College of Humanities

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Browsing College of Humanities by Author "Biginagwa, Thomas John"

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    Excavation of 19th century caravan trade halts in north-eastern Tanzania
    (Nyame Akuma, 2009) Biginagwa, Thomas John
    This report presents the preliminary results of excavations conducted in the areas around Korogwe district in Tanga region, north eastern Tanzania. The work was carried out over two field seasons between the months of July-September 2008 and 2009. This investigation forms part of a broader research program undertaken by the Historical Ecologies of East African Landscapes (HEEAL) project based at the University of York, UK. This parent project seeks to reconstruct the long term history of human impacts on East African landscapes over the last 500 years. In keeping with this broader objective, the project outlined here aims to investigate the relationship between the expansion of the caravan trade during the 19th century and possible agronomic transformation and land-use changes in the areas crossed by the caravan trade routes in the lower Pangani, north eastern Tanzania.
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    Historic Caravans in Tanzania: Towards reinvigorating multidisciplinary exploration
    (Taylor and Francis, 2022-03) Biginagwa, Thomas John
    Although the nineteenth-century caravan trade is extensively documented in both primary and secondary sources, there are still some knowledge gaps to be addressed. In particular, there is a need to generate a clear understanding of prevailing situations prior to the expansion of the pre-1840 caravan trade and to set a reference baseline against which changes can be examined. It is on this basis that archaeological research like those examples presented here needs to be encouraged in order to make important contributions to this topic. Additional long-term empirical information can help to reveal how much the material lives of local populations were actually transformed as a consequence of caravan trade expansion in the region, and how this model can be applied elsewhere. Multidisciplinary research projects designed within the framework of historical ecology should therefore be invigorated (Lane 2010).
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    Historical Archaeology in East Africa
    (Springer New York, 2013) Biginagwa, Thomas John
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    Local animal economies during the nineteenth century caravan trade along the Lower Pangani, north-eastern Tanzania: a zooarchaeological perspective
    (Taylor and Francis, 2021-07-08) Biginagwa, Thomas John; Paul, Lane
    The expansion of the caravan trade in eastern Africa during the nineteenth century is considered to have had significant ecological, economic and social consequences. While available historical documentary and oral sources provide valuable evidence concerning the scale, timing and spatial extent of these, as well as information about some of the key actors and agents, there remain significant gaps that have the potential to be filled by targeted archaeological research. This paper presents one such study, which aims to establish how influential the expansion of the caravan trade was on local animal economies, with particular reference to a sample of known caravan halts on the northern route on the Pangani River, Tanzania. The results of zooarchaeological analysis of faunal assemblages recovered from four sites suggest that the impacts may have been less than has often been argued by some historians. The study also provides fresh insight on the continuing importance of wild resources, especially rodents, in local diets in the late nineteenth century and on local herd management strategies.