Graham Connah
Biographic Data
| ID | 100303 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Graham Connah |
| GIVEN NAMES | Graham |
| FAMILY NAME | Connah |
| SIGNATURE | CONNAH G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Australian National University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 62 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 244 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 62 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1962 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
African Civilizations
The power of walls
Graham ConnahSchool of Archaeology and Anthropology Australian National University, [email protected]© 2014, Graham Connah
Retrieving the Cultural Biography of a Gun
The meanings of objects change as the people with whom they are associated change. Over the course of an artefact’s existence, the sum of these meanings constitutes a cultural biography, a life-story of the item. This is the case with objects associated with conflict, just as with those from other contexts; in this case, cultural biographies can have sharply contrasting phases. However, identifying the object in each of its changing relationships…
Writing about Archaeology
Alistair G. Paterson. The lost legions
Alistair G. Paterson. The lost legions: culture contact in colonial Australia. xx+268 pages, 37 illustrations, 11 tables. 2008. Lanham (MD): AltaMira; 978-0-7591-0683-3 hardback £51.95; 978-0-7591-0684-0 paperback £21.95. - Volume 84 Issue 323
Is There a Place for the Proton Magnetometer in Australian Field Archaeology
Battlefield Casualty
Many artefacts in museums lack adequate information about the context from which they were collected. Not surprisingly, this often applies to artefacts recovered from battlefields, where chaotic conditions can result in uncertainty about their origins. This paper examines the case of a Second World War German 88 mm gun preserved in an Australian museum. The museum had little contextual information for this weapon, except that the Australian Army …
Lake Innes
Taking the pulse of African archaeology
Urbanism and the archaeological visibility of African complex societies
One of the principal manifestations of African complex societies is urbanism. However, a concentration on the excavation of larger settlements built in long-lasting materials and on the excavation of elite structures within such settlements, means that the archaeology of African social complexity presents an unrepresentative picture. Archaeologically, some societies have a low visibility. There is a need to improve our methodology if this problem…
A pottery corpus for Daima
A complete set of drawings of the pottery excavated from the Daima mound in 1966 is presented here for the first time. Previously only a small selection of these has been available in a published form. The drawings provide a visual guide to the ceramic sequence at this site from the first millennium BC to the early part of the second millennium AD. In general it can be seen that flat-based pots, three-legged pots, carved roulettes and nodular rou…
Historical Archaeology in Africa
A hierarchy of servitude
A British colonial estate in eastern Australia, built by 1830 and abandoned 20 years later, survives as the ruins of the Big House surrounded by stables, a farm and servants' quarters. The authors recovered pottery assemblages from a number of different servants' dwellings and here show that they differed from each other, revealing a 'hierarchy of servitude'. It is natural to think that such a situation would provide helpful analogies for earlier…
Retrospect
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Forgotten Africa
Publish and be damned
The ultimate goal of archaeological research is publication, an aspect of interpretation that is sometimes given insufficient attention but to which John Alexander has contributed significantly. In the context of African archaeological publication, research monographs remain important, although their cost both in human resources and economic terms may in time lead to a more flexible approach to their production. Inevitably the bulk of specialized…
Mining the Archives
New archaeological research in Borno by the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has included the analysis of pottery excavated from several sites during the 1990s. This important investigation made us search through our old files for a statistical analysis of pottery from the same region, which although completed in 1981 was never published. The material came from approximately one hundred surface collections and seven…
Problem Orientation in Australian Historical Archaeology
David W. Phillipson. Archaeology at Aksuin, Ethiopia, 1993-7 (2 volumes; Memoir 17 of British Institute in Eastern Africa, Society of Antiquaries of London Research Committee Report 65). xix+538 pages…
