Basic Biographical Information
John Kinahan was born in Mutare, Zimbabwe, but is a resident and citizen of Namibia, where he and his wife, Jill Kinahan, have worked as archaeologists for more than 30 years. He studied archaeology at the University of Cape Town and completed his Ph.D. at the University of the Witwatersrand in 1989. Kinahan was employed as Curator of Archaeology at the National Museum of Namibia until 1996. He is currently Director of the Namib Desert Archaeological Survey, a long-term, field-based research project primarily funded through contract surveys for mining projects. He has published more than 70 articles, including peer-reviewed papers, chapters in books, edited volumes, and one book. His research interests are broad, ranging from post-Pleistocene hunter-gatherer archaeology to rock art interpretation, nomadic pastoral settlement and land use, as well as the history of archaeology and the links between archaeology and related fields such as human and animal...
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Further Reading
Kinahan, J. 1993. The rise and fall of nomadic pastoralism in the central Namib Desert, in B. Andah, A. Okpoko, T. Shaw and P. Sinclair (ed.) Food, metals and towns in the archaeology of Africa: 372-85. London: Routledge.
- 1995. A new archaeological perspective on nomadic pastoralist expansion in south-western Africa, in J.E.G. Sutton (ed.) The growth of farming in Africa south of the Equator: 211-25. Nairobi: British Institute in Eastern Africa.
- 1996. The archaeology of social rank among eighteenth century nomadic pastoralists in southern Namibia. African Archaeological Review 13(4): 225-45.
- 1999. Towards an archaeology of mimesis and rainmaking in the rock art of Namibia, in P. Ucko & R. Layton (ed.) The archaeology and anthropology of landscape: 336-57. London: Routledge.
- 2000. Fifteenth century agropastoral responses to a disequilibrial ecosystem in eastern Botswana, in G. Barker & D. Gilbertson (ed.) Living on the margins: the archaeology of drylands: 233-51. London: Routledge.
- 2001. Pastoral nomads of the Namib Desert: the people history forgot. Windhoek: Namibia Archaeological Trust.
- 2005. Late Quaternary human ecology of the Namib Desert, in M. Smith & P. Hesse (ed.) 23°S: archaeology and environmental history of the southern deserts: 120-31. Canberra: National Museum of Australia.
-2011. From the beginning: the archaeological evidence, in M. Wallace (ed.) A history of Namibia, from the beginning to independence: 15-44. London: David Hurst.
Kinahan, J. & J. Kinahan. 2006. Preliminary report on the late Holocene archaeology of the Awasib-Gorrassis Basin complex in the southern Namib Desert. Studies in the African Past 5: 1-14.
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Ndlovu, N. (2014). Kinahan, John. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_2360
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