Papers by Nik Petek
This report summarizes fieldwork done by members of the REAL project who are studying wetlands in... more This report summarizes fieldwork done by members of the REAL project who are studying wetlands in Kajiado District, southern Kenya, to understand how these systems have evolved through time. We employ sedimentological and palaeoecological approaches to physically characterise the swamp basins and to gain a deeper understanding of how these swamps have changed in response to past variability of climate and human land use practices. Multiple wetlands exist upon the semi-arid landscape of southern Kenya within the boundaries of the previous extent of Amboseli Lake that are ecologically and developmentally important to the region. Hydrologically, these swamps are recharged through groundwater flows from Mt Kilimanjaro, which are sensitive to climatic change and extraction pressure by nearby populations. Historically, these wetlands have been key landscape features serving wildlife, livestock, and human populations with water particularly during droughts. The multiple stakeholders within the area have vested and often competing interests regarding how these critical ecosystems should be managed in a sustainable framework for the future of these communities. Previous studies have shown that these wetlands are sensitive to late Holocene climatic variability, large wildlife herbivory, and changes in human land use patterns. Continued scientific study is needed due to the diversity of wetland ecosystems across this landscape and varying spatial controls influencing the environmental conditions. This is especially true considering the multiple, recent, rapid and intense landscape transformations that have occurred. Some of these transformations include the creation of societal and physical enclosures around wetlands, increasing human population, land subdivisions and tenure changes, fluctuations within the conservation and tourism industry, drainage for conversion to croplands and increases in irrigated agriculture wildlife and livestock population changes in the Amboseli basin, poaching, and declining wet montane forest cover on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. This document reports ongoing scientific study of the physical wetland systems and how the sites have evolved over geological time scales in response to climatic and land-use behavioural changes.
This report summarizes fieldwork done by members of the REAL project who are studying wetlands in... more This report summarizes fieldwork done by members of the REAL project who are studying wetlands in Kajiado District, southern Kenya, to understand how these systems have evolved through time. We employ sedimentological and palaeoecological approaches to physically characterise the swamp basins and to gain a deeper understanding of how these swamps have changed in response to past variability of climate and human land use practices. Multiple wetlands exist upon the semi-arid landscape of southern Kenya within the boundaries of the previous extent of Amboseli Lake that are ecologically and developmentally important to the region. Hydrologically, these swamps are recharged through groundwater flows from Mt Kilimanjaro, which are sensitive to climatic change and extraction pressure by nearby populations. Historically, these wetlands have been key landscape features serving wildlife, livestock, and human populations with water particularly during droughts. The multiple stakeholders within the area have vested and often competing interests regarding how these critical ecosystems should be managed in a sustainable framework for the future of these communities. Previous studies have shown that these wetlands are sensitive to late Holocene climatic variability, large wildlife herbivory, and changes in human land use patterns. Continued scientific study is needed due to the diversity of wetland ecosystems across this landscape and varying spatial controls influencing the environmental conditions. This is especially true considering the multiple, recent, rapid and intense landscape transformations that have occurred. Some of these transformations include the creation of societal and physical enclosures around wetlands, increasing human population, land subdivisions and tenure changes, fluctuations within the conservation and tourism industry, drainage for conversion to croplands and increases in irrigated agriculture wildlife and livestock population changes in the Amboseli basin, poaching, and declining wet montane forest cover on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. This document reports ongoing scientific study of the physical wetland systems and how the sites have evolved over geological time scales in response to climatic and land-use behavioural changes.
Human Ecology, 2019
The spectre of 'overgrazing' looms large in historical and political narratives of ecological deg... more The spectre of 'overgrazing' looms large in historical and political narratives of ecological degradation in savannah ecosystems. While pastoral exploitation is a conspicuous driver of landscape variability and modification, assumptions that such change is inevitable or necessarily negative deserve to be continuously evaluated and challenged. With reference to three case studies from Kenya-the Laikipia Plateau, the Lake Baringo basin, and the Amboseli ecosystem-we argue that the impacts of pastoralism are contingent on the diachronic interactions of locally specific environmental, political, and cultural conditions. The impacts of the compression of rangelands and restrictions on herd mobility driven by misguided conservation and economic policies are emphasised over outdated notions of pastoralist inefficiency. We review the application of 'overgrazing' in interpretations of the archaeological record and assess its relevance for how we interpret past socio-environmental dynamics. Any discussion of overgrazing, or any form of human-environment interaction, must acknowledge spatio-temporal context and account for historical variability in landscape ontogenies.