David W. Phillipson. Archaeology at Aksuin, Ethiopia, 1993-7 (2 volumes; Memoir 17 of British Institute in Eastern Africa, Society of Antiquaries of London Research Committee Report 65). xix+538 pages, 431 figures & tables. 2000. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa/Society of Antiquaries of London; 1-872566-13-8 hardback £95. - Volume 76 Issue 291
Artifact of empire
African Historical Archaeologies
African Civilizations
This new revised edition of African Civilizations re-examines the physical evidence for developing social complexity in Africa over the last six thousand years. Unlike the two previous editions, it is not confined to tropical Africa but considers the whole continent. Graham Connah focuses upon the archaeological research of two key aspects of complexity, urbanism and state formation, in ten main areas of Africa: Egypt, North Africa, Nubia, Ethiop…
The Lake Innes Estate
Transportation of over 160,000 convicts to Australia during the period 1788–1868 provided unfree labour for both government and private projects. Prisoners involved in the latter were known as 'assigned servants' and carried out a variety of work for their 'masters'. In spite of accusations at the time from critics of the system, they were not slaves. Not only did they retain rights under the law but most of them eventually became free members of…
Archaeological Research in Benin City, 1961-1964
Transformations in Africa
Static image - dynamic reality, Graham Connah African hunter-gatherers - history and the politics of ethnicity, Richard B. Lee, Robert K. Hitchcock the ecology of food production in West Africa, Joanna Casey before the Empire of Ghana - pastoralism and the origins of cultural complexity in the Sahel, K.C. MacDonald African urbanism - scale, mobility and transformation, Roland Fletcher climate and history in West Africa, George E. Brooks iron in A…
The Archaeology of Australia's History
Foreword Preface 1. 'There are no traces now': the material heritage of Australian history 2. 'They came by sea': the historical archaeology of precolonial contact 3. The birth of a nation: seeking the remains of early Sydney 4. 'It didn't always work': investigating the sites of failed settlements 5. The convict contribution: vestiges of the penal system 6. 'I built a little homestead': extracting history from houses 7. 'I cleared the land and f…
The Daima Sequence and the Prehistoric Chronology of the Lake Chad Region of Nigeria
An intensive archaeological field research programme conducted between 1963 and 1969 in the Lake Chad region of Nigeria has established the outlines of a prehistoric chronological sequence for the area. The excavations at Daima form the key to this sequence which also includes excavated evidence from Bornu 38, Kursakata, Shilma, Yau, Ajere and Birnin Gazargamo together with surface information from 70 other sites. Twenty radiocarbon dates indicat…
The Archaeology of Benin
Archeological Implications of Traditional House Construction Among the Nchumuru of Northern Ghana [and Comments and Reply]
Ethnographic data from the Nchumuru settlement of Wiae, Kete-Krachi District, northern Volta Region, Ghana, are used to examine the manner in which earth-walled houses in Nchumuru traditional settlements are transferred from the systemic to the archeological record. Archeological survey and excavation of two early Nchumuru sites were conducted to establish the extent to which the observed cultural and natural processes of house and settlement dev…
Archaeology in Benin
Excavations and fieldwork in and around Benin City in the years 1961–4 have established the outlines of an archaeological sequence. This sequence is based on radiocarbon dates for stratified deposits, on a statistical examination of pottery form and decoration, and on datable European imports. The sequence suggested by the evidence extends from about the thirteenth century A.D. to the present time, although the survival of locally found ground st…
The salt of Bunyoro
Excavations at the salt-making village of Kibiro, on the Ugandan shore of Lake Albert in East Africa, suggest that an important part of the economy of the Kingdom of Bunyoro originated early in the present millennium. The predominance of roulette-decorated pottery, in particular the use of carved roulettes, indicates that Kibiro was first occupied by people with northern affinities, possibly from the upper Nile region or further west. Collectivel…
Kibiro
Kibiro
Historical Archaeology in Africa
The Lake Innes Estate
Transportation of over 160,000 convicts to Australia during the period 1788–1868 provided unfree labour for both government and private projects. Prisoners involved in the latter were known as 'assigned servants' and carried out a variety of work for their 'masters'. In spite of accusations at the time from critics of the system, they were not slaves. Not only did they retain rights under the law but most of them eventually became free members of…
