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African Historical Archaeologies pp 163–187Cite as

A True Picture? Colonial and Other Historical Archaeologies

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Part of the book series: Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology ((CGHA))

Abstract

Until recently, much of the focus of archaeological research on historical periods in the Sahel and Savannah (Sudan) zones of West Africa could be described as being dictated by attempts to correlate places and events with a limited corpus of Arabic historical sources (see McIntosh and McIntosh 1984, for a critique of what they term these “city-centric” approaches). It is also probably fair to say that the past of these regions of West Africa has been moulded by the dominant ideologies that prevailed amongst the historians and archaeologists working in these areas, most notably those associated with colonialism. Without treading the well-worn path of postprocessual archaeology, it is generally accepted that the past cannot be said to be in some way neutral from the present (Hodder 1986). Thus, that African historical archaeology should somehow be exempt from such considerations is untenable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Art History and Archaeology, University of Manchester, UK

    Timothy Insoll

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  1. Timothy Insoll
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Archaeology, University College London, London, UK

    Andrew M. Reid

  2. The British Institute in Eastern Africa, Nairobi, Kenya

    Paul J. Lane

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Insoll, T. (2004). A True Picture? Colonial and Other Historical Archaeologies. In: Reid, A.M., Lane, P.J. (eds) African Historical Archaeologies. Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8863-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8863-8_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-306-47996-0

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