This article summarises the results of four seasons of excavation at Tongo Maaré Diabal (AD 500-1150), near Douentza, Mali. Deep stratigraphic excavations were directed by MacDonald and Togola in 1993, 1995 and by MacDonald in 1996. Complementary, large exposure excavations of the abandonment layer were undertaken by Gestrich in 2010. The combined excavation results speak to topics of craft specialisation, trade, and social organisation. They provide evidence of a specialised blacksmithing community situated at the margins of early Middle Niger and Niger Bend statehood and urbanisation.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Azarya, V. 1997. Economic Enterprise in Fulbe and Mande States: Maasina and Samori. In: de Bruijn, M. & van Dijk, H. (eds.), Peuls et Mandingues. Dialectique des constructions identitaires. Karthala, Paris, pp. 61-84.
Bedaux, R.M.A. 1980. The Geographic Distribution of Footed Bowls in the Upper and Middle Niger Region. In: Swartz, B.K. & Dumett, R. (eds.), West African Culture Dynamics: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives. Mouton, Hague, Paris and New York, pp. 247-258.
Bedaux, R.M.A., Constandse-Westermann, T.S., Haquebord, L., Lange, A.G. & van der Vaals, J.D. 1978. Recherches archéologiques dans le Delta Intérieur du Niger (Mali). Palaeohistoria Bussum 20, 91-220.
Bedaux, R.M.A., MacDonald, K.C. & Gallay, A. 2003. L’archéologie des Dogon de l’Est: Nokara, Sarnyére et Douentza. In: Bedaux, R.M.A. & van der Waals, J.D (eds.), Regards sur les Dogon du Mali. Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde/Editions Snoeck, Leiden/Ghent, pp. 83-91.
Bedaux, R.M.A., MacDonald, K.C., Person, A., Polet, J., Sanogo, K., Schmidt, A. & Sidibe, S. 2001. The Dia archaeological project: Rescuing cultural heritage in the Inland Niger Delta (Mali). Antiquity 75 (290), 837-848.
Blanck, J.P., Pion, J.C., Besnus, I. & Ballo, A. 1996. Paleoécoulements et paléoenvironnements dans le Gourma lacustre (Mali). Apports des données satellitaires. Préhistoire Anthropologie Méditerranéennes 5, 111-117.
Capezza, C. n.d. The Plant Remains. In: MacDonald, K.C. (ed.), Final Report on the 1995/1996 Southern Gourma Field Season. Unpublished Report to the British Academy, ref. BA-AN1928/APN2336, London, pp. 18-23.
Cashion, G.A. 1982. Hunters of the Mande: a behavioral code and worldview derived from the study of their folklore. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. Indiana University, Bloomington.
Chieze, V. 1991. La métallurgie du fer dans la zone lacustre. In: Raimbault, M. & Sanogo, K. (eds.), Recherches archéologiques au Mali. Karthala, Paris, pp. 449-472.
Cissé, M. 2011. Archaeological Investigations of Early Trade and Urbanism at Gao Saney (Mali). PhD Thesis. Rice University, Houston.
Cissé, M., McIntosh, S.K., Fenn, T., Gallagher, D., Dussubieux, L. & Smith, A.C. 2013. Excavations at Gao Saney. New evidence for settlement growth, trade, and interaction on the Niger Bend in the first millennium CE. Journal of African Archaeology 11 (1), 9-37.
Cissé, Y. 1994. La confrérie des chasseurs Malinké et Bambara: mythes, rites et récits initiatiques. Editions Nouvelles du Sud, Ivry.
Conrad, D. & Frank, B. (eds.) 1995. Status and Identity in West Africa: Nyamakalaw of Mande. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Dafinger, A. 2004. Anthropologie des Raumes. Studien zur Kulturkunde 122. Köppe, Köln.
Desplagnes, L. 1903. Étude sur les Tumuli du Killi dans la Région de Goundam. L’Anthropologie 14, 151-172.
Dueppen, S.A. 2011. Early evidence for chickens at Iron Age Kirikongo (c. AD 100-1450), Burkina Faso. Antiquity 85, 142-157.
