Helene Jousse is a PhD geologist and archaeozoologist, currently post-doctorating at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France). Specialised in the analyses of Holocene vertebrate African fauna, her main research focuses on the relation between human subsistence patterns, paleoenvironmental changes and past history of fauna (size, distribution). Josephine Lesur is a PhD archaeozoologist, Maitre de Conferences at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France) and member of the UMR 7209 - Archeozoologie, Archeobotanique : Societes, Pratiques et Environnements. Her research interests mainly concern the origin and diffusion of herding in the Horn of Africa and in Egypt as well as the exploitation of animal resources by humans during the Holocene in the same regions.

Archaeological research in Africa is particularly wide-ranging due to the richness of its cultural and natural resources. Because of drastic climatic changes during the recent Quaternary, the development of human cultures and techniques on the continent is strongly linked with the ecological background. Especially zooarchaeological studies have to deal with a highly diverse fauna that occupied many ecological niches from the very dry desert to the tropical forest, and with greatly complex regional patterning that to some extent includes endemism. Following the "Archaeozoology of Holocene Africa session held at the 2010 meeting of the International Council of Archaeozoology (ICAZ) in Paris, this volume presents the results of recent research conducted in this field across the continent. Nine contributions grouped into two main thematic sections are assembled here. Papers from the first tackle themes such as domesticates morphology, symbolic use, migration routes, and herding practices. Those from the second section essentially discuss how past subsistence strategies of human populations were connected with the deep changes in the environment through time and with strong seasonal regimes, without losing sight of their relations to tradition and socio-cultural aspects.

Forewords Editorial Board
Preface

Part I - Herding in Africa: New Data on its Development and Diffusion

Louis Chaix: A Review of the History of Cattle in the Sudan throughout the Holocene

Diane Gifford-Gonzalez: East African Pastoralism: Routes, Outcomes, Questions

Mary Prendergast: Hunters and herders at the periphery: the spread of herding in eastern Africa

Joséphine Lesur, François Briois, Beatrix Midant-Reynes & Michel Wuttmann: Domesticates and wild game in the Egyptian Western Desert at the end of the 5th millennium BC: the fauna from KS 43, Kharga Oasis

Katie Manning: The first herders of the West African Sahel: inter-site comparative analysis of zooarchaeological data from the Lower Tilemsi Valley, Mali


Part II - exploiting the faunal diversity in Africa since the last glacial Maximum

Nadja Pöllath: Surviving in a profoundly changing landscape: The mid-Holocene archaeofaunal record from Abu Tabari (NW-Sudan)

Graham Avery: Holocene avian remains, human behaviour and seasonality on the South African coast

Souhila Merzoug: Faunal remains from Medjez II (Epipalaeolithic, Algeria): Evidence of ostrich consumption and interpretation of capsian subsistence behaviors

Hélène Jousse: African mammals over the last 18 000 years: Sharing data on their distribution, identification and biometry

Archaeological research in Africa is particularly wide-ranging due to the richness of its cultural and natural resources. Because of drastic climatic changes during the recent Quaternary, the development of human cultures and techniques on the continent is strongly linked with the ecological background. Especially zooarchaeological studies have to deal with a highly diverse fauna that occupied many ecological niches from the very dry desert to the tropical forest, and with greatly complex regional patterning that to some extent includes endemism. Following the "Archaeozoology of Holocene Africa" session held at the 2010 meeting of the International Council of Archaeozoology (ICAZ) in Paris, this volume presents the results of recent research conducted in this field across the continent. Nine contributions grouped into two main thematic sections are assembled here. Papers from the first tackle themes such as domesticates morphology, symbolic use, migration routes, and herding practices. Those from the second section essentially discuss how past subsistence strategies of human populations were connected with the deep changes in the environment through time and with strong seasonal regimes, without losing sight of their relations to tradition and socio-cultural aspects.