Ounjougou
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Ounjougou is the name of a
lieu-dit ''Lieu-dit'' (; plural: ''lieux-dits'') (literally ''said-location'') is a French toponymic term for a small geographical area bearing a traditional name. The name usually refers to some characteristic of the place, its former use, a past event, ...
found in the middle of an important complex of archaeological sites in the Upper Yamé Valley on the Bandiagara Plateau, in
Dogon Country Dogon country (French: ''Pays Dogon'') is a region of eastern Mali and northwestern Burkina Faso populated mainly by the Dogon people, a diverse ethnic group in West Africa with Dogon languages, diverse languages. Like the term Serer country occup ...
,
Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
. The Ounjougou archaeological complex consists of over a hundred sites. The analysis of many layers rich in archaeological and botanical remains has enabled establishment of a major chronological, cultural and environmental sequence crucial to understand settlement patterns in the
Inland Niger Delta The Inner Niger Delta, also known as the Macina or Masina, is the inland delta of the Niger River. It is an area of fluvial wetlands, lakes and floodplains in the semi-arid Sahel area of central Mali, just south of the Sahara desert. Location ...
and
West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...
. Ounjougou has yielded the earliest pottery found in Africa, and is believed to be one of the earliest regions (along with East Asia) in which the independent development of pottery occurred. Simon Bradley, ''A Swiss-led team of archaeologists has discovered pieces of the oldest African pottery in central Mali, dating back to at least 9,400BC''
, SWI swissinfo.ch – the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), 18 January 2007


Geographic and historical context of research

A recent transformation of the Yamé River made possible the discovery of the archaeological richness of Ounjougou. Indeed, a major flood considerably changed the configuration of the watercourse by redesigning its much lower path, leading to strong
regressive erosion Headward erosion is erosion at the origin of a stream channel, which causes the origin to move back away from the direction of the stream flow, lengthening the stream channel.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Ed, Stephen Marshak It can also refer to ...
in the surrounding
Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...
formations. This vertical incision, responsible for spectacular gullies now visible in the area, has created natural sections exceeding 10 meters in height.Rasse M., Soriano S., Tribolo Ch., Stokes S., Huysecom E. 2004. La séquence pléistocène supérieur d’Ounjougou (Pays dogon, Afrique de l’Ouest): évolution géomorphologique, enregistrements sédimentaires et changements culturels. Quaternaire 15/4, 329-341. The stratigraphic sequence revealed contains many archaeological layers attributable to a broad chronological range extending from the
Lower Paleolithic The Lower Paleolithic (or Lower Palaeolithic) is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3 million years ago when the first evidence for stone tool production and use by hominins appears in ...
to the present. The Ounjougou sequence is also notable for a series of extremely rich
Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...
layers rich in well-preserved organic remains (charcoal, pollen, leaves, seeds and wood), offering the opportunity to directly address the relationship between human occupations and climatic and environmental variability throughout a long sequence. Ounjougou was first discovered in 1994. Research carried out at the Ounjougou site complex between 1997 and 2004 led to the proposal of an initial scenario for the history of human settlement in the
Dogon Dogon may refer to: *Dogon people, an ethnic group living in the central plateau region of Mali, in West Africa *Dogon languages, a small, close-knit language family spoken by the Dogon people of Mali *'' Dogon A.D.'', an album by saxophonist Juliu ...
Country which, however, still contained several archaeological or sedimentary gaps.Mayor A., Huysecom E., Gallay A., Rasse M., Ballouche A. 2005. Population dynamics and Paleoclimate over the past 3000 years in the Dogon Country, Mali. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24, 25-61. From 2005, research was progressively expanded to the Bandiagara Cliff and the Séno Plain with the aim of testing the settlement model defined at Ounjougou and understanding the different gaps shown in the Yamé Valley sequence. Many Pleistocene and Holocene sites were discovered.Huysecom E., Mayor A., Ozainne S., Robion-Brunner C., Ballouche A., Cissé L., Eichhorn B., Garnier A., Le Drezen Y., Lespez L., Loukou S., Rasse M, Sanogo K., Serneels V., Soriano S., Soulignac R., Taibi N. & Tribolo C. 2010. Le Pays dogon et son passé: apports de la douzième année de recherches du programme « Peuplement humain et évolution paléoclimatique en Afrique de l’Ouest ». In: Jahresbericht SLSA 2009. Zürich et Vaduz: Fondation Suisse-Liechtenstein pour les recherches archéologiques à l’étranger, 79-176.Tribolo C., Mercier N., Rasse M., Soriano S., Huysecom E. 2010. Kobo 1 and L’abri aux Vaches (Mali, West Africa): Two case studies for the optical dating of bioturbated sediments. Quaternary Geochronology 5, 317-323.Mayor, A. 2011. Traditions céramiques dans la boucle du Niger. Ethnoarchéologie et histoire du peuplement au temps des empires précoloniaux. Frankfurt am main: Africa Magna Verlag. (Journal of African archeology monograph series; 7, Peuplement humain & paléoenvironnement en Afrique de l’Ouest; 2).Mayor A., Huysecom E., Ozainne S. & Magnavita S., 2014. Early social complexity in the Dogon Country (Mali) as evidenced by a new chronology of funerary practices, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 34, 17-41. Fieldwork in the Dogon Country was interrupted in 2011 due to increasingly unstable security conditions. Today, the term Ounjougou is associated with the research undertaken within the international program "Human population and palaeoenvironment in Africa", created in 1997.Huysecom E., 2014. Archaeology of the Ounjougou Site Complex. In: Smith C. (ed), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology vol. 11, New-York: Springer, 5664-5670. This program is coordinated at the
University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by John Calvin as a theological seminary. It remained focused on theology until the 17th centu ...
(Switzerland) by the laboratory Archéologie et Peuplement de l'Afrique at the Anthropology Unit, Department of Genetics and Evolution.