Earth-Science Reviews, 2018
East African landscapes today are the result of the cumulative effects of climate and land-use ch... more East African landscapes today are the result of the cumulative effects of climate and land-use change over millennial timescales. In this review, we compile archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data from East Africa to document land-cover change, and environmental, subsistence and land-use transitions, over the past 6000 years. Throughout East Africa there have been a series of relatively rapid and high-magnitude environmental shifts characterised by changing hydrological budgets during the mid- to late Holocene. For example, pronounced environmental shifts that manifested as a marked change in the rainfall amount or seasonality and subsequent hydrological budget throughout East Africa occurred around 4000, 800 and 300 radiocarbon years before present (yr BP). The past 6000 years have also seen numerous shifts in human interactions with East African ecologies. From the mid-Holocene, land use has both diversified and increased exponentially, this has been associated with the arrival of new subsistence systems, crops, migrants and technologies, all giving rise to a sequence of significant phases of land-cover change. The first large-scale human influences began to occur around 4000 yr BP, associated with the introduction of domesticated livestock and the expansion of pastoral communities. The first widespread and intensive forest clearances were associated with the arrival of iron-using early farming communities around 2500 yr BP, particularly in productive and easily-cleared mid-altitudinal areas. Extensive and pervasive land-cover change has been associated with population growth, immigration and movement of people. The expansion of trading routes between the interior and the coast, starting around 1300 years ago and intensifying in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries CE, was one such process. These caravan routes possibly acted as conduits for spreading New World crops such as maize (Zea mays), tobacco (Nicotiana spp.) and tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), although the processes and timings of their introductions remains poorly documented. The introduction of southeast Asian domesticates, especially banana (Musa spp.), rice (Oryza spp.), taro (Colocasia esculenta), and chicken (Gallus gallus), via transoceanic biological transfers around and across the Indian Ocean, from at least around 1300 yr BP, and potentially significantly earlier, also had profound social and ecological consequences across parts of the region.
Through an interdisciplinary synthesis of information and metadatasets, we explore the different drivers and directions of changes in land-cover, and the associated environmental histories and interactions with various cultures, technologies, and subsistence strategies through time and across space in East Africa. This review suggests topics for targeted future research that focus on areas and/or time periods where our understanding of the interactions between people, the environment and land-cover change are most contentious and/or poorly resolved. The review also offers a perspective on how knowledge of regional land-use change can be used to inform and provide perspectives on contemporary issues such as climate and ecosystem change models, conservation strategies, and the achievement of nature-based solutions for development purposes.
Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa’s offshore islands as import... more Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa’s offshore islands as important localities for understanding the region’s pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade con- nections. While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonization—and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essen- tially became “maritime”—are still relatively poorly understood. Here we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zooar- chaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.
by Chelsey Geralda Armstrong, Anna Shoemaker, Iain McKechnie, Carly Nabess, Carole Crumley, Oliver Boles, Anneli Ekblom, Jana Vamosi, Kevin S Gibbons, Sarah Walshaw, Nik Petek, Aleksandra Ibragimow, Grzegorz Podruczny, and Sâkihitowin Awâsis This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research qu... more This paper presents the results of a consensus-driven process identifying 50 priority research questions for historical ecology obtained through crowdsourcing, literature reviews, and in-person workshopping. A deliberative approach was designed to maximize discussion and debate with defined outcomes. Two in-person workshops (in Sweden and Canada) over the course of two years and online discussions were peer facilitated to define specific key questions for historical ecology from anthropological and archaeological perspectives. The aim of this research is to showcase the variety of questions that reflect the broad scope for historical-ecological research trajectories across scientific disciplines. Historical ecology encompasses research concerned with decadal, centennial, and millennial human-environmental interactions, and the consequences that those relationships have in the formation of contemporary landscapes. Six interrelated themes arose from our consensus-building workshop model: (1) climate and environmental change and variability; (2) multi-scalar, multidisciplinary ; (3) biodiversity and community ecology; (4) resource and environmental management and governance; (5) methods and applications; and (6) communication and
Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa’s offshore islands as import... more Recent archaeological research has firmly established eastern Africa’s offshore islands as important localities for understanding the region’s pre-Swahili maritime adaptations and early Indian Ocean trade connections.
While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands
to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonisation—and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became “maritime”—are still relatively poorly understood. Here
we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zoo archaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss
the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.
