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Archaeology in West Africa: A Review of Recent Work and a further list of Radiocarbon Dates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

J. E. G. Sutton
J. E. G. Sutton
Affiliation:
Wolfson College, Oxford
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Extract

This article surveys the latest archaeological research and dating results for West Africa. For the Iron Age, recent fieldwork has been spread widely: especially noteworthy is that bearing on the history of ancient Ghana and Mali. Work on the Late Stone Age appears by contrast to have been rather patchy lately, although various palaeoecological researches continue to improve our understanding of the changing environments affecting West African populations over the last 10,000 years. In south-central Niger, moreover, remains of copper-smelting by a stone-using community are dated to around 2000 B.C. From the same region, as also from northern Ghana, comes further evidence for the inception of the Iron Age during the first millennium b.c.

The article is prefaced by some critical comments on the citing and interpretation of radiocarbon datings in historical discussions, and on the meaning of ‘corrected’ and ‘calendar dates’.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , July 1982 , pp. 291 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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References

1 The two most recent articles and lists in the series are by D. Calvocoressi and N. David, xx (1979), 1–29; and by M. Posnansky and R. McIntosh, xvii (1976), 161–95. Below, these are referred to simply by year.

Geographically the present article covers the countries lying south of the Sahara and west of Lake Chad and the Cameroon mountains. Cameroon itself is not included; it is covered in a separate article on West-Central Africa by de Maret, P., J. Afr. Hist. xxiii, i (1982).Google Scholar

2 Clark, R. M in Antiquity, xlix (1975), 251–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ralph, Elizabeth K., in Michael, H. N. and Ralph, E. K. (eds.), Dating Techniques for the Archaeologist (M.I.T., 1971), 25–9, esp. p. 28Google Scholar on ‘MASCA Correction Factors’; Suess, H. E., in Berger, R. and Suess, H. E. (eds.), Radiocarbon dating (Proc. ninth Int. Radiocarbon Conf., California, 1979), 777–84.Google Scholar Further relevant discussion took place at the tenth Conference in 1979: proceedings in the journal Radiocarbon, xxii (1980), no. 2.Google Scholar

3 For the last half-millennium the latitude is so great relative to the age that it is often unwise to conclude anything more precise than ‘a date late in the Iron Age’ or ‘up to 500 years old’. Argument over whether a particular radiocarbon reading should be calibrated from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century (or vice versa) is therefore likely to be meaningless historically – although it may of course be possible to offer a more accurate date for the site or layer in question by comparison with other sites or by considering independent historical evidence. On many West African sites local smoking-pipes, imported pottery or metalware provide closer dating evidence for the seventeenth and later centuries.

4 Logically one should also distinguish between b.p. and b.p. (before present), but in practice archaeologists in Africa are not doing so consistently. But it was done – of necessity – by R. M. Clark for his ‘calibration curve’ (note 2).

5 One continues to see from time to time in African archaeological literature radiocarbon results expressed in terms of a range delimited by the stated standard error. Thus a laboratory reading of, say, a.d. 1130±80 is taken to mean a date of a.d. 1050–1210, indicating a simple but serious misunderstanding of the formula.

6 See my ‘Aquatic civilization’, J. Afr. Hist, xv (1974), 527–46.Google Scholar

7 In Ajayi, J. F. A. and Crowder, M. (eds.), History of West Africa, I (2nd ed., London, 1976). 55–6.Google Scholar

8 See J. Afr. Hist, xx (1979), 5–6.Google Scholar And note Gao lagoon below.

9 Dr Philip Allsworth-Jones of Ibadan has been studying the MSA of northern Nigeria, and relating his findings to those previously obtained in surrounding countries. For the far west, Descamps, Cyr, Contribution à la préhistoire de l'ouest Sénégalais (Université de Dakar, Trav. et Docs. II, 1979)Google Scholar, is a compendium of the author's study of all periods of the Stone Age over several years.

10 Shaw, in Ajayi and Crowder, 52–3.

11 In 1976, with a team from Ibadan University.

12 W. Afr. J. Archaeology, II (1972), 1–38.Google Scholar

13 (1979). 6. See also W. Afr.J. Archaeology, viii (1978).Google Scholar

14 I-460: 25 b.c.±125.

15 See appendix: sites 117, 149, 169; radiocarbon MC-1700–3, 2395. These and other results from the same region discussed below are personally communicated by Dr M. Grébénart, who was working under the auspices of C.N.R.S.

