Abstract
West African societies have long been enmeshed in interregional, subcontinental, and intercontinental relations. Documents tell us little about how local life was shaped by its intersection with global processes, especially in coastal hinterlands. In this paper I report on archaeological investigations into the changing contours of local life in the Banda area of west central Ghana over the past seven centuries. Excavations at three temporally distinct occupations on two sites—Makala Kataa and Kuulo Kataa—document changes in settlement, craft production, subsistence, and exchange, providing insights into the dynamics of local life during a period of expanding global networks. A concluding section addresses why this type of research is important for our understanding of ancient African societies.
Les sociétés Ouest Africaines sont depuis longtemps parties prenantes dans les relations inter-régionales, sous-continentales et inter-continentales. Les documents ne nous disent pas grand chose sur la manière dont la vie locale a été façonnée par cette interaction avec les processus mondiaux, particulièrement dans les arrières pays côtiers. Dans cet article, je rends compte des recherches archéologiques concernant les changements dans la vie locale intervenus dans la région de Banda au centre ouest du Ghana au cours des sept derniers siècles. Les fouilles dans trois occupations temporellement distincts sur deux sites—Makala Kataa et Kuulo Kataa—mettent en évidence les changements dans l'occupation, la production artisanale, les modes de subsistances et les échanges, donnant un aperçu des dynamiques de la vie locale durant une période d'expansion des réseaux mondiaux d'échange. La conclusion aborde les raisons pour lesquelles ce type de recherche est important pour notre compréhension des anciennes sociétés africaines.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES CITED
Alpern, S. B. (1992). The European introduction of crops into West African in precolonial times. History in Africa 19: 13–43.
Ameyaw, K. (1965). Tradition of Banda. In Traditions from Brong-Ahafo, Nos. 1–4, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, pp. 1–15.
Anquandah, J. (1993). Urbanization and state formation in Ghana during the Iron Age. In Shaw, T., Sinclair, P., Andah, B., and Okpoko, A. (eds.), The Archaeology of Africa. Food, Metals and Towns, Routledge, London, pp. 642–651.
Apentiik, R. (1997). Bulsa Technologies and Systems of Thought, M.A. thesis, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
Boessneck, J. (1970). Osteological differences between sheep (Ovis aries Linné) and goat (Capra hircus Linné). In Brothwell, D., and Higgs, E. (eds.), Science in Archaeology, Praeger, New York, pp. 331–358.
Booth, A. H. (1960). Small Mammals of West Africa, Longman, Harlow, UK.
Boyle, L. (1968). Diary of a Colonial Officer's Wife, Alden, Oxford.
Bravmann, R. A., and Mathewson, R. D. (1970). A note on the history and archaeology of ‘Old Bima.’ African Historical Studies 3: 133–150.
Calvocoressi, D. S., and David, N. (1979). A new survey of radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dates for West Africa. Journal of African History 20: 1–29.
Cameron, C. M., and Tomka, S. A. (eds.) (1993). Abandonment of Settlements and Regions. Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Carland, J. M. (1990). The Colonial Office and the first West African note issue. The International Journal of African Historical Studies 23: 495–502.
Caton, A. (1997). Beads and Bodies: Embodying Change in Bead Practices in Banda, Ghana, M.A. Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University (State University of New York), Binghamton.
Cohen, D. W., and Odhiambo, E. S. A. (1989). Siaya. The Historical Anthropology of an African Landscape, James Currey, London.
Crossland, L. B. (1975). Traditional textile industry in north-west Brong Ahafo, Ghana—The archaeological and contemporary evidence. Sankofa 1: 69–73.
Crossland, L. B. (1976a). Excavations at Nyarko and Dwinfuor sites of Begho—1975. Sankofa 2: 86–87.
Crossland, L. B. (1976b). Interim report on Begho pottery. In West Africa Trade Project Report for 1976, Manuscript on file with the Department of Archaeology, University of Ghana, Legon.
Crossland, L. B. (1989). Pottery from the Begho-B2 Site, Ghana. African Occasional Papers No. 4, University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Canada.
Crossland, L. B., and Posnansky, M. (1978). Pottery, people and trade at Begho, Ghana. In Hodder, I. (ed.), The Spatial Organisation of Culture, Duckworth, London, pp. 77–89.
