Archaeology of Peace

The Archaeology of Peace is a subfield of archaeology founded by Dr Sada Mire, an archaeologist and associate professor of Heritage Studies at University College London, and first articulated in her book Divine Fertility (2020).^[1] The concept grows out of her doctoral research, which she started in 2006 and finished 2009, and focuses on how peace, cohesion, and shared institutions can be understood archaeologically in the Horn of Africa.

Mire's development of the Archaeology of Peace is rooted in her experience of genocide, persecution and war in Somalia and her interest in how cultural heritage can “glue people together” in times of conflict. In her 2018 Hague Talk, “You want world peace? Revise the History Books!”,^[2] she called for revising dominant historical narratives to reveal deep, shared histories that cut across Christian–Muslim and other divides in the Horn of Africa. The Archaeology of Peace proposes an approach that prioritises long-term institutions—such as traditional law, religion and governance—that have historically bound communities together rather than focusing primarily on conflict.

In Divine Fertility: The Continuity in Transformation of an Ideology of Sacred Kinship in Northeast Africa,^[1] Mire uses an interdisciplinary approach (archaeology, anthropology, historical texts and linguistics) to analyse sacred landscapes, rituals and material culture in Northeast Africa. The book identifies an indigenous concept of peace, Nagi/Nagaa, which she argues remains active among peoples of the Horn of Africa and is a prerequisite for sacred fertility in humans, animals and crops. Mire links this peace concept to ideologies of sacred kinship and divine fertility and suggests it underpinned major state formations in the region. She also identifies spaces of consensus and ritual peace-making—such as sacred enclosures, trees, springs and mountains—and outlines a “Ritual Set” as a framework for studying the Archaeology of Peace over the past three millennia.

Methodology and scope

The Archaeology of Peace is pursued through multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary methods that examine ideology, governance, traditional law and thought in relation to ancient sites, artefacts and landscapes. Mire argues that practices, places and material culture reveal both social stratification and mechanisms of social cohesion, diversity and peace-making. Her work on sacred landscapes, stelae traditions and ancient Christian and medieval Muslim centres in Northeast Africa provides a theoretical and analytical framework for interpreting shared regional heritage as an indigenous Archaeology of Peace, rather than through narrow national or conflict-centred narratives.

Mire continues to develop this subfield through projects such as “War and Famine vs. Peace and Fertility”,^[3] which uses cultural heritage and archaeology to address war and famine in the Horn of Africa by focusing on cultural notions of peace- and fertility-making. In her 2020 British Academy Global Perspectives lecture,^[4] she related this work to contemporary global divisions, arguing that understanding “deep history” can help societies navigate current crises in powerful democracies and elsewhere. Interviews and profiles in venues such as New Scientist ^[5] and The Hague's city business agency ^[6] have highlighted her argument that cultural heritage and archaeological knowledge are a basic human need and central to modern peacebuilding efforts.

"Taking the landscape as its central theme, her project explores an important part of the Somalis' cultural heritage. Many African societies have little written history, making archaeology a key means of exploring their past. But the added significance of landscape for Somali people is that it predates modern nation-state politics, and is common to many of the ethnic groups that live in the region. Modern-day borders are largely the result of sometimes-arbitrary divisions of land between European powers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, whereas free movement in the land has remained culturally important to this predominantly pastoral nomadic people. Sada hopes that, by generating greater interest in the shared cultural heritage of the Somali people she can foster reconciliation and better relations."^[7]