Nicholas David
Biographic Data
| ID | 106669 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nicholas David |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nicholas |
| FAMILY NAME | David |
| SIGNATURE | DAVID N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Calgary |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5949-4581 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 615 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Nicholas Christopher David: Master Ethnoarchaeologist (1937-2023)
I am deeply honored to write the Classics Review for my mentor and friend Nicholas David, who died on 11 January 2023. When Nic asked me to write this review I thought we would have more time, but
To Hell with Ethnoarchaeology … and Back
In 2016 Olivier Gosselain published a paper in Archaeological Dialogues suggesting that ethnoarchaeology should “go to hell”. His provocation misrepresents the ethnoarchaeology of the past quarter century, as is evident in a literature of which he appears largely unaware. Here we refute his charges, showing, for example, that ethnoarchaeologists neither regard the societies with which we work as living fossils, nor do we entertain naïve stereotyp…
Antikythera Mechanism: Its Dating and Place in the History of Technology
Recent interpretive analysis of the astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera mechanism (AKM), the oldest geared instrument in the world, reveals that the astronomy it embodies is of the third to second century bc. The device has no known precursor and is more complicated than any surviving mechanism from the following millennium. Its apparent uniqueness stems from a failure to embed the device in the society, economy and technology of its…
Patterns of Slaving and Prey-predator Interfaces in and Around the Mandara Mountains (Nigeria and Cameroon)
While from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century there was a lasting and elastic demand for slaves in Central Africa, the practices by which they were acquired had to be adapted to the physical and human terrain, the technologies available and the socio-cultural postures of the predator and prey societies. In this paper, I sketch the changing patterns of these variables in six slaving zones in and around the northern Mandara Mountains. Usi…
Monumental architecture in mountain landscapes: Thediy-geδ-baysites of northern Cameroon
The DGB sites are complexes of dry-stone terraces and platforms in the Mandara Mountains of northern Cameroon. They constitute the earliest well-established evidence for human occupation of this region and raise important questions about the nature of monumentality, relationships with social complexity and areal culture history. The present state of knowledge of the DGB sites and questions arising are summarised and reviewed. While it appears tha…
Peter Lewis Shinnie 1915–2007
Action on Matter: The History of the Uniquely African Tamper and Concave Anvil Pot-Forming Technique
The publication, largely by ethnoarchaeologists, of new data on the tamper and concave anvil technique of pot-forming (TCA) permits a reassessment of this uniquely African technique, its toolkit, and its culture history. A survey, inspired by the technologie culturelle school, of its varied expressions in the southern Saharan, Sahelian and northern Sudan zones from Mali to Sudan and extending north into Egypt emphasises the potential of the techn…
Teorizando a etnoarqueologia e a analogia
Trata-se de um primeiro e abrangente estudo daquilo que permanece. Apesar de sua centralidade e múltiplas articulações, a Etnoarqueologia é uma das menos conhecidas subdisciplinas da Antropologia. Primeiramente desenvolvida como o estudo da cultura material etnográfica a partir de perspectivas arqueológicas, ela expandiu seu alcance e relevância ao longo do último meio século. Os autores são renomados profissionais, e suas abordagens teóricas eng…
Ethnoarchaeology in Action
Ethnoarchaeology first developed as the study of ethnographic material culture from archaeological perspectives. Over the past half century it has expanded its scope, especially to cultural and social anthropology. Both authors are leading practitioners, and their theoretical perspective embraces both the processualism of the New Archaeology and the post-processualism of the 1980s and 90s. A case-study approach enables a balanced global geographi…
Pride of Men: Ironworking in Nineteenth-Century West Central Africa (review)
