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.

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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

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Selected publications

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

Höhn, A. & K. Neumann: The palaeovegetation of Janruwa (Nigeria) and its implications for the decline of the Nok Culture. Journal of African Archaeology. DOI 10.3213/2191-5784-10296, 18 Nov 2016.

Höhn, A. & K. Neumann (2012): Shifting cultivation and cultural landscape development during the Iron Age (0-1500 AD) in the Sahel of Burkina Faso, West Africa - Insights from archaeological charcoal. Quaternary International 249: 72-83. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.04.012

Complete publication list

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