John Kinahan

University of the Witwatersrand, Geography, Archaeology and Environmental StudiesR, Adjunct

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My primary research interest is in the archaeology of Holocene hunter-gatherer and nomadic pastoral adaptations to hyper-arid environments. I have worked in the Namib Desert since 1979 but have also worked in several other African countries including Botswana and Ethiopia. I have published more than 70 peer-reviewed research articles (Google Scholar h-index 18). A recent book publication (Wallace
Address: Windhoek, Windhoek, Namibia

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Maja Gori

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)

Maurizio Forte

Duke University

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Marta Diaz-Guardamino

Durham University

Enrico Cirelli

Università di Bologna

Ramiro Barberena

National Scientific and Technical Research Council

Yannis Hamilakis

Brown University

Ariel David Frank

Universidad Nacional de La Plata

Gary Feinman

Field Museum

Alfredo González-Ruibal

Independent Researcher

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Papers by John Kinahan

Namib

Theory, Practice and Criticism in the History of Namibian Archaeology

The rise and fall of nomadic pastoralism in the central Namib desert

Fifteenth-century agropastoral responses to a disequilibrial ecosystem in southeastern Botswana

The Origins and Spread of Pastoralism in Southern Africa

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History

Pastoralist societies arose in the arid and semi-arid western regions of southern Africa over the... more Pastoralist societies arose in the arid and semi-arid western regions of southern Africa over the last 2000 years. These were both Bantu-speaking and Khoekhoe-speaking groups who practiced diverse combinations of carnivorous and milch pastoralism but also maintained some dependence on hunting and gathering, with varying but generally minimal reliance on agriculture. Historical sources provide many insights into pastoral culture and husbandry practices, but archaeological and ethnographic evidence is critical to the understanding of precolonial pastoralism. Most research has concentrated on the Cape Khoen, but increasingly, a broader view has come to include archaeological and ethnographic evidence from other parts of the region, casting new light on the origens and growth of pastoralism in southern Africa.

A ritual assemblage from the third millennium BC in the Namib Desert and its implications for the archaeology and rock art of shamanic performance

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa

ABSTRACT A unique assemblage of ritual objects is described from Falls Rock Shelter in the Dâures... more ABSTRACT A unique assemblage of ritual objects is described from Falls Rock Shelter in the Dâures massif of Namibia, a major concentration of rock art sites linked to hunter-gatherer shamanic traditions. Occupation of the sites commenced about five thousand years ago and, although there is no direct dating for the rock art itself, it is thought to have been executed during the same period. The assemblage reported here, and dated to approximately 2750 cal. BC, is associated with the earliest evidence of Holocene occupation. Similarities between objects in the assemblage, their archaeological context and ritual paraphernalia depicted in the rock art provide new insights into the nature of shamanic performance in the Namib Desert.

Holocene human adaptation in the Namib Desert: A model based on the concept of Holling's loop

Journal of Arid Environments

Abstract Climatic amelioration during the mid-Holocene Optimum is associated with hunter-gatherer... more Abstract Climatic amelioration during the mid-Holocene Optimum is associated with hunter-gatherer occupation of remote sites in the Namib Desert. Subsequent changes in late Holocene site distribution suggest there were alternative responses to increasing aridity during this period. Abandonment or episodic occupation is evident in some areas, while others show an emphasis on mountain refugia and resource anomalies. Specialized coping strategies developed during this time allowed a broad re-occupation of the desert when conditions improved briefly during the Medieval Warm Epoch. Successive patterns of settlement and subsistence in the Namib Desert Holocene sequence exemplify the four moments of Holling's adaptive cycle.

The Dancing Kudu: women's initiation in the Namib Desert during the second millennium AD

Antiquity

Although the rock art of southern Africa is overwhelmingly concerned with ritual, there are few d... more Although the rock art of southern Africa is overwhelmingly concerned with ritual, there are few depictions of the initiation rites so important to hunter-gatherer identity. This study presents the first definitive evidence of women's initiation based on evidence from rock art and archaeological features at the site of /Ui-//aes in Namibia. The evidence reveals multiple links between initiation, women's work in gathering wild grass seed, and the importance of the female kudu as a metaphor of positive social values. These links show that the beliefs underlying ritual practice also form part of everyday subsistence activity, extending the same precepts from mundane artefacts such as grindstones, to the habits of desert antelope.