16 Lambert, Nicole, in W. Afr.J. Archaeology, I (1971), 9–21.Google Scholar

17 (1979), 9, 25: Azelik and Sekkerit sites. For earlier work in this area see Bernus, S. and Gouletquer, F., ‘Du cuivre au sel’, J. Soc. Africanistes, xlvi (1976), 7–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 Recent unpublished research, again under C.N.R.S. auspices, kindly communicated by Dr Grébénart.

19 Site 162: radiocarbon MC-2402–6.

20 Site 175 (MC-2398–2401, Gif-5172–7) and site 178 (Gif-5179, which last is not so old in fact).

21 See Archaeology in Ghana (newsletter, Legon), no. i, for 1978–1979, 19.Google Scholar

22 Dumont, H. J., Nature (07 1978), 356–8.Google Scholar

23 There may be a general parallel here with the Tichitt sequence 1,700 km to the west: see Munson, P. J., in Harlan, J. R. et al. (eds.), The origins of African crop domestication (The Hague, 1976), 187–209.Google Scholar

24 Gif-4170–2: (1979), 10,25.

25 (1979). 10.

26 Tylecote, R. F., ‘The origin of iron smelting in Africa’, W. Afr. J. Archaeology, V (1975). 1–9.Google Scholar

27 See above.

28 (1979). 23.

29 See Susan, K. and McIntosh, R. J., Prehistoric Investigations in the Region of Jenne (Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 2, Oxford, 1980)Google Scholar; or in J. Afr. Hist. xxii (1981), 1 f.Google Scholar

30 Information kindly supplied by Dr F. J. Kense on his and Professor P. L. Shinnie's two seasons of excavations at Daboya.

31 Flight, C., in Harlan, , Origins of African crop domestication, 211–21.Google Scholar For further comments and modifications, see Arch. Ghana, no. I, 14–20Google Scholar; and no. 2 (for 1980–1), noting sites in northern and southeastern Ivory Coast.

32 See Kense, F. J in Nyame Akuma, 17 (1980), 38–9Google Scholar; and his doctoral thesis, ‘Daboya: a Gonja frontier’, Calgary University (1981).Google Scholar For Oliver Davies' considered views on Ntereso, see his contribution to Swartz, B. K and Dumett, R. A., West African Culture Dynamics (The Hague, 1980), 205–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 N-3213, 3804, in the appendix below. Compare Gif-4239 from a higher level of Dr Joanne Dombrowski's excavation at Kpone West: (1979), 22 (where the site is referred to as ‘Paradise beach’). See also Arch. Ghana, no. I, 1–7.Google Scholar

34 ‘Land, labour and capital in the forest kingdom of Asante’, in Friedman, J. and Rowlands, M. J. (eds.), The Evolution of Social Systems (London, 1977), 487–534.Google Scholar For interesting comments, see Johnson, Marion, ‘Elephants for want of towns’, in Fyfe, C. (ed.), African Historical Demography, II (Edinburgh seminar, cyclostyled papers, 1981).Google Scholar

35 See Kiyaga-Mulindwa, David, ‘The earthworks of the Birim valley’ (Ph.D. thesis, Johns Hopkins University, 1978).Google Scholar I am grateful to Dr Kiyaga-Mulindwa for further discussion. A summary account is appearing in Arch. Ghana, no. 2.

36 See de Sapir, Olga Linares, in W. Afr. J. Archaeology, i (1971), 23–54.Google Scholar

37 See Mauny, R. in W. Afr. J. Archaeology, iii (1973), 207–14Google Scholar; also Chenorkian, R. in Travaux de LAPMO for 1981.Google Scholar

38 Olsson, I. U., W. Afr. J. Archaeology, iii (1973), 215–20.Google Scholar

39 See Polet, J., ‘Sondages archéologiques en pays Éotilé’, Godogodo, 2 (1976), 121–39.Google Scholar I am indebted to Dr Polet for supplying details.

40 (1979), 7.

