Abstract
Madagascar's culture is a unique fusion of elements drawn from the western, northern, and eastern shores of the Indian Ocean, and its past has fascinated many scholars, yet systematic archaeological research is relatively recent on the island. The oldest traces of visitors are from the first century AD. Coastal settlements, with clear evidence of ties to the western Indian Ocean trading network, were established in several places over the next millennium. Important environmental changes of both plant and animal communities are documented over this period, including the extinctions of almost all large animal species. Urban life in Madagascar began with the establishment of the entrepôt of Mahilaka on the northwest coast of the island in the twelfth century. At about the same time, communities with ties to the trade network were established around the island's coasts. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, social hierarchies developed in several regions of the island. During the succeeding two centuries, Madagascar saw the development of state polities.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adelaar, K. A. (1989). Malay influence on Malagasy: Linguistic and culture-historical implications.Oceanic Linguistics 28 1–46.
Allibert, C. J. (1989). Early settlement on the Comoro Archipelago.National Geographic Research 5 392–393.
Ardika, I. W., and Bellwood, P. (1991). Indian contact with Bali.Antiquity 65 221–232.
Armstrong, J. (1984). Madagascar and the slave trade in the seventeenth century.Omaly sy Anio 17–20 211–233.
Arnaud, R. (1970) Les anciens villages fortifiés de l'Ambohimanarina.Taloha 3 113–126.
Atkinson, I. (1989). Introduced animals and extinctions. In Western, D., and Pearl, M. C. (eds.),Conservation for the Twenty-First Century, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 54–75.
Battistini, R., and Vérin, P. (1966). Irodo et la tradition vohémarienne.Revue de Madagascar 36 17–32.
Battistini, R., and Vérin, P. (1967). Ecologic changes in protohistoric Madagascar. In Martin, P. S., and Wright, H. E. (eds.),Pleistocene Extinctions, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, pp. 407–424.
Battistini, R., and Vérin, P. (1971). Témoignages archéologiques sur la côte vezo de l'embouchure de l'Onilahy à la Baie des Assassins.Taloha 4 51–63.
Battistini, R., and Vérin, P. (1972). Man and the environment in Madagascar. In Battistini, R., and Richard-Vindard, G. (eds.),Biogeography and Ecology in Madagascar, Dr. W. Junk, B.V., The Hague, pp. 311–337.
Battistini, R., Vérin, P., and Rason, R. (1963). Le site archéologique de Talaky (Madagascar).Annales malgaches 1 111–142.
Berg, G. M. (1985). The sacred musket: Tactics, technology, and power in eighteenth-century Madagascar.Comparative Studies in Society and History 27 261–279.
Berg, G. M. (1988). Sacred acquisition: Andrianampoinimerina at Ambohimanga, 1777–1790.Journal of African History 29 191–211.
Bloch, M. (1977). The disconnection between power and rank as a process: An outline of the development of kingdoms in central Madagascar. In Friedman, J., and Rowlands, M. (eds.),The Evolution of Social Systems, Duckworth, London.
Burney, D. A. (1987a). Pre-settlement vegetation changes at Lake Tritrivakely, Madagascar.Paleoecology of Africa 18 357–381.
Burney, D. A. (1987b). Late Quaternary stratigraphic charcoal records from Madagascar.Quaternary Research 28 274–280.
Burney, D. A. (1987c). Late Holocene vegetational change in central Madagascar.Quaternary Research 28 130–143.
Burney, D. A. (1988). Modern pollen spectra from Madagascar.Paleogeography, Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology 18 357–381.
Burney, D. A. (1993). Late Holocene environmental changes in arid southwestern Madagascar.Quarternary Research 40 98–106.
Burney, D. A., MacPhee, R. D. E., Rafamantanantsoa, J. G. Rakotondrazafy, T., and Kling, G. W. (1993). The roles of natural factors and human activities in the environmental changes and faunal extinctions of late Holocene Madagascar. In Sondaar, P., and Sanges, M. (eds.),Early Man in Island Environments (in press).
