9th International Workshop for African Archaeobotany (IWAA)

The 9th International Workshop for African Archaeobotany (IWAA) was held at Casa África from 26 to 29 June. The congress was organised by the Department of Historical Sciences of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), with the support of Casa África and the Directorate-General for Historical Heritage of the Government of the Canary Islands.

IWAA is aimed at scientists and researchers working on archaeological remains of seeds and fruits on the African continent, but also includes other related fields that study the complex relationships between human cultures and the plant environment throughout history. These include the study of archaeological charcoal, phytoliths, starches and pollen. The conference also accommodates other methodologies such as ethnobotanical and linguistic studies, as well as multidisciplinary approaches to palaeoclimatic reconstructions.

All of this was presented in oral sessions and through informative posters. The conferences have been held regularly every three years, becoming key events where knowledge about African archaeobotany is exchanged and shared among the most important specialists in the field. The first African archaeobotany conference was held in Krakow, Poland (1994). Subsequent conferences were held in Leicester, United Kingdom (1997), Frankfurt, Germany (2000), Groningen, Netherlands (2003), London, United Kingdom (2006), Cairo, Egypt (2009), and Vienna, Austria (2012). The last IWAA conference was held at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy, in June 2015.

Documents

Conference website (warning: only accessible to Facebook users)

Events page of the Casa África

Conference Proceedings: Exploring the Archaeology of Plants in Africa, Special Issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports (2021), edited by Jacob Morales, Guillem Pérez-Jordà and Leonor Peña-Chocarro