Cruz, M. D. (1996). Ceramic production in the Banda Area (West-Central Ghana): An ethnoarchaeological approach. Nyame Akuma 45: 30–37.
David, N., and Sterner, J. (1999). Wonderful society: The Burgess Shale creatures, Mandara polities and the nature of prehistory. In McIntosh, S. (ed.), Pathways to Complexity: African Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 97–109.
Davies, O. (1964). Gonja painted pottery. Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana 7: 4–11.
DeCorse, C. R. (1989). An Archaeological Study of Elmina, Ghana: Trade and Culture Change on the Gold Coast Between the Fifteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.
DeCorse, C. R. (1992). Culture contact, continuity, and change on the Gold Coast, AD 1400–1900. African Archaeological Review 10: 163–196.
Dickson, K. B. (1964). The agricultural landscape of southern Ghana and Ashanti-Brong Ahafo 1800 to 1850. Bulletin of the Ghana Geographical Association 9(1): 25–35.
Dupuis, J. (1966). Journal of a Residence in Ashantee, 2nd ed. [original, 1824], Frank Cass, London.
Etienne, M. (1977). Women and men, cloth and colonization: The transformation of production-distribution relations among the Baule (Ivory Coast). Cahiers d'Études africaines 65(17): 41–64.
Fell, T. E. (1913). Notes on the history of Banda. Rattray Papers, MS 101: 7, paper 7, Royal Anthropological Society, London.
Ferguson, G. W. (1894). Mr. Ferguson to the Governor, Enclosure 1 in No. 57, W. B. Griffith to Marquess of Ripon. CO 879/41, No. 479, African (West) correspondence respecting the mission of Mr. G. E. Ferguson and the extent of British influence in the hinterland of the Gold Coast Colony, Colonial Office, Public Records Office, London, Sept. 1895.
Flight, C. (1973). A survey of recent results in the radiocarbon chronology of northern and western Africa. Journal of African History 14: 531–554.
Frank, B. E. (1993). Reconstructing the history of an African ceramic tradition. Technology, slavery and agency in the region of Kadiolo (Mali). Cahiers d'Études africaines 131(33): 381–401.
Freeman, R. A. (1967). Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman. [original, 1898], Archibald Constable, Westminster.
Garrard, T. F. (1980). Akan Weights and the Gold Trade, Longman, London.
Gold Coast Colony (1906). Colonial Reports, Northern Territories, Report for 1906, Microfilm section, Northwestern University Library, Evanston, IL.
Goody, J. R. (1964). The Mande and the Akan hinterland. In Vansina, J., Mauny, R., and Thomas, L. V. (eds.), The Historian in Tropical Africa, Oxford University Press, London, pp. 193–216.
Goody, J. R. (1965). Introduction. In Goody, J. R., and Arhin, K. (eds.), Ashanti and the Northwest, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, pp. 1–110.
Goody, J. R. (1966). The Akan and the north. Ghana Notes and Queries 9: 18–24.
Goody, J. R. (1967). The over-kingdom of Gonja. In Forde, D., and Kaberry, P. (eds.), West African Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century, Oxford University Press, London, pp. 179–205.
Goody, J. R. (1971). Technology, Tradition and State in Africa, Oxford University Press, London.
Goucher, C. (1981). Iron is iron til it is rust: Trade and ecology in the decline of West African iron-smelting. Journal of African History 22: 179–189.
Grier, B. (1981). Underdevelopment, modes of production, and the state in colonial Ghana. African Studies Review 24: 21–47.
Guyer, J. I. (1995). Introduction: The currency interface and its dynamics. In Guyer, J. I. (ed.) Money Matters, Instability, Values and Social Payments in the Modern History of West African Communities, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH, pp. 1–33.
Haight, B. (1981). Bole and Gonja. Contributions to the History of Northern Ghana, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
Hall, S., and Tite, M. S. (1996). Thermoluminescence dating of sherds from the sites of Kuulo Kataa and Makala Kataa, Report on file with Ann B. Stahl.
Hodgson, Governor (1898). Acting Governor Hodgson to Mr. Chamberlain. In Correspondence Relating to the Northern Territories, January to June 1898, Colonial Office, CO879/52/No. 549. Public Records Office, London, Oct.
Holden, J. (1970). The Samorian impact on Buna: an essay in methodology. In Allen, C., and Johnson, R. W. (eds.), African Perspectives. Papers in the History, Politics and Economics of Africa Presented to Thomas Hodgkin, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 83–108.