Callet, R. P. (1974).Tantaran 'ny Andriana nanjaka teto Imerina [1908, Antananarivo].Published as Histoire des Rois, Chapus, G.-S., and Ratsimba, E. (trans.), Editions de la Librairie de Madagascar, Antananarivo.
Carneiro, R. L. (1970). A theory of the origin of the state.Science 169 733–738.
Chittick, N. (1984).Manda: Excavations at an Island Port on the Kenya Coast, Memoir No. 9, The British Institute in East Africa, Nairobi.
Dahl, O. C. (1951).Malgache et Maanyan: Une comparison linguistique, Egede Institutett, Oslo.
Dahl, O. C. (1977). La subdivision de la famille Barito et la place du Malgache.Acta Orientalia 38 77–134.
Dahl, O. C. (1988). Bantu substratum in Malagasy.Etudes Océan Indien 9 91–132.
Deschamps, H. (1965).Histoire de Madagascar, Editions Berger-Levrault, Paris.
Dewar, R. E. (1984). Extinctions in Madagascar: The loss of the subfossil fauna. In Martin, P., and Klein, R. (eds.),Quaternary Extinctions, University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 574–593.
Dewar, R. E. (1986). Ecologie et extinctions des subfossiles de Madagascar (traduit par Pierre Vérin).Taloha 10 25–41.
Dewar, R. E. (1994). The archaeology of the early colonization of Madagascar. In Reade, J. (ed.),The Indian Ocean in Antiquity, Routledge, London (in press).
Dewar, R. E., and Burney, D. A. (1994). Recent research in the paleoecology of the highlands of Madagascar and its implications for prehistory.Taloha 12 (in press).
Dewar, R. E., and Rakotovololona, S. (1992). La chasse aux subfossiles: Les preuves du XIeme siècle au XIIIeme siècle.Taloha 11 4–15.
Dewar, R. E., and Rakotovololona, S. (1993). Hunting camps in northern Madagascar in the XIIth and XIIIth centuries. In Sondaar, P., and Soares, M. (eds.),Early Man in Island Environments (in press).
Domenichini, J.-P. (1981). “La plus belle énigme du monde” ou l'historiographie coloniale en question.Omaly sy Anio 13–14 57–76.
Domenichini-Ramiaramanana, B. (1988). Madagascar. In Elfasi, M., and Hrbek, I. (eds.),General History of Africa, Vol. III. Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century, Heinemann, Paris, pp. 681–703.
Drury, R. (1729).The Adventures of Robert Drury During Fifteen Years of Captivity in the Island of Madagascar, London (1890 edition reprinted by Negro Universities Press, New York, 1969).
Earle, T. K. (1977). A reappraisal of redistribution: Complex Hawaiian chiefdoms. In Earle, T. K., and Ericson, J. (eds.),Exchange Systems in Prehistory, Academic Press, New York, pp. 213–229.
Emphoux, J.-P. (1979). Archaeology and migrations in Northern Androy: A preliminary report. In Kent, R. (ed.),Madagascar in History—Essays from the 1970's, Foundation for Malagasy Studies, Berkeley, pp. 32–41.
Emphoux, J.-P. (1981). Archéologie de l'Androy: Deux sites importants—Andranosoa et le manda de Ramananga.Omaly sy Anio 13–14 89–97.
Flacourt, E. (1661).Histoire de la Grande Isle Madagascar, 2nd ed. Reprinted in Grandidier, A.,et al. (eds.),Collections des ouvrages anciens concernant Madagascar, Vol. VIII, Union Coloniale, Paris.
Gentry, A. H. (1988). Changes in plant community diversity and floristic composition on environmental and geographic gradients.Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 75(1): 1–34.
Godfrey, L. R., and Vuillaume-Randriamanantena, M. (1986).Hapalemur simus, endangered species once widespread.Primate Conservation 7 92–96.
Gueunier, N. J. (1988). Dialectologie et lexicostatistique: Cas du dialecte malgache de Mayotte (Comores).Etudes Océan Indien 9 143–167.
Gueunier, N. J. (1992).Contes de la Côte Ouest de Madagascar, Editions Ambozontany-Karthala, Antananarivo and Paris.
