On February 7-12, 2001, the 11th Congress of the Pan-African Association for the Study of Primitiveness and Related Disciplines was held in Bamako, the capital of the Republic of Mali. It was attended by about 300 people, including students and observers. 143 reports and presentations were made.

Almost a third of all reports were devoted to the archeology of Mali. This country-the heir to the great medieval states of Ghana, Mali and Songhai - currently occupies one of the leading places in the field of archaeological research on the African continent. It has its own scientific base, local qualified personnel and successful experience in cooperation with the international scientific community. An important role in the development of archaeological research in Mali in the 1990s was obviously played by the fact that the head of State, President Alpha Uma Konare, has a higher archaeological education.

Mamadi Dembele, Director of the Malian Institute for the Humanities, emphasized in his report that Mali's rich and diverse cultural heritage has attracted the attention of professionals and amateur archaeologists from abroad since the beginning of the 20th century. The inconsistency and inconsistency of research projects and the fragmented nature of their results prompted the Malians to develop a scientific "Inventory Program for archaeological excavations in Mali"in 1978. Under this program, in 1983-1987, under the guidance of the Institute of Humanities and in cooperation with French specialists, the lake zone was systematically surveyed and point studies were carried out in the basins of the middle Niger and Taudenni River. In total, 970 archaeological sites were inventoried and mapped, 496 of them in the lake zone. The second phase of the program, called the "Project for the Inventory of Archaeological Sites in the Inner Niger Delta Region", has been implemented since 1988 in cooperation with the Netherlands. In the course of its implementation, 834 objects were registered and mapped on an area of about 2 thousand square kilometers between the Niger and Bani rivers, and an idea of their stratigraphy and chronology was obtained. One of the main international research programs of African archaeology in the second half of the 90s of the XX-beginning of the XXI century, namely, the study of the interaction of man and the natural environment in ancient times, was also developed on the Malian soil.

The congress had the following sections: Hominid evolution (Chair-J. W. Harris, USA); Iron Age in Africa (Chair-H. Beaucum, Senegal); Cultural shifts and the emergence of complex societies in Africa (Chair - S. McIntosh,USA); Primitive Art in Africa (Chair - P. Dupuy, Senegal). France); Natural environment and the ancient population of Africa (Chair-W. Coy, Mali); History and archaeology in Africa (Chair-O. Hesselen, Belgium); African Stone Age (Chair-T. Tillet, France); African Ethnoarchaeology (Chair-A. Halley, Kenya); Cultural resource management in Africa Africa (Chairman-R. Asombang, Cameroon); Archaeological research in Africa: Problems and prospects (Chair-A. Adande, Senegal).

In the Hominid Evolution section, scientists mainly from the United States, South Africa, France, and Kenya discussed new archaeological data from the Koobi Fora site (northern Kenya, east of Lake Baikal). Turkana), technological techniques and behavioral adaptation of hominids in the early Pleistocene, changes in their way of life. J. Brink (South Africa)

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presented a paper on the evolution of mammals in South Africa in the Middle Pleistocene, with a view to the role of this process in the emergence of humans. O. Ogundele (Nigeria) put forward the issue of human evolution in the XXI century for discussion.

The reports submitted to the Iron Age section did not contain any significant new excavations from the Iron Age period. K. Dupuy (France) in his report "New data on the antiquity of the metal age in Mali" based his conclusions on the analysis of 72 silhouettes engraved on rocks in the Ardar des Iforas region (north-east Mali). According to the speaker, these silhouettes are images of objects made partially or completely of metal. The similarity of the images with the rock art motifs of more northern areas may indicate the existence of an exchange of valuable goods and new concepts between the north-west of the African continent and the countries of the Western and Eastern Mediterranean in the second millennium BC. These engravings may date back to this time. The originality of the engraved forms suggests their local production. According to modern archaeological excavations in Mali, its ancient population was introduced to the use of metal around the beginning of our era. Thus, approximately a thousand years separate the reproduction of metal objects in Ardar des Iforas from the oldest known metal remains in Mali.

The question of the validity of using the term "Iron Age" in the African context, which has been debated among archaeologists since the 1930s, was raised again in connection with the report of P. Brenig (Germany) "Is there a dark millennium between the Stone and Iron Ages in the West African Sahel?" by J. Sutton (England) in the report "Non-ferrous metals in Iron Age Africa: Modern Concepts and New Questions " links the rise of Ile-Ife, Igbo-Ukwu, Greater Zimbabwe and Kilwa to the mining and export of silver, tin, lead and especially gold from Africa in exchange for the import of copper and other commodities. The speaker believes that ancient Ife, along with the well-known gold mines in the Volta River basin, could theoretically also be a gold mining center.

