Henry T Wright
University of Michigan, Dept./Museum of Anthropology, Faculty Member
- Santa Fe Institute, None, Department Memberadd
Recent archaeological excavations in northern Madagascar provide evidence of occupational sites with microlithic stone technologies related to foraging for forest and coastal resources. A forager occupation of one site dates to earlier... more
Recent archaeological excavations in northern Madagascar
provide evidence of occupational sites with microlithic
stone technologies related to foraging for forest and coastal resources. A forager occupation of one site dates to earlier than 2000 B.C., doubling the length of Madagascar’s known occupational history, and thus the time during which people exploited Madagascar’s environments. We detail stratigraphy, chronology, and artifacts from two rock shelters. Ambohiposa near Iharana (Vohémar) on the northeast coast, yielded a stratified assemblage with small flakes, microblades, and retouched crescentic and trapezoidal tools, probably projectile elements,made on cherts and obsidian, some brought
more that 200 km. 14C dates are contemporary with the earliest
villages. No food remains are preserved. Lakaton’i Anja near Antsiranana in the north yielded several stratified assemblages. The latest assemblage is well dated to A.D. 1050–1350, by 14C and optically stimulated luminescence dating and pottery imported from the Near East and China. Below is a series of stratified assemblages similar to Ambohiposa. 14C and optically stimulated luminescence dates indicate occupation from at least 2000 B.C. Faunal remains indicate a foraging pattern. Our evidence shows that foragers with a microlithic technology were active in Madagascar long before the arrival of farmers and herders and before many Late Holocene faunal extinctions. The differing effects of historically distinct economies must be identified and understood to reconstruct Holocene histories of human environmental impact.
provide evidence of occupational sites with microlithic
stone technologies related to foraging for forest and coastal resources. A forager occupation of one site dates to earlier than 2000 B.C., doubling the length of Madagascar’s known occupational history, and thus the time during which people exploited Madagascar’s environments. We detail stratigraphy, chronology, and artifacts from two rock shelters. Ambohiposa near Iharana (Vohémar) on the northeast coast, yielded a stratified assemblage with small flakes, microblades, and retouched crescentic and trapezoidal tools, probably projectile elements,made on cherts and obsidian, some brought
more that 200 km. 14C dates are contemporary with the earliest
villages. No food remains are preserved. Lakaton’i Anja near Antsiranana in the north yielded several stratified assemblages. The latest assemblage is well dated to A.D. 1050–1350, by 14C and optically stimulated luminescence dating and pottery imported from the Near East and China. Below is a series of stratified assemblages similar to Ambohiposa. 14C and optically stimulated luminescence dates indicate occupation from at least 2000 B.C. Faunal remains indicate a foraging pattern. Our evidence shows that foragers with a microlithic technology were active in Madagascar long before the arrival of farmers and herders and before many Late Holocene faunal extinctions. The differing effects of historically distinct economies must be identified and understood to reconstruct Holocene histories of human environmental impact.
