Peter R. Coutros, PhD

Archaeologist, Anthropologist, Ambulator

I am an anthropological archaeologist and post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Bantu Studies, Ghent University.

My research focuses on large-scale social changes that arise through the dynamic relationships formed between communities and their environments throughout West and Central Africa across the longue durée. I am particularly interested in how societies engage with climate change through the development of resilient social institutions and subsistence practices. To tackle these big questions, I combine palaeoenvironmental, ethnographic, and archaeological methods to establish localized socio-ecological histories. Such methods allow archaeologists to highlight the strength of local knowledge in addressing the impacts of climate change on communities and thier cultural heritage in the decades to come.

My current work, on the BantuFirst Project, focuses on how the initial Bantu-speaking peoples to cross the Congo rainforest engaged with their new environments and how the interaction between these groups, autochthonous populations, and changing landscapes led to the emergence of new social forms over the following centuries. Since 2020 our team has conducted more than 900km of riverine survey, identifying nearly 200 new sites that span the past 30,000 years. Excavations at 26 of these locations has begun to radically alter our understanding of the technologies, subsistence, and lifeways of ancient Central Africans.


Large Scale Changes

From the spread of Niger Congo speakers across West Africa to the Bantu Expansion, my research investigates 12,000 years of African history.


Localized Processes

Scaling up – rather than scaling down – to understand the lived experiences behind long-term socio-ecologial processes.


Comparative Research

Outside of Africa, I have co-directed and participated in numerous research campaigns across South and Central America, the Unites States, and Asia.


Recent Publications:

The Tichitt Culture and the Malian Lakes Region

Vernet, R., Gestrich, N. & Coutros, P.R. The Tichitt Culture and the Malian Lakes Region. Afr Archaeol Rev (2023)

Kwilu-Kasai River reconnaissance and Mashita Mbanza (DRC)

Coutros, P.R., Matonda Sakala, I., Duki, A.M., Tsatsa, I.N., & Bostoen, K. The BantuFirst project: 2022 fieldwork report on the Kwilu-Kasai River reconnaissance and Mashita Mbanza excavations (Democratic Republic of the Congo). Nyame Akuma, (2023)

Socio-Environments and subsistence at Diallowali, Senegal

Doman, J., Coutros, P.R. Plat du Jour: Socio-environmental implications of shifting subsistence practices at Diallowali, a Late Stone Age site system in the Middle Senegal Valley. L’Anthropologie (2023)