The archaeological and environmental sequence at Ounjougou


Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

A high resolution
Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
sequence could be established at Ounjougou, in particular due to 50 OSL dates in strict association with the geomorphological analysis of the formations.Robert A. Soriano S., Rasse M., Stokes S., Huysecom E. 2003. First chrono-cultural reference framework for the West African Palaeolithic: new data from Ounjougou (Dogon Country, Mali).
Journal of African Archaeology The ''Journal of African Archaeology'' is a biannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering archaeological studies on Africa. It was established by Sonja Magnavita in 2003. From 2003 to 2016, the Centre for Interdisciplinary African Studies and t ...
1/2, 151-169.
Moreover, some sedimentary gaps observed in the Ounjougou Pleistocene sequence appear to coincide with abrupt Heinrich climatic events during isotopic stage 3 (H5 and H4).Soriano S., Rasse M., Tribolo C. & Huysecom E., 2010. Ounjougou: a long Middle Stone Age sequence in the Dogon country (Mali). In: Allsworth-Jones Ph (ed), West African Archaeology. New developments, new perspectives, Oxford: BAR International Series 2164, 1-14. The earliest evidence of human occupation is seen at several sites in the complex in the form of a
lithic industry :''Not to be confused with industrial archaeology, the archaeology of (modern) industrial sites.'' In the archaeology of the Stone Age, an industry or technocomplex is a typological classification of stone tools. An industry consists of a nu ...
composed of quartzitic sandstone polyhedrals and sub-spheroids associated with worked cobbles (Soriano et al. 2010). The technological and typological aspects of these artifacts suggest an early phase of the Palaeolithic and have been observed in stratigraphic context in lenses of coarse sands indurated with iron oxide adhering to bedrock. An OSL date of the Final Middle Pleistocene, around 180,000 years, was obtained for the deposits overlying these formations, forming a
terminus ante quem ''Terminus post quem'' ("limit after which", sometimes abbreviated to TPQ) and ''terminus ante quem'' ("limit before which", abbreviated to TAQ) specify the known limits of dating for events or items.. A ''terminus post quem'' is the earliest da ...
for this lithic industry. Its technical characteristics, however, suggest an age of at least 500,000 years ago. Although having widespread archaeological visibility, the
Acheulean Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French ''acheuléen'' after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated ...
has until now been absent in the Ounjougou zone and the Dogon Country in general. This may indicate the existence in West Africa of regions unfrequented by Acheulean populations, although well represented in neighboring regions. All of the other Pleistocene lithic industries at Ounjougou are chronologically associated with the Middle Palaeolithic. A Levallois core with preferential removals, found isolated in stratigraphic context, is the first evidence for the Middle Paleolithic at Ounjougou. The OSL date on the context places this core around 150,000 BP during the Late Middle Pleistocene. Middle Palaeolithic occupations in the Ounjougou zone, all open-air sites, become even more common during the Upper Pleistocene: 25 different typo-technological groups were identified between 100,000 and 22,000 BP, with a particular concentration during isotopic stage 3 between 50,000 and 30,000 BP ). The industries between 100,000 and 20,000 BP are extremely diverse. The appearance of blade production around 65,000 BP, followed by discoidal reduction around 60,000 BP, the appearance of foliate bifacial pieces around 50,000 BP and the disappearance of
Levallois technique The Levallois technique () is a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping developed around 250,000 to 300,000 years ago during the Middle Palaeolithic period. It is part of the Mousterian stone tool industry, and was u ...
around 30,000 BP are the most notable events during the sequence. In the Middle Paleolithic sequence we also note the occurrence of a quartz cobble industry with characteristics comparable to an early Palaeolithic. The study of several sites at Ounjougou has also enabled description of a new industry with massive tools (rabots) and pieces obtained by bipolar-on-anvil percussion. The existence of this kind of assemblage was subsequently confirmed by the excavation of a rock shelter on the
Bandiagara Bandiagara () is a small town and urban commune in the Mopti Region of Mali. The name translates roughly to "large eating bowl"—referring to the communal bowl meals are served in. Mainly on its Bandiagara Escarpment it has about 2,000 speakers ...
escarpment. The diversity of Middle Paleolithic industries and their succession without obvious logic suggests regular renewal of human groups in the region. Between 20,000 and 10,000 BP we then observe a significant hiatus, largely due to the dry Ogolian period.


Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...


Early Holocene (>9500 BC-6750 BC)

At the onset of the Holocene,
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
appears early at Ounjougou, during the first half of the 10th millennium BC. The region was then confronted with the return of more humid conditions linked to a rapid return of the monsoons after the
Younger Dryas The Younger Dryas (c. 12,900 to 11,700 years BP) was a return to glacial conditions which temporarily reversed the gradual climatic warming after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, c. 27,000 to 20,000 years BP). The Younger Dryas was the last stage ...
and the development of an open grassland
savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
on the Bandiagara Plateau.Lespez L., Le Drezen Y., Garnier A., Rasse M., Eichhorn B., Ozainne S., Ballouche A., Neumann K., Huysecom E. 2011. High-resolution fluvial records of Holocene environmental changes in the Sahel: the Yamé River at Ounjougou (Mali, West Africa). Quaternary Science reviews, Volume 30, Issues 5-6, 737-756. In this context, populations made pottery characterized especially by small bowls and imprinted décors. The appearance of pottery at Ounjougou is associated with a small bifacial point
lithic industry :''Not to be confused with industrial archaeology, the archaeology of (modern) industrial sites.'' In the archaeology of the Stone Age, an industry or technocomplex is a typological classification of stone tools. An industry consists of a nu ...
. These innovations are quite likely linked to environmental changes during the establishment of tropical savannas during the Early Holocene, the new composition of hunted fauna that resulted and the development of edible wild grasses. This phase thus probably coincides with the establishment of a form of proto-agricultural economy, consisting of a strategy of selective and intensive gathering of grasses. In the layers dated to the 8th mill. BC, the pottery is also associated with grinding materials (grindstones and crushers). This occupation phase at Ounjougou was thus associated with an early
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
. In the 10th millennium BCE, Niger-Congo speakers developed pyrotechnology and employed subsistence strategy at Ounjougou, Mali. Prior to 9400 BCE, Niger-Congo speakers independently created and used matured ceramic technology (e.g.,
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...
, pots) to contain and
cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...
grains (e.g.,
Digitaria exilis ''Digitaria exilis'', referred to as findi or fundi in areas of Africa, such as The Gambia, with English common names white fonio, fonio millet, and hungry rice or acha rice, is a grass species. It is the most important of a diverse group of wild ...
,
pearl millet Pearl millet (''Cenchrus americanus'', commonly known as the synonym ''Pennisetum glaucum''; also known as 'Bajra' in Hindi, 'Sajje' in Kannada, 'Kambu' in Tamil, 'Bajeer' in Kumaoni and 'Maiwa' in Hausa, 'Mexoeira' in Mozambique) is the most w ...
); ethnographically and historically, West African women have been the creators of pottery in most West African
ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
traditions and their production of ceramics is closely associated with
creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary w ...
and
fertility Fertility is the capability to produce offspring through reproduction following the onset of sexual maturity. The fertility rate is the average number of children born by a female during her lifetime and is quantified demographically. Fertili ...
. Amid the tenth millennium BCE, microlith-using West Africans migrated into and dwelt in Ounjougou alongside earlier residing West Africans in Ounjougou. Among two existing cultural areas, earlier residing West Africans in Ounjougou were of a cultural area encompassing the
Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...
region (e.g., Tenere, Niger/Chad;
Air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...
, Niger; Acacus, Libya/Algeria; Tagalagal, Niger; Temet, Niger) of
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and microlith-using West Africans were of a cultural area encompassing the forest region of West Africa. Following the Ogolian period, between the late 10th millennium BCE and early 9th millennium BCE, the creators of the Ounjougou pottery – the earliest pottery in Africa – migrated, along with their pottery, from Ounjougou, Mali into the Central
Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...
. Whether or not Ounjougou ceramic culture spread as far as Bir Kiseiba, Egypt, which had pottery that resembled Ounjougou pottery, had implements used for grinding like at Ounjougou, and was followed by subsequent ceramic cultures (e.g., Wadi el Akhdar, Sarurab,
Nabta Playa Nabta Playa was once a large Endorheic basin, internally drained basin in the Nubian Desert, located approximately 800 kilometers south of modern-day Cairo or about 100 kilometers west of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, 22.51° north, 30.7 ...
), remains to be determined. The emergence and expansion of ceramics in the Sahara may be linked with the origin of both the Round Head and Kel Essuf rock art, which occupy rockshelters in the same regions (e.g.,
Djado Djado is a ghost town in Bilma in Niger. The settlement lies on the plateau with the same name. The settlement likely wasn't called Djado during its existence. The site is quite remote. No excavation has been done, so the real name of the settle ...
, Acacus, Tadrart) as well as have a common resemblance (e.g., traits, shapes). In the Central Sahara, the
Kel Essuf Period Kel Essuf rock art is the earliest form of engraved anthropomorphic Central Saharan rock art, which was produced prior to 9800 BP, at least as early as 12,000 BP amid the Late Pleistocene, late period of the Pleistocene. The Kel Essuf Period is pr ...
and
Round Head Period Round Head rock art is the earliest painted, monumental form of Central Saharan rock art, which was largely created from 9500 BP to 7500 BP and ceased being created by 3000 BP. The Round Head Period is preceded by the Kel Essuf Period and follo ...
were followed by the Pastoral Period. As a result of increasing
aridification Aridification is the process of a region becoming increasingly arid, or dry. It refers to long term change, rather than seasonal variation. It is often measured as the reduction of average soil moisture content. It can be caused by reduced precip ...
of the Green Sahara, Central Saharan
hunter-gatherers A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...
and cattle
herders A herder is a pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic or transhumant management of stock, or with common land grazing. ...
may have used seasonal waterways as the migratory route taken to the
Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...
and
Chad Basin The Chad Basin is the largest endorheic basin in Africa, centered on Lake Chad. It has no outlet to the sea and contains large areas of semi-arid desert and savanna. The drainage basin is roughly coterminous with the sedimentary basin of the sam ...
of West Africa.


