Conférence / Lecture: Archéozoologie de l’élevage / Archaeozoology of herding

CONFÉRENCE / LECTURE

Cycle de conférences ARCCH-CFEE “Paléontologie, archéologie, patrimoine” (2014-2015) / ARCCH-CFEE lecture series “Paleontology, archaeology, heritage” (2014-2015)

2^_e séance / 2^nd session : Advent of herding in Africa with special reference to the Horn of Africa : Recent archaeozoological data, par / by Joséphine Lesur (UMR 7209 Archéozoologie, archéobotanique, Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Paris & CFEE).

Jeudi 29 janvier 2015, 16h – Auditorium de l’ARCCH, Amist Kilo, Addis-Abeba (accès libre) / Thursday, January 29^th 2015, 4 PM – ARCCH Auditorium, Amist Kilo, Addis Ababa (free entrance).

Advent of herding in Africa with special reference to the Horn of Africa : Recent archaeozoological data

Although early food production is not as well-studied in Africa as in other regions of the world, recent archaeological and archaeozoological studies have yielded new data suggesting that pastoral societies emerged at the end of the 7th millennium BCE in the north-eastern part of the continent. Following very different patterns than in the Near-East, the adoption of food production in Africa is very complicated and illustrates the diversity of cultures and landscapes. In the Horn of Africa, herding starts at the beginning of the 2nd millennium – two millennia later than in the neighbouring regions of the Sahel, NW Kenya, and Yemen. Understanding the processes through which herding began in the Horn is a complex task due to region’s geographic position between multiple possible sources areas for livestock, and its immense environmental diversity caused by variations in topography and rainfall. Considering new evidence from Africa and especially from the Horn (Djibouti, Somalia, and southwest Ethiopia), this presentation will illustrate the great diversity of processes that occurred for the diffusion of herding on this continent.

Joséphine Lesur est maître de conférence (HDR) au Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, à Paris. Elle est membre de l’UMR 7209 Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements, et chercheuse associée au CFEE.

Joséphine Lesur is assistant professor at the French National Museum of Natural History (Paris). She is member of the research team “UMR 7209 Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements”, and associated researcher to the CFEE.