Aziz Ballouche

A new contribution to the Holocene vegetation history of the West African Sahel: pollen from Oursi, Burkina Faso and charcoal from three sites in northeast Nigeria

A pollen diagram from Oursi in Burkina Faso is compared with anthracological (charcoal analysis) results from three sites in northeast Nigeria (Konduga, Gajiganna, Lantewa). The present-day vegetation at all four sites is Sahelian or Sahelo-Sudanian and under heavy human impact. At Oursi, a closed grassland with only few trees and almost no Sudanian elements can be reconstructed for the middle Holocene. At the Nigerian sites, on the other hand, Sudanian woody plants were present during this period. We assume that the Sahel was not a uniform zone during the middle Holocene but rather a mosaic of different vegetation types according to local site conditions. In the light of these results, a simple model of latitudinally shifting vegetation zones is not applicable. Around 3000 B.P. the closed grassland at Oursi was opened by agro-pastoral activities, and at Gajiganna, plants characteristic of pasture lands can be directly related with the presence of cattle. Human impact seems to have been the dominant factor in the vegetation history of the Sahel from 3000 B.P. until today, masking possible effects of climatic change.

The emergence of pottery in Africa during the tenth millennium cal BC: new evidence from Ounjougou (Mali)

New excavations in ravines at Ounjougou in Mali have brought to light a lithic and ceramic assemblage that dates from before 9400 cal BC. The authors show that this first use of pottery coincides with a warm wet period in the Sahara. As in East Asia, where very early ceramics are also known, the pottery and small bifacial arrowheads were the components of a new subsistence strategy exploiting an ecology associated with abundant wild grasses. In Africa, however, the seeds were probably boiled (then as now) rather than made into bread.

Ounjougou (Mali) : a history of Holocene settlement at the southern edge of the Sahara

The area of Ounjougou consists of a series of gullies cut through Upper Pleistocene and Holocene formations on the Dogon Plateau in the Sahel at the south edge of the Sahara Desert. Here the authors have chronicled a stratified sequence of human occupation from the tenth to the second millennium BC, recording natural and anthropogenic strata containing artefacts and micro- and macro- palaeoecological remains, mostly in an excellent state of preservation. They present a first synthesis of the archaeological and environmental sequence for the Holocene period, define five main occupation phases for Ounjougou, and attempt to place them within the context of West African prehistory.

More on Neolithisation process within the Alboran territory… Reply to Linstädter et al. (in press) in Quaternary International

According to radiocarbon data, the Neolithic of the Tangier Peninsula began more or less at the same time as in the other Alboran regions. The combination during an initial phase of pottery and, up to now, a lack of domesticated plants and animals is comparable to the Epipalaeolithic with pottery of Hassi Ouenzga. This is consistent with the hypothesis of a phase of coexistence during which local hunter-gatherers gradually adopted Neolithic innovations.

More on Neolithisation process within the Alboran territory… Reply to in Quaternary International

According to radiocarbon data, the Neolithic of the Tangier Peninsula began more or less at the same time as in the other Alboran regions. The combination during an initial phase of pottery and, up to now, a lack of domesticated plants and animals is comparable to the Epipalaeolithic with pottery of Hassi Ouenzga. This is consistent with the hypothesis of a phase of coexistence during which local hunter-gatherers gradually adopted Neolithic innovations.

More on Neolithisation process within the Alboran territory...

According to radiocarbon data, the Neolithic of the Tangier Peninsula began more or less at the same time as in the other Alboran regions. The combination during an initial phase of pottery and, up to now, a lack of domesticated plants and animals is comparable to the Epipalaeolithic with pottery of Hassi Ouenzga. This is consistent with the hypothesis of a phase of coexistence during which local hunter-gatherers gradually adopted Neolithic innovations.

DESERTIFICATION EN ZONE SOUDANO-SAHELIENNE (PAYS DOGON, MALI) ? APPORT DE LA CARTOGRAPHIE ET DU SUIVI DIACHRONIQUE DES PARCS AGROFORESTIERS PAR TELEDETECTION SATELLITAIRE ET AERIENNE

Le suivi diachronique depuis les annees 1950 de la composante ligneuse des paysages de parcs agroforestiers du Pays dogon (Mali) par teledetection, a mis en evidence une evolution rapide dont les modalites viennent contredire, ou tout au moins nuancer, les postulats generalement avances de degradation des milieux.