Interests
I have four book manuscripts in various states of completion. Ancient Middle Niger. Urbanism and the Self-organizing Landscape is in the Cambridge Case Studies in Early Civilization series. Geomorphological Evolution of the Mema, Mali reports on climate change and landform evolution in the "dry delta" of the Middle Niger, the Mema, and Archaeological Excavations and Reconnaissance Along the Middle Senegal Valley (with S.K.McIntosh and H.Bocoum) reports on four years of research along the Senegal. And Emerging Polities of the Western Sudan: Ancient Ghana and Mali (with D.Conrad, P.Farias, N.Levtzion and S.K.McIntosh) will be a revision of Levtzions classic, Ancient Ghana and Mali.
Future fieldwork is being planned for the Mema and, for the past three years, I have taught (summers) at the University of Pretoria, where I have been involved in the reconstitution of archaeology at that formerly Afrikaner university.
Publications
Intellectual History of Archaeeology (pdf)
In The Way the Wind Blows. Climate, History and Social Action (pdf)
Peoples of the middle Niger, Ch. 1 (pdf)
Early urban clusters in China and Africa: The arbitration of social ambiguity, Journal of Field Archaeology (1991); From traditional African art to the archaeology of form in the Middle Niger in (ed.) G. Pezzoli Dall'Archeologia all'Arte Tradizionale Africana (1992); The Pulse Theory: Genesis and accommodation of specialization in the Middle Niger Journal of African History (1993); Cities without citadels: Understanding urban origin along the Middle Niger, in (eds.) T. Shaw, P. Sinclair, B. Andah, and A. Okpoko, The Archaeology of Africa, Foods, Metals, and Towns (with S.K. McIntosh) (1993); Field survey in the tumulus zone of Senegal, The African Archaeological Review (with S.K. McIntosh) (1993); Plight of Ancient Jenne, Archaeology (1994); A la recherche du diagramme fondateur de la Djenne prehistorique, in (ed.) Rogier M.A. Bedaux and J.D. van der Waals, DJENNE, Mooiste Stad van Afrika (with S.K. McIntosh) (1994); Eveiller la fierte populaire: Une communaute malienne affronte les trafiquants en art du passe, UNESCO-ICOM, Courante de l'Annee (1995); The Good Collector and the premise of mutual respect among nations, African Arts (With S. K. McIntosh and T. Togola) (1995); Plundering Africa's Past (with P. Schmidt) (1996).
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