Alexa Höhn is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt. She is an archaeobotanist specializing in the analysis of wood charcoal and holds a PhD in biology.

In general, her research traces human-environment interactions and subsistence practices in West African prehistory. Her current project investigates the emergence, diffusion and development of cultivated landscapes in relation to land use practices and to the environmental settings.

MIASA project: Sustainable Shea – Connecting Past and Present

The project centers on the shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa, syn. Butyrospermum paradoxum), an economically important component of land use systems throughout the more southern savanna zone in West Africa, including northern Ghana. The trees are managed within the fields, the tree dotted landscape is often referred to as parkland or park. The aim of the project is to combine different perspectives on the development and sustainability of shea parks, past and present, through the integration of archaeobotanical research, current agronomic research and farmers' knowledge.

Link to Relevant Project

https://www.dainst.blog/entangled-africa/en/p05-cultivated-landscapes-en/

Recent Publications (Selection)

Höhn, A., Mushayikwa, E. & Schoeman, A. Earth, Water, Air, and Fire – Thinking about Farming and Farmscapes. Afr Archaeol Rev 40, 493–505 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-023-09542-9

Champion, L., Höhn, A., Neumann, K. et al. A question of rite—pearl millet consumption at Nok culture sites, Nigeria (second/first millennium BC). Veget Hist Archaeobot 32, 263–283 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-022-00902-0

Höhn, A., Breunig, P., Gronenborn, D., Neumann, K. After the flood and with the people – Late Holocene changes of the woody vegetation in the southwestern Chad Basin, Nigeria, Quat Int 593–594, 224–235 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2020.11.014