Alison Crowther, Patrick Faulkner, Mary E. Prendergast, Erendira M. Quintana Morales, Mark Horton, Edwin Wilmsen, Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Annalisa Christie, Nik Petek, Ruth Tibesasa, Katerina Douka, Llorencc¸ Picornell-Gelabert, Xavier Carah, and Nicole Boivin
Why it is not the value in objects but their use that explains social stratification Degree: M.St... more Why it is not the value in objects but their use that explains social stratification Degree: M.St. Archaeology Subject: Farming and States in Sub-Saharan Africa Candidate examination number: 974543 Word Count: 9961 i
This dissertation is about four Black individuals commemorated on three grave memorials in Bristo... more This dissertation is about four Black individuals commemorated on three grave memorials in Bristol's graveyards. They lived at a time when Britain was establishing and ruling over its empire and when Blacks were still considered a lower form of human. Here I inspect the mode of commemoration these individuals were subject to.
Conference Presentations by Nik Petek
This paper discusses the ongoing historical-ecological work taking place in the Lake Baringo lowl... more This paper discusses the ongoing historical-ecological work taking place in the Lake Baringo lowlands in Kenya’s Rift Valley, where the Ilchamus ethnic community was once famous for establishing a granary by developing well-adapted and sustainable irrigation farming. They also practiced pastoralism, some effects of which have been shown to be beneficial for the regeneration of the land. But the Ilchamus now live in one of the most degraded areas of Kenya, where the land’s inability to sustain Baringo’s population with enough food continues to be a matter of concern. Combining previous historical, anthropological, and current archaeological work, I wish to explore how the people’s subsistence practices fit into the narrative of land degradation and establish what the consequences of these practices were over the past two centuries. Current knowledge on past livelihoods is shallow, and it is necessary to extend the horizon of human-environment interaction in Baringo to new depths.
This paper will present two PhD researches currently taking place around Lake Baringo. The first ... more This paper will present two PhD researches currently taking place around Lake Baringo. The first project is archaeological, focusing on the effect of human occupation on the vegetation and landscape in the past centuries as is visible through archaeological remains, vegetation patterns, and sediment analysis. Attention will be given to the various aspects of the work done so far, which includes survey fieldwork and the recording of abandoned bomas (homesteads) using GIS and aerial and satellite imagery, and the recording of vegetation within those bomas. Some of the more interesting finds and observations from the fieldwork will be presented, as well as the future direction of the PhD will be discussed.
The second PhD project is on reconstructing long term soil erosion and lake sedimentation as a result of human landscape interaction in and around Lake Baringo. Preliminary results of the exploratory geochemical study undertaken on sediment cores showed pronounced spikes of recurrent soil erosion and lake sedimentation around mid-20th century. For better understanding of sediment mobilization from the different sub catchments in the lake basin, the lake bottom was cored at 37 locations. The lake sediment and soil samples will be geochemically analysed with some preliminary results to be presented. This presentations will hopefully lead to a discussion with the audience on how to better enhance the research and its methodology
While a considerable amount of research activity has been focused on socio-ecological issues in t... more While a considerable amount of research activity has been focused on socio-ecological issues in the Baringo and Amboseli basins of Kenya, the archaeological record of the last millennia in these regions remains largely unexplored. In order to broaden our understanding of the two areas, our PhD research will focus on temporal, spatial, and social dynamics of human-landscape interactions in the archaeological record. Of particular importance is situating the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age climatic episodes within a larger framework of historical ecological synthesis. We hope to generate data and analysis that will aid in determining how anthropogenic forces, ecological factors, and climate change events form the landscapes of the Baringo and Amboseli basins. During our presentation we will further introduce our research objectives, the methodology we intend to apply, and the expected results of both our own PhD dissertations and the Resilience in East African Landscapes project within which we operate. We also invite discussion on how our study agendas, focused on the past, can be made relevant to research colleagues and all other potential stakeholders as we proceed.
People in general think of slaves and free Blacks in England during the slave trade as living the... more People in general think of slaves and free Blacks in England during the slave trade as living their lives removed and distant from English people and the English society. They are thought of as the people who were detested, abused and dependent on to make the master’s every wish come true. While this was in many cases true and this part of the slave’s life is historically well explored, the combination of history, archaeology and anthropology points to a different existing story.
