Archaeology has evolved: Four eras of understanding Africa’s past

Benin bronzes collected by the British when they raided and destroyed Benin City in 1897. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY What is the past? It may seem a simple question to answer, but it is more complex than we might think at first. As science, politics, technologies and ways of thinking change, so does our understanding of what went before. Tim Forssman is an archaeologist who has conducted research in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho and Mozambique. He recently completed a book about how the history…