Zilum: a mid-first millennium BC fortified settlement near Lake Chad

Populations and Climatic Evolution in North Tropical Africa from the End of the Neolithic to the Dawn of the Modern Era

“…The first phase of the BGajigana culture^is associated with the last period of the Late Stone Age and settled as early as 3800 cal BP on the firki clay plain, southwest of Lake Chad (Magnavita et al 2006). This settlement shows clearly that the spatial extent of the last phase of the Paleo-Chad beginning at this time, after the major dry phase around 4000 cal BP, was restricted and remained below 228 m elevation.…”

“…This settlement shows clearly that the spatial extent of the last phase of the Paleo-Chad beginning at this time, after the major dry phase around 4000 cal BP, was restricted and remained below 228 m elevation. The second phase of the Gajigana culture occurred between 3500 and 3000 cal BP, with the settlement of villages and cultivation of millet (Magnavita et al 2006). The following arid phase between 2800 and 2500 cal BP led to the scattering of these communities (Breunig and Neumann 2002).…”

“…The following arid phase between 2800 and 2500 cal BP led to the scattering of these communities (Breunig and Neumann 2002). However, after 2500 cal BP, archaeologists observe Bthe sudden rise of densely populated, nucleated, and fortified settlements in the middle of the 1st millennium BC Sahel^and explain this phenomenon by various conflicts between populations (Magnavita et al 2006, mainly for the site of Zilum), but at this time, the return of better climatic conditions played an important role. This third phase is associated with the Early Iron Age, as iron appeared around 2300 cal BP in areas associated with the Gajigana culture (Breunig 2009).…”

“…288 m to the southeast of the present-day lake (Maley 2010). We know that Lake Chad-which corresponded approximately to the southern part of this last Paleo-Chad-occupied a place close to the present-day lake, for on the clay plain south of the lake, the first habitats were dated toward 3800 cal BP (Connah 1981;Magnavita et al 2006;Breunig 2009). The feeding of this latter phase of Paleo-Chad was made, in one part by the rainfall on the Sahel and the southern Sahara-because lake deposits from this period were found at the same latitudes in the small isolated depressions of the eastern neighbor Niger (Servant 1973;Maley 2010)-and in another part by the fluvial input coming from the south of the basin that transited by the Brecent delta^that Schneider (1969Schneider ( , 1994 described on the north of the plain of Chari-Baguirmi, with its frontal zone situated toward the altitude of 286 m and its distal apex toward 300 m.…”

The Elusive Archaeology of Kongo Urbanism: the Case of Kindoki, Mbanza Nsundi (Lower Congo, DRC)

“…In order to identify such a signature, one could carry out physical and electronic subsurface prospections associated to large-scale spatial excavations, as has been done elsewhere in Africa to improve the archaeological visibility of ancient urbanism (Magnavita et al 2006;Connah 2008). For logistic reasons, such subsurface surveys using magnetics or ground-penetrating radar have not been applied yet to the Kindoki Hill site.…”