African Archaeology at Rice University

Left to right: Jeffrey Fleisher, Tsholofelo Dichaba, Mamadou Cissé and Susan McIntosh Rice’s Department of Anthropology has long had an interest in Africa. In 1977, management of cultural resources is to educate future African leaders in the field. This year, two anthropology professors Susan McIntosh and Rod McIntosh (who left Rice last graduate students, Tsholofelo Dichaba from year) discovered the lost city of Jenne-jeno, an archaeological site in what is today Botswana and Mamadou Cissé from Mali, have Mali that continues to reshape the way scholars think of urbanism in sub-Saharan begun their studies in anthropology at Rice. Africa. McIntosh continues her work in the region with annual visits to the Rice “We reinstituted our graduate program Archaeological Field School in Gorée Island, Senegal. to train Africans,” McIntosh explained. The students can take undergraduate as well as graduate courses at Rice and then engage in Now McIntosh has been joined by assistant One problem for archaeologists trying to archaeological research in their home coun- professor of anthropology Jeffrey Fleisher, whose reconstruct the African past is the ongoing tries. An earlier Rice alumnus, the late Téréba research along the east coast of Africa comple- destruction of archaeological heritage due to Togola, rose to become Mali’s director of ments McIntosh’s focus on western Africa. development projects, such as dams, and the national heritage. “Rice has established a significant repu- looting of sites for art objects. In Mali, where Meanwhile, the Rice Archaeological Field tation in African archaeology,” McIntosh terra-cotta statuettes were fashioned in antiq- School continues to take small groups of U.S. said. “A decision was made to build on our uity, this is a particular problem. Site destruc- students to Senegal every summer for excava- strengths in the field, with a special focus on tion doesn’t affect just archaeologists. Because tion work. According to McIntosh, plans call complex societies.” archaeological sites are cultural resources that for alternating between Gorée and Tanzania’s “Susan and I are committed to the archaeology of Africa, but we’re also worried about the cultural heritage.” —Jeffrey Fleisher The complex societies McIntosh and Fleisher can serve as a focus for tourism, their destruc- Pemba Island. The program, which offers up study differ significantly. For one thing, the ear- tion also affects local communities that suffer to six credit hours, is open to both graduate liest finds at Jenne-jeno date back farther than a loss of economic opportunity. students and undergraduates with prior course the city-states along the Kenyan and Tanzanian “Susan and I are committed to the archaeol- work in African history or archaeology. coasts; Jenne-jeno is the earliest documented ogy of Africa,” said Fleisher, “but we’re also Fleisher said the anthropology department’s example of urbanism in sub-Saharan Africa. worried about the cultural heritage.” While commitment to African archaeology does not Still, it and the Kenyan and Tanzanian city- laws exist in many countries to protect ar- just amount to research for research’s sake. “We states were indigenous African urban societies chaeological sites, resources to enforce these want our research to document a past that is that thrived for centuries and that now offer a laws often are lacking in the developing world. important to the present,” he said, “but we wealth of information for scholars and research- “We want development,” Fleisher said, “but also want the results to have a local impact ers about how those societies were organized we want people to keep in mind how to take by training African students to become good and how they interacted with other societies care of cultural resources.” custodians of their cultural resources.” through trade and other activities. One of the keys to ensuring more effective —Franz Brotzen Spring ’08 35.

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