The cultural and chronological context of Kibiro, Uganda
A hierarchy of servitude
A British colonial estate in eastern Australia, built by 1830 and abandoned 20 years later, survives as the ruins of the Big House surrounded by stables, a farm and servants' quarters. The authors recovered pottery assemblages from a number of different servants' dwellings and here show that they differed from each other, revealing a 'hierarchy of servitude'. It is natural to think that such a situation would provide helpful analogies for earlier…
Mining the Archives
New archaeological research in Borno by the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, has included the analysis of pottery excavated from several sites during the 1990s. This important investigation made us search through our old files for a statistical analysis of pottery from the same region, which although completed in 1981 was never published. The material came from approximately one hundred surface collections and seven…
African Civilizations. Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa
The archaeology of frustrated ambition
The Archaeology of Benin
Problem Orientation in Australian Historical Archaeology
Salt-production at Kibiro
Salt-making at Kibiro, on the Ugandan shore of Lake Albert, is still carried out in a way that appears to have changed little over the years. Salt is produced exclusively by women, who boil brine obtained from leaching saline earth, the salt in which originates from several hot springs at the base of the Western Rift escarpment. An unusual feature of the technique employed is the repeated spreading of loose dry earth on the surface of the salt-be…
Current Research at the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of New England
Our research interests include topics outside as well as inside Australia, for instance my own work on the Late Stone Age and Iron Age of West Africa has recently led to the publication of The Archaeology of Benin by Oxford University Press and I have further material in preparation for publication concerning the Lake Chad area of N.E. Nigeria. Likewise, Iain Davidson is presently completing work on man-environment relationships during the late P…
An archaeological exploration in southern Borno
Three Thousand Years in Africa
Remanent Magnetism and Beaker Chronology
Recent work on Archaeomagnetism has been concentrated in two main fields, first, detection of sites with magnetic anomalies using instruments like the proton magnetometer, and secondly the construction of a dated graph of the earth's magnetic field with the ultimate aim of providing an absolute chronology for fixed fired sites, mainly kilns and hearths. Important work in a third field, using the changing angle of inclination of pottery to provide…
Battlefield Casualty
Many artefacts in museums lack adequate information about the context from which they were collected. Not surprisingly, this often applies to artefacts recovered from battlefields, where chaotic conditions can result in uncertainty about their origins. This paper examines the case of a Second World War German 88 mm gun preserved in an Australian museum. The museum had little contextual information for this weapon, except that the Australian Army …
Radiocarbon Dating for Knap Hill
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Snails and Archaeology
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An Archaeological Experiment with the '4c' Mine Detector
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Remanent Magnetism and Beaker Chronology
Recent work on Archaeomagnetism has been concentrated in two main fields, first, detection of sites with magnetic anomalies using instruments like the proton magnetometer, and secondly the construction of a dated graph of the earth's magnetic field with the ultimate aim of providing an absolute chronology for fixed fired sites, mainly kilns and hearths. Important work in a third field, using the changing angle of inclination of pottery to provide…
Snails and Archaeology
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Radiocarbon Dating for Knap Hill
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Archaeology in Benin
Excavations and fieldwork in and around Benin City in the years 1961–4 have established the outlines of an archaeological sequence. This sequence is based on radiocarbon dates for stratified deposits, on a statistical examination of pottery form and decoration, and on datable European imports. The sequence suggested by the evidence extends from about the thirteenth century A.D. to the present time, although the survival of locally found ground st…
Current Research at the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of New England
