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Revisiting site history and regional interaction at the Dia settlement mound complex, Mali
... 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. In including this material in the network, we should be aware that it may therefore not well represent 'typical' pottery of the western Inland Niger Delta in this period. ...
Despite major advances in archaeological coverage of West Africa over the past several decades, interpretations remain hampered by the analytical bifurcation of the region’s past into northern (active) and southern (reactive) economic and political trajectories. Building on the expanding corpus of scholarship, I argue that northern origins models centering the arid zones have limited our ability to see broader economic and political processes. The region has been intricately interconnected for millennia, and a dispersed network of culturally diverse farmers (and larger nodes) is visible by the second millennium BC. The network shaped the development of diverse cities, influenced statecraft and governance in regional polities, and supported a centrally located autonomous region. I integrate data from West Africa with emerging archaeological research foci on diverse forms of urbanism and the agencies of nonelite and local settings within kingdoms and empires. I highlight the distinctive contributions of the complex historical autonomies found along the central Mouhoun/Black Volta commercial corridor. An egalitarian ethos had a transformative effect in societies in this region, and communities may have viewed inequalities as an impediment to exchange systems for critically important goods.
Recent research points to a renewed scholarly interest in the West African Middle Ages and the Sahelian imperial tradition. However, in these works only tangential attention is paid to the role of Muslims, and especially to clerical communities. This essay tackles theoretical and historiographical insights on the role of African Muslims in the era of the medieval empires and argues that the study of Islam in this region during the Middle Ages still suffers from undertheorizing. On the contrary, by using a ‘discursive approach’ scholars can unravel access to fascinating aspects of the history of West African Muslims and in particular to the crucial role played by clerical communities, who represented one node of the web of diffused authority which is characteristic of precolonial West African social and political structures.
In the Niger Bend, many studies have shown the existence of settlement mounds which mainly developed between the 1st millennium BC and the 15th century AD. While knowledge about tell-type sites in sub-Saharan Africa has advanced in recent years, many aspects of this topic remain poorly understood. Considering the vast geographic area and time span, there is very little accurate chronostratigraphic information available. This relative lack of long sequences strongly limits the diachronic integration of cultural, economic and environmental data, necessary to unravel the socio-economic mechanisms underlying the emergence and development of this type of site. In this paper, we present the results of the excavations we recently conducted on a group of settlement mounds at Sadia, on the Seno Plain (Dogon Country, Mali), which allow a precise chronological, cultural and environmental sequence to be defined. By combining this work and the results from an extensive approach applied throughout the Dogon Country for more than fifteen years, we provide a scenario for the Seno tells and an insight into the development of Sahelian rural societies, including considerations on their interactions with the early State polities of the Niger Bend, prior to AD 1400.
Tobacco pipes are among the most frequently recorded artifacts from historic period sites in West Africa, and can be used to both establish tight chronologies and address issues of social and economic change. This paper is a discussion of the 300-year sequence of tobacco pipes recovered from excavations at Jenne, Mali in 1999. The assemblage, which includes over 300 fragments, is first placed in its historical and archaeological context. The pipes are fully described using a multivariate approach, and the results illustrate a clear sequence. Following a reassessment of Daget & Ligers' previously proposed pipe chronology for the Inland Niger Delta, the pipes are analyzed using two primary frames of reference. On a broad regional scale, the assemblage is compared with those from sites throughout West Africa, while on the local level possible motivations for the types of changes seen in the assemblage are discussed.
This article presents the pottery of the Kobadi late Neolithic site in Malian Sahel : it was collected during two excavation campaigns. Original aspects of a two-steps shaping of the pots are detailed. Forms and morphometric characteristics are analyzed. The study of the decorations reveal, in a general Saharan background, the wide use of textiles and basketry. This kind of decoration will experience a significant development during the protohistoric period in the lacustrine Zone of Mali.
Mali is a country with a rich history and diverse cultures. Its cultural heritage is, however, threatened by both the pillage of archaeological sites and illicit trade (ICOM 1995; Bedaux & Rowlands, this volunle). Looting has dramatically increased in recent years, especially in the Inland Delta of the Niger, and has obliged Malian authorities to take measures to counteract this destruction. Within the framework of a long-term Malian-Dutch cultural heritage programme, the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde at Leiden recently initiated large-scale excavations in the Inland Niger Delta at Dia, in close cooperation with the Université du Mali, the Institut des Sciences Humaines and the Musée National du Mali in Bamako, the Mission Culturelle in Djenné, the Universities of Paris I and VI, the C.N.R.S., University College London and Leiden University. This excavation, financed principally by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, started in 1998 and will continue until 2004. It is a continuation of previous international programmes of site survey and documentation in the Inland Niger Delta, which the Institut des Sciences Humaines in Bamako has co-ordinated over the past two decades (e.g. Raimbault & Sanogo 1991; Dembele et al . 1993; Togola 1996). An initial season of prospection was carried out in 1998 in the Inland Delta, following which the vicinity of Dia was chosen as the principal research zone for the project.
