On May 17th
Dr. Chris Kiahtipes (University of South Florida, Tampa, USA) presented his view on how interdisciplinary research in archaeology and paleo-ecology may contribute to the reconstruction of vegetation and population dynamics in the Central African rainforest and to a better understanding of the ways in which these two processes have interacted through time. He highlighted interesting parallels with similar research in the North American Great Basin and emphasized the theoretical implications of past research on the Fremont Complex for future research on the Bantu Expansion. During his talk he also presented the first pollen records ever obtained from the central parts of the Congo Basin. The BantuFirst team was very happy to welcome colleagues from the UGent Departments of Archaeology and Biology, the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) and several other people. Abstract