Projekt

The focus of my current research is to understand the patterns of subsistence, technology, and adaptations of early modern humans and to provide reliable age estimates of the early Middle Stone Age (MSA) period in southern and northern Tanzania.Mumba and other sites in the Lake Eyasi basin offer a unique opportunity to test models related to the origin and diversity of modern human populations, the development of technology, subsistence patterns and the development of cognitive thinking in human history. It is possible that the landscape of Mumba provided a refuge for people to stay during the Middle to Late Pleistocene when most of tropical Africa was affected by a series of dry and arid episodes. Deep and stratified archaeological deposits at Mumba show that people remained here for long periods. Despite its location in the drier savannah environment, Mumba and its surroundings may have never experienced the worst dry and arid conditions during the glacial and interglacial periods. If we have to demonstrate that this region remained a focus of human occupation through the MSA to present, we need to get precise dates as well as to reconstruct the past environment, which is among the priorities of this project. Therefore my research objectives are designed to prevail over uprisings from previous research interpretations. My research will involve survey and excavations along the Lake Eyasi shore and collect datable materials such as animal teeth and land-snail shells for the ESR dating. The open air sites with human remains lack reliable dates and this study intends to contribute on this shortcoming.

• Prof. Dr. Brigitte Reinwald

  Universität Hannover
  Philosophische Fakultät
  Historisches Seminar
  Fachgebiet Geschichte Afrikas
  Hannover
  

• Dr. Pastory Magayane Bushozi

  University of Dar es Salaam
  Department of Archaeology and Heritage
  College of Humanities
  Sisal House
  Dar es Salaam
  Tansania (Tanzania)
  

• An assessment of strategies for cultural heritage management and tourism development in the Eyasi basin, northern Tanzania

• Stratigraphic integrity and technological development: the microscopic and metric evidence from Middle Stone Age (MSA) points at Mumba rockshelter, northern Tanzania