Archaeology, Development and Conflict: A Case Study from the African Continent

Apart from wars, other contexts of social conflict have recently become a setting in which archaeologists are faced with acute, sometimes armed, violence. On the African continent, a region often overlooked in discussions of "archaeology in conflict", rapid economic development has led to several such scenes. The paper discusses a particularly poignant example from the Middle Nile valley in Sudan, where large dam projects have been met with various levels of opposition by affected populations. Local communities opposing the construction of further planned dams on the Nile are increasingly stressing 'cultural survival' and fear of 'developmental genocide' as two of their major motivations for fighting these projects. Assuming a close link between the developer and archaeological salvage missions, affected people have started to use the expulsion of salvage teams from their territory as a strategy of resistance-posing an ethical dilemma for the archaeologists who struggle to find a position in the increasingly violent controversies accompanying these contested development projects. © 2013 World Archaeological Congress

Musawwarat es-Sufra, Sudan. Developing a Collaborative Archaeology of Pastoralism in the Hinterland of the Nile. Research between 2021 and 2023

The valley of Musawwarat es-Sufra, with its numerous temples and other built structures, was one of the primary ceremonial centres of the Kingdom of Kush. Today, it is a major national heritage site in Sudan and part of the »Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe« UNESCO World Heritage site. While research and preservation efforts have long focused on the monumental built structures as part of the (Early) Meroitic state’s symbolic landscape, a new collaborative archaeology project aims to complement and counter this perspective by focusing on the lifeways of past and present pastoralist populations in the drylands of the Musawwarat region. Based on a research partnership with members of the local pastoralist communities, who have long been involved in the study and preservation of Musawwarat as workmen and guards, we explore materialities of pastoralism between archaeology, heritage and development.The valley of Musawwarat es-Sufra, with its numerous temples and other built structures, was one of the primary ceremonial centres of the Kingdom of Kush. Today, it is a major national heritage site in Sudan and part of the »Archaeological Sites of the Island of Meroe« UNESCO World Heritage site. While research and preservation efforts have long focused on the monumental built structures as part of the (Early) Meroitic state’s symbolic landscape, a new collaborative archaeology project aims to complement and counter this perspective by focusing on the lifeways of past and present pastoralist populations in the drylands of the Musawwarat region. Based on a research partnership with members of the local pastoralist communities, who have long been involved in the study and preservation of Musawwarat as workmen and guards, we explore materialities of pastoralism between archaeology, heritage and development

Princes Town & Akwidaa, Ghana. Early ›Shared Heritage‹ of German-African Interactions: The Brandenburg-Prussian Forts on the West Coast of Ghana and their Local Communities. Research in 2023 and 2024

While the German colonial period in parts of Africa has increasingly become a subject of archaeological investigations, less attention has been paid to the earlier ›shared heritage‹ of German involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. Brandenburg-Prussia entered the race for trading posts on the West African coast in the late 17th century, establishing strongholds in what is today the Western Region of Ghana. Among the most prominent material manifestations of this endeavour are the two forts Gross Friedrichsburg and Dorothea. The German trading venture was short-lived, however. It ended after roughly 30 years when the forts were sold to the Dutch. Nevertheless, during the colonial period in the late 19th/early 20th century, the Brandenburg-Prussian attempt at profiting from the transatlantic slave trade was celebrated by some as the nucleus of German colonial rule in Africa. The Brandenburg-Prussian forts are today part of the serial UNESCO World Heritage site ›Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions‹, which recognises the difficult heritage of the transatlantic slave trade. However, the fortified trading posts also play an important role in local heritage landscapes. At the invitation of the local communities of Princes Town and Akwidaa, a new Ghanaian-German archaeological research and heritage preservation project is focusing on the Brandenburg-Prussian forts in their local contexts, highlighting the agency of local actors in the Early Modern period.Während die deutsche Kolonialzeit in Teilen Afrikas zunehmend zum Gegenstand archäologischer Untersuchungen geworden ist, wurde dem früheren ›gemeinsamen Erbe‹ der deutschen Beteiligung am transatlantischen Versklavungshandel weniger Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. Brandenburg-Preußen stieg im späten 17. Jahrhundert in den Wettlauf um Handelsposten an der westafrikanischen Küste ein und errichtete Stützpunkte in der heutigen Western Region von Ghana. Zu den bedeutendsten materiellen Zeugnissen dieser Bestrebungen gehören die Befestigungen Gross Friedrichsburg und Dorothea. Die deutsche Handelsunternehmung endete bereits nach etwas mehr als 30 Jahren, als die Festungen an die Niederländer verkauft wurden. Dennoch wurde der brandenburgisch-preußische Versuch, vom transatlantischen Versklavungshandel zu profitieren, in der Kolonialzeit des späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts von manchen als Keimzelle der deutschen Kolonialherrschaft in Afrika angesehen. Die brandenburgisch-preußischen Festungsanlagen sind heute Teil der seriellen UNESCO-Welterbestätte »Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions«, die dem schwierigen Erbe des transatlantischen Versklavungshandels gewidmet ist. Aber die befestigten Handelsstützpunkte spielen auch eine wichtige Rolle in der lokalen Kulturlandschaft. Auf Einladung der lokalen Gemeinschaften von Princes Town und Akwidaa konzentriert sich ein neues ghana-isch-deutsches archäologisches Forschungs- und Denkmalschutzprojekt daher auf die brandenburgisch-preußischen Festungen in ihrem lokalen Kontext und beleuchtet die Rolle(n) der lokalen Akteure in der Frühen Neuzeit