Sylvain Ozainne

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.

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.