Heurtebize, G. (1986). Les anciennes cultures de l'Androy central.Taloha 10 171–180.
Kent, R. K. (1970).Early Kingdoms in Madagascar, 1500–1700, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Knudstad, J. (1993). The early mosques at Sima and Domoni.Azania 28 (in press).
Kottak, C. (1972). A cultural adaptive approach to Malagasy social organization. In Wilmsen, E. (ed.),Social Exchange and Interaction, Anthropological Paper No. 46, Museum of Anthropology, Ann Arbor, MI.
Kottak, C. (1977). The process of state formation in Madagascar.American Ethnologist 4 136–155.
Kottak, C. (1980).The Past in the Present: History, Ecology and Social Organization in Highland Madagascar, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.
Kus, S. (1983). The social representation of space; Dimensioning of the cosmological and the quoitidian. In Moore, J., and Keene, A. (eds.),Archaeological Hammers and Theories, Academic Press, New York, pp. 277–298.
Kus, S., and Wright, H. T. (1986). Survey archéologique de la région de l'Avaradrano, Vérin, P. (trans.).Taloha 10 49–72.
MacPhee, R. D. E., and Burney, D. A. (1991). Dating of modified femora of extinct dwarfHippopotamus from southern Madagascar: Implications for constraining human colonization and vertebrate extinction events.Journal of Archaeological Science 18 695–706.
MacPhee, R. D. E., and Raholimavo, E. (1988). Modified subfossil aye-aye incisors from southwestern Madagascar: Species allocation and paleoecological significance.Folia Primatologica 51 126–142.
MacPhee, R. D. E., Burney, D. A., and Wells, N. A. (1985). Early Holocene chronology and environment of Ampasambazimba, a Malagasy subfossil lemur site.International Journal of Primatology 6 463–489.
Mantaux, C., and Vérin, P. (1969). Traditions et archéologie de la vallée de la Mananara.Bulletin de Madagascar 183 966–985.
Mariano, L. (1904). Relation du voyage de découverte fait a l'Ile Saint-Laurent dans les années 1613–1614. In Grandidier, A., and Grandidier, G. (eds.),Collection des ouvrages anciens concernant Madagascar, Paris, Vol. II, pp. 1–64.
Matsumoto, K., and Burney, D. A. (1994). Late Holocene environments at Lake Mitsinjo, Northwestern Madagascar.The Holocene (in press).
Mayeur, N. [1912 (ca. 1780)]. Voyage dans le nord de Madagascar, nov. 1774-janv. 1776.Bulletin de l'Academie Malgache 10(1): 93–156.
Mayeur, N. [1913 (1785)]: Voyage au pays d'Ancove par le pays Ancaye.Bulletin de l'Academie Malgache 12(2): 13–49.
McBain, A. Y. (1992). Les céramiques chinoises d'exportation dans la collection du Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie.Taloha 11 71–76.
Mille, A. (1970).Contribution à l'étude des villages fortifiés de l'Imerina ancien, Travaux et Documents du Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie de l'Université de Madagascar, II.
Mille, A. (1971). Anciens horizons d'Ankatso.Taloha 4 117–126.
Nicoll, M., and Langrand, O. (1989).Madagascar: Revue de la conservation et des aires protégées, World Wildlife Fund, Gland.
Parker Pearson, M. (1992). Tombs and monumentality in southern Madagascar: Preliminary results of the central Androy survey.Antiquity 66 941–948.
Pigache, J. P. (1970). Le problème anthropobiologique à Madagascar.Taloha 3 175–177.
Radimilahy, C. (1981). Archéologie de l'Androy—Sud de Madagascar,Recherche, Pédagogie et Culture, IX, 55, AUDECAM, Paris.
Radimilahy, C. (1988).L'ancienne métallurgie du fer à Madagascar, Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 28, BAR International Series 422, Cambridge.
Radimilahy, C. (1990). Mahilaka: Rapport préliminaire. InUrban Origins in Eastern Africa: Proceedings of the Madagascar 1989 Workshop, Central Board of Swedish Antiquities, Stockholm, pp. 41–46.
