Sonja Magnavita
Biographic Data
| ID | 4065274 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sonja Magnavita |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sonja |
| FAMILY NAME | Magnavita |
| SIGNATURE | MAGNAVITA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Goethe University Frankfurt |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 70 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Beads from the Iron Age Graves of Kissi, NE Burkina Faso
Beads from the Iron Age Graves of Kissi, NE Burkina Faso, by Sonja Magnavita (1999, 35:4-11)
Tracing connections
LA‐ICP‐MS analysis of glass beads from Tié (12th–14th centuries), Kanem, Chad
Chemical analysis of glass from African archaeological sites has become a standard research tool over the past decades. Despite the multiplication of studies, the continent still exhibits vast unexplored regions. One of these is the surroundings of Lake Chad. This paper discusses the results of LA‐ICP‐MS analysis of recently excavated glass beads from the late medieval Chadian site of Tié. We demonstrate that the composition of those glass beads …
Earthen Tumuli Archaeology in West Africa
Earthen tumuli are a special type of grave that is widespread all over the world. In West Africa, they belong to a type of monument that attracted archaeological interest at the turn of the 20th century. West African burial mounds underwent the greatest wave of archaeological excavations in the first half of the 20th century, but owing to difficult excavation conditions and technical-logistical challenges on the one hand and an increasing interes…
The Early History of Weaving in West Africa
In this chapter the early history of weaving in West Africa is discussed in the light of archaeological evidence. The oldest preserved textiles in West Africa were discovered at Kissi in Burkina Faso and dated to the early first millennium AD. They add to the small corpus of first millennium AD textile finds and push back in time the evidence for the demand and use of cloth in sub-Saharan Africa. However, it is unclear whether these earliest text…
All that Glitters is Not Gold
XRF and LA-ICP-MS studies of gold and silver artefacts from a 12–13th century CE tumulus in Senegal
Garumele Revisited
The search for Takrur
As the saying goes, ‘all good things are worth waiting for’ and this certainly applies to The Search for Takrur, edited by R.J McIntosh, S.K. McIntosh and H. Bocoum, with various contributors. This
First geophysical exploration in the tumuli zone of central Senegal
In western and central Senegal, several thousand burial mounds are known, but only a very few have been archaeologically investigated. The result is that an important portion of the later prehistory of this region remains poorly understood. This concerns the monuments themselves but equally their direct environs, where settlements are supposed but remain largely undiscovered despite extensive standard surveys. The situation is especially distress…
Early social complexity in the Dogon Country (Mali) as evidenced by a new chronology of funerary practices
Initial Encounters
The long-standing, more mythical than fact-based assumptions about ancient trade contacts between West Africa and the wider world prior to the Arab conquest of North Africa have only been substantiated by archaeological evidence in recent years. Although the number of imported items known to have been brought into West Africa during late Roman and Byzantine times just started growing, the mechanisms of their diffusion are still far from being und…
The oldest textiles from sub-Saharan West Africa
The textile evidence for the archaeological site of Kissi, Burkina Faso, is presented and the implications for the history of weaving in West Africa are discussed. Woolen textiles have been preserved in Iron Age graves of the first millennium AD due to the corrosion of metal objects in the graves. This lucky circumstance adds further examples to the very small corpus of first millennium AD textile finds, pushing back in time the evidence for the …
The Beads of Kissi, Burkina Faso
Archaeological investigations on settlements and graveyards near the Mare de Kissi in NE Burkina Faso proved human occupation at that location at least from the 4th century BC up to the 12th/13th century AD. Among others, one important category of finds recovered from excavations are beads: about five thousand of various materials were found, especially as grave goods in the cemeteries, but also in the settlement zones. A clear imbalance in raw m…
The Beads of Kissi, Burkina Faso
Archaeological investigations on settlements and graveyards near the Mare de Kissi in NE Burkina Faso proved human occupation at that location at least from the 4th century BC up to the 12th/13th century AD. Among others, one important category of finds recovered from excavations are beads: about five thousand of various materials were found, especially as grave goods in the cemeteries, but also in the settlement zones. A clear imbalance in raw m…
Initial Encounters
The long-standing, more mythical than fact-based assumptions about ancient trade contacts between West Africa and the wider world prior to the Arab conquest of North Africa have only been substantiated by archaeological evidence in recent years. Although the number of imported items known to have been brought into West Africa during late Roman and Byzantine times just started growing, the mechanisms of their diffusion are still far from being und…
The oldest textiles from sub-Saharan West Africa
