The Archaeology of Social Organisation at Tongo Maaré Diabal

Gestrich, Nikolas

doi:10.1080/0067270x.2013.827848

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The dates of the horizons, based on radiocarbon dates and thickness of deposits, are given in Table 2, following the recent publication by Gestrich and MacDonald (2018). More extensive excavations of the uppermost occupation horizon (c. cal A.D. 1000-1150) in 2010 uncovered household structures and buildings believed to have been used as working areas for blacksmiths (Gestrich 2013). The architectural remains have been interpreted as belonging to separate domestic compounds, inhabited by different kinship groups.…”

Section: The Archaeological Site Of Tongo Maaré Diabal Malimentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen isotope values of Pennisetum glaucum (pearl millet) grains: towards a reconstruction of past cultivation conditions in the Sahel, West Africa

Styring

Diop²,

Bogaard

et al. 2019

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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The nitrogen isotopic composition of charred wheat and barley grains reflect manuring intensity and have been used to reconstruct manuring practices at archaeological sites across Europe and western Asia. To assess whether this analytical method can be applied to a staple crop in the West African Sahel, pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), the nitrogen isotope value of pearl millet grains in this region were determined and the effect of charring ascertained. Pearl millet ears were collected from fields in northeast Senegal, where the fertilisation histories of the plots (manure and/or household waste) were known. The nitrogen isotope values of these millet grains provide an insight into the values to expect for pearl millet grains grown with low-moderate addition of manure/household waste in a similar climate. Charring of grains by heating at 215-260°C for 4-24 hours increases the nitrogen isotope values of pearl millet grains by a maximum of 0.34‰. In light of these modern data, the nitrogen isotope values of millet grains recovered from the archaeological settlement mound of Tongo Maaré Diabal, Mali can be interpreted as evidence for modest levels of manure/household waste input throughout the occupation of the site from cal A.D. 500-1150. This study demonstrates the potential for nitrogen isotope values of pearl millet grains to shed light on past farming practices in West Africa.

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Section: The Archaeological Site Of Tongo Maaré Diabal Malimentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen isotope values of Pennisetum glaucum (pearl millet) grains: towards a reconstruction of past cultivation conditions in the Sahel, West Africa

Styring

Diop²,

Bogaard

et al. 2019

Veget Hist Archaeobot

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“…All of these relate to the broader economic connections in the West African savanna and the Sahel, for which archaeological research is increasingly showing that a high-volume trade over medium to long distances developed in the mid to late first millennium. The existence of such interregional trading networks has been mostly documented in iron (Gestrich, 2013;Håland, 1980;McIntosh, 1995;Serneels & Perret, 2003) and likely also extends to foodstuffs, salt, sandstone, and charcoal. The main drivers of this trade are the diversity in ecological zones and regional variations in geology, which govern the distribution of plants, animals, and mineral resources such as iron ore, salt, and sandstone.…”

Section: Kola Trade and Trade Network In Middle Nigermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The oftencited geological and environmental differences in the West African interior appear to have been the basis for the development of high-volume long-distance trade in basic provisions, especially salt and tools, by the mid-first millennium AD. This can be seen from growing imports and less local manufacture in metropolitan areas such as Jenné-jeno (McIntosh, 1995) and increased evidence of large-scale, market-oriented manufacturing in peripheral regions (Gestrich, 2013;. Long-distance but low-volume trade in nonessential items had existed in the region since the Late Stone Age.…”

Section: What Was the Wider Trade Network And Who Were The Traders?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of an Eleventh-Century AD Cola Nitida Trade into the Middle Niger Region

et al. 2021

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Kola nut (Cola cf. nitida) and Safou fruit (Dacryodes edulis) remains have been discovered in eleventh- to fourteenth-century archaeological contexts at Togu Missiri near Ségou in Mali. These remains are evidence of early trade in perishable foodstuffs from the West African forest zone into the Middle Niger region. On the basis of these finds, this paper argues that long-distance trade links were well established by the end of the first millennium AD. It thereby supports the hypothesis that dates the inception of trade between the West African forest zone and the savanna regions to the first millennium AD. The circumstances of the find are discussed, as are the implications for our understanding of the wider exchange network based on the Niger River system in the late first and early second millennium CE.

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“…The archaeological record of central West Africa may indicate extraordinarily diverse socio‐political negotiations between centralization and decentralization, given the remarkable variety of spatial arrangements of mound clusters throughout the region (e.g., Andah ; Bedaux et al. ; Dueppen ; Gestrich Holl ; Holl and Koté ; Huysecom et al. ; Koté ; Lingané ; Loukou et al.…”

Section: Clustered Settlements and Non‐centralized Complexitymentioning

confidence: 99%

5 Bridging House to Neighborhood: The Social Dynamics of Space in Burkina Faso, West Africa

Dueppen

2019

Archaeological Papers of the American

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Important aspects of the social, economic, and political lives of large villages, towns, and cities are spatially situated within neighborhoods. In ethnohistoric central West Africa, identities derived from multi-family social "houses" with large membership frequently intersected neighborhood identities. Drawing from archaeological and ethnohistoric examples, this chapter explores how transformations in the nature of houses over time enabled the development of neighborhoods and wards in the region. At the long-lived settlement of Kirikongo, Burkina Faso (ca. 100-1700 CE), changing house identities were fundamental to a major sociopolitical transformation from a hierarchically organized community to a more egalitarian one. The restructured and now larger settlement was integrated through the physical and social opening of houses to the greater community, including the establishment of crosscutting practices and institutions. The resulting community was rooted in equitable economic interdependence between houses and characterized by a presence of a stronger spatial identity at the settlement level. As these are also typical of ethnohistoric settlements with neighborhoods and wards, the Kirikongo case study provides an example of the potential pathways by which settlements may have successfully combined the strong identities of multi-family houses into larger, spatially oriented units. In some cases, these changes may have been critical elements for the development of urbanism.

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The Archaeology of Social Organisation at Tongo Maaré Diabal

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

Nitrogen isotope values of Pennisetum glaucum (pearl millet) grains: towards a reconstruction of past cultivation conditions in the Sahel, West Africa

Nitrogen isotope values of Pennisetum glaucum (pearl millet) grains: towards a reconstruction of past cultivation conditions in the Sahel, West Africa

Evidence of an Eleventh-Century AD Cola Nitida Trade into the Middle Niger Region

5 Bridging House to Neighborhood: The Social Dynamics of Space in Burkina Faso, West Africa

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