Pride of Men is about ironworkers, and especially smiths, as active and potent social agents in west central Africa (the basins of the Zaire River above Malebo Pool and of major northward-flowing tributaries) during the nineteenth century and, so far as can be inferred from exiguous sources, in earlier times. It is not a book about technology; we have to turn to a footnote to read about the standard techniques used by smiths. It is also grossly u…
The Ethnoarchaeology and Field Archaeology of Grinding at Sukur, Adamawa State, Nigeria
Momente des Alltags/Everyday Moments: Fotodokumente aus Nordkamerun, 1950-1985/Documentary Photographs from North Cameroon, 1950-1985
An African Commitment: Papers in Honour of Peter Lewis Shinnie
Chapitre 1. Les fouilles de H. L. Movius Jr. à l’abri Pataud: Généralités
Les fouilles de l’abri Pataud, dirigées par le Pr H. L. Movius Jr., ont été effectuées entre 1953 et 1964. Une grande tranchée, d’une largeur de 14 m au sommet allant jusqu’à 6 m à la base, a fourni des échantillons du contenu de l’abri proprement dit, des couches récentes jusqu’au lit rocheux. Des tranchées plus petites ainsi que des sondages ont offert des échantillons venant du talus devant l’abri.Quatorze niveaux archéologiques ont été identi…
Chapitre 5. Le Noaillien (« Périgordien Vc») de l’abri Pataud niveau 4, éboulis 3‐4: Moyen + inférieur, niveau 4a
Le matériel archéologique du niveau 4, qui consiste en de nombreuses lentilles bien délimitées, a été regroupé en unités d’analyses plus grandes, inférieur et moyen‐1 contiennent des échantillons d’industries du Noaillien inférieur, tandis que moyen‐2 et supérieur contiennent du Noaillien supérieur. À partir d’un total de 11 000 objets (sans inclure les produits de débitage non retouchés et les déchets osseux), environ 5 200 outils lithiques reto…
Chapitre 4. Le Périgordien VI de l’abri Pataud niveau 3
Le niveau 3 indique au moins six occupations successives mais discontinues de l’abri. La plupart du matériel archéologique –appelé globalement Pataud : 3– provient de la riche lentille 2 à laquelle sont associées les traces d’une structure d’habitation.L’échantillon de l’industrie de Pataud : 3 comprend plus de 2 000 objets (sans compter les produits de débitage non retouchés ni les restes de faune), dont à peu près 1 300 outils lithiques sont dé…
Le Paléolithique supérieur de l’abri Pataud (Dordogne): Les fouilles de H. L. Movius Jr
La fouille de l’abri Pataud (Les Eyzies, Dordogne) fut dans la seconde moitié du xxe s. l’un des grands programmes de recherche internationaux et interdisciplinaires sur la Préhistoire française. Conduit par H. L. Movius. Jr., il donna lieu à des innovations dans le domaine des techniques de fouille et de l’analyse des objets et contribua ainsi à une synthèse méthodologique qui servit de base à la recherche actuelle. L’abri Pataud est une des séq…
An African Commitment: Papers in Honour of Peter Lewis Shinnie
The Production of Space and the House of Xidi Sukur
African Archaeology Twixt Cancer and Capricorn
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
De la Prehistoire a l'histoire au Cameroun Septentional
Integrating ethnoarchaeology: A subtle realist perspective
The Uses of Style in Archaeology . Margaret W. Conkey and Christine A. Hastorf
Gender and Caste in the Mandara Highlands: Northeastern Nigeria and Northern Cameroon
The status of artisans, particularly iron workers, in African societies has long been the subject of ethnological inquiry and dispute (e.g., Cline 1937:114-140; Clement 1948; de Heusch 1956; Dieterlen 1965; Vaughan 1970; de Maret 1980). We will not review here a debate that, in tune with trends in anthropological explanation, has invoked a great variety of factors in order to place smiths in African society at scales ranging from the continental …
Between bloomery and blast furnace: Mafa iron-smelting technology in North Cameroon
Why Pots are Decorated
Ethnoarchaeology in Action
Ethnoarchaeology first developed as the study of ethnographic material culture from archaeological perspectives. Over the past half century it has expanded its scope, especially to cultural and social anthropology. Both authors are leading practitioners, and their theoretical perspective embraces both the processualism of the New Archaeology and the post-processualism of the 1980s and 90s. A case-study approach enables a balanced global geographi…
The Fulani compound and the archaeologist
