New publication from the JoGA Special Issue 2025/26

Supomu Island and Wawase are two abandoned settlements in the Shama hinterland that have been the focus of small-scale archaeological investigations between 2016 and 2018. The archaeological data are summarized below, and their implications for long-term social and political developments are examined in light of the transformative phases of the Atlantic trade (c. 1400–1960s). Changes in artifact assemblages and classes and settlements organization and patterns were stimulated by the vicissitudes of the Atlantic trade beginning in the 15th century. The foundation of these transformative processes was laid during the 1st millennium BCE, as indicated by two radiocarbon dates from Wawase. Supomu was founded in the 17th century in response to the emerging Atlantic trade. This island community would, in the centuries, commandeer the sociopolitical developments in the Shama hinterland during the Atlantic slave trade until it was abandoned at the end of the 19th century. This paper outlines the sociopolitical dynamics of Supomu from its foundation and demise at the end of the 19th century.

The article can be downloaded here as a PDF or read in the Journal Viewer:  https://publications.dainst.org/journals/joga/article/view/5451

This contribution is published as part of the Journal of Global Archaeology (JoGA) Special Issue 2025/2026 ‘Archaeologies of Africa from Prehistory to the Colonial Period: Proceedings of the TransArea Network Africa (TANA) Meeting of the German Archaeological Institute at the University of Ghana’, which is edited by Jörg Linstädter, Cornelia Kleinitz and Wazi Apoh.

The entire JoGA Special Issue 2025/26 is accessible here: https://publications.dainst.org/journals/joga/issue/view/705