The Archaeology of Africa, an anthology of essays, provides an overview of development in Africa from c. 8,000 B.C. to the present day, and also includes review chapters as well as other in-depth studies. A large proportion of the contributors live in Africa or are natives of the continent and therefore share an intimate knowledge of the region. The Africa which emerges from this book is far different from the vast and barren "dark continent" of popular myth. Although commonly perceived as an identitiless region content to absorb the cultures of its numerous colonizers, Africa instead emerges from this book as the proud possessor of a vast and highly intricate amalgamation of peoples and cultures, an enormous diversity of economic and social strategies, as well as an amazingly heterogeneous number of environments. Archaeologists have unearthed enough of Africa's unwritten past to both confound preconceptions about this continent and further upset the so-called "truth" of historic written records. This book adheres to the principle that, without an understanding of this continent's history, it is impossible to grasp its present, let alone its future.