Introduction: archaeological ivories in a global perspective

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Acknowledgements

My thinking about archaeological ivories has benefited considerably from two projects hosted by the University of York and the participants in these. These are the Historical Ecologies of East African Landscapes (HEEAL) project, funded by a Marie Curie Excellence Grant (Grant no. MEXT-42704), which ran from 2007 to 2011, and the ‘Researching Ivory: Integrating scientific analyses, historical data, artefact studies and conservation needs’ network, funded as part of the Arts & Humanities Research Council Heritage Science Research Clusters Scheme, which ran in 2009. I learned enormously from both projects, and I am grateful to both bodies for their financial support. I would also like to thank, especially, the entire HEEAL project team, my co-investigator on the Researching Ivories network Dr Sonia O’Connor (University of Bradford) and Professor Matthew Collins (University of York) for our many stimulating discussions about the multiple dimensions of ivory.

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Paul J. Lane

Paul Lane is an archaeologist with over 25 years’ research experience in Africa. His main interests are in the historical ecology of African landscapes, the archaeology of colonial encounters, the materialization of memory, the organization and use of space and time in pre-industrial societies, maritime archaeology and the transition to farming in Africa. A former director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (1998–2006) and President of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (2008–2010), he is currently Professor of Global Archaeology at Uppsala University, where he coordinates the Marie Curie-Skłodowska Resilience in East African Landscapes Innovative Training Network, and an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, Witwatersrand University, South Africa.