1650 map entitled 'Regna Congo et Angola' by Joannes (Johan) Jansson - Janssonium

KONGOKING current project news

August-September 2015: Two papers have been published this summer:

Clist, B., E. Cranshof, G.-M. de Schryver, D. Herremans, K. Karklins, I. Matonda, F. Steyaert & K. Bostoen. 2015. African-European contacts in the Kongo Kingdom (16th–18th centuries): new archaeological insights from Ngongo Mbata (Lower Congo, DRC). International Journal of Historical Archaeology 19: 464–501.

and

Clist, B., E. Cranshof, G.-M. de Schryver, D. Herremans, K. Karklins, I. Matonda, C. Polet, A. Sengeløv, F. Steyaert, C. Verhaeghe & K. Bostoen. 2015. The elusive archaeology of Kongo urbanism: the case of Kindoki, Mbanza Nsundi (Lower Congo, DRC). African Archaeological Review 32: 369–412.

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October 2015: Some results of archaeological research done by the KongoKing project is online here:
B. Clist, E. Cranshof, P. de Maret, G.-M. de Schryver, M. Kaumba, I. Matonda, N. Nikis & K. Bostoen. "Archaeological research on the Kongo kingdom in the Lower Congo region of Central Africa". It is published by the Antiquity journal.

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October-December 2015: linguistic fieldwork in the Lower Congo, DRC - Sebastian Dom is collecting a variety of data, all directly related to the topic of tense-aspect (TA), in three Kikongo varieties spoken in the DRC, viz. Ciwoyo, Kimanyanga and Kintandu. The main focus of this fieldwork trip is twofold: a) to study tonal phenomena related to TA in these varieties, in order to arrive at a better understanding of the verbal tone system in each variety individually, as well as to compare the three systems with each other; and b) to investigate the specific function(s) and semantic range of individual TA morphemes and constructions, and their interaction with different Situation Types.

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26-30 October 2015: In Leiden (Netherlands), the International Center for Workshops in the Sciences is organizing a meeting about Capturing Phylogenetic Algorithms for Linguistics.
Several members of the KongoKing project are talking there about "Bantu Diachronic Phylogenetics: A case study for the Kikongo Language Cluster" (G.-M. de Schryver, R. Grollemund, S. Branford & K. Bostoen).

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6 November 2015: Koen Bostoen will talk about "Decentering Kongo History: Recent Archaeological and Linguistic Insights from the Lower Congo Province of the Congo" at the "Deep Pasts, Deep Cultures: Mande, Yoruba and Kongo" symposium to be held at the UCL Centre for Research into Dynamics of Civilisation. Program here.

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9-20 November 2015: The KongoKing project has been invited by the Angolan Culture Ministry to visit Mbanza Kongo and look into the archaeological collections of the excavations carried out there since late 2011. Bernard Clist and Els Cranshof will make a first appraisal.

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12-14 November 2015: Symposium Landscapes, sources and intellectual projects in African history: rethinking historical evidence and its interpretation, University of Birmingham (United Kingdom).
Inge Brinkman, a member of the KongoKing project, will talk there about "The material aspects of the Christian education system in the Kongo Kingdom (16th-18th century)".
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