Hutchinson, L. D. (1979). Out of Africa. From West African Kingdoms to Colonization, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC.
Isaacman, A., and Roberts, R. (1995). Cotton, colonialism, and social history in sub-Saharan Africa: Introduction. In Isaacman, A., and Roberts, R. (eds.), Cotton, Colonialism, and Social History in Sub-Saharan Africa, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH, pp. 1–39.
Jeffreys, (1963). How ancient is West African maize? Africa 33: 115–131.
Jones, O. R. (1993). Commercial foods, 1740–1820. Historical Archaeology 27(2): 25–41.
Kelly, K. (1997). Using historically informed archaeology: Seventeenth and eighteenth century Hueda/European interaction on the coast of Bénin. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 4: 353–366.
Kintigh, K. W. (1992). Tools for quantitative archaeology. Programs for quantitative analysis in archaeology. Computer software available from K. W. Kintigh, 2014 E. Alameda Dr., Tempe AZ 85282–4002.
Kopytoff, I. (1987). The internal African frontier: The making of African political culture. In Kopytoff, I. (ed.), The African Frontier. The Reproduction of Traditional African Societies, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, pp. 3–84.
London Chamber of Commerce (1896). Letter to the Colonial Office. Correspondence (1896) relative to boundary questions with France in the bend of the Niger, No. 156, 12/17/1896 in CO879/45/No. 506, Colonial Office, Public Records Office, London, Feb. 1897.
Mathewson, R. D. (1968). The painted pottery sequence in the Volta basin. West African Archaeological Newsletter 8: 24–31.
Muhammed, A. (1977). The Samorian occupation of Bondoukou: An indigenous view. The International Journal of African Historical Studies 10: 242–258.
Neff, H., and Glascock, M. D. (1997). Compositional analysis of ceramics from the Banda area, Ghana (update), Report on file with author.
Ohadike, D. C. (1981). The influenza pandemic of 1918–19 and the spread of cassava cultivation in the lower Niger: A study in historical linkages. Journal of African History 22: 379–391.
Ortner, S. B. (1984). Theory in Anthropology since the sixties. Comparative Studies in Society and History 26: 126–166.
Ozanne, P. (1962). Notes on the early historic archaeology of Acera. Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana 6: 51–70.
Ozanne, P. (1969). The diffusion of smoking in West Africa. Odu (n.s.) 2: 34–37.
Pearsall, D. (1989). Paleoethnobotany: A Handbook of Procedures. Academic Press, New York.
Philips, J. E. (1983). African smoking and pipes. Journal of African History 24: 303–319.
Pole, L. M. (1975). Iron-working apparatus and techniques: Upper Region of Ghana. West African Journal of Archaeology 5: 11–39.
Posnansky, M. (1973). Aspects of early West African trade. World Archaeology 5: 149–162.
Posnansky, M. (1976a). Archaeology and the origins of the Akan society in Ghana. In Sieveking, G., Longworth, I. H., and Wilson, K. E. (eds.), Problems in Economic and Social Archaeology, Duckworth, London, pp. 49–59.
Posnansky, M. (1976b). New radiocarbon dates from Ghana. Sankofa 2: 60–63.
Posnansky, M. (1976c). West African Trade Project, Report for 1976, Report on file at Department of Archaeology, University of Ghana, Legon.
Posnansky, M. (1979). Archaeological aspects of the Brong-Ahafo Region. In Arhin, K. (ed.), Brong Kyempim. Essays on the Society, History and Politics of the Brong People, Afram, Accra, pp. 22–35.
Posnansky, M. (1987). Prelude to Akan civilization. In Schildkrout, E. (ed.), The Golden Stool: Studies of the Asante Center and Periphery, Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 65, Pt. 1, American Museum of Natural History, New York, pp. 14–22
Posnansky, M., and McIntosh, R. J. (1976). New radiocarbon dates for northern and western Africa. Journal of African History 17: 161–195.
Purser, M. (1992). Oral history and historical archaeology. In Little, B. J. (ed.), Text-Aided Archaeology, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 25–35.
Rice, P. (1987). Pottery Analysis: A Sourcebook, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Roberts, R. (1984). Women's work and women's property: Household social relations in the Maraka textile industry of the nineteenth century. Comparative Studies in Society and History 26: 229–250.
