Work performed:
-Training: as indicated in my proposal, I obtained training in the use of GIS, satellite imagery, and photogrammetry, and I also obtained the official qualification (A1+A3) to fly drones for aerial photography, all facilitated by my host institution (Incipit-CSIC).
-Archives: I visited and studied documents at the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) in Banjul (The Gambia), the Archives Nationals du Senegal in Dakar, the Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer in Aix-en-Provence (France), the National Archives in London (UK), as well as the Arquivo Historico Ultramarino, the Biblioteca da Ajuda, the Biblioteca da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, and the Arquivo Marítimo in Lisbon (Portugal).
-Survey & Recording of oral traditions: from the February 18th to March 1st 2021, we surveyed the study area, identifying and documenting 30 new archaeological sites, and recorded oral traditions interviews with local elders in 10 different villages.
-Analysis: The data collected during both the interviews and the survey were then processed (objects identified, sites mapped, interviews transcribed and systematized) and analysed.
Results:
As a result of this project, we now have an archaeological map of Pathiana, with sites that range from the Stone Age to the 20th C, that demonstrate the historical richness of this region. We also have an invaluable record of previously undocumented local oral traditions and a glossary of local terms associated with power and its articulation. Finally, the models we have generated to understand how Pathiana’s sociopolitical structures adapted over time and through three different states, of how its settlement patterns and political networks changed and adapted, are of relevance to global conversations about urbanism and the nature and articulation of complex societies more widely.
Exploitation & Dissemination:
In the academic sphere, I have participated in two international conferences (2020 EAA, 1º Congresso Internacional de Arqueologia da África) and had papers accepted for another two that were cancelled due to Covid (Safa 2020 and Congreso Ibérico de Estudios Africanos 2020). I also participated in two national meetings (Red Incipit 2019 and 2020) and was invited to talk about my research in seminars at the University of Edinburgh, the Spanish School of History and Archaeology in Rome (EEHAR), and the EU Delegation in Dakar. I have also presented my work in classes at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. Over these two years I have written two book chapters, two journal articles, one encyclopedia entry (‘Shifting sedentism’, the settlement pattern encountered in Pathiana, for the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African Archaeology), all peer reviewed, which should be published in 2022 and 2023.
In terms of public outreach, I have recorded a TedX talk in Madrid, presented at the Santiago Nerdnite, written four articles in the mainstream Spanish press (El País and 20 Minutos), been interviewed for two podcasts (Parkaeology and History Hack) and advised the BBC Homeschool History programme on their episode about the Mali Empire during lockdown. Although this extends beyond the end of my fellowiship, I will be returning in 2022 to Senegal to give the villages we worked in copies of the interviews and the project’s results.