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Wright Henry T., Johnson G. Regional Perspectives on Southwest Iranian State development. In: Paléorient, 1985, vol. 11, n°2. Actes du séminaire CNRS/NSF de Bellevaux (24-29 juin 1985) : L'évolution des sociétés complexes du sud-ouest... more
Wright Henry T., Johnson G. Regional Perspectives on Southwest Iranian State development. In: Paléorient, 1985, vol. 11, n°2. Actes du séminaire CNRS/NSF de Bellevaux (24-29 juin 1985) : L'évolution des sociétés complexes du sud-ouest de l'Iran. pp. 25-30
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Cet article parle du developpement de l'installation humaine ancienne dans le Nord de Madagascar depuis le 4e siecle, et plus precisement la periode entre le 10e et le 20e siecle sur la cote nord-ouest dans la baie d'Ampasindava.... more
Cet article parle du developpement de l'installation humaine ancienne dans le Nord de Madagascar depuis le 4e siecle, et plus precisement la periode entre le 10e et le 20e siecle sur la cote nord-ouest dans la baie d'Ampasindava. Nous y apprenons que le port commercial le plus ancien connu sur les cotes de Madagascar, la ville de Mahilaka, connut son apogee du 11e au 14e siecle. Plusieurs raisons peuvent expliquer la prosperite de ce site ancien, entre autres le reseau des relations d'echanges entre les echelles commerciales de la cote orientale d'Afrique avec le reste de l'ocean Indien occidental, les Comores et le nord-ouest de Madagascar. Les phases d'occupation culturelles de la region nord-ouest a partir du 11e siecle jusqu'a la periode moderne sont decrites en s'appuyant sur les resultats de differents travaux historiques, anthropologiques et surtout archeologiques : reconnaissances, fouilles, analyse des vestiges recoltes, mais aussi en s'appuyant sur les resultats des recherches paleoecologiques. Les auteurs y analysent les facteurs qui pourraient apporter des reponses aux questions posees sur le developpement des etablissements humains dans un contexte regional, leur impact sur l'environnement local, leur declin ou encore leurs successeurs.
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A number of archaeologists are making significant advances in the historical archaeology of Southeast Asia. The papers presented in this issue, and the one that preceded it, provide new insights and exciting directions for future research.
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Past research on Madagascar indicates that village communities were established about AD 500 by people of both Indonesian and East African heritage. Evidence of earlier visits is scattered and contentious. Recent archaeological... more
Past research on Madagascar indicates that village communities were established about AD 500 by people of both Indonesian and East African heritage. Evidence of earlier visits is scattered and contentious. Recent archaeological excavations in northern Madagascar provide evidence of occupational sites with microlithic stone technologies related to foraging for forest and coastal resources. A forager occupation of one site dates to earlier than 2000 B.C., doubling the length of Madagascar’s known occupational history, and thus the time during which people exploited Madagascar’s environments. We detail stratigraphy, chronology, and artifacts from two rock shelters. Ambohiposa near Iharana (Vohémar) on the northeast coast, yielded a stratified assemblage with small flakes, microblades, and retouched crescentic and trapezoidal tools, probably projectile elements, made on cherts and obsidian, some brought more that 200 km. 14 C dates are contemporary with the earliest villages. No food re...
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The 23rd season of excavation at Tell Brak took place from March 13 to May 16, 2000, with David Oates as Project Director, Geoff Emberling as Field Director, and Helen McDonald in charge of the house and recording of pottery and objects.... more
The 23rd season of excavation at Tell Brak took place from March 13 to May 16, 2000, with David Oates as Project Director, Geoff Emberling as Field Director, and Helen McDonald in charge of the house and recording of pottery and objects. The season was co-sponsored by the ...
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... Excavation in third-millennium levels proceeded this season in Area TC, which had been tested by Mallowan but not excavated since, and which proved to contain a public building dating to Early Dynastic III. ... 9c, Mallowan 1947: P1.... more
... Excavation in third-millennium levels proceeded this season in Area TC, which had been tested by Mallowan but not excavated since, and which proved to contain a public building dating to Early Dynastic III. ... 9c, Mallowan 1947: P1. 14, 11-13 and P1. ...
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Introduced predators currently threaten endemic animals on Madagascar through predation, facilitation of human-led hunts, competition, and disease transmission, but the antiquity and past consequences of these introductions are poorly... more
Introduced predators currently threaten endemic animals on Madagascar through predation, facilitation of human-led hunts, competition, and disease transmission, but the antiquity and past consequences of these introductions are poorly known. We use directly radiocarbon dated bones of introduced dogs (Canis familiaris) to test whether dogs could have aided human-led hunts of the island’s extinct megafauna. We compare carbon and nitrogen isotope data from the bone collagen of dogs and endemic “fosa” (Cryptoprocta spp.) in central and southwestern Madagascar to test for competition between introduced and endemic predators. The distinct isotopic niches of dogs and fosa suggest that any past antagonistic relationship between these predators did not follow from predation or competition for shared prey. Radiocarbon dates confirm that dogs have been present on Madagascar for over a millennium and suggest that they at least briefly co-occurred with the island’s extinct megafauna, which inclu...
