New Book: Archaeology of Early Northeastern Africa

There's no URL to introduce this new book, because I was unable to locate one. The Poznan Archaeological Museum, who publish the series, have not updated their website with this, the latest (9th) issue in the important Studies in African Archaeology series. In addition, I have been unable to find it for sale in any of the usual outlets, so it is possible that the book is not due for general release yet. However, it was being sold at the Poznan 2007 Symposium in early July, and I have a copy on my desk, so it certainly exists!

Archeaology of Early Northeastern Africa is a massive book, with 1061 pages of text, photographs and illustrations. It consists of a series of contributions to the previous conference by Karla Kroeper, Marek Chlodnicki and Michal Kobusiewicz, and is dedicted to the much-missed Lech Krzyzaniak, who died in 2004. It is dedicated, as the title suggests, mainly to the prehistoric period (including the Predynastic and Early Dynastic, in Egyptian terms).

The contents are divided into seven sections:

• Sudan
• The Sahara and the Western Desert of Egypt and the Sudan
• Oases
• Egypt
• Libya
• Varia

I would be here forever if I tried to type of the contents (which is why I was rather hoping that Poznan had updated their website). In small typescript, the list of contents and contributors extends over four pages. There are 57 papers in all, plus an alphabetical list of contributors. There are also three forwards commemorating the life of Lech Krzyzaniak and his work, together with a bibliography of his publications.

My one worry with this book is that I may not live long enough to read it from cover to cover. I haven't had the chance to sit down with it for long, due to other distractions, but I cannot wait to get stuck in to it!