrative approaches to the study of human evolution in the southern African Rift Valley
Organizers: Rene Bobe, Ester Lourenço
The Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa (PPPG) has been conducting fieldwork in Gorongosa National Park since 2016. The project is an international and interdisciplinary initiative that includes professional palaeontologists, archaeologists, speleologists, geologists, primatologists, and geneticists as well as students from Mozambique and other countries, working together to illuminate the evolutionary history of the Gorongosa ecosystem. Our team has been exploring the extensive karstic system of the Cheringoma plateau and has documented more than 100 caves, some of them with archaeological potential. Two of these caves (Conga and Tombo Aphale 5) have been excavated and have provided late Pleistocene to Holocene lithic artefacts and fauna. The team has also discovered 26 new paleontological sites of the Mazamba Formation, with a rich fossil record that includes giant hyraxes, extinct embrithopods, sirenians, ancient crocodilians, and sharks in a rich coastal paleoenvironment. Fossil wood and other paleobotanical remains are also abundant and exquisitely preserved. The chronological placement of these fossils is in progress but preliminary dates span the Miocene epoch. With regard to the modern environments and ecology of the park, we have a special interest in the study of living primates and how they adapt to complex and dynamic landscapes, which are, in some ways, analogous to those in which early hominins evolved. We are also conducting a long-term taphonomic study of modern bone accumulations in the various Gorongosa landscapes. This session aims to present key results and discussions of these interdisciplinary approaches, whilst celebrating the first decade of the Paleo-Primate Project Gorongosa.
Session #51
Crossing Scriptual and Spatial Borders: Graffiti, Mobility, and Cross-Regional Networks in Ancient Northeast Africa
Organizer: Muhammad R. Ragab
Graffiti and other non-monumental inscriptions offer unique evidence for mobility, identity, place making, and knowledge transmission across African landscapes. In regions such as Memphis, Thebes, the Eastern Desert, and Nubia, ancient travellers, workmen, and inhabitants used informal writing practices – including Hieratic, Demotic, Meroitic, and local marking traditions – to document movement, presence, and social belonging. These inscriptional corpora often transcend modern political and disciplinary boundaries, yet their study remains fragmented across national, linguistic, and methodological lines.
This session invites papers that examine how informal writing interacts with landscape, within and cross-regional travel, and social networks in antiquity. We aim to explore shared challenges in comparing inscriptional datasets within and across countries, integrating multi-scalar digital methods (GIS, spatial networks, digital palaeography), and developing heritage frameworks that protect fragile inscriptional sites situated in endangered zones. By emphasising connections between Egypt, Sudan, the Sahara, the Horn of Africa, and the Red Sea world, the session seeks to generate dialogue that positions graffiti research within broader African archaeology.
We welcome contributions that interrogate mobility, scribal practices, cross-cultural interaction, and the methodological or political borders shaping their study. The session foregrounds collaborative, transboundary approaches essential to African archaeology “without borders.”
Session #52
Stone Age Places: Thinking, Moving, Making Meaning. Rethinking how early humans inhabited and imagined their worlds
Organizers: Laura Basell, Enza Spinapolice, Ella Egberts, Manuel Will
In evolutionary studies, landscape archaeology often focuses on large-scale climatic change or site-specific environmental reconstruction. Methodological advances and improved chronologies have encouraged correlations between environmental and behavioural change. Landscape is frequently a driver or container for cognition, adaptation, and physiology, and though local-scale analyses sometimes reference mobility systems, taskscapes, and niche construction they often lack explicit interpretative frameworks.
Research on more recent periods routinely addresses perception, experience, materiality, place-making, and agency, sometimes extending these ideas to nonhuman or more-than-human entities. Such perspectives remain uncommon in deep-time contexts. Although Stone Age geoarchaeology constantly engages with nonhuman organisms (including most hominins), research is still dominated by lithic technology, dispersals, and cognition. Hominin perception, synanthropy, sense of place and experiential dimensions are rarely tackled, and ecological information is often subordinated to “big questions” including innovation, symbolism, or migration.
