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The settlement mound of Birnin Lafiya: new evidence from the eastern arc of the Niger River

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

A. Haour ,
S. Nixon ,
D. N'Dah ,
C. Magnavita  and
A. Livingstone Smith
A. Haour
Affiliation:
Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK (Email: [email protected])
S. Nixon
Affiliation:
Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK (Email: [email protected])
D. N'Dah
Affiliation:
Université d'Abomey Calavi, 01 Bp 526 Cotonou, Republic of Benin
C. Magnavita
Affiliation:
Archaeoscan—Geophysical Prospecting, Altkönigblick 83, 60437 Frankfurt, Germany
A. Livingstone Smith
Affiliation:
Royal Museum for Central Africa, Leuvensesteenweg 13, 3080 Tervuren, Belgium Centre de Recherches en Archéologie et Patrimoine, Université libre de Bruxelles, CP 133/01, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 50, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2001, South Africa
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Abstract

The development of complex social organisation and trade networks during the first and second millennia AD in the Sahel region of West Africa has long been hampered by a paucity of reliable data. Investigations at Birnin Lafiya, a large settlement mound of this period on the eastern arc of the Niger River, help to fill this gap. The site can now be placed within its broader landscape, and discoveries of early mud architecture, circular structures, human burial remains, personal ornamentation and striking potsherd pavements can be contrasted with contemporary sites both within the inland Niger region and at Ife to the south.

Keywords

Nigerfourth–thirteenth centuries ADsettlement moundpotsherd pavementtrade networkssocial organisation
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 90 , Issue 351 , June 2016 , pp. 695 - 710
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016 

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