Professor Shadreck Chirikure
Research Interests:
Archaeological science; ancient materials and technologies; history of science and technology; comparative state formation in the tropics; food, technology and political economy; material culture; community archaeology; heritage management; archaeology of colonialism and post-colonialism
Geographical Areas:
Africa; Europe; Central America; Indian Ocean Rim
Selected Research Activities
- Archaeometry and social formation in southern Africa (British Academy, PI)
- Hinterland and coastal southern Africa (National Research Foundation of South Africa, PI)
- Decolonial Archaeologies (University of Cape Town; PI)
Selected Editorial Project(s):
Oxford Research Encyclopaedia of African Archaeology (Editor in Chief)
Selected Research Awards:
Award for Best Paper Published in Antiquity, 2008 & 2019
Association of Commonwealth /universities Fellowship, 2017
British Academy Global Professorship, 2018
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Crafting power: New perspectives on the political economy of southern Africa, AD 900–1300
Moffett, AJ, Hall, S, Chirikure, SSeptember 2020|Journal article|Journal of Anthropological Archaeology© 2020 Elsevier Inc. Archaeological studies of craft production locales provide an important lens through which to evaluate the mechanisms of the political economy at different, intersecting scales. Such multi-scaler perspectives are pertinent to the study of southern Africa in the late first and early second millennium. Dominant models of the political economy of this period derive from research conducted at regional political centers, leaving critical assumptions surrounding resource mobility, access to craft products and other items of value, and control over craft persons largely untested in the wider region. Research conducted at the site of Shankare (AD 900–1300), located near Lolwe, the earliest dated copper mine in southern Africa, revealed the presence of a community of independent specialists. Crafting at Shankare took place in domestic contexts, with copper worked alongside domestic activities such as textile spinning, indicative of multi-crafting. Exchange and consumption patterns from the site indicate that imported items and technologies from the Indian Ocean rim region, such as glass beads and the technology of textile spinning, were spread widely within local networks. This study reveals the variable and heterogeneous ways in which craft, trade and political power articulate, and cautions for more nuanced explorations of power and economy in the region. -
Issues Emerging: Thoughts on the Reflective Articles on Coronavirus (COVID-19) and African Archaeology.
Chirikure, SAugust 2020|Journal article|Afr Archaeol Rev -
STYLE, CHRONOLOGY AND CULTURE: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF WHITTY'S STYLISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF ZIMBABWE CULTURE USING EVIDENCE FROM THE HWANGE DISTRICT, NORTHWESTERN ZIMBABWE.
Shenjere, P, Pwiti, G, Sagiya, E, CHIRIKURE, S, Ndoro, W, Makuvaza, SAugust 2020|Journal article|South African Archaeological Bulletin -
Shades of Urbanism(s) and Urbanity in Pre-Colonial Africa Towards Afro-Centred Interventions
CHIRIKURE, SAugust 2020|Journal article|Journal of Urban Archaeology
Undergraduate
Undergraduate course lecturer for:
- FHS Core Paper 4 - Urbanisation and Change in Complex Societies
Post-graduate Teaching
Archaeology of colonialism
Lecturer for MSc in Archaeological Science