Radimilahy, C. (1993). Origine des villes: le cas de Mahilaka dans le Nord-Ouest de Madagascar. InDonnées archéologiques sur l'origine des villes à Madagascar—Mombassa, Janvier, 1993, Project Working Papers, Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie, Antananarivo, pp. 1–44.
Rafolo, A. (1985).Travaux archéologiques préliminaires sur le site de Lohavohitra (Vonizongo, centre-ouest de Madagascar), resultats, questions et perspectives, Mémoire de DEA, Université de Paris I, Paris.
Rafolo, A. (1985–1986). Domestication et consommation des Bovines (Bos indicus) dans le centre de Madagascar: Le cas des sites d'Analamanitra et de Lovahitra.Nouvelles du Centre d'Art et d'Archéologie No. 3–4, pp. 20–29.
Rafolo, A. (1986). Contribution à la connaissance de l'histoire du Sud Vonizongo.Taloha 10 133–144.
Raharijaona, V. (1986). Reconnaissance archéologique dans la Manandona (Vakinankaratra).Taloha 10 73–114.
Raharijaona, V. (1989).Etude de peuplement de l'espace d'une vallée des Hauts Terres centrales de Madagascar: Archéologie de la Manandona (XV-XIXème siècle), Thèse de Doctorat de IIIème cycle, Institut des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Université de Paris.
Rakotoarisoa, J.-A. (1993). Le site de Mokala dans la région dite Mozambique du sud-est de Madagascar. InDonnées archéologiques sur l'origine des villes à Madagascar—Mombassa, Janvier, 1993. Project Working Papers, Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie, Antananarivo, pp. 132–156.
Rakotovololona, S. (1989). Ankadivory: Témoin d'une culture de l'Imerina Ancien. Presented at the Colloque Internationale d'Histoire Malagasy, Antananarivo.
Rakotovololona, S. (1993). Ankadivory et la période Fiekena: début d'urbanisation sur les Hautes Terres centrales (Madagascar). InDonnées archéologiques sur l'origine des villes à Madagascar—Mombassa, Janvier, 1993, Project Working Papers, Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie, Antananarivo, pp. 45–94.
Ramilisonina (1990). Essai d'approche pour la connaissance de l'urbanisation à Madagascar: Exemple de Mandialaza (Moramanga). InUrban origins in Eastern Africa: Proceedings of the Madagascar 1989 Workshop, Central Board of Swedish Antiquities, Stockholm, pp. 90–93.
Ramilisonina (1993). Quelques aspects de l'urbanisation en pays Bezanozano Mandialaza (XIIIè-XIXè siècle). InDonnées archéologiques sur l'origine des villes à Madagascar—1Mombassa, Janvier, 1993, Project Working Papers, Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie, Antananarivo, pp. 95–131.
Raombana (1980).Histoires, Ayache, S. (trans. & ed.), Librairie Ambozontany, Fianarantsoa.
Rasamuel, D. (1979).Traditions orales et archéologie de la basse Sahatorendrika, Musée d'Art et d'Archéologie de l'Université de Madagascar, Travaux et Documents, XIX.
Rasamuel, D. (1982). Une fouille à Ambohitrikanjaka en 1979.Taloha 9 7–24.
Rasamuel, D. (1984a). Alimentation et techniques anciennes dans le Sud Malgache à travers une fosse à ordure du XIeme siècle.Tsiokantimo—Etudes de l'Océan Indien, Paris,4 81–109.
Rasamuel, D. (1984b).L'Ancien Fanongoavana, Thèse présenté à l'Université de Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne), Paris.
Rasamuel, D. (1986). Observations sur la fabrication et l'usage des poteries malgaches. L'évolution de la poterie malgache durant le second millénaire de notre ère.Nouvelles du Centre d'Art et d'Archéologie 3–4 13–19.
Richard, A. F., and Dewar, R. E. (1991). Lemur ecology.Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 22 145–175.
