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Tracing history in Dia, in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali - archaeology, oral traditions and written sources.
Abstract
The three settlement mounds of Dia, located at the western edge of the Inland Niger Delta of Mali, are known from oral and written sources to represent one of the oldest urban sites in the region, older even than the much better known cities of Djenne and Timbuktu. Archaeological excavations at the earliest mound Dia-Shoma have confirmed that notion, as radiocarbon dates have established that its occupational history extends back to the 9th century BC. Meanwhile at the neighbouring mound of Dia-Mara, occupation does not begin until the sixth century AD, with the occupation of the Dia mound complex seemingly reaching its peak in the tenth century. However, oral and written sources portray conflicting pasts, as Dia's multiethnic communities support multiple versions of its cultural history and the arrival of Islam. The latter issue is particularly complex, as Dia prides itself on its Islamic traditions, which some claim extend to the fourteenth century. Our archaeological excavations, however, have revealed evidence for relatively recent non-Islamic religious practices, diet, and ritual. As a result, I will argue for an alternative view of Dia, whose occupation until the eighteenth century seems to have been characterised by local religious customs. I also focus on the issue of ethnicity as Dia's occupational history is characterised by the usurpation of local power by a series of 'incoming' groups, including the Soninke, the Malinke, and the Peulh. Although, recent ethnographic studies of contemporary potters of the Inland Niger Delta suggest that ceramics mirror the ethnic identity of the artisans, Dia's material culture record is surprisingly stable, particularly during the last 800 years. This might be explained in the light of conformity to a broader 'state-level' identity during this period. Alternatively, it could be rooted in the stability of female population as reflected in pottery production systems, with strict endogamous castes of female potters being the regional norm both today and historically. It will be shown that the archaeological record constitutes an effective tool in elucidating alternative versions of the past, which would otherwise remain silent by the oral traditions and written sources.
... This is an agglomerate of rim and body sherd décors from Units M, S and Q. This is somewhat problematic as the Horizon III deposits in Unit M are undated, whereas those in Units Q and S are dated by a single date each (Arazi 2005;Bedaux et al. 2005). The date range for both is from the mid-seventh to the mid-tenth centuries (Q: GX-28750, 1250 ± 60 BP; S: GX-30007-AMS, 1210 ± 40 BP). ...
... The only other date from occupation layers to fall into the twelfth century range is from Unit C (cal. AD 1025-1159), but the corresponding ceramic data could not be isolated from the data published by either Bedaux et al. (2005) or Arazi (2005). The ceramics from these particular levels in Sh7 are discussed by McIntosh and McIntosh (2023) as being unusual and unknown in the remaining sequence at Dia and as having clear affinities with the eastern IND. ...
... The history of pottery is very long in West Africa, where the earliest pottery documented is from Ounjougou on the Bandiagara Plateau in Mali, dated to pre-9400 BC in the beginning of the Holocene period (Huysecom et al., 2004(Huysecom et al., , 2009). Since, there has been stable development of pottery types in West Africa (e.g., McIntosh 1995;Arazi, 2006;Randsborg et al., 2009) where both more forms and types have been added to the regional inventory. This development was somewhat disrupted in the colonial period from c. 1500 s to the 1900 s in Bénin, where many European goods flooded West Africa in the Atlantic Era. ...
Traditional pottery production in West Africa is plummeting because of the availability of new and modern vessels replacing the old pots. This replacement or loss is poorly understood and documented. With a case study of the modern pottery production in Bénin, we have conducted interviews with pottery producers and market traders focusing on the current repertoire of the ceramic pots, which modern vessels are replacing the old pots and the possible reasons for this. By definig the performance characteristics of both the old pottery and the modern vessels, we seek to understand which qualities are favored by our informants regarding the use of both traditional pottery and modern vessels.
... Investment in intensification and specialization of production were only possible where fertile land and reliable water sources were present and where surplus production could be traded (Davies, 2015;Pingali et al., 1987). This occurred near lakes and rivers, foothills and highlands, wet coastal regions (Silva, 2007) and inland deltas (Arazi, 2005). These locations could support larger populations capable of producing surpluses to meet the demand from caravan routes and non-agricultural production centres. ...