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... Through the success or failure of agents' actions based on such knowledge, new strategies could be ... He urges us to question the ultimate objectives of modeling, and to consider using mod-els ... An effort to directly confront... more
... Through the success or failure of agents' actions based on such knowledge, new strategies could be ... He urges us to question the ultimate objectives of modeling, and to consider using mod-els ... An effort to directly confront the role of conflict in the formation of more differentiated ...
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Human-mediated biological exchange has had global social and ecological impacts. In sub-Saharan Africa, several domestic and commensal animals were introduced from Asia in the pre-modern period; however, the timing and nature of these... more
Human-mediated biological exchange has had global social and ecological impacts. In sub-Saharan Africa, several domestic and commensal animals were introduced from Asia in the pre-modern period; however, the timing and nature of these introductions remain contentious. One model supports introduction to the eastern African coast after the mid-first millennium CE, while another posits introduction dating back to 3000 BCE. These distinct scenarios have implications for understanding the emergence of long-distance maritime connectivity, and the ecological and economic impacts of introduced species. Resolution of this longstanding debate requires new efforts, given the lack of well-dated fauna from high-precision excavations, and ambiguous osteomorphological identifications. We analysed faunal remains from 22 eastern African sites spanning a wide geographic and chronological range, and applied biomolecular techniques to confirm identifications of two Asian taxa: domestic chicken (Gallus ...
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Research Interests: Archaeology and Africa
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The timing of the human settlement of Madagascar, one of the last large landmasses to be settled by people, remains a key topic of debate in archaeology. Despite decades of research, recent estimates for initial settlement are... more
The timing of the human settlement of Madagascar, one of the last large landmasses to be settled by people, remains a key topic of debate in archaeology. Despite decades of research, recent estimates for initial settlement are increasingly divergent and span ca. 9000 years: the widest colonization window for any island within the reliable range of radiocarbon (14 C) dating. 14 C dating of archaeological sites and remains of butchered animals provide important evidence of when the island was first settled, but the reliability of these dates requires critical evaluation. Applying principles of chronometric hygiene, we present the first systematic review of Madagascar's 14 C chronology to clarify the island's settlement. Our findings support human presence by at least 2000 cal BP and suggest that an Early Holocene arrival is possible. The nature of such an early presence on the island, however, remains elusive due to a lack of contextual information.
The Austronesian settlement of the remote island of Madagascar remains one of the great puzzles of Indo-Pacific prehistory. Although linguistic, ethnographic, and genetic evidence points clearly to a colonization of Madagascar by... more
The Austronesian settlement of the remote island of Madagascar remains one of the great puzzles of Indo-Pacific prehistory. Although linguistic, ethnographic, and genetic evidence points clearly to a colonization of Madagascar by Austronesian language-speaking people from Island Southeast Asia, decades of archaeological research have failed to locate evidence for a Southeast Asian signature in the island’s early material record. Here, we present new archaeobotanical data that show that Southeast Asian settlers brought Asian crops with them when they settled in Africa. These crops provide the first, to our knowledge, reliable archaeological window into the South- east Asian colonization of Madagascar. They additionally suggest that initial Southeast Asian settlement in Africa was not limited to Madagascar, but also extended to the Comoros. Archaeobotanical data may support a model of indirect Austronesian colonization of Madagascar from the Comoros and/or elsewhere in eastern Africa.
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Research Interests: Ancient History, Evolutionary Biology, Archaeology, Anthropology, Human Evolution, and 19 moreEcology, Population Dynamics, Human, Mammals, Humans, Elephants, Madagascar, Late Pleistocene, Reptiles, Lemur, Fossils, Birds, Animals, Age Determination, Late Holocene, Biological evolution, Human Settlement, Tooth, and Food Chain
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Page 1. Tk Ceramics from Ras Hafun in Somu~iut Notes on a C hskd Maritime Site Matthew C. Smith and Henry T. Wright Introduction ' At least since the end of the first millennium BC the peoples of the eastern coasts of Africa ...