This raises several questions: Are hominin qualia viewed as inaccessible due to assumptions about cognitive limits? Do progressivist narratives inadvertently influence ideas about who can possess a “sense of place?” Does a persistent nature/culture dualism obscure the deep entanglement of hominins, materials, organisms, and landscapes? And do methodological constraints or concerns about scientific credibility inhibit theoretical experimentation?
We invite papers bridging ecological space and experiential place, exploring dynamic, relational, and synanthropic understandings of early landscapes. We encourage novel approaches to Stone Age landscapes, and papers critiquing the relevance of such theory to Stone Age sites. Research from any location, grounded in fieldwork, modelling, or theory are welcome, and we plan a special issue publication.
Session #53
Positioning African Indigenous Knowledge System in Archaeology: A Focus on Health
Organizers: Jonathan Ezekiel Azi, Patience Nanep Ladan
African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS) hold vital keys to understanding the complex intersections between culture, environment, and health in the archaeological record. Yet, their role in interpreting ancient lifeways and medical traditions remains largely undervalued in mainstream archaeological discourse. This session invites papers that explore how archaeological discoveries such as medicinal artifacts, burial customs, and settlement structures reflect indigenous approaches to health and healing across Africa. It encourages interdisciplinary engagement between archaeologists, anthropologists, and health scholars to uncover how indigenous philosophies shaped sustainable health systems long before modern medicine. By foregrounding AIKS in archaeological interpretation, the session seeks to decolonize research narratives, recognize indigenous intellectual heritage, and foster culturally inclusive understandings of health history.
Session Objectives:
- To examine archaeological evidence of indigenous health and healing practices across Africa.
- To explore how AIKS can inform decolonized approaches to archaeological interpretation.
- To promote interdisciplinary collaboration between archaeology, anthropology, and health sciences.
- To highlight Africa’s intellectual contributions to global health heritage.
- In positioning African Indigenous Knowledge Systems within the global field of archaeology, this session underscores the urgent need to recognize and integrate Africa’s long-standing health traditions into contemporary research and practice. By bridging archaeological evidence with indigenous philosophies of well-being, scholars can move beyond colonial frameworks to embrace more holistic and inclusive interpretations of human history. Such an approach not only enriches archaeological understanding but also validates Africa’s enduring contributions to global knowledge, health, and heritage.
Session #54
Cross-Border Histories, Archives and Material Cultures in the East African Community
Organizer: Catherine Namono
This session invites researchers including Masters and PhD students to reflect on their cross-border or comparative research experiences within the East African Community (EAC). Uganda’s long-standing cultural, historical and ecological connections with its neighbours offer significant possibilities for studying shared histories, archaeological landscapes, archives and heritage practices. However, researchers often confront challenges such as differing permit systems, uneven institutional capacities, fragmented archives, and the continued influence of colonial borders on research design and interpretation.
We welcome papers that draw directly on lived research encounters’ productive, challenging or exploratory to highlight how these issues shape fieldwork, archival access, collaboration and interpretation across Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the DRC. Contributions may focus on archaeology, history, oral traditions, heritage management, museum collections or archival studies.
Crucially, this session also encourages participants to chart constructive ways forward. We are especially interested in proposals that offer practical or methodological innovations for cross-border work, including community-led approaches, shared curation or data practices, joint permitting or training initiatives, and frameworks that recognise transboundary cultural landscapes and regional histories.
By combining personal research experience with forward-looking perspectives, this session aims to foster a meaningful dialogue on creating more connected, equitable and border-conscious scholarship across the EAC. All researchers, from emerging to established, are warmly invited to participate and help reimagine the future of archaeology and heritage without borders.
