Sam Nixon

Dr. Sam Nixon is an archaeologist and Research Associate at the Sainsbury Research Unit, University of East Anglia, UK. Sam received his Ph.D. from University College London in 2008, after which he was employed as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Research Associate at the University of East Anglia. His research interests are primarily focused on the historic arts and cultures of West Africa, and in particular on trans-regional trade and exchange networks. He is currently working on a new book entitled 'The Gold Route: A History of the Trans-Saharan World from Pre-Roman Times to the Era of Timbuktu' (Thames & Hudson).

The project 

Titre : Communities, economies, and exchange networks along the caravan routes of trans-Saharan Africa

Mots-clés : 

Pre-modern global trade and exchange networks; Africa; trans-Saharan trade and exchange; archaeology

Selected publications

• Nixon, S. In press. The early Islamic trans-Saharan market towns of West Africa. In: D. Mattingly et al (eds.) Urbanisation and State Formation in early Trans-Saharan Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and The Society for Libyan Studies
• Nixon, S. In press. The Sahara. In: Walker, B., Insoll, T., Fenwick, C. Oxford Handbook of Islamic Archaeology. Oxford University Press.
• Nixon, S. In press. Architecture. In: A. Haour (ed.) Birnin Lafiya: 2000 years in a Dendi Village. Brill: Leiden.
• Haour, A, & S. Nixon. In press. Birnin Lafiya within West African Archaeology. In: A. Haour (ed.) Birnin Lafiya: 2000 years in a Dendi Village. Brill: Leiden.
• Nixon, S (ed.) 2017. Essouk-Tadmekka: an early Islamic trans-Saharan market town. Leiden: Brill.
• Nixon, S. 2017. Trans-Saharan gold trade in pre-modern times: available evidence and research agendas. In: D. J. Mattingly, V. Leitch, C. Duckworth, A. Cuenod, M. Sterry and F. Cole (eds) Trade in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press and The Society for Libyan Studies
• Haour, A., S. Nixon, D. N.Dah, C. Magnavita and A. Livingstone Smith. 2016. The settlement mound of Birnin Lafiya: new evidence from the eastern arc of the Niger River. Antiquity 90 (351): 695-710.
• Nixon, S., Mardjoua, B., Takpara, F. 2015. The Ashanti-Hausaland Trade Route and the Kingdom of Borgu: Archaeological and Oral Historical Survey within the Republic of Benin. Nyame Akuma 83: 48-61
• Rehren, T, & S. Nixon 2014. Refining gold with glass: an early Islamic technology at Tadmekka, Mali. Journal of Archaeological Science 49: 33-41.
• Nixon, S. 2014. West Africa: Islamic archaeology. In C. Smith (ed.) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. New York: Springer, 7720-7733.
• Nixon, S. 2013. A longing for Mecca: the trans-Saharan Hajj and the caravan towns of West Africa. In V. Porter & L. Saif (eds.) Hajj: Collected Essays. British Museum Press, 65-73.
• Nixon, S. 2013. Tadmekka: Archéologie d.une ville caravanière des premiers temps du commerce transsaharien. Afriques 4 (Online) http://afriques.revues.org/1237.
• Nixon, S., M. Filomena Guerra & T. Rehren. 2011. New light on the early Islamic West African gold trade: coin moulds from Tadmekka, Mali. Antiquity 85: 1353-1368.
• Nixon, S. 2011. The rising trade with Africa. In M. Carver and J. Klapste (eds). The Archaeology of Medieval Europe, Vol 2: 1200-1600. Aarhus University Press, 361-369.
• Nixon, S. 2009. Excavating Essouk-Tadmakka (Mali): new archaeological investigations of Early Islamic trans-Saharan trade. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 44 (2): 217-255.