Excavations at Gao Saney: New Evidence for Settlement Growth, Trade, and Interaction on the Nige r Bend in the First Millennium CE

Abstract

Along with Ghana, Gawgaw (Gao) was an important regional trading polity mentioned by Arab chroniclers in the later first millennium CE. In the later tenth century, al-Muhallabi wrote of the dual towns of Gawgaw, one the residence of the king and the other a market and trading town called Sarneh. The large settlement mound of Gao Saney, located seven kilometers east of Gao, has long been thought to be the site of Sarneh. Excavations in 2001–2 and 2009 were the first sustained archaeological explorations of the main, 32-hectare mound, providing new information on function, subsistence economy, material culture, and chronology, and expanding considerably on earlier investigations by T. Insoll and R. Mauny. This article presents a broad overview of the recent excavations, focusing particularly on the evidence for spatial differentiation (domestic and workshop areas), chronology (both radiocarbon and ceramic) and involvement in trade networks.

Ile-Ife and Igbo Olokun in the history of glass in West Africa

“…Imported soda-lime glass beads appear to have reached West Africa in small quantities before the mid first millennium AD, and then became much more common from the sixth to ninth centuries (McIntosh 1995; Nixon 2008, 2009; Robertshaw et al 2009b; Cissé et al 2013). Nearly all of the examples analysed so far that have come from West African sites of this early period are drawn beads of glass fluxed with soda derived from plant ash—a raw glass composition characteristic of sites located east of the Euphrates at this time.…”

“…A few beads made of soda-lime glass fluxed with natron have also been identified (Cissé et al . 2013). This glass was produced at Syro-Palestinian workshops for almost two millennia until the recipe switched to plant ash beginning around the eighth century AD.…”

“…This glass was produced at Syro-Palestinian workshops for almost two millennia until the recipe switched to plant ash beginning around the eighth century AD. Between the seventh and tenth centuries, large numbers of soda-lime beads reached the site of Gao on the Niger Bend (Cissé et al 2013). Farther south, at Kissi, soda-lime glass beads, woollen textiles and imported brass were found in graves dated to the sixth to seventh centuries AD (Magnavita 2009).…”

Iron Age Landscapes of the Benue River Valley, Cameroon

“…(2) Middle Niger River Valley and Oudalan Province (Albert et al 2000;Cissé et al 2013;Gado 1993Gado , 2004Mayor et al 2005;Neumann et al 2001); (3) Inland and Upper Niger and Mouhoun Bend (Filipowiak 1979;Holl 2014;McIntosh 2005;McIntosh and McIntosh 1981;McIntosh 1995;Raimbault and Sanogo 1991;Togola 1996); 4 ‡ Data from high-resolution low level gamma spectrometer were converted to infinite matrix dose rates using conversion factors given in Olley et al (1996). § Cosmic ray dose rates were calculated using the equations provided by Prescott and Hutton (1994).…”

The Glass Making Crucibles from Ile-Ife, SW Nigeria

“…There is evidence for secondary finishing of glass beads from several places in sub-Saharan Africa beginning as early as the eighth century AD (e.g. Cisse 2010;Cissé et al 2013;Wood et al 2012), using glass imported either from the Islamic lands north of the Sahara, or from India or Europe via sea-borne trade (Wood et al 2016). In contrast, glass beads found in Ile-Ife, a major Yoruba settlement in southwestern Nigeria (Fig 1), have a unique chemical composition indicative of a local, primary glass making industry in the region (Lankton et al 2006;Freestone 2006;Babalola 2015;Babalola et al 2017).…”