Middle Holocene (6750-3300 BC)

In general, the hydrographic functioning of the Yamé Valley during the Middle Holocene clearly reflects the more humid climatic context of tropical Africa between 5300 and 3000 BC. The occupation of Ounjougou is marked by an important archaeological hiatus of about 2000 years after the end of the Early Holocene. A workshop specialized in quartzitic sandstone bifacially shaped points evidences a new occupation of the Yamé Valley between the 6th and 4th mill. BC.


Late Holocene (3300-400 BC)

At the Middle to Late Holocene transition, the Ounjougou zone was still part of a dense wooded Sudanian savanna associated with wetlands with Guinean affinities. Between 2600 and 2200 BC, the vegetal landscapes began to change, corresponding to a shift in vegetation zones reflecting a reduction in precipitation and a tendency toward more arid conditions. It is possible that during this same period, pastoral populations from the southern edge of the Sahara frequented the Yamé Valley during seasonal transhumance.Ozainne S. 2013. Un Néolithique ouest-africain. Cadre chrono-culturel, économique et environnemental de l’Holocène récent en pays dogon (Mali). Journal of African Archaeology monograph series, 8 (Peuplement humain et paléoenvironnement en Afrique de l’Ouest, 3). Frankfurt am Main: Africa Magna Verlag. Archaeological and botanical remains indicate that agricultural populations settled in the Yamé Valley between 1800 and 1400 BC in an arid climatic context but more humid than the present day. Between 1400 and 800 BC, agricultural populations developed and created farming villages or hamlets in the Yamé Valley. Some traits of the material culture of this period indicate links with several regions located in the confines of the
Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...
and the
Sahel The Sahel (; ar, ساحل ' , "coast, shore") is a region in North Africa. It is defined as the ecoclimatic and biogeographic realm of transition between the Sahara to the north and the Sudanian savanna to the south. Having a hot semi-arid c ...
, such as Gourma and
Méma Méma is a region in Mali, Africa. A plain of alluvial deposits, it is situated north of Massina; west of Lake Debo and the Inner Niger Delta; and southwest of the Lakes Region. The now-senescent basin may have been the first settlement area for ...
, reflecting a vast cultural current drawing at least part of its origins in the Dhars region in southeast
Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...
. The
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
at Ounjougou ends between 800 and 400 BC. The archaeological sequence is then interrupted by a hiatus of a few centuries, in part linked to more arid climatic conditions ).


