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A Survey of recent results in the radiocarbon chronology of Northern and Western Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Colin Flight
Colin Flight
Affiliation:
C.W.A.S., University of Birmingham
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Extract

The number of radiocarbon dates relating to Africa has increased rapidly during the last twelve years, as a glance through the back numbers of this Journal will show; and the increase reflects quite accurately the growth in our knowledge of later African prehistory. Almost 200 dates are given in this article which have not been quoted before, but even so the list is incomplete. It seems clear that a more and more selective approach will have to be adopted, and perhaps that is a desirable policy in any case. A paper of this kind does not reach a conslusion: it just comes to an end. However, there are some points which deserve particular attention. The thermoluminescence measureents from sites in Cameroun are of interest from a technical point of view, though they seem to be without historical calue. The Dynastic Egyptian dates are important historically as well as technically, and so are the dates from shell middens in Ivory Coast. Indication of contact across the western Sahara during the first millennium b.c. are reinforced by additional dates for copper mine in Mauritania. One final points is worth repeating. There is evidence, by now amounting almost to proof, that pottery was present in the central Saharan highlands at an earlier date than in the Nile valley or North Africa; and this should affect out ideas about the whole configuration of later African prehistory.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , October 1973 , pp. 531 - 554
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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