Eric Huysecom

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.

Palaeoenvironment and human population in West Africa: an international research project in Mali

The site of Ounjougou, Mali, provides evidence of a variety of human activities. The geological and palaeoenvironmental sequence offers a wealth of micro and macro plant remains. All the requisite elements for setting the cultural, climatic and environmental changes into chronological perspective are gathered here. Since 1997, as part of the Paleoenvironment and Human Population of West Africa project, four seasons of field work have taken place, which confirm that investigation of the site will substuntially modify our understanding of Dogon prehistory and history, and ultimately that of the whole of West Africa.

OUNJOUGOU, MALI: NEW DATA ON BIFACIAL POINT PRODUCTION IN THE SOUTHERN SAHARA DURING THE MIDDLE HOLOCENE

To date, archaeological sites dated between the 7th and 4th millennia cal BC are rare in West Africa. The Neolithic workshop of Promontoire at Ounjougou, Mali, had specialized in the bifacial shaping of armatures on sandstone, a local raw material. This industry was discovered in the upper section of a sequence of mixed fine red loess, dated near the site within an interval between the 6th and 4th millennia cal BC (OSL date of 6.3 ± 0.8 ka), while the geomorphological analysis of the zone and the insertion of the site into neighbouring sequences by radiocarbon dating yield a terminus ante quem of 3500 cal BC, confirming the attribution of the sequence to the Middle Holocene. While typological similarities exist between this bifacial industry and those of the Tilemsi Valley, the Winde Koroji, in southwest Nigeria and the Kintampo culture in Ghana, there remains a significant chronological discrepancy. Moreover, the archaeological material from West African sites contemporaneous with Promontoire Neolithique is most often characterized by a microlithic industry. In the present state of knowledge, the industry of Promontoire Neolithique, chronologically isolated, falls within a dynamic of population movement or influences preceding the current aridity, perhaps as-sociated with climatic changes that took place during the Middle Holocene between the 6th and 3rd millennia cal BC.

Towards a Better Understanding of Sub-Saharan Settlement Mounds before AD 1400: The Tells of Sadia on the Seno Plain (Dogon Country, Mali)

Dans la boucle du Niger, plusieurs etudes ont montre l’existence de buttes anthropiques qui se sont developpees principalement entre le premier millenaire avant J.-C. et le 15eme siecle de notre ere. Bien que les connaissances sur les tells subsahariens aient recemment ete enrichies, de nombreuses questions restent a elucider. En effet, les don- nees chronostratigraphiques precises disponibles restent rares par rapport a la zone geographique et a la periode impliquees. Ce relatif manque de longues sequences limite fortement l’integration diachronique de donnees culturelles, economiques et environnementales, necessaire a la compre- hension des mecanismes sous-jacents a l’emergence et au developpement de ce type de sites. Dans cet article, nous presentons les resultats obtenus lors des fouilles que nous avons recemment menees sur un ensemble de buttes anthro- piques a Sadia, dans la plaine du Seno (Pays Dogon, Mali), qui ont permis de definir une sequence chronologique, culturelle et environnementale precise. L’integration de ce travail et des resultats d’une approche extensive menee dans l’ensemble du Pays Dogon depuis plus de 15 ans nous permet de proposer un scenario de l’occupation des tells du Seno, ainsi qu’une reflexion sur le developpement des societes rurales saheliennes et leurs interactions avec les premiers Etats de la boucle du Niger, avant 1400 AD.

L'occupation humaine de la vallée du Guringin (plaine du Séno, Mali)

Recent archaeological survey conducted in Mali in the Guringin Valley, located in the Séno Plain, as well as at the top of the nearby Bandiagara Escarpment, has produced evidence allowing the characterisation of numerous settlement sites and locations at which prehistoric metallurgy was practised. The latter have abundant surface material, mainly consisting of ceramics that show a considerable diversity of decoration. Analysis of the surface pottery assemblages, complemented by that of stratified assemblages from a test pit at one of the sites, indicates important inter-site differences. The results suggest that water, a rare and precious resource in this sandy Sudano-Sahelian plain, attracted the settlement of different populations from Neolithic times to the present, with a particular density of occupation during the first and early second millennia AD. Groups of sites of similar modest size evoke the rural settlements of the Méma area of Mali more than the settlement clusters of the Inland Niger Delta, which are defined by large sites surrounded by satellite settlements in a context of proto-urbanisation.

Lithic industry as an indicator of ceramic diffusion in the Early Neolithic of West Africa : a case study at Ounjougou

Ounjougou (Dogon Country, Mali) is now known for the discovery there of pottery dating to the first half of the 10th millennium cal BC, which is among the earliest evidence of the use of ceramics in Africa. While our understanding of early African ceramics is becoming well developed, certain other evidence associated with the first manifestations of the African Neolithic are still poorly understood, including notably the lithic industries. On the basis of technological and typological analyses of the lithic assemblage associated with the Ounjougou pottery, we will show that these materials also express profound behavioral changes within cultural groups of this period, and indeed they help clarify processes for the spread of ceramics. For these reasons lithics are extremely important for understanding this period of great cultural change and should not be neglected.Technological and typological data collected during the analysis have been used to propose an original taphonomic approach and to test in this way the coherence of the assemblage.Comparisons with Early Holocene industries in the Saharan zone (Temet, Tagalagal, Adrar Bous 10, etc.) provide new elements of consideration regarding the cultural context of the appearance of pottery, and enable us to propose a scenario for the adoption of technological innovations marking the beginning of the Holocene, from sub-Saharan West Africa toward the central Sahara. The lithic industries are seen as a valuable means of clarifying the cultural context and processes of the appearance and spread of pottery in this region from the first half of the 10th millennium cal BC to the middle of the 9th millennium cal BC.

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.