It shows us the story of how well the Black individual was integrated in the English society. Historical records (parish records, newspapers, personal accounts) and biographies (e.g. from Sancho, Equiano etc.) indicate that Blacks had regular contact with Whites, that they had jobs, married and had children. They, in fact, had same types of jobs as Whites, the same religion and they even intermarried. The archaeology gives us the context and the environment which made the integration possible. The material evidence makes the interaction and the similarity between their lives tangible. The Georgian House in Bristol, for example, is a prime example where Black and White servants shared living space and had to cooperate in order for the household to work. Furthermore, Black slaves were buried and their graves marked with gravestones (a practice mostly reserved for the upper and upper middle classes), which are inscribed with words of love and grief. These Blacks were buried with as much regard as any White person. The anthropology shows how the integration of Blacks was possible through the shared sensory environment of Blacks and Whites.
This is then an interdisciplinary approach to the daily lives of Blacks in England. The research shows how their lives did not differ from that of any other White commoner at the time. They experienced the same hardships, had to fight the same fights, while sharing the same joys. This research focuses on Blacks that lived in Bristol at the time of the slave trade, where the research took place. Many snippets of the Blacks’ lives are available due to the rich historical and archaeological data present, which allow the reconstruction of activities, experiences and lives of Blacks in the 18th and early 19th century. It is a different story to that usually told. It is a story of a Black person’s English life.
It is generally accepted that valuable objects stratify society into classes. However, hardly any... more It is generally accepted that valuable objects stratify society into classes. However, hardly anyone questions of how value is created, and what effects it has on society and when it affects society. But as value is created only in exchange, no person becomes wealthier, as exchange is an equalizing act where objects of the same value are swapped. It is surplus which allows the emergence of stratification. With surplus a subject can give a gift, making the recipient inferior, and accumulate social capital, making himself superior. We can see how some inhabitants of Shanga, a town in Kenya occupied from the 8th-15th century, used this characteristic of surplus to emerge as the dominant class. Applying social and material culture theory to the changes seen in the assemblage of pottery, beads, faunal remains and housing I will show how an 8th century egalitarian society stratified by the 15th century.
Posters by Nik Petek
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Papers by Nik Petek
Through an interdisciplinary synthesis of information and metadatasets, we explore the different drivers and directions of changes in land-cover, and the associated environmental histories and interactions with various cultures, technologies, and subsistence strategies through time and across space in East Africa. This review suggests topics for targeted future research that focus on areas and/or time periods where our understanding of the interactions between people, the environment and land-cover change are most contentious and/or poorly resolved. The review also offers a perspective on how knowledge of regional land-use change can be used to inform and provide perspectives on contemporary issues such as climate and ecosystem change models, conservation strategies, and the achievement of nature-based solutions for development purposes.
While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands
to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonisation—and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became “maritime”—are still relatively poorly understood. Here
we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zoo archaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss
the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.
Alison Crowther, Patrick Faulkner, Mary E. Prendergast, Erendira M. Quintana Morales, Mark Horton, Edwin Wilmsen, Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Annalisa Christie, Nik Petek, Ruth Tibesasa, Katerina Douka, Llorencc¸ Picornell-Gelabert, Xavier Carah, and Nicole Boivin
Conference Presentations by Nik Petek
The second PhD project is on reconstructing long term soil erosion and lake sedimentation as a result of human landscape interaction in and around Lake Baringo. Preliminary results of the exploratory geochemical study undertaken on sediment cores showed pronounced spikes of recurrent soil erosion and lake sedimentation around mid-20th century. For better understanding of sediment mobilization from the different sub catchments in the lake basin, the lake bottom was cored at 37 locations. The lake sediment and soil samples will be geochemically analysed with some preliminary results to be presented. This presentations will hopefully lead to a discussion with the audience on how to better enhance the research and its methodology
It shows us the story of how well the Black individual was integrated in the English society. Historical records (parish records, newspapers, personal accounts) and biographies (e.g. from Sancho, Equiano etc.) indicate that Blacks had regular contact with Whites, that they had jobs, married and had children. They, in fact, had same types of jobs as Whites, the same religion and they even intermarried. The archaeology gives us the context and the environment which made the integration possible. The material evidence makes the interaction and the similarity between their lives tangible. The Georgian House in Bristol, for example, is a prime example where Black and White servants shared living space and had to cooperate in order for the household to work. Furthermore, Black slaves were buried and their graves marked with gravestones (a practice mostly reserved for the upper and upper middle classes), which are inscribed with words of love and grief. These Blacks were buried with as much regard as any White person. The anthropology shows how the integration of Blacks was possible through the shared sensory environment of Blacks and Whites.
