Dr. Gabriele Franke
Archaeologist, Copy-Editor "Journal of African Archaeology"

Campus Westend, Poelzig-Building
Room Q4, 6.412

Tel.: 069 798-32105
Fax: 069 798-32121
Email: g.franke(at)em.uni-frankfurt.de

Address:
Goethe University
Institute for Archaeological Sciences (FB 09)
African Archaeology and Archaeobotany
Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1, IG-Farben-Haus, Fach 3
60629 Frankfurt am Main

Research interests

Research projects

Academic career

Publications


Research interests

African prehistory:

  • Cultural changes and innovations in ecological transition zones
  • Development of complex societies

Method:

  • Ceramic analysis
  • Chronology

Regional specialization on West Africa, fieldwork in Nigeria

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Research projects
  • DFG long term research project: Development of complex societies in sub-Saharan Africa: The Nigerian Nok Culture (since 2009)

Academic career

2015

Dissertation on the chronology and pottery of the Nigerian Nok Culture "Potsherds in Time - the pottery of the Nigerian Nok Culture". (PDF)

since 2009

Research fellow in the DFG long term research project "Development of complex societies in sub-Saharan Africa: The Nigerian Nok Culture", with a focus on chronology, pottery, site analysis, and data handling

2008

Research assistant in the workgroup African Archaeology. Preparation and organisation of the 19th Biennial Conference of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists, September 2008 in Frankfurt/Main

2002-2007

Study of Pre- and protohistory (major subject), Archaeometry and Historical Anthropology (minor subjects) at Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main. Degree of Magistra Artium (MA) in December 2007, Master thesis on "Malankari – a large early iron age settlement in the Chad basin, Northeast Nigeria"

Other activities

since 2005

Copy Editor, Journal of African Archaeology

2008-2013

Guided tours of the permanent and special exhibitions at the Archaeological Museum of Frankfurt

2006 – 2008

Student research assistant in the DFG project for the digitalization and indexing of the ethnographic picture library of the Frobenius Institute at the Goethe University Frankfurt

2006 – 2008

Volunteer at the Museum der Weltkulturen Frankfurt: inventory of new acquisitions/donations in the Africa collection; selection of and research on African objects for the exhibition "Being object. Being art" (2009)

1999 – 2001

Certificate of Archaeology lectures and classes within the frame of the Extension Program of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

Volunteer at the UCLA Rock Art Archive at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. Field work in the Mojave desert (Little Lake, California)

1997 – 2000

Docent training and guided tours at the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Los Angeles, USA (now part of the Autry Museum of the American West).

Organisation of the Annual Intertribal Marketplace at the Southwest Museum of the American Indian in Los Angeles, USA.

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Publications

Höhn, A., G. Franke & A. Schmidt (in press). Pits at Pangwari: charcoal taphonomy at a multi-phased Nok site, central Nigeria. In: A. M. Mercuri, C. D'Andrea, R. Fornaciari & A. Höhn (eds), Plants and people in the African past: progress in African archaeobotany. Springer.

Fagg Rackham, A., G. Franke, H. Junius, Tanja M. Männel & C. Beck (2017). Early West African Iron Smelting: The Legacy of Taruga in Light of Recent Nok Research. African Archaeological Review 34 (3), 321-343.

Franke, G. (2017). Potsherds in time - the pottery of the Nigerian Nok Culture and its chronology. Verlag Dr. Hut, München (published online 12/2016). (PDF)

Franke, G. & C. Beck (2017). "Early Nok" or Not? Linking Sites of the Second Millennium BCE in Central Nigeria to the Nok Culture. In: N. Rupp, C. Beck, G. Franke & K. P. Wendt (eds), Winds of Change - Archaeological Contributions in Honour of Peter Breunig. Frankfurter Archäologische Schriften 35. Habelt-Verlag, Bonn, pp. 263-273.

Rupp, N., C. Beck, G. Franke & K. P. Wendt (eds) (2017). Winds of Change - Archaeological Contributions in Honour of Peter Breunig. Frankfurter Archäologische Schriften 35. Habelt-Verlag, Bonn.

Franke, G. (2016). A chronology of the Central Nigerian Nok Culture - 1500 BC to the beginning of the Common Era. Journal of African Archaeology 14 (3), 257-289. (PDF)

Breunig, P. & G. Franke (2014). How old is the Nok Culture? In: P. Breunig (ed.), Nok - African Sculpture in Archaeological Context. Africa Magna, Frankfurt, pp. 130-136.

Franke, G. (2014). When sherds speak - the pottery of the Nok Culture. In: P. Breunig (ed.), Nok - African Sculpture in Archaeological Context. Africa Magna, Frankfurt, pp. 168-177.

Breunig, P. & G. Franke (2013). Das Alter der Nok-Kultur. In: P. Breunig (ed.), Nok - ein Ursprung afrikanischer Skulptur. Africa Magna, Frankfurt, pp. 136-142.

Franke, G. (2013). Was Scherben erzählen - Die Keramik der Nok-Kultur. In: P. Breunig (ed.), Nok - ein Ursprung afrikanischer Skulptur. Africa Magna, Frankfurt, pp. 176-185.

Franke, G. (2013). Eine Uhr aus Scherben. Spektrum der Wissenschaft 10/13, 16-19.

Franke, G. (2010). The Pottery of the Central Nigerian Nok Culture - Interim Results of the Chronological Analysis. In: I. Thiaw & H. Bocoum (ed.), Preserving African Cultural Heritage. Proceedings of the 13th Congress of the Panafrican Archaeological Association for Prehistory and Related Studies (PAA) and of the 20th meeting of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA). Mémoires de L'IFAN - Cheikh Anta Diop 93. IFAN, Dakar, pp. 329-336.

Franke, G. (2009). No title (object descriptions). In: A. Sibeth (ed.), Being object. Being art. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen-Berlin, pp. 90, 92, 126, 134, 140, 142.

Breunig, P., G. Franke & M. Nüsse (2008). Early sculptural traditions in West Africa: new evidence from the Chad Basin of north-eastern Nigeria, Antiquity 82 (316), 423-437.

Franke, G. (2007). Malankari. Eine früheisenzeitliche Großsiedlung im Tschadbecken von Nordost-Nigeria (external link). M.A. thesis, Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main.

Franke, G. (2002). Kaliforniens Korbkunst. In: Ch. Feest (ed.), Indian Times. Nachrichten aus dem Roten Amerika. European Review of Native American Studies (ERNAS), Altenstadt, pp. 70-71.

Franke, G. (2002). Sandalen. In: Ch. Feest (ed.), Indian Times. Nachrichten aus dem Roten Amerika. European Review of Native American Studies (ERNAS), Altenstadt, p. 77.

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