Towards a Better Understanding of Sub-Saharan Settlement Mounds before AD 1400: The Tells of Sadia on the Seno Plain (Dogon Country, Mali)

Huysecom, Éric; Ozainne, Sylvain; Jeanbourquin, Chrystel; Mayor, Anne; Canetti, Marie; Loukou, Serge; Chaix, Louis; Eichhorn, Barbara; Lespez, Laurent; Drezen, Yann Le; Nema, Guindo

doi:10.3213/2191-5784-10266

Cited by 24 publications

(39 citation statements)

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“…Between 1997 and 2011, a large research project led by the University of Geneva has conducted excavations at several sites on the plateau, on the escarpment, and in the Plain, allowing for a better understanding of the population history of the region (Huysecom et al, ; Mayor, ; Mayor et al, ; Mayor, Huysecom, Gallay, Rasse, & Ballouche, ; Ozainne, Mayor, & Huysecom, ). Taking into account the continuity of occupation over the last 2,500 years and the diversity of ceramic traditions, we have introduced the term “pre‐Dogon” for past communities dating between the mid‐first millennium BC and the mid‐second millennium AD, before the arrival of the Dogon.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fish and mollusks found in temporary ponds are also well represented. All these remains indicate mastery of a Sudano‐Sahelian agro‐forestry system with fallows, the use of varied landscapes dominated by wooded savannahs for hunting, and intensive exploitation of aquatic environments (Huysecom et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Compared with Sadia, cattle are less well represented, but caprines are found in abundance. Wild fauna is rare and there are no fish or mollusks (Huysecom et al, ). No archeobotany has been conducted on these sites; hence, we have no knowledge of the kinds of plants exploited.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diet variability among pre‐Dogon and early Dogon populations (Mali) from stable isotopes and dental diseases

Dlamini

Sealy

Mayor

2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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Aims and Objectives: This article reports on diet variability in the Dogon Country (Mali) through a bio-archeological study of pre-Dogon and early Dogon human remains (7th century to 19th century AD) from collective burial caves in the Bandiagara Escarpment.Materials and Methods: Two hundred and twenty crania from collections curated in Leiden, Paris, and Bamako were studied for dental diseases. In a subset of teeth (n = 175), δ 13 C and δ 15 N were measured in bulk dentine samples.Results: δ 13 C and δ 15 N values vary widely (−15.4 to −6.0‰ for δ 13 C, 6.0-14.8‰ for δ 15 N, n = 175), and indicate diets dominated by C 4 -based foods with a focus on plants;animal products played a minor role. There are significant differences between the δ 13 C values from older (pre-Dogon) and younger (Dogon) periods. Frequencies of caries, antemortem tooth loss, and abscesses increase significantly through time. Individuals from northern caves have more positive δ 13 C and δ 15 N values than southern ones. Discussion and Conclusions: The temporal shifts are probably due to progressive diversification of foods, consistent with archeological evidence showing the addition of rice and vegetables to pearl millet. The geographical disparity is explained by a combination of climatic, environmental, and cultural factors. Last, intersite differences imply that different communities (or subsections thereof) disposed of their dead in different caves.Based on a large sample extending over a wider area and longer time frame than previous work, our study shows that diets in the Dogon Country were neither uniform nor continuous through time, as previously proposed. Our results attest to a complex history of settlement and foodways. K E Y W O R D Scarbon and nitrogen isotopes, dental caries, Dogon Country, Mali, West Africa

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diet variability among pre‐Dogon and early Dogon populations (Mali) from stable isotopes and dental diseases

Dlamini

Sealy

Mayor

2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…; Dueppen ; Gestrich Holl ; Holl and Koté ; Huysecom et al. ; Koté ; Lingané ; Loukou et al. ; MacDonald et al.…”

Section: Clustered Settlements and Non‐centralized Complexityunclassified

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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“…Loukou et al , ‘L'occupation humaine’. Huysecom et al ‘Settlement Mounds’. Mayor, Traditions céramiques .…”

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The Archaeology of West Africa, ca. 800 BCE to 1500 CE

Dueppen¹

2016

History Compass

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Recent archaeological research has transformed our understandings of events and processes in West Africa between the beginning of iron‐use ca. 800 BCE and the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century CE, forcing reinterpretations of older narratives that were derived from unbalanced archaeological coverage and over‐privileging of the limited textual record. During this period, economic experimentation and transformation were common in West Africa, as farming economies ultimately expanded over the entire region, while specialization and artistic traditions developed within societies for the production of iron, pottery, textiles, terracotta figurines, glass and copper‐based objects. Some societies actively participated in interregional economies and cultivated the growth of trans‐Saharan trade routes, resulting in the development of large‐scale medieval states and empires (e.g. Ghana and Mali) and initial conversions to Islam in northern locations, while elsewhere societies were more focused on local sources of power and authority. Sociopolitical systems varied significantly throughout the region and included mobile foraging groups, diverse village communities, cities with large palaces, cities without hierarchical leadership and territorial states with no urban centres. This article provides an overview of this exciting era in the African past, calling attention to both regional and local historical trajectories.

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Towards a Better Understanding of Sub-Saharan Settlement Mounds before AD 1400: The Tells of Sadia on the Seno Plain (Dogon Country, Mali)

Abstract: International audienc

Cited by 24 publications

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Diet variability among pre‐Dogon and early Dogon populations (Mali) from stable isotopes and dental diseases

Diet variability among pre‐Dogon and early Dogon populations (Mali) from stable isotopes and dental diseases

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

The Archaeology of West Africa, ca. 800 BCE to 1500 CE

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