Books by Lesur Joséphine
Les ossements animaux sont les principaux documents sur lesquels s’appuie cet ouvrage. Une multit... more Les ossements animaux sont les principaux documents sur lesquels s’appuie cet ouvrage. Une multitude de fragments provenant de sites archéologiques allant du nord au sud de l’Afrique et couvrant les dix derniers millénaires, ossements issus de régions dispersées, de périodes différentes, dans des états de conservation différents, mais racontant tous la même histoire : celle des relations de l’homme et de l’animal à travers la Préhistoire africaine. Relations avec les animaux sauvages chassés, pêchés ou piégés pour leur viande, leur peau, leurs plumes, leurs os, relations avec les animaux domestiques qui apportent du lait, du sang, de la force et du prestige, relations avec des environnements diversifiés et instables qu’il faut savoir dompter et exploiter, relations changeantes au fil de l’évolution des cultures et des sociétés qui vont permettre à certains animaux de devenir des symboles du pouvoir, de la richesse, du magique ou encore ceux des dangers d’un monde sauvage et hostile.
Le livre parle d’animaux et de sociétés, mais aussi de paysages et de molécules. En des chapitres courts et abordables s’ouvrant à chaque fois sur un exemple archéozoologique précis, l’auteur aborde successivement l’évolution des paysages et des modes de subsistances dans le Nord-Est africain au temps des derniers chasseurs-cueilleurs de la préhistoire, l’apparition de l’élevage et sa diffusion, la place particulière du boeuf dans l’alimentation mais aussi dans les sphères sociales et symboliques de nombreuses sociétés, ou encore le rôle de la chasse et des animaux sauvages au sein des sociétés agropastorales anciennes et actuelles.
Riches et complexes, les relations de l’homme et de l’animal en Afrique au cours des dix derniers millénaires constituent un document anthropologique majeur, qui illustre les liens forts noués entre les sociétés humaines et leur environnement.
English translation: Alan and Mélanie de Quincey Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée de fai... more English translation: Alan and Mélanie de Quincey Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée de faire connaître à un large public dans de nombreux pays cette découverte archéologique exceptionnelle.
Papers by Lesur Joséphine
ResuMe. -La diversité culturelle et environnementale de la Corne de l'Afrique a favorisé un grand... more ResuMe. -La diversité culturelle et environnementale de la Corne de l'Afrique a favorisé un grand nombre de schémas d'adoption de l'élevage dont nous n'avons aujourd'hui encore qu'une compréhension limitée. Le récent développement des recherches archéologiques et archéozoologiques dans la région a permis d'apporter de nouvelles données suggérant que les premières communautés pastorales se sont développées au début du 2 e millénaire avant notre ère, soit près de deux millénaires plus tard que dans les pays voisins. Le présent article a donc pour but non seulement de présenter un rapide tour d'horizon des données actuellement disponibles sur la question, mais aussi de tenter de dégager quelques hypothèses et réflexions sur l'origine de l'élevage, les modalités de sa diffusion et son impact sur les sociétés qui ont occupé la Corne de l'Afrique durant l'Holocène.
Afriques. Débats, méthodes et terrains d'histoire, n° 5. Special issue coordinated by Monique Cha... more Afriques. Débats, méthodes et terrains d'histoire, n° 5. Special issue coordinated by Monique Chastanet, Gérard Chouin, Dora de Lima and Thomas Guindeuil [on line: http://afriques.revues.org/1346]
Journal of Field Archaeology, Feb 1, 2015
The site of Wakrita is a small Neolithic establishment located on a wadi in the tectonic depressi... more The site of Wakrita is a small Neolithic establishment located on a wadi in the tectonic depression of Gobaad in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. The 2005 excavations yielded abundant ceramics that enabled us to define one Neolithic cultural facies of this region, which was also identified at the nearby site of Asa Koma. The faunal remains confirm the importance of fishing in Neolithic settlements close to Lake Abbé , but also the importance of bovine husbandry and, for the first time in this area, evidence for caprine herding practices. Radiocarbon dating places this occupation at the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C., similar in range to Asa Koma. These two sites represent the oldest evidence of herding in the region, and they provide a better understanding of the development of Neolithic societies in this region.
MENARD C., BON F., DESSIE A., BRUXELLES L., DOUZE K., FAUVELLE-AYMAR F.-X., KHALIDI L., LESUR J., MENSAN R., 2014. Late Stone Age variability in the Main Ethiopian Rift: new data from the Bulbula River, Ziway- Shala basin. Quaternary international, 343: 53-68. Research conducted along the Bulbula River (ZiwayeShala basin, Main Ethiopian Rift) has yielded a... more Research conducted along the Bulbula River (ZiwayeShala basin, Main Ethiopian Rift) has yielded archaeological assemblages that document various phases of the Upper Pleistocene and the early Holocene. The oldest period documented is dated to~34e33,000 Cal BP (DW1), and the second is dated to the Pleistocene/Holocene transition, between 14,000 and 11,000 Cal BP (B1s1, DW2s2 and DW2s1). The analysis of these assemblages and their comparison offer new perspectives on early LSA industries, and on the development and diversity of partially microlithic industries at the end the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene. Through the characterization of techno-economic changes in the context of shifting environments and their exploitation by humans, our results intend to provide new insights into human behavioral evolution on a local scale and for a time period that is currently insufficiently known. This study highlights the existence of major breaks in the archaeological record of the area during MIS 3e1.
