West African Archaeology

At the time of his death, Nehemia Levtzion had initiated a project to revise Ancient Ghana and Mali in the light of new scholarship since its original publication in 1973. He proposed that the question of origins and early development of Sudanic polities such as Ghana should be thoroughly reconsidered with regard to findings from research in archaeology and related disciplines. In this article, I discuss four topics (climate variability, sedentary-mobile interactions; external / internal dynamics; and organizational variability) central to Levtzion’s 1973 account of Ghana’s origins and the implications of research results to date for our understanding of early political consolidation in the Sahel.

"The 67-ha site of Sincu Bara was discovered and extensively excavated in the 1970s. Three primary aspects of its archaeological interest were its vast size, its location in the Middle Senegal Valley, where some of the earliest regional polities in West Africa arose, and the extensive and diverse assortment of copper-based metal artifacts it produced. Deposits with brass appeared to be associated with radiocarbon dates as early as the fifth century AD. It appeared that most of the deposits related to a single, long-lasting occupation by people who arrived with sophisticated copper-based metallurgy in the fifth century and remained at least until the eleventh century, without discernible modification in their material culture. Results of new excavations in 1991–1992 indicate that this interpretation must be substantially modified, since considerable change in material culture, including the introduction of copper-based metals between AD 800 and AD 900, has now been documented. This article summarizes the data from these new excavations and suggests that earlier interpretations were based largely on material from disturbed, severely mixed deposits, which gave a false picture of homogeneity through time.

Les soixante sept héctares constituant le gisement du Sincu Bara étaient découverts et fouillés dans les années soixante dix. Son intérêt archéologique est lié aux trois aspects: sa grande superficie, sa location dans la vallée moyenne du Sénégal où les premières unités politiques de l'Afrique de l'Ouest existaient, et finalement, la diversité des objets métalliques en cuivre que le site a livrée. Il apparaît que la plupart des dépôts appartient à une seule occupation de longue durée par un peuple qui est arrivé pendant la cinquième siécle AD, en possession de la connaissance de métallurgie à base de cuivre et qui montrait au moins jusqu'au onzième siécle peu de modification dans leur culture materielle. Les résultats des fouilles de 1991–1992 montrent que cette interpretation doit être modifiée, car il y a eu du changement considérable dans le matèriel, comme l'introduction des métaux à base de cuivre entre AD 800–900. Dans cet article, nous avons résumé les résultats des nouvelles fouilles et nous suggérons que les anciennes interpretations ont été largement fondées sur du matériel perturbé, des dépôts mixtes qui donnaient une image fausse de l'homogenité pendant cette période.
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Along with Ghana, Gawgaw (Gao) was an important regional trading polity mentioned by Arab chroniclers in the later first millennium CE. In the later tenth century, al-Muhallabi wrote of the dual towns of Gawgaw, one the residence of the king and the other a market and trading town called Sarneh. The large settlement mound of Gao Saney, located seven kilometers east of Gao, has long been thought to be the site of Sarneh. Excavations in 2001–2 and 2009 were the first sustained archaeological explorations of the main, 32-hectare mound, providing new information on function, subsistence economy, material culture, and chronology, and expanding considerably on earlier investigations by T. Insoll and R. Mauny. This article presents a broad overview of the recent excavations, focusing particularly on the evidence for spatial differentiation (domestic and workshop areas), chronology (both radiocarbon and ceramic) and involvement in trade networks.

This article reports over 250 new radiocarbon dates relevant to recent archaeological research in West Africa. Thanks to the continuing trend towards series of dates from either single sites or groups of related sites, some major blanks on the archaeological map of West Africa have been replaced by well-dated regional sequences. An example is the Malian Sahara, where palaeoenvironmental and archaeological investigations at a large number of sites have clarified the relationship between Holocene climatic change and Late Stone Age occupation. Other areas that were largely archaeological unknowns until the research reported in this article was undertaken include the middle Senegal valley, the Inland Niger Delta, and the Bassar region in Togo. Other research included here reinterprets previously studied, ‘classic’ Late Stone Age sequences, such as Adrar Bous, Kintampo and Tichitt. There are also new dates and details for early copper in Niger and Mauritania which prompt a reconsideration of the true nature of this proposed ‘Copper Age’. Of particular significance to general reconstructions of West African prehistory is the documentation of regional and long-distance trade accompanying the emergence of complex societies along the Middle Senegal and Middle Niger in the first millennium A.D.
The article begins with a brief commentary on calibration, in view of the recent publication of high-precision calibration curves. Several prevalent misconceptions of what calibration is and what it ought to do are addressed. We suggest that archaeologists and historians should routinely make reference to calibration in order to avoid misinterpreting radiocarbon results.

