Alemseged Aleho
Lecturer
Alemseged Beldados Aleho is an Environmental archaeologist (archaeobotanist) specializing in plant macro and microfossil study to understand ancient farming, food systems, and palaeoclimate. He has published a monograph entitled Paleoethnobotanical Study of Ancient Food Crops and the Environmental Context in Northeast Africa, 6000 B.C. to 200/300 AD, Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology, BAR International Series, 2706. He has published several research results from Ethiopia, Sudan, and Nigeria and is currently PI of a project in Southern Ethiopia focusing on past environment and human adaptation strategies.
Education
Ph.D. in Environmental Archaeology, University of Naples, Italy.
M.Phil. in Archaeology, University of Bergen, Norway.
M.A. in Archaeology, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
B.A. in History, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
Specialization in Teaching
Dr. Alem teaches the following courses in our program: ANT 207 Archaeology, ANTL 207 Archaeology Lab, and ANT 302 African Archaeology: from Foraging to Farming.
Research Interests
Dr. Alemseged has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Ethiopia, the Sudan, Malawi and the Republic of South Africa. His specialization includes archaeobotany , environmental archaeology, and human-environment interactions during the pleistocene and Holocene epochs. His recent project in the Rift Valley region of the Konso Zone of Southern Ethiopia has uncovered traces of early Stone Age technologies and terrestrial and lacustrine animal fossils dated back to c. 1.7 million years old.
His research articles have been published in the journals Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Science: Reports, Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, Antiquity, Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, Remote sensing, Computer Application in Archaeology, Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, African Archaeological Review, Ethnoarchaeology.
His published monograph is entitled Paleoethnobotanical Study of Ancient Food Crops and the Environmental Context in Northeast Africa, 6000 B.C. to 200/300 AD, Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology
Selected recent work:
Beldados A, Giralt A, Lancelotti C, Meresa Y, D’Andrea C. (2023). “Pre-Aksumite Plant Husbandry in the Horn of Africa,” Journal of Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 32.
Alessandra Varalli, Alemseged Beldados, Francesca D’Agostini, Malebogo Mvimi, Catherine D’Andrea, Carla Lancelotti (2024). "Isotopic analysis of modern sorghum and finger millet from Ethiopia: implications for ancient farming practices." Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, 3
Castilo C, Ryan P, Amesias A, Asaye A, Alemseged B, Ermias L, Dorian F (2025). "Crops of the Future: A Focus on Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman), from past to Present." Natural Sciences in Archaeology, Vol 16, issue 2.
Honors & Awards
UNCW Research & Innovation 2004-2005: - One of the top five College of Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Arts scholars published in peer-reviewed journals.