Geoffroy de Saulieu

• PhD
• Research Director at Institute of Research for Development

A dense system of pre-Hispanic urban centers has been found in the Upano Valley of Amazonian Ecuador, in the eastern foothills of the Andes. Fieldwork and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) analysis have revealed an anthropized landscape with clusters of monumental platforms, plazas, and streets following a specific pattern intertwined with extens...

Le suivi du volet d’archéologie préventive du chantier de barrage hydroélectrique de Nachtigal amont s’est déroulé en deux phases, de 2019 à 2023, grâce à deux contrats gérés par l’IRD et réalisés par une équipe franco-camerounaise. Ces prestations ont permis de récolter plus de 75 148 tessons de poterie sur un peu plus de 200 sites. Une quarantain...

Starch grain analysis carried out on 23 ceramic sherds from 6 refuse pits from the site of Nachtigal in central Cameroon is shedding light on a longstanding debate regarding ancient diets in Central Africa during the Iron Age (IA, 2500 years BP) but also more recently during the Modern Period (ca. 150 BP). The results indicate a varied, but balance...

Palaeocological studies show that major vegetation and environmental changes occurred in Central Africa from the mid-Holocene (e.g. Maley & Brenac 1998). Several suggest a human origin and assume that large population migration, technical innovations (e.g. iron-smelting technology) and/or change in agricultural practice, leading to deforestation an...

Holocene paleoecological studies in tropical Africa are rare because most lakes either dried out at the termination of the African Humid Period or have since filled up. However, tropical sedge marshes can be an alternative to perform long-term ecological studies. The Lopé National Park (LNP) in Gabon is a mosaic of forest and savanna enclosed in th...

L'introduction de l'agriculture en Europe, souvent appelée "Révolution néolithique", suggère une " grande transition" analogue à celle que nous expérimentons aujourd'hui : un changement complexe, profond et rapide des sociétés et de leur environnement. Toutefois, le scénario de néolithisation de l'Europe, souvent simplifié, est loin d'être générali...

El Amazonas, llamado Marañón aguas arriba, nace en los Andes y se alimenta de los manantiales de la cordillera y los sedimentos arrancados a las laderas de la montaña. Los valles del Pastaza y del Upano son cabeceras de ríos que alimentan al Marañón. Solo 70 km de distancia los separan y drenan aguas no navegables al bajar de los Andes ecuatorianos...

Climate and environmental changes since the Last Glacial Maximum in the tropical zone of West Africa are usually inferred from marine and continental records. In this study, the potential of carbonate pedo-sedimentary geosystems, i.e. Vertisol relics, to record paleoenvironmental changes in the southwestern part of Chad Basin are investigated. A mu...

From horticulture to lineage organization in Atlantic Central Africa The purpose of this article is to walk between archeology and ethnology, in the manner of Alain Testart, and based on its contributions. The new paradigm of birth of agriculture which he proposed makes it possible to recall the singularity of intertropical agriculture, where the m...

A potential human footprint on Western Central African rainforests before the Common Era has become the focus of an ongoing controversy. Between 3,000 y ago and 2,000 y ago, regional pollen sequences indicate a replacement of mature rainforests by a forest-savannah mosaic including pioneer trees. Although some studies suggested an anthropogenic inf...

Significance Modern human societies live in strongly altered ecosystems. However, anthropogenic environmental disturbances occurred long before the industrial revolution. About 2,600 y ago, a forest–savannah mosaic replaced dense rainforests in Western Central Africa. This rainforest crisis was previously attributed either to the impact of climate...

In this paper, we address the question of the conditions for persistence of technological boundaries. We use field studies to test the predictions generated by a theoretical model in analytical sociology and examine the micro-processes at stake in the non-diffusion of techniques: to which extent techniques contributes to a sharp disagreement betwee...

The archaeological rescue of Dibamba Yassa at the entrance to the city of Douala (Cameroon), by a Franco-Cameroonian team led by the IRD, uncovered more than 20,000 sherds of pottery allowing the definition of five successive ceramic traditions over 2,500 years, in a region still little-known to archaeologists. The chrono-stylistic framework that t...

Mal connue et associée à toutes sortes de préjugés, l'Afrique centrale fait l'objet de recherches archéologiques ponctuelles depuis les années 1950, et réellement suivies depuis 1980. Les études paléoenvironnementales démontrent alors, contre toute attente, que le massif forestier d'Afrique centrale, deuxième au monde après celui de l’Amazonie, a é...

À l'occasion de l’exposition sur l'Équateur du musée du quai Branly, les Dossiers d'Archéologie consacrent un numéro à la ceinture tropicale du Globe. Les peuplements qui s'y trouvaient ont été si brutalement modifiés par l'arrivée des Occidentaux que désormais seule l'archéologie est à même de retrouver leur histoire et leurs modes de vie antérieu...