Roy, K. J. (1902). Monthly reports. Kintampo District for 1902 by the Officer commanding Kintampo, File ADM56/1/457, Ghana National Archives, Accra.
Russell, A. C. (1931). Report on a tour of inspection, 6 July to 23 July of Banda area. Banda Native Affairs, File 168, Ghana National Archives, Kumasi.
Sahlins, M. (1993). Goodbye to Tristes Tropes: Ethnography in the context of modern world history. Journal of Modern History 65: 1–25.
Shinnie, P. L., and Ozanne, P. C. (1962). Excavations at Yendi Dabari. Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana 6: 87–118.
Stahl, A. B. (1985). The Kintampo Culture: Subsistence and Settlement in Ghana During the Mid-Second Millennium bc, Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley.
Stahl, A. B. (1991). Ethnic style and ethnic boundaries: A diachronic case study from west central Ghana. Ethnohistory 38: 250–275.
Stahl, A. B. (1993). Concepts of time and approaches to analogical reasoning in historical perspective. American Antiquity 58: 235–260.
Stahl, A. B. (1994). Change and continuity in the Banda area, Ghana: The direct historical approach. Journal of Field Archaeology 21: 181–203.
Stahl, A. B. (1998). Final report on National Science Foundation Grant SBR 9410726 “The Political Economy of Banda, Ghana, 1700–1925.” Report on file with the National Science Foundation, Ghana Museums and Monuments Board and the Department of Archaeology, University of Ghana, Legon.
Stahl, A. B. (1999a). Historical process and the impact of the Atlantic trade on Banda, Ghana, 1800–1920. In DeCorse, C. (ed.), Historical Archaeology in West Africa: Culture Contact, Continuity and Change, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC (in press).
Stahl, A. B. (1999b). What is the use of archaeology in historical anthropology? In The Entangled Past. Integrating History and Archaeology, Proceedings of the 30th Annual Chacmool Conference. University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada (in press).
Stahl, A. B., and Cruz, M. D. (1998). Men and women in a market economy: Gender and craft production in west central Ghana c 1775–1995. In Kent, S. (ed.), Gender in African Prehistory, Altamira Press, Walnut Creek, CA, pp. 205–226.
Steward-Abernathy, L. (1992). Industrial goods in the service of tradition: Consumption and cognition on an Ozark farmstead before the great war. In Yentsch, A. E., and Beaudry, M. C. (eds.), The Art and Mystery of Historical Archaeology. Essays in Honor of James Deetz, CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp. 101–126.
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P. J. (1993). Extended 14C database and revised CALIB Radiocarbon Calibration Program. Radiocarbon 35: 215–230.
Stuiver, M., Long, A., Kra, R. S., and Devine, J. M. (1993). Calibration—1993. Radiocarbon 35(1).
Vivian, B. C. (1992). Sacred to secular: Transitions in Akan funerary customs. In Sterner, J., and David, N. (eds.), An African Commitment. Papers in Honour of Peter Lewis Shinnie, University of Calgary Press, Calgary, Canada, pp. 157–167.
Walker, E. (1901). Monthly report. Kintampo District for July 1901, File ADM 56/1/415, Ghana National Archives, Accra.
Wilks, I. (1966). A note on the chronology, and origins, of the Gonja kings. Ghana Notes and Queries 8: 26–28.
Wilks, I. (1975). Asante in the Nineteenth Century. The Structure and Evolution of a Political Order, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Wilks, I. (1982a). Wangara, Akan and Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I. The matter of Bitu. Journal of African History 23: 333–349.
Wilks, I. (1982b). Wangara, Akan and Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. II. The struggle for trade. Journal of African History 23: 463–472.
Wilks, I. (1993). Forests of Gold. Essays on the Akan and the Kingdom of Asante, Ohio University Press, Athens.
Willett, F. (1971). A survey of recent results in the radiocarbon chronology of western and northern Africa. Journal of African History 12: 339–370.
Wolf, E. R. (1982). Europe and the People Without History, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Yarak, L. (1979). Dating Asantehene Osei Kwadwo's campaign against the Banna. Asantesem 10: 58.
York, R. N. (1973). Excavations at New Buipe. West African Journal of Archaeology 3: 1–189.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Stahl, A.B. The Archaeology of Global Encounters Viewed from Banda, Ghana. African Archaeological Review 16, 5–81 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021614902839
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021614902839