ARCHAEOLOGY OF PRINCE’S TOWN

ABSTRACT This Archaeological research was undertaken at the town of Kpokeso now called Prince’s Town on the coast of Ghana, West Africa. Prince’s Town grew to fame in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a trading post and a port of great importance in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Traders of many European nations including the Brandenburg, Holland, Denmark, France, Portugal and England once maintained permanent trading establishments on the Gold coast and traded with the Africans at Kpokeso as well as traders from other parts of the Gold Coast. These historical circumstances place Prince’s Town in a unique situation thus shedding light on the transformations and continuities experienced by an African society in the early period of extensive European trade contacts. This thesis discusses a research that is focused on understanding the nature of contacts and interactions that existed between Africans and Europeans at Prince’s Town during the Trans-Atlantic trading era. It also seeks to assess the contribution of the fort to the understanding of contacts and interactions between Africans and Europeans as well as gather data that inform on how the presence of the Brandenburg and other Europeans affected the people of Prince’s Town and their culture. The research seeks to establish a chronology for the site of Prince’s Town through the use of the artifacts from the excavation. The Archaeological research has demonstrated that materials from excavations combined with documentary evidence and oral histories provide insights into interactions between Africans and Europeans through trade contact. The research also indicates that there is no clear stratigraphic distribution between the Brandenburg period, the Dutch period and the English. This may be due to the choice of sites. The presence of European materials in African contexts provides insights into the African and European interaction. It has also revealed that the people of Prince’s Town are Nzima and not Ahanta and that the encounters with the Europeans did not largely influence their indigenous religion as the people go to church and still practise indigenous religion.