Degrees

BA Archaeology, University of Dar es Salaam (2002)

MA Development Studies, University of Dar es Salaam (2004)

PhD in Archaeology, The University of York (2012)

Research interests

Thomas Biginagwa is an archaeozoologist and historical archaeologist. His doctoral dissertation examined animal economies practised by local communities against the context of nineteenth-century caravan trade expansion in the Lower Pangani, northeastern Tanzania. His current research interests lie in historical ecology and zooarchaeology, exploring human-environmental interactions over the last two millennia.

Teaching Interests

Biginagwa teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate archaeology and heritage courses, namely faunal analysis, research methodology, people and cultures in Africa, heritage laws and conventions, and the archaeology of Tanzania.

Publications

Biginagwa, T.J & Marshall, L.W. (in press). Marronage beyond slavery? In Landscapes of predation, edited by C.M. Cameron and B. Bowser. Amerind Foundation and University of Arizona Press.

Biginagwa, T.J. & Ichumbaki, E.B. 2023. “Historical Archaeology in Tropical Africa: Revolutionary Practices.” In Encyclopedia of Archaeology (Vol. 2). DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-323-90799-6.00231-7.

Ichumbaki, E.B., Biginagwa, T.J., & Mapunda, B.B. 2023. “They know more than we do, yet we appreciate them less than they deserve: decoding local ontologies in heritage interpretation and preservation in southern Tanzania.” Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage, 1-19. DOI: 10.1080/20518196.2023.2210405.

Ichumbaki, E.B., Mapunda, G., Cooper, J.P., Mark, S.R., Mjema, E.A., Blue, L. & Biginagwa, T.J. 2022. “Names of contemporary wooden boats of coastal East Africa: origins and meanings.” Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies, 1-26. DOI: 10.1080/23277408.2022.2045060.

Ichumbaki, E.B., Cooper, J.P., Maligisu, P.C., Mark, S.R., Blue, L., & Biginagwa, T.J. 2021. “Building a Ngalawa Double-Outrigger Logboat in Bagamoyo, Tanzania: a craftsman at his work.” International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 50(2): 305-336. DOI: 10.1080/10572414.2021.2018243.

Biginagwa, T.J. 2021. Historic caravans in Tanzania: toward reinvigorating multidisciplinary Exploration. In Caravans in Global Perspective: Contexts and Boundaries, edited by P.B. Clarkson and C.M. Santoro, pp. 53-70. New York: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781003229810-4.

Biginagwa, T.J. & Lane, P.J. 2021. “Local animal economies during the nineteenth-century caravan trade along the Lower Pangani, northeastern Tanzania: a zooarchaeological perspective.” Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 56(2):  219-249. DOI: 10.1080/0067270X.2021.1925023.

Biginagwa, T.J., Mapunda, B.B. & Ichumbaki, E.B. 2021. “Multi-directional connectivity in eastern and southern Africa during the first and early second millennia AD: archaeological evidence from Lupilo, southern Tanzania.” Journal of African Archaeology 19(1): 72-89. DOI. 10.1163/21915784-20210004.

Biginagwa, T.J. & Katto, P. 2021. “Archaeological perspective on the impacts of caravan trade expansion in East Africa: emerging alternative histories.” Journal of Education, Humanities & Science (JEHS) 9(3): 35–58.

Tourigny, E., Newstead, S., Antczak, K.A., Biginagwa, T.J., & Young, R. 2018. “Global Post-Medieval/Historical Archaeology: What’s happening around the World 2018? Post-Medieval Archaeology 52(3): 415-425. DOI: 10.1080/00794236.2018.1515415.

Biginagwa, T.J., & Ichumbaki, E.B. 2018. “Settlement history of the Islands on the Pangani River, northeastern Tanzania.”  Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 53(1): 63-82. DOI 10.1080/0067270X.2018.1436739

Biginagwa, T.J. & Mapunda, B.B. 2017. “The Kilwa–Nyasa caravan route: the long-neglected trading corridor in southern Tanzania.” In The Swahili World, edited by S. Wynne-Jones and A. LaViolette, pp. 541-554. New York: Routledge. DOI: 10.4324/9781315691459.CH47