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On a Brighter Note, Menick Posnansky, Profes- Has Been NYAME AKUMA No. 59 June 2003 at the University of Witwaterssand in Johannesburg as the RARIVicombe Collection. Over the last year or so, we have lost some of On a brighter note, Menick Posnansky, Profes- the leaders in Afii.ican archaeology, most notably Pro- sor Emeritus of History and Anthmjmlogy at UCLA fessor J. Desmond Clark, a pioneer of stone age re- has been awarded the John Haniugton medal of the search and a strong proponent of SAEA. Many of us SocietyforHistorical~l~rchaeology2003.Thisaward will remember his retirement confkmnce, held at the is named in honor ofJohn Carl Harrin,gton (19O1-1998), University of CaLifomia, Berkeley in 1986. It was only one of the pioneers of historic archaeology in North a retirement liom regular teaching as Desmond con- America. The award is presented for a life time of schol- tinued to contribute in many ways. The year 200 1 saw arly contributions to the discipline. This is richly de- the publication of the third volume of his Kalambo served. Menick pioneered the study of historical ar- Falls Prehistoric Site reports, completing the descrip- chaeology at U-, and trained a number of people tion of the stone age archaeological assemblages at doing Afican historic archaeology as well as what is this important long term Zambian locality. generally referred to as “diaspora studies”, the study of Black people throughout the Americas. It is perhaps In April 2003, Susan Kent ofold Dominion Uni- fitting that this issue of Nyame Ahma should have a versity passed away suddenly in Milwaukee, where diaspora article (by Johnson), the fmt since I became she was attending the annual meeting of the Society editor. for American Archaeology (SAA). Susan is known to many archaeologists worldwide for her major contri- The SAEA biennial conference will be held in butions to method and theory. She conducted Bergen, Norway hmJune 26-29,2004. It is organized ethnoarchaeological research among the Basarwa of by Randi Haaland and hosted by the Centre for Devel- Botswana, and most recently conducted archaeologi- opment Studies at the University of Bergen. A web site cal excavations on the MSA and LSA in South Afiica. giving more details is available at httl>://www.uib.no/ She edited a number of books in anthropology and safa2004l. We hope to see as many of you as possible. archaeology, including Analyzing Activity Areas: an The SAW executive is planning abeefed up web ethnoarchaeologicalstu4 of the use of space (Uni- versity of New Mexico Press, 1984), Farmers site, with more information about current events, gradu- as hunt- ate theses/dissertations and other information of use ers: the implications ofsedentism (Cambridge Univer- to our members. Eventually, there will also be elec- sity Press, 1989), Cultural diversiw among twentieth- tronic access to Nyame Ahma and other publications. centuryforagers: an Afiican perspective (Cambridge University Press, 1996), and most recently, Ethnicity, There will be more news about this project shortly. hunter-gatherers and the “other”: association or The papers in this issue include the usual re- assimilation in Afiica (Smithsonian Institution Press, ports of initial discovery of sites. Masao et al. report 2002). Another pioneering work was a volume on on stone age research in the SerengetiNational Park of Gender in Afiican Prehistory (AltaMira, 1998), based Tanzania, while Wright discusses the Pastoral Neolithic on a symposium held at the SAfA meeting in Poznan at the Tsavo National Park in Kenya. Both these places in 1996. She was a,professor at a small university and are better known for their natural history; their human was their only archaeologist. Yet she managed to be history has become of interest only recently. Finneran one of the most productive people in our field, and a and Phillips report on the discovery of stone age sites mentor to many scholars, both within and outside of in the Tigmy region of Ethiopia, and Garcea about a Afiicanist archaeology. For example, she made a nota- salvage or rescue project in the Sudan. ble contribution through the Committee on the Status ofwomen inArchaeology (COSWA) ofthe SAA. She Okoro addresses issues of applied archaeology, also served as an officer of numerous scholarly or- or why do archaeological research at all. He shows ganizations including the SAA, most recently as their that studies of traditional technological practices in book review editor. She will be greatly missed. Ghana, such as well manufacture and maintenance, can be of relevance to rural people today. Ossa Mvondo Patricia Vinnicombe has also passed away. She and Hamman describe the history and ethnohistory of was a pioneer of South Afiican rock art studies, dis- textile production in the Lake Chad basin. Lawson covering and meticulously recording many sites. She discusses the development of complex societies in The is probably best known for her book, People of the Gambia, as does de Barros for Togo. Kleindienst et al. Eland (Natal University Press, 1976). An obituary report on palaeoenvironmental and archaeological written by Justine Olofsson has appeared in the April research at Kharga Oasis in the Western Desert of 2003 issue of The Digging Stick, the newsletter of the Egypt, the area made famous by Gertrude Caton- South Afiican Archaeological Association. It reports Thornson. By providing a similar palaeoenvironmental that after her retirement hmthe Western Australia iiamework, Brook et al. supplement Robbins’s long Depariment OfAboriginal Affairs, she returned to South term work on the stone age prehistory of the Tsodilo Afiica to catalogue her archive of rock art images, and Hills in Botswana. her personal correspondence. This material is curated I .
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