Mobile Technologies in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond

C. N. Duckworth, A. Cuénod, D. J. Mattingly

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781108830546
• eBook ISBN: 9781108903950
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

The ancient Sahara has often been treated as a periphery or barrier, but this agenda-setting book – the final volume of the Trans-Saharan Archaeology Series – demonstrates that it was teeming with technological innovations, knowledge transfer, and trade from long before the Islamic period. In each chapter, expert authors present important syntheses, and new evidence for technologies from oasis farming and irrigation, animal husbandry and textile weaving, to pottery, glass and metal making by groups inhabiting the Sahara and contiguous zones. Scientific analysis is brought together with anthropology and archaeology. The resultant picture of transformations in technologies between the third millennium BC and the second millennium AD is rich and detailed, including analysis of the relationship between the different materials and techniques discussed, and demonstrating the significance of the Sahara both in its own right and in telling the stories of neighbouring regions.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Series page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• Part I Introduction
• Part II Technological Mobility and Transfers
• Part III Metallurgy
• Part IV Glass Technology
• Part V Handmade Pottery
• Part VI Conclusion
• Index