Terminal Holocene (400 BC-present)

From an archaeological perspective, the pre-Dogon period is dated at Ounjougou from the 4th century BC, but its floruit is situated between the 7th and 13th centuries AD. The
ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...
and metallic assemblages for this period are well known due to the study of the site of Dangandouloun, a rock shelter with ritual function. In the near
Bandiagara Escarpment The Bandiagara Escarpment is an escarpment in the Dogon country of Mali. The sandstone cliff rises about above the lower sandy flats to the south. It has a length of approximately . The area of the escarpment is inhabited today by the Dogon pe ...
, on the site of Dourou-Boro, a set of funerary structures built of clay coiling between the 3rd and 4th century and used until the 9th century AD is also attributed to pre-Dogon period. These findings, which have filled an important archaeological hiatus, question the concept of
Toloy Toloy is the name given to the first occupantsBedaux, Rogier Michiel Alphons, « Tellem, reconnaissance archéologique d'une culture de l'Ouest africain au Moyen Âge : recherches architectoniques », ''Journal de la Société des Africanistes'' ( ...
and
Tellem The Tellem (meaning: "those who were before us" or "We found them" in the Dogon languageBedaux, Rogier M. A., ''Tellem, reconnaissance archéologique d'une culture de l'Ouest africain au Moyen Age : recherches architectoniques'', Journal de la ...
cultures, studied in the caves of the cliff near Sangha. The model which has been commonly accepted since the 1970s emphasizes the existence of a gap between the Toloy and
Tellem The Tellem (meaning: "those who were before us" or "We found them" in the Dogon languageBedaux, Rogier M. A., ''Tellem, reconnaissance archéologique d'une culture de l'Ouest africain au Moyen Age : recherches architectoniques'', Journal de la ...
entities, not only on the basis of a chronological hiatus and architectural differences, but also from important cultural differences revealed by the ceramic traditions. Recent data argue for a revision of this paradigm, which assumes a three-step population model (Toloy, Tellem and Dogon). Newly acquired information rather suggests that the Dogon country has been for the past two millennia an open region, integrating over the centuries many cultural features through migrant group, craftmen, objects and savoir-faire from multiple areas, such as the Mema and the
Inland Niger delta The Inner Niger Delta, also known as the Macina or Masina, is the inland delta of the Niger River. It is an area of fluvial wetlands, lakes and floodplains in the semi-arid Sahel area of central Mali, just south of the Sahara desert. Location ...
in the northwest, the Gourma or Oudalan east, Burkina Faso or voltaic south eastern Senegal, without a complete turnover of the population. Research at Ounjougou also showed links between the Bandiagara Plateau and the neighboring Mandé, Gur and Songhay ethnolinguistic spheres. Analysis of the surface ceramic assemblages from a dozen abandoned villages near Ounjougou and
radiocarbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...
of one of these indicate that the Bandiagara Plateau was occupied by the Dogon from the 15th century AD. In addition, ethnohistorical surveys reveal several waves of settlement by different Dogon clans, followed by multiple relocations and reoccupations of villages linked to climatic, environmental or political causes, today reflected in a certain number of land conflicts. The Dogon populations have been the focus of many ethnohistorical and ethnoarchaeological studies, especially regarding the different ceramic traditions and metallurgical production.Gallay A., Huysecom E., Mayor A. & Gelbert A. 2012. Potières du Sahel. A la découverte des traditions céramiques de la Boucle du Niger (Mali). Golion: Infolio, 373 p.


References


External links


Ounjougou "Human settlement and palaeoenvironment in West Africa"
{{coord, 14.6333, N, 3.2333, W, source:wikidata, display=title Archaeological sites in Mali Archaeological sites of Western Africa