Session #55
Maritimity in Question: Decolonizing Africa’s Oceans
Organizer: Akshay Sarathi
Maritime worlds have long been central to African cultures and societies, yet they are too often framed through Eurocentric categories of seafaring, commerce, empire, or rigid land/sea dichotomies. This session explores African oceans as spaces of connection, belonging, and heritage that transcend colonial, political, and disciplinary borders. This session foregrounds African perspectives, practices, and epistemologies by bringing together scholars working across the continent’s littorals and islandscapes from a variety of perspectives. In doing so, we challenge assumptions that African engagement with the sea can be understood primarily through colonial archives, external trade, or imported conceptual and categorical frameworks. Key questions include: what does it mean to practice an archaeology of the sea in Africa without presupposing Western categories of maritimity? How might African Indigenous knowledge, oral traditions, and the lived experiences of maritime communities reshape our interpretations of past seascapes? And how do the legacies of colonial extraction, salvage, and discovery continue to influence both scholarship and heritage practices? Contributors will highlight the value of diverse datasets (zooarchaeological remains, material culture, oral histories, ethnographies of fishing communities, shipbuilding traditions, underwater sites, etc.) while engaging with theoretical approaches from decolonial and heritage studies. By questioning and reframing “maritimity” this session advances a vision of African archaeology and heritage as dynamic and borderless: illustrating how African societies have discovered, conceptualized, and transformed their oceans as integral to the making of social worlds, political economies, and cultural identities across time.
Session #56
Dialogues with the Past: Interdisciplinary Approaches to African Rock Art in the 21st Century
Organizers: Ancila Nhamo, Decio Muianga, Albino Jopela, Benjamin Smith
African rock art constitutes one of the world’s oldest and most diverse artistic traditions, offering an unparalleled archive of human history, symbolic thought, and environmental interaction. From the ancient hunter-gatherer petroglyphs of the Sahara to the intricate San rock paintings of Southern Africa and the historic pastoralist depictions of Eastern Africa, these sites are foundational to understanding the African past.
The study of African rock art is currently undergoing a profound transformation with new technologies, theoretical frameworks, and collaborative methodologies opening unprecedented avenues for inquiry. This session aims to capture this dynamic moment by bringing together scholars from diverse fields to showcase the most current and innovative research.
The primary aim of this session is to foster a dialogue that is:
1) Interdisciplinary: Integrating archaeology, anthropology, digital humanities, heritage science, chemistry, and Indigenous knowledge.
2) Chronologically Expansive: Exploring art from the deep past to the recent historical period.
3) Methodologically Innovative: Highlighting cutting-edge techniques for analysis, dating, and preservation. 4) Community-Engaged: Emphasizing the role of descendant communities and public outreach.
We seek to create a comprehensive engagement and We look forward to a stimulating session that charts the future course of African rock art research.
Session #57
The Malagasy World: Challenges, Prospects, Solidarity
Organizers: Radimilahy Chantal, Zoe Crossland, Kristina Douglass
Madagascar has long been a crossroads where Indian Ocean worlds converged. Its archaeological and historical archives offer a dynamic lens onto the social, political, and economic processes that shaped mobility, trade, settlement, and landscape transformation over the past two millennia. Decades of scholarship, across multiple language and academic traditions, have generated a rich but dispersed corpus that now invites renewed synthesis.
As the field reaches a moment of self-reflection, it is timely to ask what questions have animated Madagascar archaeology to date and which new directions are emerging as local researchers, descendant communities, and international collaborators work within shifting political, environmental, and technological contexts. Expanding access to digital collections, advances in paleoenvironmental and biomolecular methods, and renewed commitments to community centered research have begun to bridge divides that once constrained scholarship. At the same time, persistent challenges, including structural inequities, the uneven circulation of knowledge, and the vulnerability of both cultural and ecological heritage, call for deeper intellectual and ethical solidarity.
This session takes stock of where the field stands and what lies ahead. By reflecting on past accomplishments and current transformations, we aim to chart the possibilities for a more integrated, inclusive, and forward looking archaeology of Madagascar that remains responsive to the island’s diverse histories and grounded in meaningful partnerships for the future.