Dueppen, S.A. 2012. Egalitarian Revolution in the Savanna: The Origins of a West African Political System. Sheffield, Equinox.
Dueppen, S.A. 2015. Expressing difference: Inequality and house-based potting in a first-millennium AD community (Burkina Faso, West Africa). Cambridge Archaeological Journal 25 (1), 17-43.
Eichhorn, B., Robion-Brunner, C., Serneels, V. & Perret, S. 2013. Iron metallurgy in the Dogon Country (Mali, West Africa) – “Deforestation” or sustaniable use? In: Damblon, F. (ed.), Proceedings of the Fourth International Meeting of Anthracology. BAR International Series 2486. Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 57-70.
Gallais, J. 1975. Pasteurs et paysans du Gourma: La condition sahelienne. CNRS, Paris.
Gallay, A., Huysecom, E. & Mayor, A. 1998. Peuples et céramiques du delta intérieur du Niger (Mali). Un bilan de cinq années de missions (1988-1993). Phillipp von Zabern, Mainz.
Gallay, A., Huysecom, E., Mayor, A. & Ceuninck, G. de 1996. Hier et aujourd’hui des poteries et des femmes : céramiques traditionnelles du Mali. Département d’anthropologie et d’écologie de l’Université, Geneva.
Gestrich, N. 2008. The pottery from Tongo Maaré Diabal (Mali) in its regional, temporal and spatial contexts. Unpublished MA dissertation. UCL, London.
Gestrich, N. 2013. The Archaeology of Social Organisation at Tongo Maaré Diabal. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. UCL, London.
Håland, R. 1980. Man’s role in the changing habitat of Méma during the old Kingdom of Ghana. Norwegian Archaeological Review 13 (1), 31-46.
Haour, A., Nixon, S., N’Dah, D., Magnavita, C. & Livingstone Smith, A. 2016. The settlement mound of Birnin Lafiya: new evidence from the eastern arc of the Niger River. Antiquity 90 (351), 695-710.
Hillier, B. & Hanson, J. 1984. The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Humphris, J. 2013. The iron producers of Gandamia: Late 1st millennium AD ferrous metallurgy in the Gourma-des-Monts. In: Gestrich, N., The Archaeology of Social Organisation at Tongo Maaré Diabal. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. UCL, London, pp. 211-253.
Huysecom, E., Ozainne, S., Jeanbourquin, C., Mayor, A., Canetti, M., Loukou, S., Chaix, L., Eichhorn, B., Lespez, L., Le Drézen, Y. & Guindo, N. 2015. Towards a better understanding of sub-Saharan settlement mounds before AD 1400. The tells of Sadia on the Seno Plain (Dogon Country, Mali). Journal of African Archaeology 13 (1), 7-38.
Huysecom, E., Ozainne, S., Mayor, A., Jeanbourquin, C., Robion-Brunner, C., Ballouche, A., Chaix, L., Cissé, L., Eichhorn, B., Garnier, A., Guindo, N., Kahlheber, S., Le Drézen, Y., Lespez, L., Loukou, Y.S.B., Sanogo, K., Serneels, V., Soriano, S., Soulignac, R. & Taïbi, N. 2011. Le tell de Sadia en Pays dogon. La treizième année de recherches du programme « Peuplement humain et évolution paléoclimatique en Afrique de l’Ouest ». Jahresbericht SLSA 2010, 101-221.
Kanté, N. 1993. Forgerons d’Afrique Noire. L’Harmattan, Paris.
Keepax, C.A. 1981. Avian egg-shell from archaeological sites. Journal of Archaeological Science 8 (4), 315-335.
Keita, D. 2011. Le peuplement de la marge orientale du delta intérieur du Niger au premier millénnaire après Jésus Christ. Ph.D. Thesis. Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, Paris.
Keita, D. 2015. Peuplement humain du delta intérieur du Niger. Le peuplement de la marge orientale du delta intérieur du Niger au premier millénaire après Jésus Christ. Presses Académiques Francophones, Saarbrücken.
Lebeuf, A. & Pâques, V. (eds.) 1970. Archéologie Malienne: Collections Desplagnes. Musée de l’Homme/CNRS, Paris.
