DR CERI ASHLEY

BA Hons (UCL), MA (UCL), PhD (UCL)

Telephone: +27 (0)12 420 4376

Email: ceri.ashley@up.ac.za

BIO

I completed my PhD on the archaeology of Iron Age ceramics and societies around Lake Victoria (Kenya, Uganda) in 2006 at UCL, and subsequently took up the position of Cotsen Visiting Scholar at UCLA (2006-2007). From 2007-2010 I was a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, where I worked on the archaeological signatures of migration and culture contact. I have held the position of Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at UP since 2011, and an Honorary Fellowship at UCL since 2010.

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Archaeology Laboratory and Collections
I currently oversee the management of the Archaeology Laboratory on South Campus and the Archaeology collections held at UP. This includes working with Prof. Pikirayi on the establishment of a new specialist ceramic analysis facility. Please contact me if you require further information.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I have conducted archaeological fieldwork in Kenya, Uganda, Botswana and Ghana, with new work planned in South Africa. I largely focus on material culture studies in archaeology, particularly ceramics, and am currently working with a number of colleagues on technological and scientific analyses of ceramics. My research spans the Late Stone Age to the historical period.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

·         Ashley, C. & Boukaze-Khan, D. 2011 Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites in sub-Saharan Africa. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites. Vol. 13, No. 2-3: 95-102
 Ashley, C. & Bouakaze-Khan, D. (guest eds) 2011 Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites: sub-Saharan Africa. Vol 13, No.2-3

·         Insoll, T., MacLean, R., Ashley, C. & Kankpeyeng, B.W. 2011 The Iron Age ceramics from the Tong Hills, Northern Ghana. Sequence and Comparative Perspective. Journal of African Archaeology 9(1): 15-39.

·         Ashley, C. 2010 Migration, Missionaries and Contact: Recent Archaeological Research in the Khwebe Hills, Botswana. Archaeology International. 36-41

·         Ashley, C.Z. 2010 Towards a Socialised Archaeology of Great Lakes Ceramics. African Archaeological Review 27: 135-163

·         Dale, D. & Ashley, C. 2010 Kansyore hunter-fisher-gatherers: New Research from Western Kenya. Azania: Archaeological Research from Africa. 45, 1: 24-48.

·         Ashley, C. & Reid, A.  2008 A reconsideration of the figures from Luzira. Azania XLIII: 95-123

·         Reid, A. & Ashley, C.Z. 2008 A New context for the Luzira Head. Antiquity 82: 99-112

·         P. Lane, Ashley, C., Seitsonen, O.,  Harvey, P., Mire, S. & Odede, F.  2007 The Transition to Farming in Eastern Africa: New Faunal and Dating Evidence from Wadh Lang’o and Usenge, Kenya. Antiquity 81: 62-81

·         Lane, P., Ashley, C. & Oteyo, G. 2006 New Dates for Kansyore and Urewe Wares from Northern Nyanza, Kenya. Azania XXXXI: 123-138

·         Posnansky, M., Reid, A. &  Ashley, C. 2005 Archaeology on Lolui Island, Uganda 1964-5. Azania XL: 73-100

Forthcoming

Ashley, C. forthcoming Migration in Africa. In P. Lane and P. Mitchell (eds) Handbook of African Archaeology. Oxford University Press.

Reid, A. & Ashley, C.Z.  forthcoming Islands of Intensive Agriculture in Victoria Nyanza. In D. Fuller & M.A. Murray (eds) African Flora, Past Cultures and Archaeobotany  

CURRENT PROJECTS

Colonisation and Commensalism in C19th Khwebe Hills, Botswana (funded by a UP RDP grant) – this work builds on previous research in the area exploring the varying impact of early Tswana settlers, and later European missionaries. This phase of the work will focus on the everyday lives of the colonists, using the residue of daily life to deconstruct the complex relationships between incomers and existing communities.

Hunter-gatherer ceramics and mobility – this research examines the Kansyore ceramic phenomenon of eastern Africa. As some of the earliest, and longest lived, ceramics in eastern Africa (c. 8,000bp- 2,000bp), this material is associated with complex hunter-gatherer communities who exploited niche aquatic resources (fish, shellfish). My work focuses on diachronic change within Kansyore ceramics, and in particular the transition to Urewe ceramics, as well as questions of ceramic production, exchange and mobility.

Human-Environment Interaction in Lake Victoria – following the successful completion of a three year joint archaeological/palaeoecological projects (co-directed by Dr Julius Lejju, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda), and funded by a prestigious British Academy UK-Africa Partnership, I am currently compiling research results. This focuses on the impact and effect of human populations on the Lake Victoria eco-system, and in particular the dynamics of Early Iron Age farming settlement, and later the expansion of iron production in the second millennium AD.

TEACHING & SUPERVISION

I am the programme co-ordinator for Archaeology, overseeing all aspects of undergraduate teaching/supervision.