Dans le cadre des études liées à la construction du barrage de Nachtigal Amont et des ouvrages associés, un consortium comprenant l'Etat du Cameroun, EDF-Cameroun, Rio-Tinto-ALCAN et la SFI s'est engagé à réaliser une étude archéologique préliminaire dans la zone d'impact du projet. Cette première expertise, avait pour but d'évaluer les impacts des...

Os dados da província de Pastaza na Amazônia equatoriana, ainda muito incompletos, indicam a presença de culturas ceramistas (complexo Pambay), pelo menos desde o período formativo, cerca de 2000-1500 aC. Em seguida, os complexos de cerâmica evoluem sem grandes rupturas, mostrando ligações estilísticas óbvias entre si e com o mundo andino em um sen...

Dans les années 1980, des anthropologues et des géographes d'Amazonie ont critiqué les vues simplistes que la science posait sur l'histoire des grands massifs forestiers des régions intertropicales. Très vite, ils furent rejoints par des écologues, des botanistes et des archéologues. Ils ont démontré qu'une partie de la forêt amazonienne, auparavan...

Le projet interdisciplinaire "Zulay, le portail précolombien de l'Amazonie" dans la vallée du haut Pastaza, en Amazonie équatorienne, a permis la découverte et la fouille horizontale extensive des restes d'une maison du Formatif tardif, datée de 1496-1302 av. J.-C. calibrée. L'étude de la répartition des trous de poteau, des fosses et du foyer empi...

The study of the fortified site Ndeba in the Mambila area of Cameroon (Adamawa Region) shows two successive phases of occupation. The first dates to the first millennium AD, and the second, marked by the construction of the fort, belongs to the late nineteenth century or early twentieth. This is consistent with the widespread insecurity during that...

Newly collected data from the road transect under construction between Sangmélima and Minton have enabled archeologists to understand cultural traditions dating from the second half of the last millennium BC and the first half of the first millennium AD. These traditions belong to the Early Iron Age and show similarities to contemporary traditions...

The interdisciplinary project “Zulay, the Pre-Columbian gate of Amazonia” was conducted from 2011 to 2014 in the Upper Pastaza, Ecuador. This investigation allowed to reveal the true nature of hills previously considered as artificial and to find remains of the oldest house of the whole Amazonia. The Colline Moravia site, located at the edge of the...

We aim to improve our knowledge of the dynamic of the vegetation in Central Africa during the last 5 kyrs and to discuss the main hypothesis described in the literature - humans versus climatic impacts - both suggested as responsible of the Congo basin rainforest decline observed between 3 and 2.5 kyrs. We use the carbon isotopic composition of wel...

The global phenomenon of the birth of agriculture remains an enigma and challenges the role of food storage. Much has been written about their invention. A general explanation is needed for its progression in various parts of the world, which is both sociologically based and founded on the archaeological data. This task led Alain Testart to claim t...

Le patrimoine concerne aujourd'hui autant des zones naturelles protégées que des vestiges du passé, des manières de table, ou des traditions orales. C'est un phénomène qui a plusieurs facettes : processus de patrimonialisation d'un bien naturel ou culturel, qu'il soit matériel ou immatériel, muséologie, archéologie préventive, mise en valeur touris...

The recent archaeology of Northwest Cameroon is undoubtedly the best documented in the country. However, results focus mainly on ancient cave sites and do not raise questions about the recent periods relevant to the history of chiefdoms, despite this being a particularly salient feature of the region. Preliminary work has now been done at Elak (the...

Based on archaeological and radiometric constraints, previous studies have divided pre-Columbian times of Ecuador into a succession of cultural periods. The Paleoindian and Preceramic periods encompass the time from the first Amerindian occupation to about 4000 BC. The Formative period extends from ~4000 to ~300 BC, while the Regional Development (...

New fieldwork in the Pastaza region coupled with the study of museum collections, allow us to describe the Muitzentza tradition. The ceramic materials of this tradition are dominated by bowls and necked jars and tinajas decorated in red and white painting. The decoration consists mainly of white painting on red, or red or white on an unslipped surf...

A Pedro PorrasSit terra tibi levis En 1969, el arqueologo Pedro Porras emprendio una mision en la region del rio Huasaga, un afluente del Pastaza, en la provincia amazonica de Morona-Santiago en el Ecuador (Figura 1). A su retorno trajo consigo diversos materiales ceramicos que presentaban un estado de conservacion muy variable. Dichos materiales f...

Discovery of a ceremonial Formative site on the eastern slopes of the Andes. Archaeological explorations on the Santa Ana–La Florida site (Ecuador) have exposed underground architectural structures dating to the 3rd millennium BC. The site seems to have been a small ceremonial center with funerary structures. The complexity of the cultural remains,...