"An important book at a time when the booming illicit trade in African antiquities and the despoiling of some of the continent s prime archeological sites generate little concern in the art world." Foreign Affairs

"This benchmark publication challenges all of us to be part of the solution. Plundering Africa s Past cannot help but raise the level of discourse and consciousness about the looting problem, what needs to be done to stop it and about the relationship between Africa and the West." African Studies Review

"Plundering Africa s Past should be required reading for all archaeologists, historians, art historians, museum curators, and government officials involved in the cultural heritages of Africa, as well as most countries and continents with a disappearing past." H-Net Book Review

African government and museum officials, members of international agencies, academics, and journalists examine why the African past is disappearing at a rate perhaps unmatched in any other part of the world. Each looks at the international network of looting and trafficking from a different perspective. Here, for the first time, is a frank indictment of African contributions to the problem voiced by the distinguished African essayists. The book concludes with a discussion of specific steps that could halt the disappearance of Africa s art and antiquities."

The cities of West Africa's Middle Niger, only recently brought to the world's attention, make us rethink the 'whys' and the 'wheres' of ancient urbanism. The cities of the Middle Niger present the archaeologist with something of a novelty; a non-nucleated, clustered city-plan with no centralized, state-focused power. Ancient Middle Niger explores the emergence of these cities in the first millennium B.C. and the evolution of their hinterlands from the perspective of the self-organized landscape. Cities appeared in a series of profound transforms to the human-land relations and this book illustrates how each transform was a leap in complexity. The book ends with an examination of certain critical moments in the emergence of other urban landscapes in Mesopotamia, along the Nile, and in northern China, through a Middle Niger lens. Highly-illustrated throughout, this work is a key text for all students of African archaeology and of comparative pre-industrial urbanism.

The cities of West Africa's Middle Niger, only recently brought to the world's attention, make us rethink the 'whys' and the 'wheres' of ancient urbanism. The cities of the Middle Niger present the archaeologist with something of a novelty; a non-nucleated, clustered city-plan with no centralized, state-focused power. Ancient Middle Niger explores the emergence of these cities in the first millennium B.C. and the evolution of their hinterlands from the perspective of the self-organized landscape. Cities appeared in a series of profound transforms to the human-land relations and this book illustrates how each transform was a leap in complexity. The book ends with an examination of certain critical moments in the emergence of other urban landscapes in Mesopotamia, along the Nile, and in northern China, through a Middle Niger lens. Highly-illustrated throughout, this work is a key text for all students of African archaeology and of comparative pre-industrial urbanism.