Search

[nicht vorhanden / not available], Archäologische Informationen, Bd. 18, Nr. 1 (1995): Archäologische Informationen

[nicht vorhanden / not available], Archäologische Informationen, Bd. 15, Nr. 1&2 (1992): Archäologische Informationen

[nicht vorhanden / not available], Archäologische Informationen, Bd. 18, Nr. 1 (1995): Archäologische Informationen

Our research interests in palaeo-studies in East Africa remain high, partly because of the Out-of-Africa hypotheses predicting Homo sapiens origin to be situated in East Africa. Since several decades archaeologists and geoscientists explore suitable sites to answer related questions. Simultaneously, analytical methods applied to the archives improved in their sensibility or resolution over the given time. The amount of published scientific data is enormous, but has to be carefully checked on their robustness compared to modern standards. Therefore, it is necessary to compile datasets and excerpt the given data that are source of scientific interpretations (e.g., palaeoenvironment, palaeoclimate, evolution patterns, time models etc.). In addition, the names of the study sitesin East Africa are often transcribed from different languages or hold several synonyms for various reasons. Thus, we decided to use a semantic wiki to have the advantage of queryable structured data combined with the ability of web based frontend for collaborative editing of the content. The presented application is based on Semantic Mediawiki (SMW), an extension of the famous Mediawiki software, the widely used wiki system mostly developed and maintained by the Wikimedia foundation as the software base of Wikipedia. The SMW extension allows to enter structured semantic data on wiki pages. This data can then be queried through several interfaces within the wiki and the Mediawiki API as well as an SPARQL endpoint for access from external applications. Query results can be exported in several well known formats, such as CSV, XML, JSON, and more. It is also possible to display query results directly in the wiki, using a number of provided display formats, like tables, data graphs or maps. The presented system allows to collaboratively develop and maintain a data basis and thus implements a collaborative research environment (CRE). The data can be exported for use in scientific software packages for e.g. statistical or GIS analysis. A further outcome of the approach is a domain data model of the structured information stored in the system, which can be formalised and mapped to existing data bases to allow data integration between applications. Details of published and unpublished archaeological and geological sites/localities in East Africa are collected in the presented wiki including their bibliographical reference. For example from sediment records, results from available sedimentological/chemical/biological proxy data (e.g., grain size, total organic carbon, stable isotopes, diatoms, ostracods, magnetic susceptibility) are copied into the database including their spatial resolution. Related dating samples (i.e., 14C, OSL, TSL) are also included with their metadata and lab-codes.

Au Sahel du Burkina Faso, le diagramme pollinique d'Oursi fournit des évidences sur l'apparition de l'agriculture, il y a environ 3000 ans. A partir de ces faits, le but principal des recherches archéologiques dans le cadre du SFB 268 était de trouver et de fouiller des sites qui seraient à même d'apporter des informations sur cette période décisive autour de 3000 ans avant l'actuel. Pour cela, nous avons concentré notre travail sur les provinces du Séno et plus particulièrement de l'Oudalan. Le paysage de cette région est marqué par des dunes qui s'organisent grossièrement en cordons d'orientation nord-est/sud-ouest à travers notre terrain.

Studies of early human settlement in alpine environments provide insights into human physiological, genetic, and cultural adaptation potentials. Although Late and even Middle Pleistocene human presence has been recently documented on the Tibetan Plateau, little is known regarding the nature and context of early persistent human settlement in high elevations. Here, we report the earliest evidence of a prehistoric high-altitude residential site. Located in Africa’s largest alpine ecosystem, the repeated occupation of Fincha Habera rock shelter is dated to 47 to 31 thousand years ago. The available resources in cold and glaciated environments included the exploitation of an endemic rodent as a key food source, and this played a pivotal role in facilitating the occupation of this site by Late Pleistocene hunter-gatherers.

Research from different parts of Africa indicates that to grasp the HIV/AIDS catastrophe, an in-depth understanding of conjugal relationships is crucial. In casual, short-term sexual interactions, safer sex practices, foremost condom use, have become more and more prevalent. This does not hold true for long-term relationships. Marriage rates have substantially declined in many parts of southern Africa. Without marriage as a possible frame for conjugal relations meanings and practices of 'love' have become the structuring concept of conjugality. Love relations are perceived as based on trust. This contradicts the use of condoms, a visible sign of mistrust. Based on long-term ethnographic field research in rural northwest Namibia we analyse the interconnections between conjugal relations, perceptions of risk and practices of safe sex in detail.