This paper addresses itself to the problem of the interpretation of domestic structures. An ethnographic example of a Fulani village in North Cameroon is used to demonstrate the fit that exists between households and their buildings. The question is asked whether an archaeologist would be able to reconstruct the households from their preservable material culture. Several approaches in current use in archaeology are tested and found of limited val…
Le Paléolithique supérieur de l’abri Pataud (Dordogne): Les fouilles de H. L. Movius Jr
La fouille de l’abri Pataud (Les Eyzies, Dordogne) fut dans la seconde moitié du xxe s. l’un des grands programmes de recherche internationaux et interdisciplinaires sur la Préhistoire française. Conduit par H. L. Movius. Jr., il donna lieu à des innovations dans le domaine des techniques de fouille et de l’analyse des objets et contribua ainsi à une synthèse méthodologique qui servit de base à la recherche actuelle. L’abri Pataud est une des séq…
A New Survey of Radiocarbon and Thermoluminescence Dates for west Africa
There are signs that the familiar bias towards research on the Later Stone Age of the southern Sahara and Sahel and on the Iron Age of other parts of West Africa is beginning to be redressed, although Nigeria and Ghana still furnish the vast majority of dates from the southern coastal states. Historical and protohistorical archaeology is becoming increasingly popular, and some areas, for example southern Mali, are receiving serious attention for …
Integrating ethnoarchaeology: A subtle realist perspective
On the Life Span of Pottery, Type Frequencies, and Archaeological Inference
A sample of North Cameroon Fulani pottery for which median ages of types are known is used to show that the frequencies of types in the archaeological record are in part a function of their respective life spans. This is of some significance in interassemblage comparisons
The Ethnoarchaeology and Field Archaeology of Grinding at Sukur, Adamawa State, Nigeria
The Production of Space and the House of Xidi Sukur
Between bloomery and blast furnace: Mafa iron-smelting technology in North Cameroon
Excavations in the Southern Sudan, 1979
This is an account of the archaeological aspect of the second of the four BIEA expeditions to the Southern Sudan. It is mainly the work of Dr David, the leader of the expedition, and now Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Calgary
Action on Matter: The History of the Uniquely African Tamper and Concave Anvil Pot-Forming Technique
The publication, largely by ethnoarchaeologists, of new data on the tamper and concave anvil technique of pot-forming (TCA) permits a reassessment of this uniquely African technique, its toolkit, and its culture history. A survey, inspired by the technologie culturelle school, of its varied expressions in the southern Saharan, Sahelian and northern Sudan zones from Mali to Sudan and extending north into Egypt emphasises the potential of the techn…
Patterns of Slaving and Prey-predator Interfaces in and Around the Mandara Mountains (Nigeria and Cameroon)
While from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century there was a lasting and elastic demand for slaves in Central Africa, the practices by which they were acquired had to be adapted to the physical and human terrain, the technologies available and the socio-cultural postures of the predator and prey societies. In this paper, I sketch the changing patterns of these variables in six slaving zones in and around the northern Mandara Mountains. Usi…
Gender and Caste in the Mandara Highlands: Northeastern Nigeria and Northern Cameroon
The status of artisans, particularly iron workers, in African societies has long been the subject of ethnological inquiry and dispute (e.g., Cline 1937:114-140; Clement 1948; de Heusch 1956; Dieterlen 1965; Vaughan 1970; de Maret 1980). We will not review here a debate that, in tune with trends in anthropological explanation, has invoked a great variety of factors in order to place smiths in African society at scales ranging from the continental …
Societal Causes of Infertility and Population Decline Among the Settled Fulani of North Cameroon
This article presents evidence that sterility is primarily physiological and of pathogenic origin. Societal causes of infertility are described and an explanation for the contrast between the Fulani and other North Cameroonian people is given. Demographic and cultural data are obtained from previous work amongst the Fulani. According to previous surveys fertility among the Fulani has been declining since 1935 while remaining constant at a high le…