Session #58
Social Identities in Archaeology Session
Organizer: David Maina Muthegethi, Mercy Kariuki
We invite submissions for a session exploring the role of social identities in shaping past societies at the 2026 PANAF Archaeological Conference. Social identities, encompassing gender, ethnicity, race, age, and social status, are critical to understanding human social dynamics. These culturally constructed categories, formed through socialization, dictate behaviors, resource access, and societal roles, as seen in material culture like artifacts, burials, or settlement patterns. Following scholars like Voss, who emphasize social identity reconstruction as a cornerstone of archaeological inquiry, this session will examine how identities influenced historical and prehistoric communities and their implications for contemporary research. We seek papers that address how social identities were constructed, negotiated, or resisted in past societies, and how these dynamics are reflected in the archaeological record. Topics may include intersectionality, identity-based hierarchies, or the impact of cultural norms on resource allocation. We encourage diverse methodological approaches, from material culture analysis to theoretical frameworks, that illuminate the interplay between identities and social structures.
Session #59
Mortuary Archaeology in Africa: Current Approaches and Ethical Dimensions
Organizers: Ezekia Mtetwa, Karin Scott
Mortuary archaeology offers a powerful lens through which to explore how the dead have been treated, their perceived agency, and the construction of identities across Africa’s diverse cultural landscapes. This session invites contributions that examine mortuary practices, including the varied ways of handling the dead body, the symbolic material culture and funerary architecture associated with these rituals, and bioarchaeological analyses that illuminate mortuary behaviors. We welcome studies of the material culture of death spanning early to recent contexts, as well as papers that engage with the ethical dimensions of mortuary research, such as the treatment of human remains, community consultation, and heritage stewardship. By bringing together archaeologists, bioanthropologists, heritage professionals, and community collaborators, this session aims to foster critical dialogue on both the scientific and ethical responsibilities of mortuary archaeology in African contexts.
Session #60
Memories of climate change from multidisciplinary archives
Organizers: Pascoal Gota, Matthew Hannaford, Anneli Ekblom
How can we construct an archaeology of the experience of living with climate change? In this interdisciplinary session, we combine our archives from soil, pollen, and seeds with written documents and oral history. We move from landscape-scale settlement patterns to local-scale domestic strategies to counter climate variability through mobility, food diversification and social networks. What can we learn from these archaeologies and histories of living with climate change? How is the memory of climate variability institutionalised through ceremonies, heritage and narratives? How do current-day experiences of climate change complement or challenge our understanding of living with climate change and ongoing efforts of climate mitigation, climate adaptation and resilience on the African continent? We invite reflections, empirical examples, and collaborative projects from across the continent in this broad approach to the archaeology of climate change.
Session #61
Archival clutter and custodianship: rethinking African epistemologies of keeping
Organizers: Kgolagano Vena, Yola Nzimela, Catherine Namono
This panel interrogates the multiple ways in which collections in Africa were/are assembled, stored and narrated. It aims to unpack what is preserved, and what is lost through displacement and cluster. Archives have historically been sites of knowledge production and violence : where institutional archives classified and displaced African heritage, and privileged state-centric narratives.
However, across Africa, archiving takes multiple forms – oral, material and ecological – through these African notions, we understand archives as broader than state institutions and museums and draw on oral traditions, sacred landscapes, living heritage,architectural forms and practices of renewal and impermanence as archival nuggets that challenge western ideals of permanence and order.
We invite papers that unsettle the boundaries between archive collections and clutter and explore alternative ways in which this order and refusal can constitute modes of archival memory, restoration and heritage.
Session #62
The History of Colonialism, Resitance Movements, and the Decolonization Processes in Africa
Organizers: Alda Saute, Hamilton Matsimbe, Filipe Pitrosse
For a long time, myths and prejudices of all kinds hid the true history of Africa from the world. African societies were considered societies that could not have a history. With the slave trade and colonization, racial stereotypes developed, creating contempt and misunderstanding, so deeply consolidated that they corrupted even the very concepts of historiography.
