Project
Human impact in coastal West Central Africa from the Iron Age to colonial times – reflected in the charcoal of Dibamba 1
Duration
2010-2011
Funding
DFG
Project coordinator
Katharina Neumann
Scientific collaborator
A. Höhn
Cooperation partners
Université Yaoundé, IRD, Représentation du Cameroun (R. Oslisly)
Short description
The archaeological site is situated close to Douala, near the coast of Cameroon. A rescue excavation during the construction of a power plant furnished archaeological material from more than 200 pits dating to the last 2000 years and many well preserved charcoal fragments. Their analysis is supposed to help answer the following questions.
How did human settlement change the vegetation of the coastal rain forest in Cameroon? Which environmental conditions prevailed when the settlement began? Did vegetation changes lead to the hiatus in the settlement history of the coastal forest in the second half of the first millennium AD? Was the utilization of the rain forest changed by European colonization?
Results
Read more about the results, as soon as the first results are on hand.