41 Arch. Ghana, no. i, 32; Dombrowski, J., ‘Early settlers in Ghana’ (valedictory lecture, Legon, 1980).Google Scholar

42 It would be unwise, however, to suggest that the exploitation of shorelines and lagoons began only with the adoption of pottery around 4000 B.C., for earlier coastal sites would lie underwater between the present shore and the continental shelf. See the discussion of shorelines below.

43 Identification probable. The Archaeology Department of the University of Ghana is indebted to the Jodrell Laboratory at Kew for both identifications, and to John Hall, formerly of the Botany Department, for facilitating them.

44 Ly, K. C., in Marine Geology, xxxvii (1980), 323–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 N-2968: (1979) 17, 23.

46 (1976), 170, 189–90. See also Nzewunwa, N., The Niger Delta: Aspects of its Prehistoric Economy and Culture (Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology i, Oxford, 1980), esp. p. 236.Google Scholar There are some slight discrepancies between the two publications in the reference numbers and determinations.

47 Ibid.

48 Nyame Akuma, 17 (1980), 41–2Google Scholar; and personal communication.

49 Radiocarbon, xxi (1979), 426–7.Google Scholar (Compare 1979 list and commentary, 8–9, 27–8.)

50 Ibid.: Gandom (Ly-1345, 1346) and Rao (Ly-1344, 1347).

51 All from the C.N.R.S. Centre des faibles radioactivités at Gif-sur-Yvette: Talbot, M. R and Delibrias, G., ‘A new late Pleistocene–Holocene water-level curve for Lake Bosumtwi’, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, XLVII (1980), 336–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

52 See Maley, J., ‘Analyses polliniques et paléoclimatologie des douze derniers millénaires du bassin du Tchad’, AFEQ Bull., supplement (1977), no. 50, 187–971Google Scholaridem, ‘Palaeoclimates of the central Sahara during the early Pleistocene’, Nature, cclxix (1977), 573–7.

53 See above, notes 21–3.

54 Arch. Ghana, no. 1, esp. 18–19.Google Scholar

55 Talbot and Delibrias, ‘Anew…curve for Lake Bosumtwi’; Hall, J. B., Swaine, M. D and Talbot, M. R., ‘An early Holocene leaf flora from Lake Bosumtwi’, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, xxiv (1978), 247–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar J. Maley and D. Livingstone are hoping to obtain palynological samples from cores below the lake.

56 Dak-?: 2322 b.c ± 130. See Nyame Akuma, 17 (1980), 47Google Scholar, referring to M. Lamé's unpublished thesis (1979 ?), ‘Néolithique microlithique dans la presqu'île du Cap Vert et ses environs’. Cf. Descamps, , Contribution à la préhistoire de l'Ouest Sénégalais, 259Google Scholar, recording two determinations for ‘un niveau néolithique “en place” dans la sablière Diakhité’ – Dak-23: 1084 b.c.± 132; Gif-1482: 400 b.c.± 100. The latter was listed in this Journal: (1976), 193.Google Scholar

57 Hannover–2768: 995 b.c. ±40.

58 Allsworth-Jones, P., in Field Notes (Nigerian Field Soc, Ibadan Branch) (05 1979), 7–8Google Scholar; and personal communication.

59 Compare Shaw (in Ajayi, and Crowder, , History of West Africa I (2nd ed.), 60 f.)Google Scholar, whose ‘early contact’, ‘Islamic contact’ and ‘coastal contact’ periods are in effect scarcely different from the divisions proposed here, except that, to the superficial reader, Shaw's nomenclature overstresses external contacts, and that proposed here iron technology.

60 See (1979), 14. The information on the new dates derives entirely from Radiocarbon, xxi (1979), 427.Google Scholar

61 (1979), 27. For report on excavations of 1974–5, see Thilmans, G. and Descamps, C., Bull. IFAN, XXXVII B (1975), 259–306.Google Scholar In attempting to date these megalithic sites by radiocarbon a frequent problem seems to be that of confidently locating and selecting samples contemporary with their construction. For some brief comments, see Hill, M. H., Current Anthropology, xix (1978), 604–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Hill has himself worked on some of these sites in the Gambia where he was not fortunate enough to locate charcoal samples of adequate quality and stratification. Descamps, Cyr, ‘Note sur le mégalithisme sénégambien’, in Devisse, J. et al. (eds.), Le sol, la parole et l'écrit (mélanges en hommage à Raymond Mauny) (Paris, 1981), 29–36Google Scholar, offers a brief conspectus.

