Project Details
Projekt
Iron Age human subsistence, environment, and climate in the Inner Congo Basin (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Subject Area
Prehistory and World Archaeology
Term
from 2014 to 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 259660494
The Inner Congo Basin counts among the most severely underresearched areas not only within Central Africa, but also in sub-Saharan Africa at large. This is especially true with regard to the last two and a half millennia which have been crucial for recent human settlement and the development of present-day environmental, sociocultural, ethnic, and linguistic distribution patterns and dynamics. Although in the 1970s and 80s, a DFG-funded project yielded a detailed regional pottery sequence from c. 400 cal BC up to the present, the environmental and economic history of this era have remained almost completely obscure. While ceramic technology is archaeologically well attested in the Inner Congo Basin as a major Early Iron Age innovation, it can so far only be suspected to have been accompanied from the start by food production and iron metallurgy. None of these cultural achievements arose independently in the study area, but all were introduced from outside. Data from western Central Africa revealed the initial spread of these technologies to have been related to a severe climatic crisis during the second half of the 1st millennium cal BC. This lead to a partial breakdown of the rainforest and its replacement by pioneer formations, enabling cultivation of the savanna crop pearl millet in southern Cameroon during a brief interlude. Recent finds of Early Iron Age pearl millet in the Inner Congo Basin possibly indicate similar developments there. The project objective is to provide answers to the following questions: 1. Did the Early Iron Age rainforest crisis also affect the Inner Congo Basin? 2. Did this environmental interlude create natural preconditions for an initial Congo Basin rainforest subsistence economy based on pearl millet? 3. How did the vegetation develop during the past 2500 years related to climatic fluctuations and human impact? 4. When and with which species did animal husbandry begin in the Congo Basin? 5. Which vegetable staples did regional human populations consume between c. 400 cal BC and the eve of European colonisation? 6. Is the hypothesis true that iron metallurgy began no later in the Inner Congo Basin than in neighbouring regions, i.e. around the middle of the first millennium cal BC? We propose to spend a total of 40 workweeks over a three-year period in the Equator Province of Democratic Congo to carry out archaeological excavations geared to systematic retrieval and analysis of archaeobotanical and archaeozoological samples representing all major periods of the established cultural sequence. We also intend to retrieve pollen profiles that should cover the same time depth of c. 2500 calendar years. Studies of botanical macroremains and pollen with accompanying phytolith and faunal analysis are expected to produce insights into climate and vegetation change, as well as human land use and nutrition. New radiocarbon dates will back up so far poorly sampled segments of the existing regional culture sequence.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
International Connection
Belgium
Participating Persons
Dr. Els Cornelissen; Dr. Klaus Hollemeyer; Professorin Dr. Veerle Linseele