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The first Mesopotamian city-states in the Uruk period (ca. 3800-3100 B.C.) pursued a strategy of commercial expansion into neighboring areas of the Zagros Mountains, Syria, and southeastern Anatolia. Recent research in these areas has... more
The first Mesopotamian city-states in the Uruk period (ca. 3800-3100 B.C.) pursued a strategy of commercial expansion into neighboring areas of the Zagros Mountains, Syria, and southeastern Anatolia. Recent research in these areas has located several Uruk outposts, in what is apparently the world's earliest-known colonial system. Although some Uruk "colonies" have been excavated, virtually nothing is known about either the operation of this system or its role in the development of local polities in Anatolia.
Excavations at the site of Hacinebi, on the Euphrates River trade route, investigate the effects of the "Uruk Expansion" on the social, economic, and political organization of southeastern Anatolia during the fourth millennium B.C. Hacinebi has two main Late Chalcolithic occupations---a pre-contact phase A and a later contact phase B with high concentrations of Uruk ceramics, administrative artifacts, and other Mesopotamian forms of material culture. The Hacinebi excavations thus provide a rare opportunity to investigate the relationship between the Uruk colonies and the local populations with whom they traded, while clarifying the role of long-distance exchange in the development of complex societies in Anatolia.
Several lines of evidence suggest that the period of contact with Mesopotamia began in the Middle Uruk period, earlier than the larger colonies at sites such as Habuba Kabira-South and Jebel Aruda in Syria. The concentrations of Uruk material culture and the patterns of food consumption in the northeastern corner of the Local Late Chalcolithic settlement are consistent with the interpretation that a small group of Mesopotamian colonists lived as a socially distinct enclave among the local inhabitants of Hacinebi. There is no evidence for either Uruk colonial domination or warfare between the colonists and the native inhabitants of Hacinebi. Instead, the presence of both Anatolian and Mesopotamian seal impressions at the site best fits a pattern of peaceful exchange between the two groups. The evidence for an essential parity in long-term social and economic relations between the Mesopotamian merchants and local inhabitants of Hacinebi suggests that the organization of prehistoric Mesopotamian colonies differed markedly from that of the better-known 16th-20th century European colonial systems in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Excavations at the site of Hacinebi, on the Euphrates River trade route, investigate the effects of the "Uruk Expansion" on the social, economic, and political organization of southeastern Anatolia during the fourth millennium B.C. Hacinebi has two main Late Chalcolithic occupations---a pre-contact phase A and a later contact phase B with high concentrations of Uruk ceramics, administrative artifacts, and other Mesopotamian forms of material culture. The Hacinebi excavations thus provide a rare opportunity to investigate the relationship between the Uruk colonies and the local populations with whom they traded, while clarifying the role of long-distance exchange in the development of complex societies in Anatolia.