However, since the collapse of colonial empires and the emergence of African independences, for Africans the study of African history is the search for and reaffirmation of an identity through the gathering of the dispersed elements of a collective memory and the search for their heritage to better understand the rapid and numerous political transformations and social conflicts that affect this continent. This (re)valuation is evidenced by the recent discoveries that history and archaeology have accumulated about entire civilizations (Ife, Nok, Rift Valley), as well as the Sudanese empires of West Africa described by Arab geographers: Ghana, Mali, the Kingdom of Timbuktu. For others, the interest in Africa is linked to its wealth in mineral, agricultural, and forestry raw materials.
Today, in Africa and the world in general, debates about colonialism, resistance, decolonization/liberation and independence movements are increasingly necessary and central to understanding the multiple dynamics, localized historicities, and diversely rhythmic temporalities of encounters between Africans and with other peoples so distant in time. It is in these complex articulations, between plurality and unity, that this round table intends to reflect on the following:
1) Legacies of the past regarding power, spaces, and territorialities in the construction of identities
2) Reparations and historical justice
3) Epistemic decolonization
4) Colonial borders and national identities, colonialism and the environment
5)The contribution of History to Archaeology and vice versa
Session #63
Observations et conjectures sur les systèmes de défenses endogènes en Afrique de l’Ouest
Organizers: Agani Simon, Saley Moumouni Hama, Mahamadou Ibro Souleymane, Ndiaye Oumy
Les moyens de tenir l’ennemi en dehors du lieu que l’on veut protéger sont trouvés très tôt dans l’histoire régionale ouest-africaine. En effet, la sécurité collective a constamment été un défi. Aujourd’hui, l’histoire de ces systèmes de défenses nous parvient par bribes, à travers les traditions orales, les récits historiques et surtout, par le bais des fouilles archéologiques. Par l’exploitation de cette documentation, des études nous révèlent progressivement les moyens humains et matériels qu’utilisaient les communautés pour se défendre. Grâce aux programmes de recherche, et surtout aux travaux des étudiants, l’état de connaissance sur les systèmes défensifs du passé est de mieux en mieux connu. Ces systèmes de défense endogènes allaient de simples palissades à l’édification des murs en brique, terre cuite précédés de fossé et en pierres sèches. En redécouvrant aujourd’hui les vestiges de ces systèmes de défense, de nombreuses questions se posent tant sur les techniques de mise en place que sur leurs usages, leurs fonctions et leur efficience. Pour ce panel, que nous souhaitons ouvert à toutes et à tous, les communications peuvent s’intéresser à toutes les périodes chronologiques. Elles devront mettre un accent sur la genèse des sites, l’étude des techniques d’édification, symbolisme qui entoure les formes de constructions des structures et leur fonctionnement. Enfin, les communications portant sur la destruction, la conservation et la valorisation actuelle des sites et enceintes fortifiés sont également bienvenues.
Session #64
Ancient textile production (weaving and indigo dyeing) and challenges of preserving ancestral knowledge in West Africa
Organizers: Barpougouni Mardjoua, Aisha Babaji Muhammad, Gninin Aïcha Desline
Touré, Nestor Labiyi
Although its exact origins remain poorly documented, textile production has been a central feature of West African societies since at least the sixteenth century and continues to hold deep economic, cultural, and symbolic importance. Finished and semi-finished textile goods such as threads, woven strips, and cloth formed a major component of caravan trade networks and played a significant role in regional commerce. Integral to this production chain was
indigo dyeing, a practice that shaped not only the quality and value of textiles but also their symbolic meanings. In many communities, indigo-dyed cloths were closely associated with
ritual practices and ceremonies linked to spiritual beliefs. These locally developed technologies, however, have largely declined over recent decades, displaced by the
widespread availability of inexpensive imported textiles. Today, the material traces of these once-vibrant industries are limited, often reduced to filled-in dye pits or extensive ash deposits. Their locations frequently align with former caravan routes, highlighting the close relationship between textile production and long-distance trade. In a contemporary context marked by renewed interest in identity and cultural expression, where dress remains one of the most visible markers, the few remaining practitioners who possess comprehensive knowledge of spinning, weaving, and dyeing are experiencing renewed demand. This session invites contributions that explore the distinctive characteristics of ancient textile production across West Africa. By bringing together diverse perspectives, it aims to document endangered ancestral knowledge and provide a holistic understanding of textile practices that have shaped and continue to shape the cultural landscape of the region.