B. Mapunda (Tanzania) in his report "Ecology and technology of iron production in East Africa" noted a wide variety of smelting techniques among different ethnic groups in the East African region and tried to identify the reasons for this variability based on archaeological and ethnographic data. These include cultural interaction, population migrations, mistakes made by craftsmen, and local innovations. However, the decisive factor of variability should be considered, in his opinion, the natural environment-flora, fauna, geology, soils, topography, drainage and precipitation. The speaker attributed the beginning of local iron production in East Africa to more than 2 thousand years ago.

The section also included reports on excavations in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The section "Cultural shifts and the emergence of complex societies" was one of the most productive at the congress. Most of the reports were based on archaeological material that clearly demonstrated the dynamics of the development of the societies studied, whether they were emerging states or hunter / gatherers at the stage of transition to a productive economy. P. R. Schmidt (USA), in a report on excavations in Eritrea, noted that the focus of research is on the so-called golden age of Aksum (the period between 150 and 600 AD). It obscures the fact that previously quite complex societies were formed in this territory and around it. Archaeological research in Eritrea shows that by the beginning of the first millennium BC, the Greater Asmara area was experiencing the growth of cities and large villages long before the development of Aksum and even Yeh (500 BC) - a relatively large pre-Aksum center, whose origin is attributed to Sabean immigrants from Yemen. Excavations in the area of Asmara indicate traces of a definite local civilization of farmers and livestock owners who were able to build dwellings out of stone. These discoveries, according to the speaker, refute the old paradigm, according to which complex societies of the first millennium were formed as a result of external influence.

S. McIntosh (USA) spoke about the ongoing excavations of the outstanding ancient urban complex Jenne-jeno discovered by her and R. McIntosh in the 1970s in the Inner Niger Delta region (Mali).

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A promising contribution to the study of the political genesis of Hausa can be made by excavations near Kufan Kanawa in the south of the Republic of Niger, the first results of which were presented by A. Haur (France). A stone rampart was examined, forming a trapezoidal fence about six meters long around the perimeter. According to local tradition, these are the fortifications of the ancient city of Kano (history knows of another Kano located on the territory of Nigeria). A rich archaeological material (ceramics, etc.) has been collected to build a preliminary hypothesis about the origin of this structure and its role in the development of the region.

Promising results of archaeological work in coastal Cameroon (between Kribi and Kampo) were published in a joint report by Cameroonian archaeologists R. Oslisli, K. Mbida and P. Kinioka. A fairly broad front of excavations allowed us to establish a preliminary chronology of the development of this area in antiquity: the earliest Paleolithic finds date back to 4 thousand years ago, Neolithic sites in Nland-Diba and Bwamba date back to the period 3000-2500 years ago, about 2400 years ago people familiar with the use of iron appeared in the region under study. The study of ceramics suggests at least two phases of their cultural development: 2200-2000 and 1800-1600 years ago.

Changes in the lifestyle of the pastoral population of northern Kenya during the Neolithic period were discussed in the report of K. Kimaru (Kenya). B. Koeding (Germany) analyzed the factors that stimulated the transition of the ancient population of Wadi Khovar (Sudan) from hunting and gathering to cattle breeding in the period between the Middle and late Holocene. In his opinion, the climate factor played a smaller role in this process than social and demographic reasons. Abstracts of N. B. Kochakova's report (Russia)were presented to the section "Ancient Ile-Ife: opportunities and approaches to historical reconstruction".

The "Primitive Art"section was the smallest. Most of her reports were devoted to rock art: images of fantastic fish-like creatures in the Tadrart Akakus massif in the south - west of Fezzan in Libya ( Marcella - Italy), drawings in a rock shelter of the late Pleistocene and Holocene periods from 6 thousand years ago in Wadi Imha, Tadrart Akakus (Ponti River, Zampetti Village, Gansea city, R. Sebastiani-all Italy), images on the walls of twenty caves and rock shelters in Boucle du Baul in the south-west of the sub-Saharan zone of Mali, discovered in 2000 ( K. Kleinitz-England), rock art of Eritrea, comparable in theme to the Sahrawi pastoral period ( K. Gulio-Italy). In addition, a report on African hunters and gatherers was presented, mainly based on rock art materials ( E. Anati - Italy) and information on the South African Rock Art Study Project - SARAP. Other types of artistic creation are reflected in the report of M. Rodríguez (Portugal) on the artistic output of the Maconde people in Northern Mozambique.

