Initial Encounters: Seeking traces of ancient trade connections between West Africa and the wider world

Direct evidence for agricultural intensification during the first two millennia AD in northeast Burkina Faso

“…While iron metallurgy had been well-established in Africa from the middle of the first millennium BC (Chirikure, 2013), iron artefacts remained rare until larger scale production began in the second millennium cal AD (Barros, 1986;Serneels, 2017). There is evidence for trade in exotic goods from the second half of the first millennium AD (Magnavita, 2013), which may have supported the rise of urban centres and the emergence of the first West African kingdoms of Ghana, Gao, Mali and Songhai (MacDonald, 2013: 838-840). These empires controlled regional economies exchanging commodities such as grain, animal products, gold and iron across the Sahara.…”

The settlement mound of Birnin Lafiya: new evidence from the eastern arc of the Niger River

“…Recent research is rebalancing the picture following decades of scholarly focus on the western Sahel, and is showing the importance of this eastern arc of the Niger, including relating to questions of trans-Saharan trade (Nixon et al 2011; Magnavita 2013, 2015). For instance, the cemetery site of Kissi (Burkina Faso) demonstrates exchange of some kind with North Africa throughout the first millennium AD (Magnavita 2009, 2015), a scenario confirmed by recent results from the Republic of Niger (Magnavita 2013). The eastern arc of the Niger River was also central in the later development of large-scale polities such as the Songhai ‘empire’ along the Niger.…”

The origins and development of Zuwīla, Libyan Sahara: an archaeological and historical overview of an ancient oasis town and caravan centre

“…The material evidence from this period is growing, both within the Sahara itself (Wilson 2012;Mattingly 2013b) and to its south (Insoll 2003;MacDonald 2011;Magnavita 2013), such that we can attest to examples of contacts and movement of goods, though the scale and nature of trade overall remain difficult to delineate when so many of the probable key commodities are archaeologically invisible or at best severely under-represented in the surviving material record. Between the Garamantes and Rome there were certainly substantial contacts.…”

“…Gold was an important component of later Saharan trade and is a plausible candidate for the elusive smoking gun to satisfy sceptics concerning pre-Islamic activity (Bovill 1968;Garrard 1982;Wilson 2012). The hunt continues for pre-Islamic gold-working sites that also have materials of Garamantian or Mediterranean provenance (Kissi in Burkina Faso is plausibly close to gold workings, but still lacks the vital proof of processing; Magnavita 2003Magnavita , 2008Magnavita , 2009Magnavita , 2013cf. MacDonald 2011).…”

“…On the southern fringes of the Sahara there is firm evidence of trans-Saharan contacts in the earlier first millennium AD at sites such as Kissi in Burkina Faso and Culabel and Siouré in Senegal (MacDonald 2011;Magnavita 2013). However, sites dating to the seventh to tenth centuries, such as Tadmakka, Gao, Marandet and Kumbi Saleh show a step-change in the volume of importations such as beads and glazed ceramics at this time (Insoll 1996;Magnavita et al 2007;Nixon 2009;MacDonald 2011;Magnavita 2013). Yet, this has always been at odds with the evidence from the Libyan Sahara where sites linked to the Garamantes, whose power flourished in the first to sixth centuries AD, demonstrate plentiful evidence of wide trading contacts (Mattingly 2013a).…”