Technological advances are making genetic data collection and analysis feasible on a scale unimaginable only a few years ago. Early genetic research using mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome provided important insights for macroscale modeling of regional and continent-wide population movements, but the capacity to study the entire genome now opens an era of finer-grained, mesoscale studies of regional and local population histories that are more compatible with the scale of archaeological analysis. The utility of integrating both types of data is illustrated by a case study from Oceania, where genetic studies were used to evaluate two models for the geographic origins of the populations that colonized Polynesia beginning ca. 3000 bp, bringing with them the distinctive Lapita cultural assemblage. A second case study considers the application of genetic studies to an understanding of Fulbe history, especially that of the pastoral Fulbe. Both archaeological and genetic data are underdeveloped for the key Fulbe homeland regions of Mauritania and Senegal, but recent research in the Middle Senegal Valley permits some conjectures on the history of Fulbe nomadic pastoralism. The article concludes with suggestions for a multidisciplinary research agenda to expand and upgrade the quality of relevant archaeological data, incorporate biodistance studies of human skeletal material, and improve and expand genetic sampling using more historically sensitive collection protocols.

This study describes the archaeological investigations that have taken place at the wreck site of the English slave ship Henrietta Marie (1700) since its location in 1972. Information is provided on the methodology utilized during on-site archaeological data recovery, and the artifacts retrieved from the wreck site are described in detail. An account of complimentary documentary research on this wrecked slaver is also presented. Contemporary historical data gleaned from shipping lists, slaver’s logs, seamen’s wills and other sources are utilized to place Henrietta Marie within her proper context as a vehicle involved in the notorious transatlantic slave trade.

Few rock paintings have been reported in the tropical forest and savanna regions of West Africa. Examination of the single rock art site known from Sierra Leone is important as it seems to fall within the same tradition as modern ritual paintings done in connection with female excision rituals.

Africa, the 'Dark Continent' of the Euro-American imagination, was long portrayed as a land without history. In this course we debunk the myths, exploring African civilization and culture in the centuries before European colonialism. We will examine how ecology and religion, slavery and the slave trades, and Africa's place in Atlantic and Indian Ocean networks shaped ancient Egypt, medieval Mali, the Swahili Coast, the Central African Rain Forest, and the world.

This course has two primary objectives. First, students will develop a broad understanding of the evolution of various African societies before colonial conquest in the nineteenth century. Second, students will learn how scholars use a variety of methods-archeology, linguistics, oral traditions, and documents-to reconstruct Africa's past. Students who engage thoroughly with course materials will come away with a basic understanding of Africa's deep history, as well as a set of analytic tools that will help them to think about historical change more broadly. This is a reading intensive introductory course. It will appeal to students with an interest in Africa, art history, religious studies, politics, archeology, historical methods, and anthropology.

Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea reveals the long-hidden story of those who lived in the region before Liberia was created.

Here are a few of the inspiring revelations it contains:

• The different languages and ethnic groups in Liberia share a common root.
• The barkless hunting dog found in Liberian villages were a favorite pet of Ancient Egyptian pharaohs.
• Kola - once used as an ingredient in soft drinks - was discovered by the ancestors of Liberians.
• Early European explorers learned from early Liberian seafarers how to navigate some dangerous currents and winds of the Atlantic Ocean.
• Rice growers from West African's "Grain Coast" helped teach Americans how to grow rice. Today, the United States exports rice to West Africa, including Liberia.

Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea took 30 years of research and uses documents first published in Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish and French. It draws on oral traditions, archaeological digs, historical linguistics, studies of cultural patterns embedded in masks and other forms of material culture, regional and continental histories, and even biological anthropology.

Just as West African farmers burn a field to remove weeds, Between the Kola Forest and the Salty Sea demolishes many negative stereotypes. For centuries, African cultures have been portrayed as "strange," "weird," even "evil" through the use of words like "fetish," "witch," and "country devil."

This book will change Liberian history - and Liberians - for good!

Um mapa, um afresco, uma carta, as ruínas de uma cidade, uma moeda: são vestígios muitas vezes incertos que permitem a François-Xavier Fauvelle reconstituir a história de uma África praticamente desconhecida, a do período conhecido como Idade Média africana, entre os séculos VIII e XV. Ao longo de 34 capítulos, contemplam-se diferentes aspectos de sociedades de várias partes do continente, revelando-se formações políticas poderosas, cidades densamente povoadas e grandes correntes de trocas intercontinentais – de homens, mercadorias, religiões e culturas. Por meio das justaposições e comparações empreendidas pelo autor, esse conhecimento a princípio fragmentário dá lugar a uma história aberta a descobertas futuras e às transformações de sentido que elas promoverem. Cada capítulo traz indicações de estudos especializados e conhecidos pela comunidade acadêmica africanista que ajudam o leitor a adentrar mais fundo neste itinerário por séculos de história africana.

The Scarcity Slot is the first book to critically examine food security in Africa’s deep past. Amanda L. Logan argues that African foodways have been viewed through the lens of ‘the scarcity slot,’ a kind of Othering based on presumed differences in resources. Weaving together archaeological, historical, and environmental data with food ethnography, she advances a new approach to building long-term histories of food security on the continent in order to combat these stereotypes. Focusing on a case study in Banda, Ghana that spans the past six centuries, The Scarcity Slot reveals that people thrived during a severe, centuries-long drought just as Europeans arrived on the coast, with a major decline in food security emerging only recently. This narrative radically challenges how we think about African foodways in the past with major implications for the future.

This chapter examines the characteristics and consequences of African-European interactions in West Africa.  Emphasis is placed on the varied nature of the contact setting and the evaluation of culture change in African populations during the period of initial European contact, trade, and colonization.  Archaeological data, documentary sources, and oral traditions are used to evaluate transformations in African worldviews.  Although a general relationship between an expanding Eurocentric economic system and changing artifact inventories is recognized, inferences concerning the alteration of nonmaterial cultural systems are viewed as more difficult and challenging to asses.  Acknowledgement of the varied ways in which material remains represent cultures and their tropes, and how changes in shared beliefs or worldviews may be identified archaeologically, is seen as  fundamental to archaeologists' perceptions of the past.  These issues are highlighted by recent work at the site of Elmina in coastal Ghana.

This article outlines an interdisciplinary research project exploring a nineteenth-century Barbadian colonization effort in the West African nation of Liberia. Several families of the 346 migrants who sailed for Liberia in 1865 settled the township of Crozierville. Using archaeological, historical, and oral history data, this project seeks to understand this settlement process that unfolded in Crozierville using an approach that foregrounds the material aspects of place-making on the Liberian landscape.

Chap. 2 of:
Earthen Architecture in Muslim Cultures. Historical and Anthropological Perspectives (S. Pradines ed.). Brill, sept. 2018.

This edited volume follows the panel “Earth in Islamic Architecture” organised for the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES) in Ankara, on the 19th of August 2014.