Linseele, V. 2003. Cultural identity and the consumption of dogs in Western Africa. In: O’Day, S.J., van Neer, W. & Ervynck, A. (eds.), Behaviour Behind Bones. The Zooarchaeology of Ritual, Religion, Status and Identity. Oxbow Books, Oxford, pp. 318-326.
Linseele, V. 2007. Archaeofaunal Remains from the Past 4000 Years in Sahelian West Africa. Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 70. BAR International Series 1658. Archeopress, Oxford.
Lovejoy, P.E. 1985. The internal trade of West Africa to 1800. In: Ajayi, J. & Crowder, M. (eds.), History of West Africa 1. Third Edition. Longman, New York, pp. 648-690.
MacDonald, K.C. n.d. Final Report on the 1995/1996 Southern Gourma Field Season. Unpublished Report to the British Academy.
MacDonald, K.C. 1992. The domestic chicken (Gallus gallus) in sub-Saharan Africa: A background to its introduction and its osteological differentiation from indigenous fowls (Numidinae and Francolinus sp.). Journal of Archaeological Science 19 (3), 303-318.
MacDonald, K.C. 1994. Socio-economic Diversity and the Origin of Cultural Complexity along the Middle Niger (2000 BC to AD 300). Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. University of Cambridge, Cambridge.
MacDonald, K.C. 1995. Why chickens? The centrality of the domestic fowl in West African ritual and magic. MASCA Research Papers in Science and Archaeology 12, 50-56.
MacDonald, K.C. 1996. The Windé Koroji Complex: Evidence for the peopling of the eastern Inland Niger Delta. Préhistoire Anthropologie Méditerranéennes 5, 147-165.
MacDonald, K.C. 1997/98. More forgotten tells of Mali: an archaeologist’s journey from here to Timbuktu. Archaeology International 1, 40-42.
MacDonald, K.C. 2012. ‘The least of their inhabited villages are fortified’: the walled settlements of Segou”. Papers in Honour of Graham Connah, (special book issue edited by D. Gronenborn & S. MacEachern), Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa 47, 343-364.
MacDonald, K.C. & Camara, S. 2011. Segou: Warfare and the Origins of a State of Slavery. In: Lane, P. & MacDonald, K.C. (eds.), Slavery in Africa. Archaeology and Memory. Proceedings of the British Academy 168, London, pp. 25-46.
MacDonald, K.C. & Camara, S. 2012. Segou, Slavery and Sifinso. In: Monroe, J.C. & Ogundiran, A. (eds.), Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa: Archaeological Perspectives. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 169-190.
MacDonald, K.C., Champion, L. & Manning, K. 2017. Windé Koroji Ouest (Mali, Second and Third Millennia BCE): The Environmental and Subsistence Evidence. In: Rupp, N., Beck, C., Franke, G. & Wendt, K. (eds.), Winds of Change: Archaeological Contributions in Honour of Peter Breunig. Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt, Bonn, pp. 165-180.
MacDonald, K.C. & MacDonald, R.H. 2000. The origins and develoment of domesticated animals in arid West Africa. In: Blench, R. & MacDonald, K.C. (eds.), The Origins and Development of African Livestock: Archaeology, Genetics, Linguistics and Ethnography. UCL Press, London, pp. 127-162.
MacDonald, K.C. & MacDonald, R.H. 2016. Mammalian, avian, and reptilian remains. In: McIntosh, R.J., McIntosh, S.K. & Bocoum, H. (eds.), The Search for Takrur: Archaeological Excavations and Reconnaissance along the Middle Senegal Valley. Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 311-334.
MacDonald, K.C. & Manning, K. 2010. Cord-wrapped roulette. In: Haour, A. et al. (eds.) African Pottery Roulettes Past and Present. Techniques, Identification and Distribution. Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 144-156.
MacDonald, K.C., Togola, T., MacDonald, R.H. & Capezza, C. 1994. Douentza. Past 17, 12-14.
Martinelli, B. 1992. Agriculteurs métallurgistes et forgerons en Afrique soudano-sahélienne, Études rurales 125-126, 25-42.
