Megalithic monumentality in Africa: from graves to stone circles at Wanar, Senegal

Abstract

The World Heritage Site of Wanar in Senegal features 21 stone circles, remarkable not least because they were erected in the twelfth and thirteenth century AD, when Islam ruled the Indian Ocean and Europe was in its Middle Ages. The state of preservation has benefited the exemplary investigation currently carried out by a French-Senegalese team, which we are pleased to report here. The site began as a burial ground to which monumental stones were added, perhaps echoing the form of original funerary houses. Found in a neighbouring field were scoops left from the cutting out of the cylindrical monoliths from surface rock. While the origins of Wanar lie in a period of state formation, the monuments are shown to have had a long ritual use. The investigation not only provides a new context for one of the most important sites in West Africa but the precise determination of the sequence and techniques used at Wanar offers key pointers for the understanding of megalithic structures everywhere.

Monumental funerary landscapes of Dhar Tagant (south‐eastern Mauritania): Towards ethical satellite remote sensing in the West African Sahel

“…A lack of association between spaces of the living and funerary landscapes has also been documented for the tumuli fields in Pays Dô, interpreted as persistent focal points in the sacred landscape of the 12 Dô villages, integrated ideologically through ritual practices associated with an interconnected network of shrines (MacDonald et al, 2018). Similarly, the Senegambian tumuli fields along the River Gambia (Sine Ngayène, Wanar, Wassu and Kerbatch), encompassing over 1500 years of human funerary practices and statecraft practices, lack associated settlements despite comprehensive ground surveys (Bocoum, 2000;Gallay et al, 1982;Laporte et al, 2012). The investment of wealth and labour involved in the construction of large earthen mounds and megalithic monuments is considerable, as these sites contain over a thousand funerary monuments, combining earthen mounds and almost a hundred stone circles made of carefully worked laterite pillars (Gallay, 2006;Holl et al, 2007;Laporte et al, 2012;Ozanne, 1965;Thilmans et al, 1980).…”

“…Similarly, the Senegambian tumuli fields along the River Gambia (Sine Ngayène, Wanar, Wassu and Kerbatch), encompassing over 1500 years of human funerary practices and statecraft practices, lack associated settlements despite comprehensive ground surveys (Bocoum, 2000;Gallay et al, 1982;Laporte et al, 2012). The investment of wealth and labour involved in the construction of large earthen mounds and megalithic monuments is considerable, as these sites contain over a thousand funerary monuments, combining earthen mounds and almost a hundred stone circles made of carefully worked laterite pillars (Gallay, 2006;Holl et al, 2007;Laporte et al, 2012;Ozanne, 1965;Thilmans et al, 1980). This pattern indicates a degree of social stratification in the wider Senegambia region, whose geographical positioning may have allowed these agricultural communities to control the flows of valuable mineral resources, such as iron and gold (Posnansky, 1973(Posnansky, , 1982.…”

Alisa LaGamma (Ed.): Sahel: Art and Empires on the Shores of the Sahara

“…(p. 53). So far, the site of Wanar is dated to the twelfth-thirteenth century AD (Laporte et al 2012). The stratified deposit with late-second millennium BC material, alluded to in that quote, is Monument 25 from the Ngayene II complex containing a lower level of four burials dated to 1362-1195 al BC (Dak-1457) (Holl and Bocoum 2017, p. 188).…”

Understanding Archaeological Tells: Circulating Memories and Engaging with Ancestors through Material Attachments

“…While ancestral rituals are central to understanding mound formation at Kirikongo and probably other mounds in West Africa, it is clear that ancestor-related ritual practices and site creation are not solely associated with mound formation. For example, the famous Senegambian megalithic monuments of the first and second millennia CE have been reinterpreted not as stone circles, but rather as houses of the dead made of durable materials (laterite) (Holl & Bocoum 2017;Holl et al 2007;Laporte et al 2012). Accompanied by ritual offerings, the complexes of these monuments are likely to have served as regional anchors for communities that moved intergenerationally.…”