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The Solitary Shaman: Itinerant Healers and Ritual Seclusion in the Namib Desert During the Second Millennium ad

Cambridge Archaeological Journal

New evidence of ritual seclusion and sensory deprivation, from the eastern margins of the Namib D... more New evidence of ritual seclusion and sensory deprivation, from the eastern margins of the Namib Desert suggests that specialized shamans may have operated alone, and possibly as itinerants, performing ritual services at widely scattered sites. This behaviour has its origens in hunter-gatherer responses to the introduction of pastoralism, and to the emergence of specialist rainmakers and healers during the second millennium ad. The research reported here identifies and explains important anomalies in the rock art and archaeology of hunter-gatherer religious practice in southern Africa.

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Post-Pleistocene Archaeology and Geomorphological Processes on the Namib Desert Coast of South Western Africa

The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 2016

ABSTRACT The Namib Desert coast is rich in potential food resources, but its extreme aridity impo... more ABSTRACT The Namib Desert coast is rich in potential food resources, but its extreme aridity imposed severe limits on human settlement in the past. It appears that intensive use of the coast began in the Middle Holocene, although there is evidence of intermittent occupation from the Middle Pleistocene. Coastal sites were closely linked to the desert interior and movement between the two was mainly via the linear oases of ephemeral river systems. Contact was at first sporadic but regular trade with merchant vessels was established in the mid-eighteenth century AD. Coastal geomorphological processes determined the location and accessibility of marine resources used by hunter-gatherer and nomadic pastoral communities. At the same time, marine, fluvial, and aeolian processes have influenced the visibility and survival of archaeological evidence on the coast.

Archaeological Evidence of Domestic Sheep in the Namib Desert During the First millennium AD

Journal of African Archaeology, 2016

Bones of domestic sheep dated to the early first millennium AD are described from the Dâures mass... more Bones of domestic sheep dated to the early first millennium AD are described from the Dâures massif in the Namib Desert. The remains confirm earlier investigations which inferred the acquisition of livestock from indirect evidence in the rock art, suggesting a fundamental shift in ritual practice at this time. Dating of the sheep remains is in broad agreement with the dating of other finds in the same area and in southern Africa as a whole. The presence of suspected sheep bone artefacts, possibly used for ritual purposes, draws attention to the importance of livestock as more than a component of diet in the changing economy of hunter-gatherer society.

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Towards an archaeology of mimesis and rain-making in Namibian rock art

Shaping your landscape, 1994

Is Namibia's history for tourists alone?

Guest editorial: Heat and dust: some reflections on contract archaeology in southern Africa

The Archaeological Structure of Pastoral Production in the Central Namib Desert

Goodwin Series, 1986

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Alternative Views on the Acquisition of Livestock by Hunter-Gatherers in Southern Africa: A Rejoinder to Smith, Yates and Jacobson

The South African Archaeological Bulletin, 1996

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Recent Copper-Working Sites in the Khuiseb Drainage, Namibia

The South African Archaeological Bulletin, 1982

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The Acquisition of Ceramics by Hunter-Gatherers on the Middle Zambezi in the First and Second Millennium AD

Journal of African Archaeology, 2013

An archaeological survey of the Linyanti and Liambezi marshlands in north-eastern Namibia reveale... more An archaeological survey of the Linyanti and Liambezi marshlands in north-eastern Namibia revealed a number of hunting and fishing sites with first millennium AD farming community ceramics as well as evidence suggesting the adoption of ceramic technology by hunter-gatherers in this area during the second millennium AD. These finds have implications for the archaeology of recent southern African hunter-gatherers: they suggest both practical criteria for the recognition of ceramics obtained by trade during the spread of food production through southern Africa in the last two millennia, and point to a likely scenario for the appearance sui generis of ceramics associated with Khoe-speaking nomadic pastoralists.

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Weisse Riese - Schwarze Zwerge? Empirismus und ethnische Deutung in der Archaeologie Namibias