An African Commitment: Papers in Honour of Peter Lewis Shinnie
Teorizando a etnoarqueologia e a analogia
Trata-se de um primeiro e abrangente estudo daquilo que permanece. Apesar de sua centralidade e múltiplas articulações, a Etnoarqueologia é uma das menos conhecidas subdisciplinas da Antropologia. Primeiramente desenvolvida como o estudo da cultura material etnográfica a partir de perspectivas arqueológicas, ela expandiu seu alcance e relevância ao longo do último meio século. Os autores são renomados profissionais, e suas abordagens teóricas eng…
Tazunu: Megalithic Monuments of Central Africa
This article describes the excavation of two tumuli incorporating megalithic structures of a type found in the western Central African Republic and part of eastern highland Cameroon. The author examines the question of their construction and offers an interpretation of their cultural and historical significance. Dr. David is an Associate Professor of Archaeology in the University of Calgary. Excavations at two major megalithic monuments in the Ce…
Monumental architecture in mountain landscapes: Thediy-geδ-baysites of northern Cameroon
The DGB sites are complexes of dry-stone terraces and platforms in the Mandara Mountains of northern Cameroon. They constitute the earliest well-established evidence for human occupation of this region and raise important questions about the nature of monumentality, relationships with social complexity and areal culture history. The present state of knowledge of the DGB sites and questions arising are summarised and reviewed. While it appears tha…
Kalambo falls prehistoric site
De la Prehistoire a l'histoire au Cameroun Septentional
Antikythera Mechanism: Its Dating and Place in the History of Technology
Recent interpretive analysis of the astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera mechanism (AKM), the oldest geared instrument in the world, reveals that the astronomy it embodies is of the third to second century bc. The device has no known precursor and is more complicated than any surviving mechanism from the following millennium. Its apparent uniqueness stems from a failure to embed the device in the society, economy and technology of its…
Burins avec modification tertiaire du biseau, burins-pointe et burins du Raysse à l'Abri Pataud, Les Eyzies (Dordogne)
In addition to the Noailles technique, employed for the production of narrow burin cutting edges, the Level 4 (Perigordian Vc, or Noaillian) artificers at the Abri Pataud were accustomed to reduce the width of the burin cutting edge by modifying it subsequent to the removal of the burin spall. In its simplest expression, such modification takes the form of a series of small removals struck from the burin spall scar onto the dorsal surface of the …
The Fulani compound and the archaeologist
This paper addresses itself to the problem of the interpretation of domestic structures. An ethnographic example of a Fulani village in North Cameroon is used to demonstrate the fit that exists between households and their buildings. The question is asked whether an archaeologist would be able to reconstruct the households from their preservable material culture. Several approaches in current use in archaeology are tested and found of limited val…
Nuba Personal Art
On the Life Span of Pottery, Type Frequencies, and Archaeological Inference
A sample of North Cameroon Fulani pottery for which median ages of types are known is used to show that the frequencies of types in the archaeological record are in part a function of their respective life spans. This is of some significance in interassemblage comparisons
Kalambo falls prehistoric site
A New Survey of Radiocarbon and Thermoluminescence Dates for west Africa
There are signs that the familiar bias towards research on the Later Stone Age of the southern Sahara and Sahel and on the Iron Age of other parts of West Africa is beginning to be redressed, although Nigeria and Ghana still furnish the vast majority of dates from the southern coastal states. Historical and protohistorical archaeology is becoming increasingly popular, and some areas, for example southern Mali, are receiving serious attention for …
Excavations in the Southern Sudan, 1979
This is an account of the archaeological aspect of the second of the four BIEA expeditions to the Southern Sudan. It is mainly the work of Dr David, the leader of the expedition, and now Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Calgary