Although early food production is not as well-studied in the Horn of Africa as in other regions o... more Although early food production is not as well-studied in the Horn of Africa as in other regions of the world, recent archaeological and archaeozoological studies have yielded new data suggesting that pastoral societies emerged at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE e 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 Djibouti, Somalia, and southwest Ethiopia in tandem with prior data from multiple parts of the Horn, this article proposes that the diffusion of herding occurred via different processes in different areas. Data from northern and western parts of the Horn suggest slow migration of Sudanese groups and/or dense contacts with transfer of techniques and practices, beginning in foothills near today's Sudan border and, at least in the North, slowly spreading deep into the highlands of the Horn. In the eastern part of the Horn of Africa, herding practices and pottery technology may have come from Yemen via contacts across the Red Sea, or from Sudan via contacts through the coastal plain of Eritrea and/or the northern highlands of the Horn; because ceramics are absent or of specific local design it is likely that herding began via selective adoption of domestic animals rather than through in-migration of pastoralists. In the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia, livestock and pottery (with no foreign influence) appear much later, at the end of the 1st millennium BCE. Several environmental factors may have helped maintain southwest Ethiopia as a cultural isolate where people had only a late interest in switching their subsistence to food production and where incorporation of livestock and ceramic production took place in longstanding, highly conservative, technological and economic systems.
KS043 is a stratified site associated with a complex of artesian springs. The archaeological rema... more KS043 is a stratified site associated with a complex of artesian springs. The archaeological remains, as well as a series of radiocarbon determinations, date the site to between 4800 and 4200 B.C. Our study suggests a connection between Saharan pastoralists, forced to move into oasis areas by increasing aridification, and the first Predynastic cultures of the Nile Valley. The site is the only well dated stratified settlement attributed to the Late Neolithic in the eastern Sahara that is characterized by Tasian cultural traditions.
Between 70 and 50 ka BP, anatomically modern humans dispersed across and out of Africa to eventua... more Between 70 and 50 ka BP, anatomically modern humans dispersed across and out of Africa to eventually populate all inhabitable continents. Knowledge of paleoenvironments and human behavioral patterns in Africa prior to and during these dispersals is crucial for understanding how and why hunter-gatherers were able to adapt rapidly to the new environments they encountered. However, few well-dated sites from this time period are known from the Horn of Africa, one of the purported staging areas for population movements into southern Arabia and Asia. Excavations at Mochena Borago Rockshelter, situated on the western slopes of a dormant volcano where the SW Ethiopian Highlands meet the Ethiopian Rift, have yielded the first securely dated archaeological sequence for later periods of the dispersal. Three major lithostratigraphic groups incorporating occupational episodes have yielded charcoal radiocarbon ages w53e38 ka calBP; deeper deposits have been tested but remain undated. Archaeological assemblages consist mainly of obsidian flaked stone artifacts manufactured from small, minimally prepared, single-to multi-platform flake cores; radially prepared cores are rare and blade cores are absent. Small unifacial to bifacial points from non-radial cores dominate the earliest shaped tool assemblages, and backed pieces first appear by w45 ka calBP. By w43 ka calBP, scrapers and backed pieces are predominant, rather than points. However, there is little evidence for technological change other than the appearance of bipolar technology. Mochena Borago's archaeological sequence thus cannot be neatly classified as Middle Stone Age, Later Stone Age or "transitional" and calls into question some of the principles by which archaeologists have attempted to classify African toolmaking traditions.
The origins of herding practices in southern Africa remain controversial. The first appearance of... more The origins of herding practices in southern Africa remain controversial. The first appearance of domesticated caprines in the subcontinent is thought to be c. 2000 years BP; however, the origin of this cultural development is still widely debated. Recent genetic analyses support the long-standing hypothesis of herder migration from the north, while other researchers have argued for a cultural diffusion hypothesis where the spread of herding practices took place without necessarily implicating simultaneous and large population movements. Here we document the Later Stone Age (LSA) site of Leopard Cave (Erongo, Namibia), which contains confirmed caprine remains, from which we infer that domesticates were present in the southern African region as early as the end of the first millennium BC. These remains predate the first evidence of domesticates previously recorded for the subcontinent. This discovery sheds new light on the emergence of herding practices in southern Africa, and also on the possible southward routes used by caprines along the western Atlantic coast.
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Books by Lesur Joséphine
Le livre parle d’animaux et de sociétés, mais aussi de paysages et de molécules. En des chapitres courts et abordables s’ouvrant à chaque fois sur un exemple archéozoologique précis, l’auteur aborde successivement l’évolution des paysages et des modes de subsistances dans le Nord-Est africain au temps des derniers chasseurs-cueilleurs de la préhistoire, l’apparition de l’élevage et sa diffusion, la place particulière du boeuf dans l’alimentation mais aussi dans les sphères sociales et symboliques de nombreuses sociétés, ou encore le rôle de la chasse et des animaux sauvages au sein des sociétés agropastorales anciennes et actuelles.
Riches et complexes, les relations de l’homme et de l’animal en Afrique au cours des dix derniers millénaires constituent un document anthropologique majeur, qui illustre les liens forts noués entre les sociétés humaines et leur environnement.
Papers by Lesur Joséphine
Le livre parle d’animaux et de sociétés, mais aussi de paysages et de molécules. En des chapitres courts et abordables s’ouvrant à chaque fois sur un exemple archéozoologique précis, l’auteur aborde successivement l’évolution des paysages et des modes de subsistances dans le Nord-Est africain au temps des derniers chasseurs-cueilleurs de la préhistoire, l’apparition de l’élevage et sa diffusion, la place particulière du boeuf dans l’alimentation mais aussi dans les sphères sociales et symboliques de nombreuses sociétés, ou encore le rôle de la chasse et des animaux sauvages au sein des sociétés agropastorales anciennes et actuelles.
Riches et complexes, les relations de l’homme et de l’animal en Afrique au cours des dix derniers millénaires constituent un document anthropologique majeur, qui illustre les liens forts noués entre les sociétés humaines et leur environnement.