Anne Mayor

Ceramic Traditions and Ethnicity in the Niger Bend, West Africa

Abstract While anthropologists and historians have clearly underlined the dynamics of human groups, ethnoarchaeologists have emphasized the stability of modes of transmission of technical knowledge within ethnolinguistic groups. Overcoming this apparent opposition by mobilizing and confronting lines of evidence from three distinct disciplines — ethnoarchaeology, ethnohistory, and archaeology — allows me to tackle the material expression of social identities in the past. Time depth, however, coarsens the resolution of interpretation, necessitating a shift in focus from the ethnic group to the linguistic family. Research I conducted with the Swiss MAESAO team since 1988 in central Mali provides a strong case study for understanding the complex links between ethnicity and ceramics. I propose a model of interpretation of archaeological ceramics that takes into account population dynamics.

Impressions de vanneries et technique du martelage sur forme concave: Anthropologie et histoire d'une technique dans la boucle du Niger

This article describes the pottery shaping technique of pounding on a concave form on a mat, a technique used in the Sahelian band of West Africa from Sudan to Mali. The impressed decoration generated by this shaping technique is absent at the protohistoric site of Jenné-Jeno in Mali, on the basis of which a reference typology at the West African scale has been constructed; this has led to frequent difficulties in identification. My objective focuses on retracing the development of this technique in the Niger Bend, since it evidences a particular historical dynamic. The social context of the ceramic craft industry in the Niger Bend is first discussed, followed by the aspects associated with the production sequence, the tools used and the traces enabling recognition of this technique. I then describe the current distribution of this technique based on our ethnoarchaeological data, and its distribution in the past based on archaeological discoveries, principally in the light of new data for the Dogon Country acquired in the context of the project ‘Human population and paleoenvironment in West Africa’. The synthesis sketches a scenario for the history of this technique over the last two millennia, and discusses the influence of local political formations and their consequences for population migration.

The "Enhancement" of Cultural Heritage by AMS Dating: Ethical Questions and Practical Proposals

The looting of archaeological and ethnographic objects from emerging countries and areas of conflict has prospered due to the high prices that these objects can achieve on the art market. This commercial value now almost necessarily requires proof of authenticity by the object’s age. To do so, absolute dating has been conducted since the end of the 1970s on terra cotta art objects using the thermoluminescence method, a practice that has since been condemned. It is only more recently, since the 2000s, that art dealers and collectors have begun to use the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) method to date different kinds of objects made of organic materials. Compared to conventional radiocarbon dating, the AMS technique requires only very small samples, thus depreciating neither the aesthetics nor commercial value of the object. As a result, the use of absolute dating has become widespread, accompanying the increase in looting of the cultural heritage of countries destabilized by political overthrows and armed conflicts, especially in the Near East and Africa. The present article condemns the practice of AMS dating of looted art objects and encourages the creation of a code of deontology for 14C dating laboratories in order to enhance an ethical approach in this sensitive field facing the current challenges.

Crossroads/Carrefour Sahel: cultural and technological developments in first millennium BC/AD Africa, développements culturels et technologiques pendant le premier millénaire BC/AD dans l'Afrique de l'Ouest

up decentralised approach in Lesotho. Perhaps, like regional variations in the rock art, management approaches should probably vary too, depending on the prevailing cultural and socioeconomic make-up of a region. Had she still been alive, Vinnicombe, who also contributed significantly to rock art conservation in Australia, would almost certainly have made valuable contributions to this and other debates concerning rock art. Peter Mitchell and Ben Smith should be congratulated for editing a colourful and informative volume of overall high standard, although to my mind the substantive contributions far exceed the theoretical ones (except for the insightful summary by Whitley) in quality and accuracy.