In the section "The natural environment and the population of Africa in ancient times", several reports were devoted to the results of the work of an international research group that studied the sites of ancient settlements and the paleo-natural environment based on the materials of Unjugu (on the Bandiagara plateau, Mali), the homeland of the Dogon people. This vast area of excavation is set to occupy an important place in 21st-century African archaeology. A sequence of cultural layers more than 16 m deep-evidence of human habitation from the Early Paleolithic to the present day, perfectly preserved paleobotanical remains-all this gives a good prospect for future research ( e . Hysekom - Switzerland, U. Coy-Mali). The first preliminary data suggest that the Early Paleolithic industry of Unjugu differs significantly from the previously described Acheulean finds in West Africa ( S. Soriano, E. Boeda-Switzerland), while the Middle Paleolithic stone industry developed here 53-31 thousand years ago (A. Robert - Switzerland). The appearance of ceramics dates back to the beginning of the VIII millennium BC, which is comparable to the Central Sahara region in the IX and VIII millennia BC. The stone industry of the VIII millennium BC in Unjugu belongs to the prehistoric West African (f . Raeli - Switzerland). During the third millennium BC, the people of Unjugu used pottery similar to that of the Sahara. In the second millennium BC, the main occupation of the population was agriculture ( E. Haysekom, S. Ozanne-Switzerland).

There were also reports and presentations on the reconstruction of the Paleolithic environment in Mali, on the results of studying the natural environment and the population in the Middle Holo.-

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based on excavations in Kobadi (Malian Sahel), on spatial and temporal changes in the vegetation of Mali in the Bandiagara region.

The problem of interaction between humans and the natural environment was also covered from the point of view of the evolution of the natural environment and climate to the east of Lake Baikal. Kiwifruit in Rwanda during the last 12 thousand years ( e. Rosh and Ch. Ntaganda ), evolution of the paleocene environment in the coastal zone of northern Tunisia (Sonde Stambouli-Esasi and E. Roche), climate shifts in the Gulf of Benin region ( Boko - Benin peninsula), etc. Report by M. Munyaraja (Zimbabwe) The article describes archaeological excavations in the south-east of the country, carried out since 1993 under the auspices of the University of Zimbabwe. Sites, burials, and rock art were discovered and examined. These findings suggest that, contrary to popular belief, the southeastern weald of Zimbabwe was densely populated in the prehistoric period.

A significant part of the History and Archaeology section reports was devoted to interpreting the results of excavations in Mali. Several reports were presented in the framework of the Dia International Research Project, developed by the Institute of Humanities, the National Museum and University (Mali), the Leiden National Ethnographic Museum (Netherlands), the University of Paris-1 (France), University College London (England) and funded since 1998 mainly by the Netherlands.

Dia is one of the oldest cities in Western Sudan, once occupying an important strategic position in the Inner Niger Delta. Excavations in the area of Dia are important for studying the way of life of the ancient population of the vast region. The section was presented with reports on the excavations of the Dia Choma burial complex ( V. Zeitoun, A. Person-France, S. Sidibe - Mali), the remains of fortifications ( K. Sanogo, D. Keita - Mali, A. Schmidt, Netherlands), the review of the historical and cultural heritage of Dia in the light of archaeological data ( R. Bedo, A. Kant, etc.). Schmidt-the Netherlands), the use of oral tradition and historical sources to interpret archaeological data on the example of Dia ( N. Arazi-England).

In a joint report by O. Hesselen (Belgium) and E. Levaillette (USA), it was noted that numerous field studies in Mali and in neighboring countries over the past decades reveal the extraordinary complexity of the social dynamics and cultural traditions of the Mande world. The speakers suggested using this term to refer not only to Manda-speaking communities, but also to those that fall within the sphere of cultural influence of Mande. They stressed the need for closer and more intensive interaction of historical, archaeological and ethnographic research, a combination of micro-and macro-analysis, and the use of new techniques to uncover "traditional" topics. An example of such an interdisciplinary approach is the second report of O. Gosselin (co-authored with S. Gregoire ) "Pottery, languages and castes in the world of Mande: an essay on historical reconstruction". The analysis of a complex of archaeological, linguistic and ethnohistorical evidence allowed the speakers to obtain new data on the origin of castes among Manda-speaking peoples.

