This lecture will discuss the historical ecology of the east African coast, weathering climate change and food security in the past and what the implications of this might be for the present/future.

Paul Lane is Professor of Global Archaeology at Uppsala University. In over thirty years of active research in Africa, Paul has been examining the organisation and use of space and time in pre-industrial societies, the historical ecology of African landscapes, the archaeology of colonial encounters, cultural perceptions of place, the materialisation of memory, maritime archaeology and the transition to farming in Africa. After his service as Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa, based in Nairobi, Paul returned to UK to lead a large scale project entitled Historical Ecologies of East African Landscapes (HEEAL), funded by the EU through a Marie Curie Excellence Grant. This explored the environmental and social consequences of the intensification of agriculture, herding and the emergence of specialised hunting from c. 1500 AD in eastern Africa, so as to refine current understanding of the historical ecology of the region’s changing landscapes. He currently coordinates the four-year Resilience in East African Landscapes REAL)Marie Curie Initial Training Network, which is hosted by Uppsala University. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand.