Description
Book SynopsisNew edition with a new Prologue by the author
An Archaeology of Elmina examines a complex African settlement on the coast of present-day Ghana from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries using the archaeological record, European narratives and indigenous oral histories. Placing the site in broader context as the first European trading post in sub-Saharan Africa, Christopher DeCorse explores the developments there in light of Portuguese, Dutch, and British expansion and illustrates remarkable cultural continuity in the midst of technological change.
Originally published by Smithsonian Institution Press in 2001.
Trade Review“[A] work of impressive scholarship. Scholars working in Ghanaian and West African history, Atlantic World studies, trans-Atlantic slave trade studies, and word-systems studies, and historical archaeology will find it a rich source of information and many new insights.”
Ray A Kea in Journal of African Archaeology
“[A]n exceptionally well-written and well-sourced study of life in an evolving African coastal community during the era of the trans-Atlantic trade. The book will doubtlessly become a classic study of culture contact and change in Africa.”
J. Cameron Monroe in International Journal of African Historical Studies
Table of ContentsPrologue
Introduction
1. Historical Background
2. The Elmina Settlement
3. The Archaeology of an African Town
4. Subsistence, Craft Specialization, and Trade
5. The European Trade
6. Culture, Contact, Continuity, and Change
Notes
References
Index
