ABSTRACT
This chapter explores archaeologies of landscape and space in the historical archaeology of Atlantic Africa in a reflexive manner. Landscape archaeology in Atlantic Africa addresses the social creation of the landscape within the complexities of the localities that were nested within global systems of distribution and exchange; and while it often focuses on the influence of factors external to the continent, it must not neglect local traditions, cosmologies and histories. The potential of focusing upon landscape has frequently been overlooked in historical archaeologies of the early modern world, despite its demonstrated efficacy by a variety of scholars. In studying landscapes, such historical archaeologies have focused upon casting new light upon the social relations of the recent past. Historical archaeologists working in Atlantic Africa have often drawn upon the work of sociocultural anthropologists, social historians and architectural historians who have sought to broaden the definition of landscape to include the shifting and evanescent quality of experiencing landscape.