Several lines of evidence suggest that the period of contact with Mesopotamia began in the Middle Uruk period, earlier than the larger colonies at sites such as Habuba Kabira-South and Jebel Aruda in Syria. The concentrations of Uruk material culture and the patterns of food consumption in the northeastern corner of the Local Late Chalcolithic settlement are consistent with the interpretation that a small group of Mesopotamian colonists lived as a socially distinct enclave among the local inhabitants of Hacinebi. There is no evidence for either Uruk colonial domination or warfare between the colonists and the native inhabitants of Hacinebi. Instead, the presence of both Anatolian and Mesopotamian seal impressions at the site best fits a pattern of peaceful exchange between the two groups. The evidence for an essential parity in long-term social and economic relations between the Mesopotamian merchants and local inhabitants of Hacinebi suggests that the organization of prehistoric Mesopotamian colonies differed markedly from that of the better-known 16th-20th century European colonial systems in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
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Although previous volumes of Azania have carried articles and notes on Madagascar and Mozambique as well as allusions to the Comoro Islands (as in Derek Nurse's study of Swahili linguistic history in XVIII), this is the first article... more
Although previous volumes of Azania have carried articles and notes on Madagascar and Mozambique as well as allusions to the Comoro Islands (as in Derek Nurse's study of Swahili linguistic history in XVIII), this is the first article specifically on the Archipelago. Being concerned with the earliest recognised human settlements on the Comores, which show similarities to the earliest levels at Kilwa, Manda and Shanga on the African coast with their maritime connections with the Persian Gulf, the article is especially appropriate in Azania, even more so this year to coincide with the publication of the late Neville Chittick's Manda (BIEA Memoir 9). Those scholars who have recently been questioning received wisdom that Qanbalu was on Pemba and suggesting instead its location on the Comores may search for support in this article, but the author advises caution at this stage.Especially valuable is the food-crop evidence recovered. The indication of Setaria (‘foxtail millet’) is perhaps unexpected. Although its use is recorded recently in both East and West Africa, it appears never to have been a major crop on the continent. The evidence of Asian rice and coconut, though not unexpected, may be the earliest yet obtained for the south-western part of the Indian Ocean (that is if we follow modern critics' rejection of the interpolation of coconut-oil in texts of the Periplus). Equally interesting is Professor Wright's recognition of house-building materials and shapes.The author, whose archaeological field experience includes Iran as well as Madagascar and the Comores, is at the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
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The publication of the Eastern Desert Roads Surveys brings together the research of two survey projects, the Michigan-Assiut Koptos-Eastern Desert Project and the University of Delaware-Leiden University Eastern Desert Surveys. From 1987... more
The publication of the Eastern Desert Roads Surveys brings together the research of two survey projects, the Michigan-Assiut Koptos-Eastern Desert Project and the University of Delaware-Leiden University Eastern Desert Surveys. From 1987 to 2001 and intermittently thereafter until 2015, these two survey teams worked independently to explore and document the archaeological remains along the routes connecting the Nile Valley cities of Koptos (modern Qift) and Apollinopolis Magna (modern Edfu) to the Red Sea port city of Berenike in Egypt. The result of these surveys was the documentation of seventy discrete archaeological sites ranging in date from the late Dynastic to the Late Roman periods, with many sites demonstrating long-term, multi-period occupation. The survey also recorded road sections, route marking cairns and graves/cemeteries.
This monograph brings together and integrates the discoveries of both teams, presenting a coherent analysis of the extensive surveys and the materials documented by each. Emphasis is placed on the physical setting of each site, its material remains--including preserved architecture, pottery and other surface finds--and relevant textual evidence, such as inscriptions, ostraka and related historical texts. A single chapter in gazetteer form is devoted to the sites themselves (excluding mines and quarries, which form a separate chapter), while other chapters present the geology of the region and ancient mines and quarries, which made use of the road network, the pottery evidence by phase, and specialist studies. An Introductory chapter offers historical and disciplinary context for the surveys and their subjects, tying the Berenike-Nile roads surveys into the corpus of archaeological surveys in Egypt and the wider Mediterranean world.
This monograph brings together and integrates the discoveries of both teams, presenting a coherent analysis of the extensive surveys and the materials documented by each. Emphasis is placed on the physical setting of each site, its material remains--including preserved architecture, pottery and other surface finds--and relevant textual evidence, such as inscriptions, ostraka and related historical texts. A single chapter in gazetteer form is devoted to the sites themselves (excluding mines and quarries, which form a separate chapter), while other chapters present the geology of the region and ancient mines and quarries, which made use of the road network, the pottery evidence by phase, and specialist studies. An Introductory chapter offers historical and disciplinary context for the surveys and their subjects, tying the Berenike-Nile roads surveys into the corpus of archaeological surveys in Egypt and the wider Mediterranean world.