This article explores the factors causing the current poor performance of most government irrigation schemes in sub-Saharan Africa. The literature review finds that the poor performance is not primarily caused by socioeconomic and biophysical conditions inherent to sub-Saharan Africa. African farmers have adapted to diverse biophysical conditions and expanded or contracted their area under agricultural water management in response to market signals. Rather, this poor performance is predominantly linked to the production systems introduced during colonialism and developments since independence, such as agricultural policies restraining rural economic development, unsuitable irrigation technologies and agricultural practices, and international lending practices and trade arrangements.
... Investment in intensification and specialization of production were only possible where fertile land and reliable water sources were present and where surplus production could be traded (Davies, 2015;Pingali et al., 1987). This occurred near lakes and rivers, foothills and highlands, wet coastal regions (Silva, 2007) and inland deltas (Arazi, 2005). These locations could support larger populations capable of producing surpluses to meet the demand from caravan routes and non-agricultural production centres. ...
Agricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa has, in recent times, remained lower than the rest of the world. Many attribute this to factors inherent to Africa and its people, such as climate, soil quality, slavery and disease. This article traces the role of agriculture through history and argues that these are not the main reasons. Before the arrival of European traders, complex agricultural systems existed, which supported food security, manufacturing and trade. External interference manipulated these systems in pursuit of export crops. Independence has not fundamentally changed this; resource and wealth extraction continue to inhibit economic development for Africans in Africa.
... It would have been interesting to investigate in more depth Djenné's indifference to its pre-Islamic past instead of presenting this situation as a simple opposition between the heritage elite and the population. My personal experience and work in Dia (located around 100 km to the north of Djenné), which according to oral traditions is Djenne-Djeno's ancestral town, have revealed a complex narrative of first settlers, newcomers and the holders of political power (Arazi 2005). Moreover, it is not unusual in Mali to hear claims of an ancestry deriving from the heartland of Islam, which is a matter of prestige, and many genealogies were manufactured, or at least embellished, in order to support such claims (Levtzion and Pauwels 2000). ...
... By means of this convention, technical attributes, each invested with their own stylistic information, must be distinguished, so that the various relationships between materials, tools and techniques are analysed and related empirically to questions about knowledge and cultural identity. In this study I have recorded the independent attributes of each assemblage following S. McIntosh's (1995) model, and conducted both single attribute and co-occurrence analysis following Munson (1971) and, more recently, Arazi (2005). Secondly, the recognition that technical knowledge is transmitted within a broader socio-political context warns us against taking individual datasets or, worse still, individual objects, out of their wider context. ...
The Tilemsi Valley has long been heralded as a focal region in the development of West African cultural complexity. The Lower Tilemsi Valley Project began in 2005, with the aim of clarifying the archaeological significance of this region and refining its chronology. This paper examines the pottery from these excavations, advocating an integrative approach to analysis in which pottery production is located within an historical and socio-economic context. It does not present a reified ‘type’ of Lower Tilemsi pottery, but instead describes a regional-scale technological tradition, whilst focusing on the local scale of adaptive change and technical innovation. La basse vallée du Tilemsi est reconnue depuis très longtemps comme une pointe focale pour le développement de la complexité culturelle en Afrique de l'Ouest. Le Projet Basse Vallée du Tilemsi a débuté en 2005, avec le but de clarifier l'importance archéologique de cette région et à raffiner sa chronologie. Cet article étudie la poterie issue de ces fouilles, préconisant une approche intégrée à l'analyse, dans laquelle la production céramique est située dans son contexte historique et socio-économique. Cet article ne présente pas un ‘type’ céramique du Tilemsi, mais plutôt décrit une tradition technologique à l’échelle régionale, tout en se concentrant sur l'échelle locale du changement adaptatif et de l'innovation technique.
In this research, the People and Plants method illuminates language interactions in Eastern Mali’s Bandiagara Region. Home to six linguistic groups, the Bandiagara Escarpment has sheltered two populations for at least 800 years, though their pre-cliff origins are unclear. Historical empires might have driven them to this defensible terrain, with fertile lands anchoring them. Notably, evidence points to early pearl millet domestication not far from here, a Sahelian staple, around 5,000 years ago. Examining current plant-related lexemes across local languages and contrasting with distant, unrelated languages offers insights into older forms. Merging these findings with external data depicts language contact layers. Modern Bandiagara residents, likely with pre-existing botanical knowledge, may have been influenced by the ‘Mande Expansion’ and its vast West African trade routes.
