ABSTRACT
This volume offers a new archaeology of the Bantu Expansion, more specifically in the Kwilu-Kasai region south of the Congo rainforest. The introduction to this volume first discusses human and linguistic diversity in the African past and how the Bantu Expansion relates to it. It then offers a short summary of what we know and do not know on the Bantu Expansion, mainly from the point of view of linguistics, genetics, and archaeology. Subsequently, it explains which outstanding research questions the interdisciplinary BantuFirst project (2018–2023) intended to answer regarding the Bantu Expansion, especially through archaeological fieldwork in the Kwilu-Kasai region. Finally, it clarifies the objectives and contents of the current volume, i.e., sharing the main outcomes of our archaeological inquiry within the broader framework of past and ongoing research in prehistory, history, palaeoecology, populations genetics, and historical linguistics.