This lengthy textbook with nearly 1000 images includes explorations of both "traditional" and "contemporary" African art through general discussion and case studies. The first chapter introduces Africa and its art, discussing materials and gender, and training and patronage. Chapter Two covers the elements and principles of design, and how to approach stylistic and contextual analysis. Chapter Three takes a thematic approach to African art, including numerous case studies, while Chapter Four explores how religions--traditional, Christian, and Muslim--have impacted art and looks at how different types of societies--nomadic, small-scale, and kingdom-based--favor various types of art. Appendices on note-taking and research are included. Significant original research is included. Maps; index. 668 pages.,

The Ife–Sungbo Archaeological Project explores new perspectives on the history and chronology of the urbanization and socio-political dynamics of the forests of West Africa. It is key to the on-going re-assessment of the chronology of urban development in the humid forests of the Gulf of Guinea. Often forgotten in mainstream African historiography, the Guinean tropical forests witnessed the rise and decline of major demographic and civilizational centers, before the opening of the Atlantic trade in the 15th century CE. We focus on 1) the town of Ile-Ife, mythic center of the Yoruba civilization and a major archaeological site; and 2) the monumental enclosure of Sungbo’s Eredo, a system of banks and ditches now lost under dense forest cover. We aim at documenting, dating, and replacing these forgotten sites into their context.
The first season of the project took place from June 1 to July 5, 2015. The team of 35, led by Gérard Chouin  (Department of History, William & Mary, USA) and Adisa Ogunfolakan (Director of the Natural History Museum, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria) , included professional archaeologists, students, and volunteers from Nigeria, USA, France, and the UK. The main funding was provided by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with additional support from a variety of partners, including William & Mary and Total Nigeria PLC.
The focus of this first archaeological season was the ancient embankment system of the city Ile-Ife, specifically a section of the system located on Federal lands at Ita Yemoo. The site was already the focus of archaeological work by British archaeologist Frank Willett in 1957–8 and 1962–3, but his findings have remained largely unpublished. Our objectives were to re-excavate the city walls and to retrieve the notes of Willett. Both objectives were successfully completed. Several trenches were sunk into the Ita Yemoo embankment, which resulted in a reconstruction of the depositional history of the site in 8 different phases over more than a millennium. In addition, material left behind by Willett, including photographs, sketches, and excavation records, were located in the archives of the Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow. The comparative analysis of both sets of data will uniquely contribute to a clearer understanding of the archaeology of this major ancient city.
Several other sites were visited in preparation for the 2016 season, which will focus on a 170 km-long embankment (Sungbo’s Eredo) that encircled an ancient polity just north of modern Lagos. Three different portions of this monumental site were rapidly assessed. Charcoal samples were collected to assist with the dating of these massive but under-studied systems of ditches and banks. Photography drones were used to assist in the reconnaissance of the embankment and enabled us to identify archaeological features that had never before been noticed. A site located within the campus of the newly built Augustine University at Ilara, Lagos State, was selected as a primary focus for the 2016 excavation season.
We expect to publish our findings after a careful analysis of the different sets of data recovered during this first season. Pending additional funding, we intend to process at least 10 new radiocarbon dates to structure our understanding of the development of urbanization in the forests of West Africa during the first and second millennia CE.

Money ritual is a phenomenon common in Africa especially West Africa and Nigeria in particular. It is an occult practice in which human beings and their organs are sacrificed to the gods or daemons in return for riches, usually monetary, purported to rain from nowhere but fill the room where the sacrifice is being made. This paper attempts a naturalistic hypothesis on the origin of the belief in money ritual. It posits that the belief possibly arose in out of an African secret but scientifically provable practice. Specifically, it proposes that " cowry ritual " is what later metamorphosed into " money ritual " and that many ritual killings nowadays are cultural and belief flavoured psychopathic manifestations.

Sub-Saharan Africa has long been seen as lacking the potential for autochthonous urban development, and Near Eastern and European contact provided ready explanations for the emergence of precolonial cities across the continent. In the past few decades, the pace o f archaeological work on African cities has accelerated, and archaeologists have increasingly deployed a functional mode l of the city, in which cities are defined in relation to broader hinterlands rather than particular traits. As a result, deeply rooted urban traditions have been identified in all corners of the continent. Despite the antiquity of urban traditions across Africa,however, long-distance forces clearly had wide-reaching impacts on urban developmental trajectories, and proponents of the functional model have yet to explain the specific role of long-distance forces in the process of urbanization. This review examines how multiscalar forces shaped urban trajectories in West Africa, specifically. I examine how local political entrepreneurs took advantage of the opportunities provided by local, interregional, and global forces, resulting in a heterogeneous set of urban traditions across West Africa, ranging from trading entrepots to regional capitals. Throughout I emphasize how local agency articulated with multiscalar social and economic forces, transforming the nature of regional integration, economic specialization, and the materialization of social difference,defining qualities of urban life.

