Dr. Alexa Höhn
Archaeobotanist

Campus Westend, Poelzig-Building
Room Q4, 6.451

Tel.: 069 798-32089
Fax: 069 798-32104
Email: a.hoehn(at)em.uni-frankfurt.de

Address:

Goethe University
Institute of Archaeological Sciences
Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1, Fach 3

60629 Frankfurt am Main


Research interests

Research projects

Professional and academic career

Selected publications


Research interests

African archaeobotany and vegetation history:

  • Holocene vegetation history
  • Human and climatic influence on woody vegetation
  • Utilization of woody resources in the past
  • Development of an identification manual for charcoals from Central Africa

Methods:

  • Archaeological charcoal

Regional specialization on West- and Central Africa. Field work in Burkina Faso, Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria.

back


Research projects (participation)
  • Cultivated Landscapes - Land-use and cultural landscape development in North-hemispheric African savannas (since 2019)
  • Development of complex societies in sub-Saharan Africa: The Nigerian Nok Culture (2012-2019)
  • Human impact in coastal West Central Africa from the Iron Age to colonial times – reflected in the charcoal of Dibamba 1 (2010/2011)
  • Ecological and cultural change in West and Central Africa (2005-2009)
  • Cultural development and language history in the West African savanna (1997-2002)

Professional and academic career

since 2019

Research fellow with own project: Cultivated Landscapes

2012-2019

Research fellow at long-term project: Development of complex societies in sub-Saharan Africa: The Nigerian Nok Culture

since 2010
Research fellow at DFG project: Human impact in coastal West Central Africa from the Iron Age to colonial times

2005-2009
Research fellow at FOR 510: Ecological and cultural change in West and Central Africa

2005
PhD (Dr), Goethe University Frankfurt. Subject:  Iron Age development of a cultural landscape in the Sahel of Burkina Faso. Analyses of archaeological charcoal.

2003
Research assistant at BIOTA-project

1997-2002
Research assistant at special research project 268: Cultural development and language history in the West African savanna

1991-1997
Study of Botany, zoology and physical geography at Goethe University Frankfurt.

1988-1991
Apprenticeship as book seller

1968
Born on September 22nd in Hamburg

back


Selected publications

Höhn, A., P. Breunig, D. Gronenborn, K.Neumann (in press): After the flood and with the people - Late Holocene changes of the woody vegetation in the southwestern Chad basin, Nigeria. Quaternary International. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.11.014

Höhn, A., K. Hahn, M- Schmidt (2019): The search for Isoberlinia. Investigations into present and past woody vegetation in the key research area of the Nok Culture Project in Central Nigeria. In: Eichhorn, B. A. Höhn (eds): Trees, Grasses and Crops. Rudolf Habelt Verlag, Bonn: 211-232.

Höhn, A., G. Franke, A. Schmidt (2018): Pits at Pangwari. Charcoal taphonomy at a multi-phased Nok site, Central Nigeria. In: Mercuri, A.M., D'Andrea, A.C., Fornaciari, R., Höhn, A. (eds.): Plants and People in the African Past - Progress in African Archaeobotany. Cham (Springer Nature): 271-299. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-89839-1_14

Höhn, A. & K. Neumann (2018): Charcoal identification in a species-rich environment - the example of Dibamba, Cameroon. IAWA Journal. 39(1): 87-113. DOI: 10.1163/22941932-20170195

Complete publication list

back