Use Wear:
Ground Stones - Quartzite

The Project

My grinding stone research is part of a larger project – the Easter Tigrai Archaeological Project (ETAP), which is investigating early statehood development in this location. Two main sites archaeological sites include Mezber and Ona Adi located in the Gulo Makeda Woreda (District), Tigrai, northern Ethiopia (Figure 1). Mezber was a Pre-Aksumite settlement (1600 BCE – 1 BCE/CE), and nearby Ona Adi was a town site that spans the Pre-Aksumite to Aksumite periods (750 BCE – CE 800).

The study of grinding stones and other ground stone tools has the potential to help us understand ancient foodways and socio-cultural aspects of the Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite societies. My research has incorporated ethnoarchaeology, experimentation, use-wear analysis and contextual investigation to understand the cultural context of these macrolithic tools. We are fortunate to have the ability to talk to and observe the people of Tigrai, who still participate in traditional ways of farming and processing grains. Our consultants have taught us so much, not just about their foodways, but also about their community, their culture, and their lifeways (Figure 2).

Figure 1. Location of Archaeological sites, original map by Shannon Wood, modified for this image.
Figure 2. Consulting with Waizaro Azieb Tesfay, photo by W. Gillespie

Publications

REFEREED CONTRIBUTIONS

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie A. 2022 Telling Textures: Surface Textures May Reveal Which Grains Were Ground in Northern Ethiopia. Proceedings of the Association for Ground Stone Research Meeting, Copenhagen, Archaeopress, Access Archaeology Series.

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie, & Yemane Meresa 2020 Men at Work: Grinding stone production by the experts and others in northern Ethiopia. Journal of Lithic Studies, 7(3). https://doi.org/10.2218/jls.309

A.C. D’Andrea, L. Welton, A. Manzo, H.S. Woldekiros, S.A. Brandt, A. Beldados, E.A. Peterson, L.A. Nixon-Darcus, M. Gaudiello, S.R. Wood, H. Mekonnen, S. Batiuk, 2020 The Pre-Aksumite Period: Indigenous Origins and Development in the Horn of Africa" (in review.)

D’Andrea, A.C., L. Perry, L. Nixon-Darcus, A.G. Fahmy, A.E. Attia. 2018            A Pre-Aksumite Culinary Practice at the Mezber Site, Northern Ethiopia. In Plants and People in Africa’s Past: Progress in African Archaeobotany, Mercuri, A.M., A.C. D’Andrea, R. Fornaciari, A. Höhn (eds.), Springer. Pp. 453-480.

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie A., A. Catherine D’Andrea 2017 Necessary for Life: Studies of Ancient and Modern Grinding Stones in Highland Ethiopia. African Archaeological Review, 34 (2): 192-223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-017-9252-4

Hayden, Brian, Laurie Nixon-Darcus, Logan Ansell 2016 Our ‘daily bread’: The origins of grinding grains and breadmaking. In Exploring the Materiality of Food 'Stuffs': Transformations, Symbolic Consumption and Embodiment edit by Louise Steel and Katharina Zinn, Chapter 4.  Routledge Studies in Archaeology.

D’Andrea, A.C., Fahmy, A.G., Perry, L., Darcus, L., Toffolo M., Richards, M.P., Attia, E.A.E. 2015 First Millenium BCE Agricultural Economy in the Horn of Africa: New Evidence from Grindingstones. Attidella Societàdei Naturalisti e Matematici di Modena 146:147-149. Peer Reviewed Abstract.

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie 2014 The Cultural Context of Food Grinding Equipment in Northern Ethiopia: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach. Master of Arts Thesis, Archaeology Department, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.

NON-REFEREED CONTRIBUTIONS

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie A. 2019  Site Report: ETAP (Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project) Annual Field Report (my section only on Grinding Stone Data Collection –Ethnoarchaeology, Experimentation and Artifacts carried out as part of the project)

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie A. 2017 Site Report: ETAP (Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project) Annual Field Report (my section only on Grindingstone data collection carried out as part of the project)

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie A. 2016 Site Report: ETAP (Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project) Annual Field Report (my section only on Conservation Work carried out as part of the project)

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie A. 2014 Site Report: ETAP (Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project) Annual Field Report (my section only on Ethnoarchaeology carried out as part of the project)

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie A. 2013 Site Report: ETAP (Eastern Tigrai Archaeological Project) Annual Field Report (my section only on Ethnoarchaeology carried out as part of the project)

Darcus, Laurie A. 2005 Irish Passage Tombs and Megalithic Art at Knowth: From Minds or Moons? Electronic document, http://www.knowth.com/megalithic-art.htm, Knowth.com

D’Andrea, A.C., L. Perry, L. Nixon-Darcus, A.G. Fahmy, A.E. Attia. 2018            A Pre-Aksumite Culinary Practice at the Mezber Site, Northern Ethiopia. In Plants and People in Africa’s Past: Progress in African Archaeobotany, Mercuri, A.M., A.C. D’Andrea, R. Fornaciari, A. Höhn (eds.), Springer. Pp. 453-480.

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie A., A. Catherine D’Andrea 2017 Necessary for Life: Studies of Ancient and Modern Grinding Stones in Highland Ethiopia. African Archaeological Review, 34 (2): 192-223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-017-9252-4

Hayden, Brian, Laurie Nixon-Darcus, Logan Ansell 2016 Our ‘daily bread’: The origins of grinding grains and breadmaking. In Exploring the Materiality of Food 'Stuffs': Transformations, Symbolic Consumption and Embodiment edit by Louise Steel and Katharina Zinn, Chapter 4.  Routledge Studies in Archaeology.

D’Andrea, A.C., Fahmy, A.G., Perry, L., Darcus, L., Toffolo M., Richards, M.P., Attia, E.A.E. 2015 First Millenium BCE Agricultural Economy in the Horn of Africa: New Evidence from Grindingstones. Attidella Societàdei Naturalisti e Matematici di Modena 146:147-149. Peer Reviewed Abstract.

Nixon-Darcus, Laurie 2014 The Cultural Context of Food Grinding Equipment in Northern Ethiopia: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach. Master of Arts Thesis, Archaeology Department, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.

For references cited related to this project, please click here