exhibition -1

Images from the final few days of preparation

Exhibition – 2

We look forward to the official opening of the Crossroads project exhibition, which will be launched by an event tomorrow night, jointly with the opening of the photography exhibition Points of Departure. We expect 150 people.
We are sorry that Didier cannot join us but we are happy that art historian Joseph Adande will speak as a representative of the University of Abomey and of the Director of Cultural Heritage, the two institutions that authorised Crossroads‘ work in Benin.

exhibition – 3

Some skeleton resources are now up on the SCVA Education pages. These will be improved over the coming days but they already give a sense of the questions and content behind the Crossroads project exhibition, which opens Tuesday and will run until 1 February.

You can also see here a short piece by Crossroads project student Nadia K, about what her work involves.

Exhibition private view

Whilst the European members of the Crossroads team were in Norwich they were treated to a preview of the exhibition. For most it was quite a surprise to see how clean and good-looking the objects, last seen at the bottom of dusty trenches, have turned out to be.

Louis and Nicolas extracted this pavement piece by piece and now it’s whole again.

The textile, commissioned by Sam and documented by Lucie, made by one of Dendi’s renowned craftsmen

This pot was last seen in close to 200 pieces smashed onto a floor at Tin Tin Kanza. How was it made?

Filming podcasts to go onto the Sainsbury Centre education resources pages

Again, how was it made?

The column of soil on the table was last seen in the side of a trench at Tin Tin Kanza.

The exhibition opens in five days.

City Academy/Ahmadu Kurandaga project

Several people have asked me in the past couple of weeks about the project Hannah and I did together in 2012 involving schools in Norwich and Zinder, so here is the link again. This will take you straight to the video stating the Norwich children’s view. If any of you are reading this I would love to hear about what you are up to now; and Hannah (and Benedetta, with whom the Hausa project was hatched), see you Monday at the exhibition opening!

Exhibition – 6

With just six days before the opening of the Crossroads exhibition, to be curated by Sam, here are a few glimpses behind the scenes. Below is the gradual progress from setting out the initial layout proposal up to populating the cases.

The exhibition will open to the public on 21 October 2014.

recent activities, en images (2)

Steering meeting members examining the finds

Exhibtion: first installation of objects in the cases

Sam and Ali wonder how to best depict pottery in line drawings

Looking through BLaf Baobab pottery

Anne and Ali: Is it a knotted twisted cord roulette, or should we just stick with calling it ‘Wobbly One’?

Trying to find refits in pottery from Trench SIX

Steering meeting 2014

Last week, 13 of the Europe-based Crossroads team members gathered in Norwich for the yearly project meeting. We heard four powerpoints, and most participants had submitted papers beforehand, and the major focus was on discussion. In particular, we had a list of twenty questions to chew over. Below are a few… We are now thinking quite concretely about the project book which will come out of our five-year collaboration, and which we aim to publish in 2016 with the Journal of African Archaeology Monograph Series.

In archaeology, there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of global history and global connections, and an increasing concern with the movement of practices rather than just objects (Arguably, developments driven by history and anthropology). How optimistic can we be about the chances of recovering practices through the material from Birnin Lafiya and other sites sampled by the team?

Does the nature of the subsurface evidence (stratigraphy, geophysics) offer us any clues about whether the entirety of Birnin Lafiya was occupied at one time?

Are there apparent ruptures in the occupation or creation of the settlements between the 4th and 14th centuries? Is there an evolution in settlement strategies ? In food practices? (What was the ratio of fish and game in diets throughout time?)

What can we say about the ecological evolution of the area during the last two millenia ? Is there evidence of flooding or drought episodes ? Do historical studies carried out in adjacent and more remote regions point toward ‘natural disasters’?