Madagascar

Abstract

The archaeology of Madagascar, the world’s third largest island, falls entirely within the most recent periods covered by this book. Still, it also concerns many themes of global interest: colonisation, human impacts on the environment, participation in long-distance trade networks, urbanisation, state formation, and colonialism. This article reviews and assesses the evidence currently available from archaeology and other disciplines for tracing the history of Madagascar’s inhabitants. It examines the first settlements, settlement and trade in the late first/early second millennia AD, and the development of more complex polities.