Societal Causes of Infertility and Population Decline Among the Settled Fulani of North Cameroon
This article presents evidence that sterility is primarily physiological and of pathogenic origin. Societal causes of infertility are described and an explanation for the contrast between the Fulani and other North Cameroonian people is given. Demographic and cultural data are obtained from previous work amongst the Fulani. According to previous surveys fertility among the Fulani has been declining since 1935 while remaining constant at a high le…
The Design of Archaeological Processing Systems with Special Reference to That Employed at Lake Vouliagméni, Greece
James Wiseman, Nicholas David, The Design of Archaeological Processing Systems with Special Reference to That Employed at Lake Vouliagméni, Greece, Journal of Field Archaeology, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Summer, 1982), pp. 237-241
Tazunu: Megalithic Monuments of Central Africa
This article describes the excavation of two tumuli incorporating megalithic structures of a type found in the western Central African Republic and part of eastern highland Cameroon. The author examines the question of their construction and offers an interpretation of their cultural and historical significance. Dr. David is an Associate Professor of Archaeology in the University of Calgary. Excavations at two major megalithic monuments in the Ce…
Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 1?6: An annotated bibliography
The Archaeology Workbook
The Sahara and the Nile
Perigordian and Noaillian in the Greater Périgord
Die Mafa: Ethnographie eines Kirdi-Stammes in Nordkamerun. Band I Soziale und religiöse Strukturen. Band III Materialen
Why Pots are Decorated
Between bloomery and blast furnace: Mafa iron-smelting technology in North Cameroon
The Uses of Style in Archaeology . Margaret W. Conkey and Christine A. Hastorf
Gender and Caste in the Mandara Highlands: Northeastern Nigeria and Northern Cameroon
The status of artisans, particularly iron workers, in African societies has long been the subject of ethnological inquiry and dispute (e.g., Cline 1937:114-140; Clement 1948; de Heusch 1956; Dieterlen 1965; Vaughan 1970; de Maret 1980). We will not review here a debate that, in tune with trends in anthropological explanation, has invoked a great variety of factors in order to place smiths in African society at scales ranging from the continental …
Integrating ethnoarchaeology: A subtle realist perspective
African Archaeology Twixt Cancer and Capricorn
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
De la Prehistoire a l'histoire au Cameroun Septentional
Chapitre 1. Les fouilles de H. L. Movius Jr. à l’abri Pataud: Généralités
Les fouilles de l’abri Pataud, dirigées par le Pr H. L. Movius Jr., ont été effectuées entre 1953 et 1964. Une grande tranchée, d’une largeur de 14 m au sommet allant jusqu’à 6 m à la base, a fourni des échantillons du contenu de l’abri proprement dit, des couches récentes jusqu’au lit rocheux. Des tranchées plus petites ainsi que des sondages ont offert des échantillons venant du talus devant l’abri.Quatorze niveaux archéologiques ont été identi…
Chapitre 5. Le Noaillien (« Périgordien Vc») de l’abri Pataud niveau 4, éboulis 3‐4: Moyen + inférieur, niveau 4a
Le matériel archéologique du niveau 4, qui consiste en de nombreuses lentilles bien délimitées, a été regroupé en unités d’analyses plus grandes, inférieur et moyen‐1 contiennent des échantillons d’industries du Noaillien inférieur, tandis que moyen‐2 et supérieur contiennent du Noaillien supérieur. À partir d’un total de 11 000 objets (sans inclure les produits de débitage non retouchés et les déchets osseux), environ 5 200 outils lithiques reto…
Chapitre 4. Le Périgordien VI de l’abri Pataud niveau 3
Le niveau 3 indique au moins six occupations successives mais discontinues de l’abri. La plupart du matériel archéologique –appelé globalement Pataud : 3– provient de la riche lentille 2 à laquelle sont associées les traces d’une structure d’habitation.L’échantillon de l’industrie de Pataud : 3 comprend plus de 2 000 objets (sans compter les produits de débitage non retouchés ni les restes de faune), dont à peu près 1 300 outils lithiques sont dé…
Archaeology (22 works) · History (22 works) · Geography (19 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (13 works) · History (12 works) · Art (11 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (9 works) · Geology (8 works) · Political science (7 works)