Prelude to the Atlantic trade: New perspectives on southern Ghana's pre-Atlantic history (800-1500)

Grard L. Chouin, Christopher R. Decorse

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

44 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Ghanaian forest was well settled by agricultural communities prior to the opening of the Atlantic trade in the late fifteenth century. The most prominent of these settlements were earthworks sites, construction of which began in the first millennium ce and continued until their abrupt abandonment prior to the mid-fifteenth century. In this article, previous archaeological data are evaluated in light of current research to provide a plausible alternative hypothesis for the history of the Akan, placing that history in a much broader and deeper context.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)123-145
Number of pages23
JournalJournal of African History
Volume51
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2010

Keywords

  • Ghana
  • West Africa
  • archaeology
  • black death
  • earthworks
  • precolonial

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • History

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Prelude to the Atlantic trade: New perspectives on southern Ghana's pre-Atlantic history (800-1500)'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this