Une grande partie de notre travail sur le projet MAEASaM consiste à enregistrer des sites à l’aide de Google Earth – parfois, ceux-ci peuvent contenir très peu d’informations, mais parfois ils peuvent être associés à beaucoup plus. Par exemple, ces quatre buttes d’occupation (qui n’avaient pas été cartographiées auparavant) se …
On the International Day of Forests we would like to shed some light on Random Forest. No, it is not any ‘random forest’, it is the name of a machine learning algorithm that utilises the power of many trees to produce reliable results, just like a real green forest drives …
For International Women’s Day, we at MAEASaM would also love to take the chance to celebrate one of the many prominent women in African archaeology in particular, Professor Margaret Adebisi Sowunmi (née Jadesimi), a Nigerian Professor of palynology and environmental archaeology at the University of Ibadan. Prof Sowunmi pioneered the …
Happy International Women’s Day! Here are a few quotes from some of the many women working on MAEASaM – both about working in archaeology as a woman, and about their work more generally – whose achievements we want to celebrate today. We hope their words demonstrate the importance of their …
Potential of the Tree-based Pipeline Optimization Tool (TPOT) in detecting and mapping archaeological sites using remotely sensed images By Serge Kiala, Origins Centre MAEASaM Research Hub, Wits University, South Africa Over the past few decades, there have been several challenges in studies that have attempted to map archaeological …
The 7th United Nations International Day of Women and Girls in Science Assembly aims to recognize the role of women and girls in science, not only as beneficiaries, but also as agents of change. Let us celebrate the women printing an indelible mark in science, from Dorothy Vaughan (1910 – …
We are very proud to announce the publication of an article in Nature Climate Change co-written by MAEASaM’s own Dr Nadia Khalaf! The paper concerns the threats of flooding and erosion faced by heritage sites on the African coast due to the world’s current climate emergency. The team mapped …
A reminder: this Friday is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the importance of which is expressed very meaningfully in this quote from Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Audrey Azoulay (from 2021). Look forward to posts about some of MAEASaM’s women and their scientific work!
A granary or letlole in Setswana and translated to ‘basket of wealth’ is a large rectangular superstructure usually about 2 metres by 3 metres in diameter, storing grains with a capacity of 1.5-2.5 tonnes. The walls of the structures are constructed using mud/soil mixed with fresh cow dung, …
A view from above but with a different perspective! by Renier van der Merwe Reconstructing past landscapes can be tricky, however there are different freely available applications that can make this process easier! Renier van der Merwe, MAEASaM Researcher based at Wits University in Johannesburg, South, demonstrates this using two …