Disease as a Factor in the African Archaeological Record

Abstract

It is clear from their natural histories that various kinds of diseases would have affected African communities in the distant past. Climatic factors may have reduced the impact of plague-like epidemics across much of the continent. Because of the link between environment and disease vectors, the presence of a disease may have been a stimulus for some group movements in the African past. Evidence of the direct effects of diseases on human populations is generally elusive. Paleopathologists can identify some endemic diseases, but evidence from Africa is sparse. Paleogenomics research can also identify some (not all) endemic and epidemic disease vectors. Recent African aDNA discoveries of inherited resistance to endemic diseases suggest that future paleogenomic research may help us learn much more about the impact of diseases on the African past. Keywords: Bioarchaeology, Climate, Disease, Migration, Paleopathology, Paleogenomics