An Archaeology of the Bantu Expansion : Early Settlers South of the Congo Rainforest

Abstract

The Bantu Expansion is one of the most intriguing issues in African history. Based on extensive fieldwork in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and laboratory analysis, this book provides the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and multi-proxy account of the first Bantu speakers south of the Congo rainforest. This volume begins with state-of-the-art reviews of the archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, genetic, linguistic, and oral historical contexts of the Bantu Expansion and includes evidence from over 150 previously unknown archaeological sites with extensive analyses of pottery, lithics, soil stable isotopes, phytoliths, charcoal, and human remains. Seven appendices contain the full metadata, radiometric, and geographical data for each site and comparative language data. The volume concludes with a sweeping interdisciplinary reconstruction of the first Bantu-speaking settlers in the Kwilu-Kasai region and rethinks how farming, climate change, and contact with Central African hunter-gatherers and Ubangi speakers impacted their lifeworld. This book is indispensable for scholars and students of Africa from a wide variety of fields such as archaeology, palaeoecology, linguistics, population genetics, history, and anthropology, and of considerable interest to scientists active in other parts of the world. All who think African history matters will find it a valuable source.