Organic geochemical analysis of archaeological medicine pots from Northern Ghana. The multi-functionality of pottery.

Sherds from pots found layered under a granite boulder in the Tong Hills of the Upper East Region of Northern Ghana seem, based on their deposition context to have been used for the preparation of medicines. Organic geochemical and isotopic analyses of these sherds and a modern day analogue reveal an -alkanoic acid composition that is consistent with their being used in the preparation of plant derived substances. Isotopic analyses of the modern medicine pot indicate a contribution of -alkanoic acids derived from plants that use C carbon fixation, most likely maize, sorghum and/or millet suggesting that this pot was used for cooking C based plant substances, perhaps, based on current analogy, staple porridge type food.

Identities and Archaeological Heritage Preservation at the Crossroads: Understanding the Challenges of Economic Development at Tengzug, Upper East Region, Ghana.

It is evident that both tangible and intangible elements constitute heritage and this needs to be recognized by researchers, heritage professionals and government bodies charged with implementing development policies. However, the relationship between traditional beliefs, worldview, heritage conservation, and archaeological investigation is a complex one. This is considered with reference to the conflict that can occur between government policy and indigenous beliefs in relation to architecture, and with reference to perceptions of landscape amongst the Talensi communities of Tengzug in Upper East Region, Ghana.

The composition and origin of Ghana medicine clays.

The mineral, organic and elemental composition of medicine clays from three shrines in the Tong Hills in northern Ghana (Gbankil, Kusanaab, and Yaane) are assessed to ascertain what additives they might contain and the implications for their recognition, for example in archaeological contexts. These are clays that are widely used for healing purposes being perceived efficacious in curing multiple ailments and which are given a divine provenance, but their collection is ascribed human agency. The Yaane clay is also supplied as part of the process of obtaining the right to operate the shrine elsewhere making it widely dispersed.

Indigenous cosmology, art forms and past medicinal practices: towards an interpretation of ancient Koma Land sites in northern Ghana.

The ancient cultural tradition in the middle belt region of northern Ghana, with its stone circle and house mounds, contains varied material culture. The unique contextual arrangements of the material culture within the stone circle mounds and the diverse ceramic art forms, as well as their ethnographic analogues in West Africa, indicate the mounds' association with past shrines that have multiple functions, including curative purposes. The archaeology of the mounds and ethnographic associations related to past indigenous medical practices is reviewed and discussed.

Substance and materiality? The archaeology of Talensi medicine shrines and medicinal practices.

Talensi materia medica is varied, encompassing plant, mineral, and animal substances. Healing, medicines, and medicinal practices and knowledge can be shrine-based and linked with ritual practices. This is explored utilising ethnographic data and from an archaeological perspective with reference to future possibilities for research both on Talensi medicine and, by implication, more generally through considering the archaeology of Talensi medicine preparation, use, storage, spread, and disposal.

Introduction. Shrines, substances and medicine in sub-Saharan Africa: archaeological, anthropological, and historical perspectives.

Whereas shrines in Africa, and to a lesser extent their links with medicine and healing, have been extensively studied by historians and anthropologists, they have been largely neglected by archaeologists. Focus has been placed upon palaeopathology when medicine is considered in archaeological contexts. Difficulties certainly exist in defining medicine shrines, substances and practices archaeologically, yet research can take various forms - scapegoats and figural representations of disease; divination and diagnosis; trade and spread of medicinal substances, shrines, and amulets; syncretism of different traditions and materiality; the material culture associated with healing and medicinal substance; depictions in rock art; genetic research.

Materializing Performance and Ritual: Decoding the Archaeology of Movement in Tallensi Shrines in Northern Ghana.

Within much archaeological interpretation and conceptualization in relation to ritual and religion the static is often given prominence. This is potentially due to the fact that static material residues are being considered and, in turn, this static image is transferred onto the ritual practices, beliefs, and communities that generated the archaeological material. Instead some of the material encountered archaeologically might be structured by much more dynamic, fluid, and active ritual behaviors.