This is then an interdisciplinary approach to the daily lives of Blacks in England. The research shows how their lives did not differ from that of any other White commoner at the time. They experienced the same hardships, had to fight the same fights, while sharing the same joys. This research focuses on Blacks that lived in Bristol at the time of the slave trade, where the research took place. Many snippets of the Blacks’ lives are available due to the rich historical and archaeological data present, which allow the reconstruction of activities, experiences and lives of Blacks in the 18th and early 19th century. It is a different story to that usually told. It is a story of a Black person’s English life.
Posters by Nik Petek
Through an interdisciplinary synthesis of information and metadatasets, we explore the different drivers and directions of changes in land-cover, and the associated environmental histories and interactions with various cultures, technologies, and subsistence strategies through time and across space in East Africa. This review suggests topics for targeted future research that focus on areas and/or time periods where our understanding of the interactions between people, the environment and land-cover change are most contentious and/or poorly resolved. The review also offers a perspective on how knowledge of regional land-use change can be used to inform and provide perspectives on contemporary issues such as climate and ecosystem change models, conservation strategies, and the achievement of nature-based solutions for development purposes.
While the importance of the sea and small offshore islands
to the development of urbanized and mercantile Swahili societies has long been recognized, the formative stages of island colonisation—and in particular the processes by which migrating Iron Age groups essentially became “maritime”—are still relatively poorly understood. Here
we present the results of recent archaeological fieldwork in the Mafia Archipelago, which aims to understand these early adaptations and situate them within a longer-term trajectory of island settlement and pre-Swahili cultural developments. We focus on the results of zoo archaeological, archaeobotanical, and material culture studies relating to early subsistence and trade on this island to explore the changing significance of marine resources to the local economy. We also discuss
the implications of these maritime adaptations for the development of local and long-distance Indian Ocean trade networks.
Alison Crowther, Patrick Faulkner, Mary E. Prendergast, Erendira M. Quintana Morales, Mark Horton, Edwin Wilmsen, Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Annalisa Christie, Nik Petek, Ruth Tibesasa, Katerina Douka, Llorencc¸ Picornell-Gelabert, Xavier Carah, and Nicole Boivin
The second PhD project is on reconstructing long term soil erosion and lake sedimentation as a result of human landscape interaction in and around Lake Baringo. Preliminary results of the exploratory geochemical study undertaken on sediment cores showed pronounced spikes of recurrent soil erosion and lake sedimentation around mid-20th century. For better understanding of sediment mobilization from the different sub catchments in the lake basin, the lake bottom was cored at 37 locations. The lake sediment and soil samples will be geochemically analysed with some preliminary results to be presented. This presentations will hopefully lead to a discussion with the audience on how to better enhance the research and its methodology
It shows us the story of how well the Black individual was integrated in the English society. Historical records (parish records, newspapers, personal accounts) and biographies (e.g. from Sancho, Equiano etc.) indicate that Blacks had regular contact with Whites, that they had jobs, married and had children. They, in fact, had same types of jobs as Whites, the same religion and they even intermarried. The archaeology gives us the context and the environment which made the integration possible. The material evidence makes the interaction and the similarity between their lives tangible. The Georgian House in Bristol, for example, is a prime example where Black and White servants shared living space and had to cooperate in order for the household to work. Furthermore, Black slaves were buried and their graves marked with gravestones (a practice mostly reserved for the upper and upper middle classes), which are inscribed with words of love and grief. These Blacks were buried with as much regard as any White person. The anthropology shows how the integration of Blacks was possible through the shared sensory environment of Blacks and Whites.
This is then an interdisciplinary approach to the daily lives of Blacks in England. The research shows how their lives did not differ from that of any other White commoner at the time. They experienced the same hardships, had to fight the same fights, while sharing the same joys. This research focuses on Blacks that lived in Bristol at the time of the slave trade, where the research took place. Many snippets of the Blacks’ lives are available due to the rich historical and archaeological data present, which allow the reconstruction of activities, experiences and lives of Blacks in the 18th and early 19th century. It is a different story to that usually told. It is a story of a Black person’s English life.
through intensive walkover surveys. The research is formulated in such a way that it builds on previous archaeological and environmental work done in this area and contributes to palynological and geological work currently being undertaken.