Session #65
Botanique rituelle et ethnopharmacologie
Organizer: Alioune Deme
En Afrique, il existe un lien étroit entre le patrimoine naturel et le patrimoine culturel. Cela s’explique en grande partie par le fait que les plantes sont souvent associées à des valeurs symboliques et à des pratiques culturelles. Ce qui demeure moins bien compris, en revanche, c’est la manière dont ces valeurs et pratiques symboliques fonctionnent réellement.
Des recherches ethnobotaniques récentes menées au Sénégal montrent que les façons dont les communautés locales perçoivent, classent et utilisent les ressources végétales à des fins pharmacologiques sont étroitement liées à des pratiques rituelles. La botanique rituelle désigne une séquence d’activités symboliques — incluant la classification des arbres par patronyme, les incantations et certains gestes spécifiques. Elle joue un rôle central en pharmacologie et dans les pratiques locales de soins de santé, constituant un prérequis essentiel à l’usage médicinal des plantes.
Cette session a pour objectif de documenter des cas de botanique rituelle afin de permettre des approches comparatives à travers le temps et l’espace.
Session #66
Online Education in African Archaeology: Access, Equity, and Support in Times of Crisis
Organizers: Sofia Fonseca, Jorge Linstadter
Online education has become an essential tool for training and capacity building in African archaeology and heritage, particularly in contexts where mobility, access to resources, or institutional stability are limited. This session explores how digital learning platforms, open educational resources, and hybrid training models can support students and professionals across the African continent, with particular attention to regions currently affected by conflict or crisis, such as Sudan, where access to academic content and international networks has been severely disrupted.
Drawing on practical experiences from existing online courses, webinars, and collaborative training initiatives, the session will discuss both the opportunities and limitations of online education in archaeology. Topics include connectivity challenges, language barriers, access to equipment, certification and recognition, as well as the importance of mentorship, peer networks, and institutional partnerships. The session will also address ethical considerations, including digital equity, knowledge co-creation, and the need to avoid reproducing structural inequalities through online formats.
By bringing together educators, practitioners, and institutions involved in African-focused online education, the session aims to share concrete strategies for supporting colleagues and students in constrained contexts, fostering resilience, and strengthening professional communities beyond physical borders. Ultimately, it seeks to contribute to a more inclusive and sustainable model of archaeological training that responds to current challenges while building long-term capacity across Africa.
Session #67
An early set of data on the social and economic impact of heritage projects in the African continent
Organizer: Evangelos Kyriakidis
The Heritage Management Program was an Africa-wide initiative that worked to preserve, revitalize, and sustainably utilize the continent’s rich cultural and natural heritage while fostering long-term economic growth. Over its implementation, it supported 75 projects across 33 countries, offering technical assistance, capacity building, and guidance on sustainable planning. This project was a great source of information on how heritage could be a driver of social and economic development for local communities, and the organization placed particular emphasis on capacity building as a core element of its work. Through interdisciplinary collaboration and community-centered approaches, the program helped transform heritage assets into drivers of local employment, strengthened cultural identity, and encouraged responsible tourism, enabling communities to protect their heritage while advancing resilient economic development.
