http://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/flora-trade-between-egypt-and-africa-in-antiquity.html In recent decades, study of the ancient Egyptian natural world and its classification has adopted innovative approaches involving new technologies of analysis and a multidisciplinary general view. This collection of papers focuses on one particularly important aspect of foreign trade: the importation of aromatic products. Contributors present the results of the latest researches into the origin and meaning of foreign aromatic products imported in Egypt from the south (Nubia, Punt, Arabia, Horn of Africa) from the beginning of the Dynastic period. The quest for aromata has been of a crucial importance in Egypt, since it was closely connected with economic, political, ideological, religious and mythic spheres. Through archaeological research, epigraphic analysis and iconographic investigations new evidence is explored supporting the most likely hypothesis about the sources of these raw m

And finally, the proceedings of the ATRA closing workshop are now available online - open access! The ATrA Workshop was held in Trieste (Italy) on May 24-26, 2016 with the aim of discussing the possible dimensions and varieties related to phenomena of cultural and linguistic transition in Africa. Identity negotiation, ethnicity and cultural affiliation, cases of contact, creolization, integration, urbanization, climate or cultural changes, language and cultural switch, market exchanges and human migration have been put on the table, generating a very concrete and fruitful discussion. The case studies collected in this miscellaneous book, give an idea of the multi-faceted dimensions of the debate, which ranges by necessity from anthropology to archaeology and from philology to linguistics, in a continuous alternation of disciplines, voices and styles. Mechanisms of resilience and adaptation to new situations and contexts are described through an investigation which in many cases has t

Well, here we are, the ATRA adventure, or at least the original project funded by the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research in the years 2013-2016, has come to its end. Anyway, this blog aims to keep our debate and our researches alive, giving us and our friends all around the world, the opportunity to share on a common and easy-to-access platform their ideas, researches and events related to phenomena of linguistic and cultural transition in Africa. Therefore, we will be happy if you will join us: sign in and stay tuned!

Principal investigator:  Ilaria Incordino Internal members:  Giorgio Banti, Gianfrancesco Lusini, Andrea Manzo Associate members:  Chiara Zazzaro, Rodolfo Fattovich, Luisa Sernicola, Stefano Manfredi External members:  Alemseged Beldados Aleho (Addis Ababa University)  The research team includes experts in the field of philology, ethnolinguistics and archeology aiming to understand the human being in its various facets and in its various historical, social and environmental contexts of the Horn of Africa. Philologists and ethnolinguists analyse literatures and languages and the impact that external phenomena had on literatures and languages during the past, so as in the present. Archaeologists collect, document and analyse the material traces that people have left. They study ancient societies and cultures and their relationship with the surrounding environment. The common objective is to describe historical, cognitive and cultural identity phenomena, to increase awareness of the

Principal investigator:  Dario Nappo Internal members:  Mauro Tosco Associate members:  Graziano Savà The group based in Turin counts on one historian and one linguist. Its goal is to be the link between the two units of Trieste and Naples. The main tie between the members of the unit is their scientific interest for an homogeneous geographical area in Africa, delimited by South Egypt, Sudan (especially South Sudan), and the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia and Eritrea). Clearly, the methods used by the members will be different, according to the personal scientific project of each of them. On the one side, the linguist, in cooperation with the experts from Naples, will be mainly interested in studying the changing linguistic scenario nowadays attested in the newly born state of South Sudan, documenting and analyzing the languages spoken in the area. The historian, along with the colleagues of the University of Naples “L’Orientale”, will focus on the political and military relations in th

Principal investigator:   Ilaria Micheli Internal members:  Franco Crevatin External members:  Ethnorêma association (Moreno Vergari and Giovanni Dore) Our team is made up of ethnolinguists and anthropologists, researchers whose first aim is to understand different ethnic and social groups in their different ways of thought and ecological contexts. Ethnolinguists go through problems of identity, cognition and culture using language as a key tool. Any language, in fact, witness of many aspects of the evolution of its speakers and of the contacts and influences they had with / from other people in the past. Anthropologists reach the same objective, studying people’s habits, their ways of doing things, their mechanisms of socialization, the tools they use in everyday life, their beliefs and their values. We are a mixed team because we think that the dialogue between, and the union of, different perspectives are pivotal to enrich and complete a picture of the world which we would lik