J. Rolet (France) made an intriguing presentation on "Iconography and myth", in which he suggested that the terracotta figurine from Jenne, kept in the National Museum of African Art, is an image of Sogolon - mother Sundiata, the legendary founder of the medieval state of Mali. This is a rather rare case of portrait identification of archaeological material in sub-Saharan Africa. As you know, the Manding epic about Sundyat calls his mother "Sogolon the Hunchback", describing her as a hunchback with muscular arms, swollen breasts and bulging eyes.

Topics discussed included burial archaeology, the contribution of history and archaeology to the study of plant remains, and the role of oral history as an adjunct to the interpretation of archaeological material. M. Sall (Belgium) demonstrated the possibilities of historical reconstruction of cultural contacts and dissemination of technical skills among the Serer, Sise and Jula peoples in Senegambia. A. Lindad (Sweden) showed the possibilities of using the information obtained from modern potters of Zimbabwe to decipher the symbolism of ceramic material from the excavations of the Iron Age period in Kugulebuji (Great Zimbabwe). D. Whelan (South Africa) tried to trace historical shifts in the types of Zulu dwellings in Mzinga (Natal, South Africa). A number of review reports were devoted to the archaeology of Borno, the growth of Swahili cities on Pemba Island in the IX-XVII centuries, the study of accumulations of shells and garbage on the West African coast, and the use of natural resources.-

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the study of Luo migrations in Kenya in 1500-1900, the archaeology of British colonialism in the late 19th century, and archaeological excavations in the Atakora mountain range (West Africa).

The materials of the "Stone Age" section partially overlapped with the reports of the "Natural environment and the population of Africa in ancient Times" section. Most of the speakers are archaeologists from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe.

Archaeological excavations of the Stone Age were conducted from the second half of the 1990s to 2000 in South Africa, Lesotho, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Gambia, Gabon, and the Indian Ocean Islands, and most of the objects studied belong to the late and Middle Stone Age, adding to the database on the lifestyle of hunters/collectors and the geography of the ancient population of Africa. A number of reports of the section have the character of preliminary information about promising (from the point of view of future research), first discovered habitats and life activities of ancient people in different parts of Africa: a large open site of the Late Stone Age period near Lake Baikal. Magadi in Southern Kenya (J. Barselme-USA), a Middle Paleolithic site dating from about 24 thousand years ago, in Sibudu, (Natal, South Africa) (L. Wadley - USA). The study of samples of material culture of hunters / gatherers of the Tugela River basin (South Africa) led A. Mazela (South Africa) to revise the ideas about the relationship between hunters/gatherers and farmers. According to the scientist, in the first millennium A.D. these groups developed a form of contradictory coexistence, their relations were close and harmonious, but the situation began to change in the second millennium A.D. and especially in the last 500 years, when there was a process of displacement of hunter-gatherers by farmers. Excavations of a Late Stone Age hunter/gatherer camp in Likoaenda (Lesotho) allowed L. Mitchell (England) to trace the evolution of the spatial organization of the camp over a long period of time from living in a rock shelter to an open parking lot and the tendency of its inhabitants to switch to intensive fishing. G. Prins (France) reported on the recent findings of the pebble culture on the territory of the Moorish Ardar. R. Vogelsgang (Germany) provided convincing data on the intensive settlement of the Kaokoland region (Namibia) in the late Pleistocene - Early Holocene.

The section "Ethnoarchaeology" included very diverse reports on the topic: on Dogon household utensils ( P. Lane - Kenya), on wild medicinal plants used by the Maasai of Kenya ( R. Caslin - USA), on the cultivation of medicinal plants in Nigeria ( P. Lane-Kenya). Taie-Nigeria), on pottery of the Early Iron Age period in South-East Africa ( K. Fowler-Canada), on the planning and decoration of dwellings in the early XIX century in Kaditscheven ( I. Boyene - South Africa), on the anthropological definition of material culture ( N. Egenter - Switzerland). The ethnoarchaeological research of A. Lavailolette (USA) was devoted to the technology and social relations of organized handicraft production of blacksmiths, potters and masons in the city of Djenne (Mali). R. Haaland and G. Haaland (Norway) in their report "Identity and caste: an ethnographic study of iron production in a joint Southwestern Ethiopia" showed that, contrary to the common view in ethnographic science, in this part of Africa, iron smelting and forging were performed by different specialists, and the division of their labor is similar to the division into two parts. different castes were expressed in a number of symbolically ranked forms. Ndambi (Cameroon) spoke about the scientific and practical activities of the Presbyterian Craft Center in Bamenda. The center organizes the production, display and trade of handicrafts of the Bali Nyunpa people. This provides employment for rural youth in the surrounding villages, reducing their migration to the cities.

