Forewords; List of figures; List of tables; List of maps; Preface; Acknowledgments; 1 Introduction; Structure of the text; 2 Project structure and regulatory basis; Background to the Chad Export Project; Overall organization of the Chad Export Project: host countries and institutions; The organization of oil extraction; National resources: people, institutions and equipment; The regulatory basis for the protection of cultural patrimony: national legislation and international accords; World Bank and UNESCO conventions; Project documentation and requirements; Permit procedures and ownership of cultural resources; 3 Natural and human environments in the Chad Export Project study area; Physical environments: climate, geomorphology and vegetation; Cultural diversity in the study area; 4 Background to prehistoric cultural patterning in the Chad Export Project study area; Introduction; Previous archaeological research in southwestern Chad; Previous archaeological research in eastern Cameroon; Previous archaeological research in central and coastal Cameroon; Typological questions; Summary of archaeological sequences; Discussion: archaeology, climatology and linguistics; 5 Archaeological impact mitigation procedures; Cultural heritage management in Cameroon and Chad; Personnel, organization and logistics; Site prioritization and Site Treatment Plans; Organization of research; 6 Site patterning and site treatment in the Chad Export Project research area; Site designation; Post-discovery site treatments; Site types; Age distribution of sites; Geographical distribution of sites; 7 Archaeological sites in Chad; Introduction; Overall distribution of sites in Chad; Spatial and chronological distribution of different site types; Description of particular sites; Culture history - Chad; 8 Archaeological sites in Cameroon; Introduction; Distribution of sites in Cameroon - North; Spatial and chronological distribution of different site types - Cameroon North; Description of particular sites - Cameroon North; Culture history - Cameroon North; Northern Cameroon: discussion; Distribution of sites in Cameroon - South; Spatial and chronological distribution of different site types - Cameroon South; Description of particular sites - Cameroon South; Culture history - Cameroon South; Southern Cameroon: discussion; 9 Regional comparisons Introduction; Regional comparison - Chad; Regional comparison - northern Cameroon; Regional comparison - southern Cameroon; 10 Conclusions; Reprise; Contributions to the prehistory of Central Africa Cultural patterning in space and time; Recommendations and implications for African cultural heritage management; References; Appendix; A Sites in Chad; B Site treatments in Chad; C Radiocarbon dates in Chad; D Sites in Cameroon; E Site treatments in Cameroon; F Radiocarbon dates in Cameroon; Abbreviations

This book presents the first preview of discoveries made in the longest archaeological trench ever dug in Africa. From the forests of coastal south Cameroon towards the dry savannas in southern Chad, the construction of the underground pipeline of the Chad Export Project enabled an international research team to investigate a transect of 1070 kilometers (!) length. The Kome-Kribi project demonstrates the exemplary application of rescue or preventive archaeology and of cultural heritage management with regard to a variety of involved political and commercial institutions. In areas previously almost unknown archaeologically an impressive number of 472 new sites from the Middle Stone Age to the Iron Age, many considered to be important, were located. Their description, including quantities of cultural materials, a chronological outline based on about sixty radiocarbon dates, and the integration of the new and known evidence in a synoptic consideration of the cultural development of Central Africa, provides a substantial base for further studies and, for those archaeologists less familiar with the region, also offers an introduction into the local prehistory. Finally, the authors have given us a vision on the abundance of information about Africa's past that is still preserved in the ground and scarcely touched, so far.