62 Girard, J., quoted in Radiocarbon, XXI, 427.Google Scholar

63 Radiocarbon, xxi, 429–31Google Scholar, where some further details of sites, samples and levels are provided. The list contains some problems including apparent inversions. Fuller discussion is expected in forthcoming papers of D. and S. Robert. Compare also two late first millennium dates – Dak-156, 157 – for the same town: (1979), 24.

64 For general background see Levtzion, N., Ancient Ghana and Mali (London 1973)Google Scholar; or his contributions to Cambridge History of Africa, II (1978)Google Scholar and III (1977).

65 Haaland, R., ‘Man's role in the changing habitat of Mema during the old kingdom of Ghana’, Norwegian Archaeological Review, XIII (1980), 31–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

66 See Niane, D. T., Sundiata (London, 1965)Google Scholar, whose map places Mema much further east, in the present Niger lakes area, thus underlining in a way the importance of the issue of relatively recent environmental change indicated by Haaland.

67 (1979). 15, 23.

68 I am indebted to Dr R. M. A. Bedaux of Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht for explaining the details. See Bedaux, et al. , ‘Recherches archéologiques dans le delta intérieur du Niger’, Palaeohistoria, XX (1978), 91–220.Google Scholar

With respect to GrN-3767 and 3768 for Toguéré Doupwil (listed in (1979), 23), Dr Bedaux points out slight errors in presentation: they should read a.d. 1480±100 and a.d. 1405±45 respectively.

69 That is, disregarding one ‘modern’ result - RL-794, listed (1979), 23.Google Scholar

70 For references, see note 29 above. In a personal communication, the authors point out that Jenne-jeno is really a large single mound rather than ‘a complex of occupation mounds’ as stated in (1979), 12Google Scholar – although it is not difficult to see how this confusion arose through the designation and description of the excavation units.

The McIntoshes undertook another extensive season of excavation and survey at Jenne in 1981, the results of which are awaited.

It is worth noting here seventeen thermoluminescence tests undertaken at the Oxford laboratory on terracotta figurines previously collected (not excavated) from Jenne (either the town or its vicinity). They all belong to the present millennium with a suggestive centring around the fifteenth century. See de Grunne, B., Terres cuites anciennes de l'Ouest Africain (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1980), esp. pp. 276–82Google Scholar by Doreen Stoneham (kindly drawn to my attention by Dr Bedaux of Utrecht).

71 Cf. (1979), 12, 16, 23. Dr Bedaux has asked me to make a couple of corrections to that article. On p. 12, last line, Nokara Cave A is an error for Sanga Cave A. Similarly on p. 23, where three dates are listed under Nokara Cave A, the two early dates (GX-0231, 2888) actually belong to Sanga Cave A (14° 25′ N, 3° 20′ W), while only the later one belongs to Nokara. For summary of some of the work see Huizinga, J. et al. , ‘Anthropological research in Mali’, Nat. Geog. Soc. Research Reports, 1970 Projects, 281 f.Google Scholar I am indebted to Dr Bedaux for bringing this and other recent literature on the region to my attention.

72 I am grateful to Alain Gallay of Geneva University for the information, and for kindly checking the position of Nokara: cf. list below and (1979), 23. Gallay's thesis is in press: he sarnyere Dogon: archéologie d'un isolat (Paris). See also Bedaux, , ‘Tellem’, J. Soc. Africanistes, XLII (1972), 103–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

73 Filipowiak, W., Etudes archéologiques sur la capitale mediévale du Mali (Szczecin, 1979).Google Scholar

74 Notably Hunwick, J. O in J. Afr. Hist. xiv (1974), 195–208Google Scholar; McIntosh and McIntosh, Jenne, 17–18, 45.

75 (1972), 547–8; (1976), 166, 189. Further work by Merrick Posnansky at Begho in 1979 concentrated on the Kramo quarter, which from the smoking-pipes appears to be of mostly late seventeenth- or eighteenth-century date, and on the nearby (and doubtless associated) ironworks of Dapaa. See Arch. Ghana, no. 1, 9–10Google Scholar; and Goucher, Candice L., ‘The decline of West African iron-smelting’, J. Afr. Hist. XXII (1981), 179–89, esp. p. 182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The full report of the Begho work is in preparation.

