Recent rapid growth, nearly two decades in the making
Rice archaeology, housed in the Department of Anthropology, was built on a firm foundation of archaeologists working in Africa and has seen substantial growth in recent years.
In 2007, archaeologist Jeff Fleisher joined Rice’s anthropology department and began working alongside Susan McIntosh, Herbert S. Autrey Professor Emerita of Anthropology. Fleisher’s hire was meant to retain the department’s emphasis on Africa, with Fleisher’s focus on East Africa and McIntosh’s focus on West Africa. Furthermore, the program had, for years, trained students from the African continent and, with Fleisher’s hire, continued to do so.
When McIntosh retired, Mary Pendergast, associate professor of anthropology, joined the team. Another archaeologist focused on East Africa, Prendergast’s research centers on pastoralism and the intersection of animals and humans.
“Joining Rice was transformative for me,” said Prendergast. “I’m able to mentor students from Africa and the U.S. who want hands-on research experience. Whether joining me in field and museum settings in East Africa or working with animal bones in our newly renovated lab, students are getting top-notch practical training in archaeological sciences. I’m also grateful to be on a campus where there are a lot of folks with aligned interests in human-environment relationships, whether in the past, present, or future.”
To broaden the program’s focus, Fleisher, now chair of the department, and Prendergast sought to cast a wider geographic net and hire a faculty member who specializes in historical periods of the African diaspora. They were able to do this after receiving funding from the Center for African and African American Studies, hiring Khadene Harris, assistant professor of anthropology, in 2024. Harris’ research in the African diaspora is centered in the Caribbean.
Last month, Manuel Domínguez-Rodrigo joined the team as a professor of anthropology. A prominent paleoanthropologist, Domínguez-Rodrigo researches the ancestors of humans in East Africa. Domínguez-Rodrigo previously served as a visiting professor at Rice.
“Joining Rice at this moment is especially exciting because the department has built such a strong foundation in African archaeology,” said Domínguez-Rodrigo. “My research in East Africa focuses on the origins of human behavior, and being part of a team that spans from our earliest ancestors to the African diaspora creates an unparalleled opportunity to train students in the full depth and diversity of Africa’s past. No other department can span this vast geographical and chronological framework. Contributing to this vision alongside my Rice colleagues – all of them big names in this field – is truly inspiring.”
Molly Morgan, assistant teaching professor of anthropology, is another key member of the archaeology team. Morgan, a trained Mayanist, has more recently focused on African diaspora archaeology in Texas.
Within their various specialties, the team of Rice archaeologists covers time periods that date as far back as 1.5 million years ago up to the historic period.
“We have this incredible geographic and chronological spread,” said Fleisher. “There are not many American scholars who work in African archaeology, so to have a program so systematically focused on African and African diaspora archeology is pretty amazing.”
A sizable grant from the European Research Council
Known for his research on the precolonial Swahili people, Fleisher’s fieldwork brought him to Tanzania for several decades, studying African, coastal trading communities that connected with Muslim merchants from the Indian Ocean world. Fleisher continues to publish material from this research, documenting the daily lives of these early Muslim, African communities.
Ten years ago, Fleisher began a new project in Zambia with a colleague in history from Rice. This research focuses on communities that lived in the Kafue River floodplain and examines how they managed both mobile and settled lives during the 8th to 14th centuries AD. Fleisher and his team excavate mounds of cultural deposits that developed over time, some now 15-20 feet high.
“When you visit these former settlements today, it looks like a hill on the savannah, even though the savannah is very flat,” said Fleisher. “The hill is a product of these people living in the same place, building their communities up over time.”
Fleisher’s next project is also located in Zambia, at a site called Ingombe Ilede, which is also a mound site. The site had been accidentally discovered in the 1960s and investigated by archaeologists who unearthed a cemetery containing wealthy burials.
“The burials contained thousands of glass beads from the Indian Ocean trade system, copper bangles from the central African copperfields, gold objects, and unique headpieces containing skulls of wild animals with antlers,” said Fleisher. “The site is attributed to the period right before and after the Portuguese arrived, and provides insight into how European influence in the Indian Ocean impacted inland African communities.”
Aiming to explore the site with new scientific techniques and approaches not available when the site was originally excavated, Fleisher and a colleague, Stephanie Wynne-Jones at the University of York in the UK, applied for funding from the European Research Council. The team, which includes Fleisher as a senior staff member, was awarded a grant of 2.8 million euros, starting next summer for five years. The sizable grant will support the hiring of multiple postdoctoral fellows – one of whom is currently completing their Ph.D. at Rice – and funding for a Zambian graduate student. New techniques the team plans to implement will help them explore the layout of the site, examine ancient DNA on newly excavated burials, and understand how the people were related and where they came from.
Shaping the future through understanding the past
Rice archaeologists encourage undergraduate students to explore how archeologists understand the past, and how the past is important for the present. The program hosts an archeological field school every other summer in Africa. Additionally, Archeological Field Techniques (ANTH 362) is a course offered every other spring that teaches students how to perform hands-on archeology locally. Morgan has led the course the past several years, guiding students in plantation archeology in Brazoria.
Within the graduate program, the current cohort consists of three archaeology students from Zambia, Zanzibar, and Kenya, all with promising academic careers on the horizon.
“Our hope is that we will provide them with a really robust training in archeology, and that they will go on to influence the next generation of African scholars,” said Fleisher. “We're committed to funding advanced degrees for African students.”
With the expansion of Rice’s African archaeologists, research funding from the ERC, and support for African doctoral students, Rice is poised to make a significant contribution to the field of African archaeology.
“A lot of African countries that were colonized in the 19th and 20th centuries were told that they didn't have a history until Europeans arrived,” said Fleisher. “As archaeologists working in Africa, we are all committed to helping to build a greater understanding of the African past for people today. We're training a generation of people to be able to better understand the deeper past and more recent past through archeological methods.”
Fleisher added, “You can't shape the future unless you understand your past.”
The Department of Anthropology, at Rice University's School of Social Sciences, offers degrees in undergraduate and graduate studies. Anthropology stands at the crossroads of the humanities and social sciences. It is the comparative science of human thought, experience, and behavior in all its social forms. Blending core commitments to deep empirical analysis, to field and archival research techniques, and to advancing social theory; anthropology is one of the most vibrant and diverse fields of research in the human sciences, today. It is also one of the most flexible and well-rounded undergraduate majors in the liberal arts, preparing students for careers in fields like journalism, community organizing, humanitarian aid, and historic preservation. In an increasingly global era, anthropological thinking has become part of the equipment of modern life.
Photos: Jeff Fleisher