ORIGINAL ARTICLE The Elusive Archaeology of Kongo Urbanism: the Case of Kindoki, Mbanza Nsundi (Lower Congo, DRC) Bernard Clist 1 & Els Cranshof 1,3 & Gilles-Maurice de Schryver 1,4 & Davy Herremans 2 & Karlis Karklins 5 & Igor Matonda 1,3 & Caroline Polet 6 & Amanda Sengeløv 2 & Fanny Steyaert 7 & Charlotte Verhaeghe 2 & Koen Bostoen 1 Published online: 10 September 2015 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract We present results, analyses, and an in-depth historical contextualiza- tion of the fieldwork undertaken in 2012 and 2013 at the Kindoki site in the Lower Congo (DRC). This site is linked to Mbanza Nsundi, one of the Kongo Kingdom’ s provincial capitals, which turns out to be archaeologically ‘elusive’. Pinpointing its location proved to be particularly challenging. To this end, a historically informed survey methodology was applied that has rarely been implemented on such a scale in Central Africa before. We combined a strategy Afr Archaeol Rev (2015) 32:369–412 DOI 10.1007/s10437-015-9199-2 * Koen Bostoen koen.bostoen@ugent.be Bernard Clist bernardolivier.clist@ugent.be Els Cranshof els.cranshof@ugent.be Gilles-Maurice de Schryver gillesmaurice.deschryver@ugent.be Davy Herremans davy.herremans@ugent.be Karlis Karklins karlis4444@gmail.com Igor Matonda igor.matondasakala@ugent.be Caroline Polet cpolet@naturalsciences.be Amanda Sengeløv asengelov@hotmail.com