Recent critiques of neoevolutionary formulations that focus primarily on the development of powerful hierarchies have called for broadening the empirical base for complex society studies. Redressing the neglect of sub-Saharan examples in comparative discussions on complex society, this book considers how case material from the region can enhance our understanding of the nature, origins and development of complexity. The archaeological, historical and anthropological case materials are relevant to a number of recent concerns, revealing how complexity has emerged and developed in a variety of ways. Contributors engage important theoretical issues, including the continuing influence of deeply embedded evolutionary notions in archaeological concepts of complexity, the importance of alternative modes of complex organization such as flexible hierarchies, multiple overlapping hierarchies, and horizontal differentiation, and the significance of different forms of power. The distinguished list of contributors include historians, archaeologists and anthropologists.
Excavations at several archaeological sites in and around Gao have resulted in the recovery of thousands of glass beads presumed to have been acquired from glass bead-producing centers through trade. The bead assemblages cover the period from the eighth to the fourteenth century CE . Here we report on the results of compositional analysis by LA-ICP-MS of 100 beads, permitting comparison with the growing corpus of chemical analyses for glass from African and Near Eastern sites. In this analysis, several compositional groupings are recognized. These include two types of plant-ash soda-lime-silica glass (v-Na-Ca), a mineral soda-lime-silica glass (m-Na-Ca), a high-lime high-alumina ( HLHA ) glass, a mineral soda-high alumina (m-Na-Al), glass, a plant ash soda-high alumina (v-Na-Al) glass and a high lead composition glass. The reconstruction and dating of depositional contexts suggests a shift in glass sources at the end of the tenth century CE . The issue of source identification is discussed and occurrences at other African sites are mapped, providing new data towards an understanding of trade and exchange networks.
Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond - edited by Martin Sterry March 2020
This article summarises the results of four seasons of excavation at Tongo Maaré Diabal (AD 500-1150), near Douentza, Mali. Deep stratigraphic excavations were directed by MacDonald and Togola in 1993, 1995 and by MacDonald in 1996. Complementary, large exposure excavations of the abandonment layer were undertaken by Gestrich in 2010. The combined excavation results speak to topics of craft specialisation, trade, and social organisation. They provide evidence of a specialised blacksmithing community situated at the margins of early Middle Niger and Niger Bend statehood and urbanisation. This article is in English.
L'A s'interesse aux origines encore peu connues de la cite malienne de Tombouctou. Less analyses des sequences realisees par spectrometrie et l'etude du materiel decouvert n'ont pu renseigner sur l'historique et la nature de la cite.
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.
The first systematic archaeological survey in the hinterland of Timbuktu and downstream on the Niger Bend demonstrates radical shifts in environment and settlement distributions during the past two millennia. The survey directly challenges conventional wisdom that urbanism did not arise along the Niger Bend until the 14th and 15th century AD when the Niger serviced the second-millennium trans-Saharan luxury trade. The 43 sites discovered were recorded by size, duration of occupation, and location on different landforms. Surface ceramic analysis enabled determination of the broad chronology of the sites' occupation and, hence, investigation of reasons for changing locational preferences in a geomorphologically active region where the Niger River touches the Sahara.-from Authors
A bs tract This article continues the presentation of the archeological findings from the caves in the Bandiagara Cliffs in the land of the Dogon (Mali). The pottery of the Sanga region can be descriptively divided into four major types : Toloy, ancient Tellem, middle and late Tellem, and recent Dogon. Hypotheses about datings are made, and the findings are compared with the Do gen's presentday pottery, which seems to have been strongly influenced by the Tellem tradition.
This paper examines both decorative and formal change in the ceramics of the Tichitt tradition of Mauritania (c. 1900-400 BC), and this tradition's expression in the Middle Niger, the Faïta Facies (c. 1300 – 200 BC). Using attribute-based comparisons, a wide range of assemblages from Mauritania and Mali are utilised to demonstrate how temporal divisions may be discerned in this sequence. Particular attention is paid to the definition of Early and Late Faïta ceramic phases and the origins of finewares in the Middle Niger. It is notable that Tichitt Tradition ceramics feature frequent and early examples of cord roulette use in the West African Sahel. Ce document examine les aspects décoratif et formel de la céramique de la tradition Tichitt de la Mauritanie (c. 1900-400 av.J-C), et un expression de cette même tradition au Niger Moyen, le facies Faïta (c. 1300-200 av.J-C). Utilisant des analyses basées sur les attributs, plusieurs assemblages de Mauritanie et le Mali sont utilisés pour démontrer comment des divisions temporelles peuvent être discernées dans cet séquence. Une attention particulière est prêtée à la définition des phases des céramiques Faïta et les origines des « finewares » au Niger Moyen. Il est notable que les céramiques de tradition de Tichitt sont parmis les premiers utilisant les cordelettes dans le Sahel d'Afrique occidentale.
The recent archaeological campaign (regional site survey and excavations at the mound complex of Akumbu) has demonstrated that the Méma, a dry Sahelian region with a scattered population, was intensively occupied during the Iron Age. This intense occupation, certainly associated with better environmental conditions, extends back to the Late Stone Age. During the regional survey more than 100 Iron Age sites and nearly 30 Late Stone Age sites were identified; their size, surface material and features, and location on geomorphological zones were recorded. A series of radiocarbon dates spanning the fourth to fourteenth centuries AD obtained from the excavations at the Iron Age mound complex of Akumbu and a preliminary analysis of the pottery from both the excavations and the survey permitted the determination of a broad chronology of occupation. Numerous slag heaps (associated with smelting furnace remains) found during the survey and imported goods uncovered during the excavations at Akumbu indicate that both iron production and long-distance trade played an important role in the Méma economy.
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