Carlos Magnavita’s research while affiliated with Goethe University Frankfurt and other places

Five fired-brick sites, tentatively attributed to the Kanem-Borno State, were test-excavated, and samples of fired bricks and wood charcoal were dated using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Although OSL yielded larger standard deviations compared to radiocarbon dating, both methods produced chronologically significant results. In addition to confirming that the sites were constructed during Kanem-Borno’s rule over Kanem, the new dates support earlier suggestions of multi-phase construction of similar nearby locations. To systematically analyze the growing body of chronometric data from Kanem, we employed Bayesian chronological modelling. This method not only identifies potential stratigraphic and chronological outliers but also provides probabilistic evidence for the multi-phase development of these sites.

Chemical analysis of glass from African archaeological sites has become a standard research tool over the past decades. Despite the multiplication of studies, the continent still exhibits vast unexplored regions. One of these is the surroundings of Lake Chad. This paper discusses the results of LA‐ICP‐MS analysis of recently excavated glass beads from the late medieval Chadian site of Tié. We demonstrate that the composition of those glass beads largely matches assemblages from along the East African coast. This indicates that most of the beads examined entered the region via a hitherto undocumented east–west Sudanic route linking Northeast Africa with Lake Chad.

Iron nails are still a poorly researched group of African archaeological artefacts. Probably because of preservation issues and their ordinary nature, archaeologists have in general not dealt analytically with such objects. A brief survey of the published evidence shows that, compared to North Africa and the Middle Nile Valley, iron nails are late occurrences in sites south of the Sahara, dating to the late first and the second millennia AD . This paper presents the first trait analysis of an iron nail assemblage from sub-Saharan Africa. Based on a collection of recently excavated and well-preserved samples from 12th to 14th century Kanem, the analysis distinguishes four main nail types being used east of Lake Chad at that time. It is concluded that, as any other archaeological artefacts, nails should be properly illustrated and analyzed as a means of warranting the retrieval of relatable data for future comparative studies.

One of the most intriguing problems concerning the Kanem-Borno sultanate of the central Sahel between the eighth and nineteenth centuries AD concerns its early intra-African connections. Apart from historically documented linkages with North and parts of West Africa, were there trade and other contacts with eastern regions such as Darfur, the Middle Nile Valley and areas beyond prior to the fifteenth century? Addressing the results of recent archaeological field research conducted in Kanem, Chad, this paper lays the foundations of an answer to that and other pressing questions concerning Kanem-Borno. Because the region concerned is a virtual archaeological blank, the first and foremost goal of fieldwork was securely to identify and describe locations once related to the sultanate. Based on previous studies as well as various new surveys, test-excavations and radiometric dating, archaeological sites undoubtedly associated with early Kanem-Borno were located and preliminarily investigated. Those sites consist of the ruins of fired brick enclosures encompassing fired brick buildings or groups thereof dated to the eleventh to fourteenth centuries. Taking into account the construction materials used and newly available absolute dates, as well as historical data, it is assumed that these sites were élite localities very probably founded and occupied by members of what would become the Sayfuwa aristocracy and related groups.

In contrast to research on its history, archaeological investigations in the Chadian region of Kanem has just started very recently. Presently, the most conspicuous material vestiges known are the ruins of fired-brick elite locations, some of which are demonstrably associated with the Kanem-Borno Sultanate and dated to the period 11th-14th centuries AD. Amongst those, the place named Tié stands out due to a number of particular attributes. Consisting of a fired-brick enclosure of about 3.2 hectares, the location not only occupies the central position within a compact cluster of eleven smaller sites in central Kanem. It is apparently also the largest known site purely constructed with fired bricks. In addition, the place exhibits some settlement-related features not visible at any of the other sites thus far surveyed by the authors. Such a feature is Mound 1, the southern of two large debris mounds in the northeast sector of the site. Recent archaeological excavations reveal that Mound 1 conceals the remains of a massive multi-roomed and relatively well-preserved fired-brick building with plastered interior walls. The structure was erected at latest sometime between the mid-12th to mid-13th centuries and was still in use in the early 14th to early 15th centuries. Whilst its function remains unclear and open to interpretation, the discovery supports the allegedly distinctive status of Tié in relation to other fired-brick elite sites in the region.

In contrast to research on its history, archaeological investigations in the Chadian region of Kanem has just started very recently. Presently, the most conspicuous material vestiges known are the ruins of fired-brick elite locations, some of which are demonstrably associated with the Kanem-Borno Sultanate and dated to the period 11th-14th centuries AD. Amongst those, the place named Tié stands out due to a number of particular attributes. Consisting of a fired-brick enclosure of about 3.2 hectares, the location not only occupies the central position within a compact cluster of eleven smaller sites in central Kanem. It is apparently also the largest known site purely constructed with fired bricks. In addition, the place exhibits some settlement-related features not visible at any of the other sites thus far surveyed by the authors. Such a feature is Mound 1, the southern of two large debris mounds in the northeast sector of the site. Recent archaeological excavations reveal that Mound 1 conceals the remains of a massive multi-roomed and relatively well-preserved fired-brick building with plastered interior walls. The structure was erected at latest sometime between the mid-12th to mid-13th centuries and was still in use in the early 14th to early 15th centuries. Whilst its function remains unclear and open to interpretation, the discovery supports the allegedly distinctive status of Tié in relation to other fired-brick elite sites in the region.

Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond - edited by Martin Sterry March 2020

The history of the Lake Chad region is intrinsically linked to the Kanem-Borno Empire (8th-19th century AD), the earliest, longest-lived and most powerful state in the Central Sudan. To a large extent, that political achievement resulted from the economic and cultural relations that the state once established to near and more distant African regions. Whilst historians are aware of the far-flung connections that Kanem-Borno early maintained to North Africa and, later on, to a couple of West African areas, its linkages to eastern regions such as Darfur and the Nile Valley remain up to now poorly understood. Within the scope of a new interdisciplinary research project, the authors intend to test the hypothesis that the Lake Chad region, beyond its trans-Saharan linkages, was once a major crossroads for a yet undocumented east-west trans-Sudanic route linking the Middle Nile Valley with West Africa in medieval times. The present paper introduces the historical and archaeological background to the research project, its timeframe, overall objectives and the methodologies employed for disentangling one of the most puzzling themes in Central Sudanic archaeology and history.