The textile evidence for the archaeological site of Kissi, Burkina Faso, is presented and the implications for the history of weaving in West Africa are discussed. Woolen textiles have been preserved in Iron Age graves of the first millennium AD due to the corrosion of metal objects in the graves. This lucky circumstance adds further examples to the very small corpus of first millennium AD textile finds, pushing back in time the evidence for the …
The search for Takrur
As the saying goes, ‘all good things are worth waiting for’ and this certainly applies to The Search for Takrur, edited by R.J McIntosh, S.K. McIntosh and H. Bocoum, with various contributors. This
First geophysical exploration in the tumuli zone of central Senegal
In western and central Senegal, several thousand burial mounds are known, but only a very few have been archaeologically investigated. The result is that an important portion of the later prehistory of this region remains poorly understood. This concerns the monuments themselves but equally their direct environs, where settlements are supposed but remain largely undiscovered despite extensive standard surveys. The situation is especially distress…
XRF and LA-ICP-MS studies of gold and silver artefacts from a 12–13th century CE tumulus in Senegal
Garumele Revisited
The Beads of Kissi, Burkina Faso
Archaeological investigations on settlements and graveyards near the Mare de Kissi in NE Burkina Faso proved human occupation at that location at least from the 4th century BC up to the 12th/13th century AD. Among others, one important category of finds recovered from excavations are beads: about five thousand of various materials were found, especially as grave goods in the cemeteries, but also in the settlement zones. A clear imbalance in raw m…
The oldest textiles from sub-Saharan West Africa
The textile evidence for the archaeological site of Kissi, Burkina Faso, is presented and the implications for the history of weaving in West Africa are discussed. Woolen textiles have been preserved in Iron Age graves of the first millennium AD due to the corrosion of metal objects in the graves. This lucky circumstance adds further examples to the very small corpus of first millennium AD textile finds, pushing back in time the evidence for the …
Initial Encounters
The long-standing, more mythical than fact-based assumptions about ancient trade contacts between West Africa and the wider world prior to the Arab conquest of North Africa have only been substantiated by archaeological evidence in recent years. Although the number of imported items known to have been brought into West Africa during late Roman and Byzantine times just started growing, the mechanisms of their diffusion are still far from being und…
Early social complexity in the Dogon Country (Mali) as evidenced by a new chronology of funerary practices
Garumele Revisited
The search for Takrur
As the saying goes, ‘all good things are worth waiting for’ and this certainly applies to The Search for Takrur, edited by R.J McIntosh, S.K. McIntosh and H. Bocoum, with various contributors. This
First geophysical exploration in the tumuli zone of central Senegal
In western and central Senegal, several thousand burial mounds are known, but only a very few have been archaeologically investigated. The result is that an important portion of the later prehistory of this region remains poorly understood. This concerns the monuments themselves but equally their direct environs, where settlements are supposed but remain largely undiscovered despite extensive standard surveys. The situation is especially distress…
All that Glitters is Not Gold
XRF and LA-ICP-MS studies of gold and silver artefacts from a 12–13th century CE tumulus in Senegal
The Early History of Weaving in West Africa
In this chapter the early history of weaving in West Africa is discussed in the light of archaeological evidence. The oldest preserved textiles in West Africa were discovered at Kissi in Burkina Faso and dated to the early first millennium AD. They add to the small corpus of first millennium AD textile finds and push back in time the evidence for the demand and use of cloth in sub-Saharan Africa. However, it is unclear whether these earliest text…
Earthen Tumuli Archaeology in West Africa
Earthen tumuli are a special type of grave that is widespread all over the world. In West Africa, they belong to a type of monument that attracted archaeological interest at the turn of the 20th century. West African burial mounds underwent the greatest wave of archaeological excavations in the first half of the 20th century, but owing to difficult excavation conditions and technical-logistical challenges on the one hand and an increasing interes…
LA‐ICP‐MS analysis of glass beads from Tié (12th–14th centuries), Kanem, Chad
Chemical analysis of glass from African archaeological sites has become a standard research tool over the past decades. Despite the multiplication of studies, the continent still exhibits vast unexplored regions. One of these is the surroundings of Lake Chad. This paper discusses the results of LA‐ICP‐MS analysis of recently excavated glass beads from the late medieval Chadian site of Tié. We demonstrate that the composition of those glass beads …
Beads from the Iron Age Graves of Kissi, NE Burkina Faso
Beads from the Iron Age Graves of Kissi, NE Burkina Faso, by Sonja Magnavita (1999, 35:4-11)
Tracing connections
Geography (12 works) · Archaeology (11 works) · History (11 works) · Ancient history (9 works) · African Studies and Geopolitics (8 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (6 works) · History (6 works) · African Studies and Ethnography (5 works) · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories (4 works) · Excavation (3 works)