Bangime is a language isolate, which has not been proven to be genealogically related to any other language family, spoken in Central-Eastern Mali. Its speakers, the Bangande, claim affiliation with the Dogon languages and speakers that surround them throughout a cliff range known as the Bandiagara Escarpment. However, recent genetic research has shown that the Bangande are genetically distant from the Dogon and other groups. Furthermore, the Bangande people represent a genetic isolate. Despite the geographic isolation of the Bangande people, evidence of language contact is apparent in the Bangime language. We find a plethora of shared vocabulary with neighboring Atlantic, Dogon, Mande, and Songhai language groups. To address the problem of when and whence this vocabulary emerged in the language, we use a computer-assisted, multidisciplinary approach to investigate layers of contact and inheritance in Bangime. We start from an automated comparison of lexical data from languages belonging to different language families in order to obtain a first account on potential loanword candidates in our sample. In a second step, we use specific interfaces to refine and correct the computational findings. The revised sample is then investigated quantitatively and qualitatively by focusing on vocabularies shared exclusively between specific languages. We couch our results within archeological and historical research from Central-Eastern Mali more generally and propose a scenario in which the Bangande formed part of the expansive Mali Empire that encompassed most of West Africa from the 13th to the 16th centuries. We consider our methods to represent a novel approach to the investigation of a language and population isolate from multiple perspectives using innovative computer-assisted technologies.
Bangime is a language isolate, which has not been proven to be genealogically related to any other language family, spoken in Central-Eastern Mali. Its speakers, the Bangande, claim affiliation with the Dogon languages and speakers that surround them throughout a cliff range known as the Bandiagara Escarpment. However, recent genetic research has shown that the Bangande are genetically distant from the Dogon and other groups. Furthermore, the Bangande people represent a genetic isolate. Despite the geographic isolation of the Bangande people, evidence of language contact is apparent in the Bangime language. We find a plethora of shared vocabulary with neighboring Atlantic, Dogon, Mande, and Songhai language groups. To address the problem of when and whence this vocabulary emerged in the language, we use a computer-assisted, multidisciplinary approach to investigate layers of contact and inheritance in Bangime. We start from an automated comparison of lexical data from languages belonging to different language families in order to obtain a first account on potential borrowing candidates in our sample. In a second step, we use specific interfaces to refine and correct the computational findings. The revised sample is then investigated quantitatively and qualitatively by focusing on vocabularies shared exclusively between specific languages. We couch our results within archeological and historical research from Central-Eastern Mali more generally and propose a scenario in which the Bangande formed part of the expansive Mali Empire that encompassed most of West Africa from the 13 th to the 16 th centuries. We consider our methods to represent a novel approach to the investigation of a language and population isolate from multiple perspectives using innovative computer-assisted technologies.
Saharan trade has been much debated in modern times, but the main focus of interest remains the medieval and early modern periods, for which more abundant written sources survive. The pre-Islamic origins of Trans-Saharan trade have been hotly contested over the years, mainly due to a lack of evidence. Many of the key commodities of trade are largely invisible archaeologically, being either of high value like gold and ivory, or organic like slaves and textiles or consumable commodities like salt. However, new research on the Libyan people known as the Garamantes and on their trading partners in the Sudan and Mediterranean Africa requires us to revise our views substantially. In this volume experts re-assess the evidence for a range of goods, including beads, textiles, metalwork and glass, and use it to paint a much more dynamic picture, demonstrating that the pre-Islamic Sahara was a more connected region than previously thought.
While anthropologists and historians have clearly underlined the dynamics of human groups, ethnoarchaeologists have emphasized the stability of modes of transmission of technical knowledge within ethno- linguistic groups. Overcoming this apparent opposition by mobilizing and confronting lines of evidence from three distinct disciplines — ethnoar- chaeology, ethnohistory, and archaeology— allows me to tackle the material expression of social identities in the past. Time depth, however, coarsens the resolution of interpretation, necessitating a shift in focus from the ethnic group to the linguistic family. Research I conducted with the Swiss MAESAO team since 1988 in central Mali provides a strong case study for understanding the complex links between ethnicity and ceramics. I propose a model of interpretation of archaeological ceramics that takes into account population dynamics.
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