Session #68
Museology and museological practices in Africa
Organizers: Alda Costa, Ana Martins, Helena Benjamim
Independent Mozambique (1975) assumed responsibilities for the conservation, enhancement and dissemination of its cultural and natural heritage. It created a structure, specific bodies, produced legislation and regulations, integrated associations, established partnerships and regional, continental and international professional networks. In the inherent policies and practices, it prioritised the recovery of African history and culture, which until then had been subordinated or denied, and gave a voice to new social actors. Many actions have taken place notwithstanding the insufficient number of professionals, the gradual reduction of the priority given to culture and heritage in national policies, the difficulties in supervision, the growing lack of resources. As other countries, Mozambique is living in a new context, with worrying repercussions for cultural and natural heritage. The Congress is an opportunity to analyse, exchange experiences, re-evaluate policies and practices followed or to be followed in each country.
The topics to be addressed may include, but are not limited to, the following: • Mozambique: archaeological research, collections, museums and the project for a national archaeological museum. • Transdisciplinary approach to cultural and archaeological heritage. • African museums since “What Museums for Africa?” (Benin, Ghana, Togo, ICOM, 1991). • Renovated museums, new museums, museums of the future. • The diversity of African museums. • ‘Contested collections’. • Training schools, centres, courses, projects and professional networks. • Museums in Southern Africa: from the SADCAM/SADCAMM experience to the present day. • Museums in Portuguese-speaking countries and communities (1987 to 2011). • Universities as guardians and managers of cultural and natural heritage.
Session #69 (Workshop)
Constructing heritage databases: a case study of the Arches platform (MAEASAM roundtable)
Organizers: Faye Lander, Orhun Ugur, Renier Van der Merwe, Stefania Merlo
This workshop, which will include a mix of theoretical and hands-on practical sessions, will equip its participants with the fundamentals of constructing a heritage database from conceptualisation to implementation. The workshop includes three sub-modules as follows: (1) a deep dive into how data can be structured through an interactive play on CIDOC-CRM ontology – the global standard used as a theoretical and practical tool for information integration in the field of cultural heritage (https://cidoc-crm.org/); (2) familiarisation with the creation and use of controlled vocabularies for heritage management interoperability in a global and regional perspective (ie Getty vocabularies, Fish vocabularies, PeriodO), and (3) an overview of heritage database creation, using the example of the Arches platform. Arches is an open-source data management platform that is freely available for organisations worldwide to install, configure and extend in accordance with individual needs and without restrictions on its use; it has been adapted to support the documentation of archaeological landscapes, heritage data and ancillary reference information. The project, Mapping Africa’s Endangered Archaeological Sites and Monuments (MAEASaM) will also demonstrate their implementation of Arches for managing data on archaeological heritage across eleven African countries as an example of the advantages and limitations of Arches in handling diverse datasets.
Session #70
Teaching Heritage and Teaching Through Heritage: Challenges and Good Practices in Higher Education
Organizers: Marcela Maciel Santana, Walter Rossa
Constant and rapid global transformations have created an urgent need at universities worldwide to update their research themes, educational approaches, and methodologies. This is particularly challenging in the Global South, where societies are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and resource crises, and where the contradictions and legacies of colonialism persist in the social, economic, and cultural domains.
In this scenario, the training of professionals, technicians, and specialists plays a crucial role, as it involves preparing those who will work in a timeframe where many challenges are not yet fully measurable. In the case of teaching cultural heritage, there is an additional effort. Given its interdisciplinary nature and complexity, the field intersects with issues ranging from environmental damage to migration crises, from the spread of extremist discourse to the emergence of new technologies.
Therefore, this session aims to foster a debate on good teaching practices and reflect on how cultural heritage has been addressed in higher education, giving particular attention to: the use of local heritage as a tool to engage the students on the field; experiences in incorporating traditional knowledge into pedagogical practices; approaches to decolonize cultural heritage; and the intersection of cultural heritage with sustainable development.
This discussion will open new opportunities for intercultural and interdisciplinary dialogue, recognising archaeology as a key area within cultural heritage in Africa, while also acknowledging the potential contributions of other disciplines such as territorial planning, tourism, architecture, conservation, history, geography, and other related domains.
PANAF2026 