Schwartz, G. (1992). Rice and population in eighteenth century Madagascar, analyzing archaeological evidence of the subsistence economy of the Central Highlands. Miss. on file, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Stuiver, M., and Pearson, G. W. (1993). High-precision bidecadal calibration of the radiocarbon time scale, AD 1950–500 BC and 2500–6000 BC.Radiocarbon 35 1–23.
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P. J. (1993). Extended14C database and revised CALIB radiocarbon calibration program.Radiocarbon 35 215–230.
Tattersall, I. (1982).The Primates of Madagascar, Columbia University Press, New York.
Taylor, D. (1975).Some Locational Aspects of Middle-Range Hierarchical Societies, Ph.D. dissertation, City University of New York, New York (Dissertation Microfilms, Ann Arbor).
Vérin, P. (1971). Les anciens habitats de Rezoky et Asambalahy.Taloha 4 29–45.
Vérin, P. (1975).Les échelles anciennes du commerce sur les côtes nord de Madagascar, Service de Reproduction des thèses, Lille.
Vérin, P. (1981). Madagascar. In Mokhtar, G. (ed.),General History of Africa, Vol. II. Ancient Civilizations of Africa, Heinemann, London, pp. 693–717.
Vérin, P. (1986).The History of Civilization in North Madagascar, Balkema, Rotterdam.
Vérin, P., and Heurtebize, G. (1974). La tranovato de l'Anosy, premier construction érigée par des européens à Madagascar, descriptions et problèmes.Taloha 6 117–142.
Vérin, P., Kottak, C., and Gorlin, P. (1970). The glottochronology of Malagasy speech communities.Oceanic Linguistics 8 26–81.
Verlinden, C. (1987). The Indian Ocean: The Ancient Period and the Middle Ages. In Chandra, S. (ed.),The Indian Ocean: Explorations in History, Commerce and Politics, Sage, New Delhi, pp. 27–53.
Vernier, E., and Millot, J. (1971).Archéologie Malgache: Comptoirs musulmans, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris.
Wetterstom, W., and Wright, H. T. (1992). Une contribution à la paléoethnobotanie du plateau central de Madagascar.Taloha 11 147–166.
Wright, H. T. (1979). Observations sur l'évolution de la céramique traditionelle en Imerina centrale.Taloha 8 7–28.
Wright, H. T. (1984). Early seafarers of the Comoros Islands: The Dembeni Phase of the IXth to Xth Centuries A.D.Azania 19 13–59.
Wright, H. T. (1992). Early human impact on a forest in northeastern Madagascar: Note on an archaeological sounding on Nosy Mangabe. Ms. on file, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Wright, H. T., and Fanony, F. (1992). L'évolution des systemes d'occupation des sols dans la vallée de la rivière Mananara au Nord-est de Madagascar, Allibert, C. (trans.).Taloha 11 16–64.
Wright, H. T., and Kus, S. (1976). Reconnaissances archéologiques dans le centre de l'Imerina.Taloha 7 19–45.
Wright, H. T., and Kus, S. (1979). An archaeological reconnaissance of Ancient Imerina. In Kent, R. (ed.),Madagascar in History, Foundation for Malagasy Studies, Berkeley, pp. 1–31.
Wright, H. T., Rafolo, A., Bailiff, I., Burney, D., Haas, H., Raharijaona, V., Rakotovololona, S., Rasamuel, D., and Dewar, R. (1992). Datation absolute de sites archéologiques du centre de Madagascar—présentation des déterminations.Taloha 11 121–145.
Wright, H. T., Burney, D. A., Burney, L. P., Matsumoto, K., Ramilisonina, and Vérin, P. (1993a). The evolution of settlement systems in the Bay of Boeny and the Mahavay Valley.Taloha (in press).
Wright, H. T., Rakotoarisoa, J.-A., Heurtebize, G., and Vérin, P. (1993). The evolution of settlement systems in the Efaho River Valley, Anosy: A preliminary report on archaeological reconnaissances of 1983–1986.Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 12 2–20.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dewar, R.E., Wright, H.T. The culture history of Madagascar. J World Prehist 7, 417–466 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00997802
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00997802