76 Further information on the work at Kong is available in Diabeté, T., ‘La région de Kong après les fouilles archéologiques’ (Paris thesis, 1979).Google Scholar I am grateful to Jean Polet of the Institut d'histoire, d'art et d'archéologie africains in Abidjan for providing the information and dates.

77 Information from J. Polet. See Koffi, Isabelle in Godogodo 3 (1977), 127Google Scholar: ‘Selon la tradition orale Traorela [site of Ténéguéla] a été l'un des derniers endroits être abandonné’ (in the Kong complex).

78 This is Phase ii at New Buipe: York, R. N., in W. Afr. J. Archaeology, iii (1973), 1–189, esp. pp. 120–30.Google Scholar Cf. Kense, note 32 above.

79 See note 35.

80 Osei-Tutu, Brempong, ‘An archaeological survey of Dawu and Awukugua’, University of Ghana, Archaeology long essay, 1981.Google Scholar

81 Excavation at Dawu (Legon and Edinburgh, 1961).Google Scholar

82 For preliminary note, see Nyame Akuma, 18 (1981).Google Scholar A further discussion is intended in Arch. Ghana, 2 (1982, to cover the years 1980–1981).Google Scholar

83 (1979), 23.

84 For a summary interim account of work on the Accra plains, Arch. Ghana, no. 1, 1–7.Google Scholar

85 This work at Notse follows up Posnansky's and Philip de Barros' rapid archaeological reconnaissance of Togo in 1979. (See Nyame Akuma, 15 (1979), 73–8.Google Scholar) De Barros is continuing Iron Age research in the country. Some further inspection of caves and Stone Age sites in part of Dapaong circumscription of northern Togo was undertaken by B. K. Swartz of Ball State University in 1981. Some of these caves contain large clay granaries and archaeo-ethnographic materials of ceremonial significance. Some test excavations in Little Diog cave produced generally fairly recent materials. I am indebted to Dr Swartz for providing the information.

86 In Nyante Akuma, 17 (11 1980), 41.Google Scholar The exact position of this site is not recorded; nor are the laboratory references for the radiocarbon determinations given or the method of calculating the a.d. ‘dates’ explained. I have been unable to obtain these details, and for these reasons the dates are not listed in the appendix to this article. For background and Egbejoda sites 1 and 2 (7° 14' N, 4° 40' E), see Eluyemi, O. in West Afr.jf. Archaeology, VI (1976), 101–8.Google Scholar

87 Fleming, S. J in MASCA J. I (1979), 48–9Google Scholar – according to information indirectly received. (I have not succeeded in locating a copy of this journal for checking.)

88 Reportedly to appear in MASCA J. (for 1981). One result, perhaps about the seventeenth century, has already been obtained: Nyame Akuma, 17 (1980), 41.Google Scholar

89 I am indebted to Mrs A. K. Okoro of Ibadan Museum for relaying the information on these dates.

90 See Shaw, Thurstan, Nigeria: its Archaeology and Early History (London, 1978), ch. 8Google Scholar; and Garlake's, P. S. chart in W. Afr.jf. Archaeology, VII (1977), 92.Google ScholarGarlake's dates for the Woye Asiri site at Ife (1976), 189Google Scholar, where crucibles for glass-making were also found, are remarkably similar to those for this new site.

91 As implied by Willett, Frank, in Biobaku, S. O. (ed.), Sources of Yoruba History (Oxford, 1973), 118n.Google Scholar

92 As recorded by Nadel, S. F in Nupe: A Black Byzantium (Oxford, 1942), 274–8.Google Scholar

93 Information kindly supplied me by Patrick Darling. A detailed study of the iya is in preparation. For a preliminary note see W. Afr. J. Archaeology, VI (1976), 143–9.Google Scholar

94 See for example Nyame Akuma, 17 (1980), 44Google Scholar; also Zaria Archaeology Papers, vol. III (1981).Google Scholar