Seminar: Latest archaeological investigations in the lower Omo Valley

The British Institute in East Africa (BIEA) invites you to our upcoming seminar scheduled for 9 Thursday February 2012 at 11.30am-12.30pm. The seminar, based on a collaborative
project between Dr Timothy Clack and Dr Marcus Brittain will focus on the team’s latest archaeological investigations in the Lower Omo Valley.

Dr Clack is a lecturer in archaeology and anthropology at the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. His research interests include archaeological mediation, syncretism and religious fusion, anthropology of conflict, as well as memory and cultural landscapes. Dr Brittain, a researcher with the University of Cambridge is interested in the interaction of landscape, memory, and identity within indigenous communities in the UK and in E. Africa. He is also interested in the socio-politics of cultural heritage and archaeological interpretation and is currently in the process of developing a historiography of the role of the archaeological discourse in post conflict situations.

The Lower Omo Valley is well known as a rich resource for anthropological and ecological studies, and of course for its fossilised record of the evolution of hominin species. However, the

archaeological potential for exploring the later prehistory of the region has gone unrecognised. It was therefore the focus of the current project, initiated in 2008, to intensively survey an area of the Mursi tribal-ethnic territory in conjunction with a targeted scheme of excavation. The results have been surprising, revealing a unique landscape of megalithic architecture and lithic assemblages, together spanning a time period from the Middle Stone Age to the later Iron Age. This presentation will provide an overview of these results and a preliminary consideration of their implications.

This seminar is FREE and open to all those interested in the topic.
If you plan on attending, please RSVP by emailing office@biea.ac.uk