Methodological problems of ethnoarchaeology were discussed in the report of P. R. Schmidt (USA) "Structural flaws in archaeological conclusions: the role of metonymy". Analyzing the structure of the conclusion, the speaker emphasized that the danger of a serious transformation, i.e. involuntary substitution, may lie in wait for the researcher at the stage of analyzing the factual material when it is transferred from the dynamic (ethnographic) sphere to the static (archaeological) one.

The section" Cultural Resource Management " discussed issues related to unjustified destruction of cultural values and important archaeological sites in African countries, cases of uncontrolled export of art objects that have the status on the territory of the Russian Federation.-

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of the national heritage, to Western countries, as well as mismanagement of museum collections.

Most of the speakers in this section were African scientists from Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan and Nigeria. Presentations were made on the management of cultural heritage in Mali, proposals to support the cultural resources of Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sudan and the role of local communities in this process. R. Asombang (Cameroon) considered the situation typical for many regions of modern Africa in his report "The contradiction between economic development and the preservation of cultural heritage". In 2000, the Presidents of Chad and Cameroon decided to jointly build a giant pipeline with a length of more than 1 thousand km across the territory of both states. During the implementation of this project, many archaeological sites will be destroyed. Civil wars and political instability in several regions of Africa were identified as serious threats to cultural heritage loss. F. Allsworth-Jones (Jamaica) appealed to the international community for help to prevent the destruction of the unique collections of the Sierra Leone Cotton Tree Museum. T. Childs spoke about the threat of loss of archaeological collections due to the fault of the researchers themselves. Report A. Ballouche (France) was dedicated to the plant landscapes of West Africa as an integral part of the historical and cultural heritage.

Some specific difficulties in the development of African archaeology were highlighted in the section "Archaeological Research in Africa: Problems and prospects". U. Coy (Mali) made a presentation on "Problems and prospects of socioarchaeology in Africa". Criticizing the current state of archaeology in Africa, he noted that so far it has rarely been raised to the historical and cultural analysis of archaeological sites, limiting itself only to the description of the material. Preference is often given to studies of the terrain( soil, territory), the composition of archaeological finds, on the basis of which generalizing reconstructions are created. Despite the fact that archaeology is a historical discipline, little attention is paid to socio-historical issues, and even less to theoretical and methodological problems related to archaeological research. According to W. Coy, the successful development of African archaeology requires a new approach, the main core of which should be the sociological interpretation of archaeological data, sociological research and socio-historical analysis. This approach is not typical of modern African archaeology, where the emphasis is very often on the development of technology and, to a lesser extent, on cultural processes. Fr. Bagado (Benin) drew the attention of the congress participants to the moral and ethical aspect of the state of African archaeology, linking its shortcomings with the legacy of colonialism. He notes two opposing trends in postcolonial African archaeology that hinder scientific progress: the first inherited the logic of former masters who were prone to domination and manipulation, the second - a complex of liberated serfs who react painfully to any infringement of their freedom. These defects are an organic obstacle to the emergence of Afro-endogenous approaches - local, regional and continental. Archeology of the first decade of the XXI century, concludes O. Bagado, should finally become a noble discipline that combines science, ethics and conscience.

The materials of the congress show a growing trend towards systematic study of the natural and historical substratum of regions that have not previously attracted the attention of archaeologists. In the archaeological study of Africa, Western scientists still lead the way. Most of the speakers-heads of research projects - are employees of scientific institutions in Western Europe and the USA. Africa's archaeological work is also financially dependent on Western countries. At the same time, the congress demonstrated the achievements of African specialists, their significant contribution to the archaeology of Africa and their natural desire to influence the strategy and ideology of research into the historical and cultural past of the continent.

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