Workshop organized by Emmanuelle Honoré, 2021-2022 Paris IAS Fellow, with the participation of Pr Graeme Barker (Cambridge University, UK), Dr Birgit Ricquier (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgique), Pr John Robb (Cambridge University, UK), Dr Julie Dunne (University of Bristol, UK).

The workshop focuses on social change during a key moment of our long human history: the Neolithic, the period of emergence and diffusion of pastoralist ways of life in Africa. The neolithization of Africa took place according to schemes of great complexity, being more a series of evolutions rather than the “revolution” seen in other parts of the world. In this workshop, we examine the place of Sahelian regions as "black boxes" to write the history of this transition. In the Sudan, the Gezira (south of Khartoum) is one of the gates of entry for new practices and forms of societies towards Sub-Saharan Africa. Archaeological data point out to a “chronological gap” between the conversion to Neolithic ways of life north and south of the Gezira. This means that something crucial happened in the Central Gezira during the 6th-5th millennia BCE, which is to be explored. Based on fieldwork data (surveys, excavation) and on the insights from other regions and other disciplines about the emergence of cattle pastoralism, the workshop is designed to contribute to the current re-writing of the scenario of the diffusion of Neolithic practices in the Sahel, and put forward alternative.