Tomos Evans

Recent state-of-the-art Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) methods have revolutionised archaeology. Laser pulses are emitted that penetrate forest cover and construct high definition three-dimensional models of the forest floor's topography. This offers an invaluable glimpse of archaeological landscapes in densely forested regions normally obscured from aerial imagery. Ground-breaking studies of the archaeology of the Maya (Yucatan), Khmer Empire (Cambodia) and Amazonian civilisations (Brazil) have used LiDAR data to better understand the dynamics of past complex societies. They have typically asked questions aimed at understanding diverse systems of social and political organisation, specific structures of power and rulership, the nature of urbanism and urbanisation and how each of these phenomena physically manifest in the landscape. However, large gaps in our knowledge exist and certain questions remain unanswered. Firstly, there have not yet been any such LiDAR studies focussing on past societies in the West African forest belt. Secondly, while large, etic, top down models of social complexity have been explored, past studies have often failed to use LiDAR data to answer more emic questions about local religious belief and cosmology. This talk will thus focus on the prospects of upcoming LiDAR research in Nigeria organised by a team from William & Mary. It will explore how the method will work when approaching large-scale earthworks in Nigerian rainforest landscapes and investigate what the resulting data may tell us about the nature of past societies in this region.

Tomos Evans is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Anthropology Department at William & Mary. His research revolves around understanding the nature, organisation and ontologies of past societies in southwestern Nigeria and how these influenced their engagement with the landscape, with specific regard to monumental earthwork construction. He received his B.A. in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge and his M.A. in African Studies from University College London.