Our research interests include topics outside as well as inside Australia, for instance my own work on the Late Stone Age and Iron Age of West Africa has recently led to the publication of The Archaeology of Benin by Oxford University Press and I have further material in preparation for publication concerning the Lake Chad area of N.E. Nigeria. Likewise, Iain Davidson is presently completing work on man-environment relationships during the late P…
Archaeology at the University of New England, 1975-6
An account of current research at the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of New England, was published in Australian Archaeology 3, just a year ago (Connah, 1975) . The purpose of the present account is to bring the reader up to date with archaeological activities at Armidale over the last year
The Archaeology of Benin
The Daima Sequence and the Prehistoric Chronology of the Lake Chad Region of Nigeria
An intensive archaeological field research programme conducted between 1963 and 1969 in the Lake Chad region of Nigeria has established the outlines of a prehistoric chronological sequence for the area. The excavations at Daima form the key to this sequence which also includes excavated evidence from Bornu 38, Kursakata, Shilma, Yau, Ajere and Birnin Gazargamo together with surface information from 70 other sites. Twenty radiocarbon dates indicat…
The Archaeology of Benin
Aborigine and settler
Australian students of archaeology could be excused for thinking that aerial photography is a technique with little archaeological application in their own country. Archaeological text books usually draw their examples of the uses of aerial photography from Europe or the Americas; even the pages of Antiquity, graced for many years by the work of J. K. St Joseph and others, suggest a similar geographic limitation. It is also a fact that there are …
Three Thousand Years in Africa
Three Thousand Years in Africa. Man and His Environment in the Lake Chad Region of Nigeria
Three Thousand Years in Africa
Three Thousand Years in Africa
The Lake Chad region of Nigeria is an extreme environment: virtually treeless sand and a broiling clay plain in the fierce heat of the dry season, then much of it inundated and impassable in the wet season as whole areas turn into shallow lakes or marsh. Yet even this hostile landscape and climate have sustained human communities in continuous occupation for some three hundred years. Professor Connah traces the story of human adaptation to and ex…
Three Thousand Years in Africa
An archaeological exploration in southern Borno
Archeological Implications of Traditional House Construction Among the Nchumuru of Northern Ghana [and Comments and Reply]
Ethnographic data from the Nchumuru settlement of Wiae, Kete-Krachi District, northern Volta Region, Ghana, are used to examine the manner in which earth-walled houses in Nchumuru traditional settlements are transferred from the systemic to the archeological record. Archeological survey and excavation of two early Nchumuru sites were conducted to establish the extent to which the observed cultural and natural processes of house and settlement dev…
University of New England
Archaeological Investigations at Risdon Cove Historic Site 1978-1980 , by Angela McGowan
"Archaeological Investigations at Risdon Cove Historic Site 1978-1980, by Angela McGowan." Australian Archaeology, 24(1), pp. 78–79
African Civilizations. Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa
African Civilizations, Precolonial Cities and States in Tropical Africa
Introduction 2. Concepts and questions 3. Corridor or cul-de-sac: the middle Nile 4. The benefits of isolation: the Ethiopian highlands 5. An optimal zone: the West African savanna 6. Brilliance beneath the trees: the West African forest and its fringes 7. The edge or the centre: cities of the East African coast 8. A question of economic basis: Great Zimbabwe and related sites 9. The problem of archaeological visibility: other precolonial cities …
African Civilizations
American historical archaeology and the search for 'meaning
Graham Connah, who has himself just published a historical archaeology of Australia, reviews a large new book in American historical archaeology, and examines the particular approach that is expressed in its title, the archaeological 'recovery of meaning
Salt-production at Kibiro
Salt-making at Kibiro, on the Ugandan shore of Lake Albert, is still carried out in a way that appears to have changed little over the years. Salt is produced exclusively by women, who boil brine obtained from leaching saline earth, the salt in which originates from several hot springs at the base of the Western Rift escarpment. An unusual feature of the technique employed is the repeated spreading of loose dry earth on the surface of the salt-be…
Archaeology (54 works) · History (52 works) · Geography (37 works) · History (32 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Ancient history (17 works) · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories (17 works) · Political science (17 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (15 works) · Law (13 works)