This document provides a general management plan for Bunce Island National Historic Site, Port Loko District, Sierra Leone. This site is a unique cultural monument to the Atlantic slave trade and Sierra Leone’s intersection with the Atlantic World. The island was a center of British trade in West Africa from about 1670, when the English founded an outpost on the island, to 1808 when the Britain abolished the slave trade. During this period, the traders on Bunce Island exiled thousands of enslaved Africans to the Americas. The Island’s history is also intertwined with prominent Americans, including an ancestor of two American presidents and both American and British signers of the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolutionary War. Today, the island is one of the world’s best preserved eighteenth century British trading sites and it is an officially protected historic site of the Republic of Sierra Leone. Recently, Bunce Island was added to the World Monument Fund’s watch list of the 100 most endangered sites worldwide (see listing at www.worldmonumentswatch.org). This recognition is particularly timely given that the United Nations has declared January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2024 as the decade for people of African Descent. This Management Plan provides guidelines for the management, development and use of Bunce Island National Historic Site to best serve visitors, while preserving the site’s cultural and natural resources. The plan’s aim is to support the establishment of a formally recognized and institutionally supported historic site, identify specific conservation priorities, and to formalize the future direction of the site’s management. Bunce Island is part of a rich historic landscape that encompasses other areas and islands within the Sierra Leone Estuary.  However, the focus of this plan is on Bunce Island and its immediate environs.

Excavation of the five hectare site of Walaldé revealed an occupation by iron-using agropastoralists that began [800–550] cal BC, and continued until [400–200] cal BC. The earliest occupation phase appears to document a period of transitional iron use, with some worked stone in evidence. Smelting and forging slags and tuyeres are present in considerable quantities in the later phase. Copper with the distinctive chemical signature of the Akjoujt mines in Mauritania was also present after 550 cal BC, attesting to trade and interaction over long distances. Other important aspects of the Walaldé sequence include ceramic materials and a series of red ochre burials. Possible cultural affinities with shell midden sites in the Senegal Delta, surface material from the Lac Rkiz region, and pastoralist sites of the 'Boudhida Culture' around Nouakchott are discussed. The article concludes with a consideration of Walaldé's significance to the debate over the origins of iron metallurgy in West Africa.

Drawing primarily on data from excavations at Elmina, Ghana, this report examines the potential use of beads as temporal markers in West African archaeology.  It is argued that although beads from West African contexts are difficult to date, they provide more information than has previously been suggested.  The Elmina beads are of particular interest as they can be closely dated by the associated European trade materials.  Preliminary results from the analysis of the more than 30,000 locally-made and European glass beads recovered are discussed and findings from other West African sites evaluated.

Stable isotope values for historic period human remains from Elmina, Ghana, are compared to isotope data from 18th- and 19th-century North American sites as a test case for examining African origins and identifying first generation Africans in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Stable carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotope values were measured in skeletal remains.  Values from the cosmopolitan port city of Elmina provide the first available reference data from Africa during this time period and region. These values serve as a proxy for West African groups in general which are statistically compared to Euro-Americans and African Americans. Elmina carbon isotope values are relatively higher than North Americans, and African Americans show greater statistical similarity to West Africans.  Elmina nitrogen isotope values are higher than North Americans.  Elmina oxygen isotope values are notably higher than those in all Mid-Atlantic North American sites in this study. Similarity in carbon isotope values between Elmina and African Americans suggests commonalities in food availability or food preferences between these groups.  Elevated nitrogen isotope values in Elmina individuals support the documented reliance of the local population on marine dietary resources at this coastal port.  While carbon and nitrogen isotopes provide insight into foodways, oxygen isotope data, sourced from drinking water, provide better geographical information. The higher oxygen values from Elmina not only differentiate this group from North American Mid-Atlantic sites, but also make it possible to identify outliers at these sites as potential recent arrivals from West Africa.