Mayor, A. 2011. Traditions céramiques dans la Boucle du Niger : Ethnoarchéologie et histoire du peuplement au temps des empires précoloniaux. Journal of African Archaeology Monograph Series 7. Africa Magna Verlag, Frankfurt.
Mayor, A., Huysecom, E., Gallay, A., Rasse, M. & Ballouche, A. 2005. Population dynamics and paleoclimate over the past 3000 years in the Dogon Country, Mali. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24 (1), 25-61.
McIntosh, R.J. 1991. Early urban clusters in China and Africa: The arbitration of social ambiguity. Journal of Field Archaeology 18 (2), 199-212.
McIntosh, R.J. 1998. The Peoples of the Middle Niger: The Island of Gold. Blackwell Publishers, London.
McIntosh, R.J. 2005. Ancient Middle Niger. Urbanism and the Self-Organising Landscape. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
McIntosh, S.K. (ed.) 1995. Excavations at Jenné-Jeno, Hambarketolo and Kaniana (Inland Niger Delta, Mali), the 1981 Season. University of California Press, Los Angeles.
McIntosh, S.K. & McIntosh, R.J. 1980. Prehistoric Investigations in the Region of Jenne, Mali. BAR, Oxford.
McIntosh, S.K. & Guèye, N.S. 2010. Braided cord roulette (simple and composite). In: Haour, A. et al. (eds.), African Pottery Roulettes Past and Present. Techniques, Identification and Distribution. Oxbow, Oxford, pp. 157-168.
McNaughton, P.R. 1988. The Mande Blacksmiths: Knowledge, Power, and Art in West Africa. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Osborn, D. & Helmy, I. 1980. The Contemporary Land Mammals of Egypt (including Sinai). The Field Museum of Natural History, Fieldiana (Zoology) 5. Chicago.
Park, D.P. 2010. Prehistoric Timbuktu and its hinterland. Antiquity 84, 1076-1088.
Park, D.P. 2011. Climate Change, Human Response and the Origins of Urbanism at Timbuktu: archaeological investigations into the origins of urbanism in the Timbuktu region on the Niger Bend, Mali, West Africa. Unpublished PhD thesis, Yale University.
Perret, S. & Serneels, V. 2006. Technological characterisation and quantification of a large scale iron smelting site in Fiko (Dogon plateau, Mali). In: Moreau, J.-F., Auger, R., Chabot, J. & Herzog, A. (eds.), Proceedings of the 36th International Symposium on Archaeometry, Quebec City, May 2006. Cahiers d’archéologie du CELAT 25. CELAT, Quebec City, pp. 453-463.
Petit, L., von Czerniewicz, M. & Pelzer, C. (eds.) 2011. Oursi hu-beero. A Medieval House Complex in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Sidestone Press, Leiden.
Robion-Brunner, C. 2010. Forgerons et sidérurgie en pays dogon. Vers une histoire de la production du fer sur le plateau de Bandiagara (Mali) durant les empires précoloniaux. Journal of African Archaeology Monograph Series 3. Africa Magna Verlag, Frankfurt.
Sauvagnargues, F. 2005. La prospection dans la région de Thial. In: Bedaux, R.M.A., Polet, J., Sanogo, K. & Schmidt, A. (eds.), Recherches archéologiques à Dia dans le Delta intérieur du Niger (Mali): bilan des saisons de fouilles 1998-2003. CNWS, Leiden, pp. 423-430.
Schmidt, A. 2005. Reconaissance des alentours de Dia. In: Bedaux, R.M.A., Polet, J., Sanogo, K. & Schmidt, A. (eds.), Recherches archéologiques à Dia dans le Delta intérieur du Niger (Mali): bilan des saisons de fouilles 1998-2003. CNWS, Leiden, pp. 401-422.
Schönwetter, M. 1967. Handbuch der Oologie. Volume I. Akademie, Berlin.
Serneels, V. & Perret, S. 2003. Quantification of smithing activities based on the investigation of slag and other material remains. In: Archaeometallurgy in Europe. Proceedings of the International Conference (Milano, September 24-26, 2003). Associazone Italiana di Metallurgia, Milano, pp. 469-478.
Tamari, T. 1991. The development of caste systems in West Africa. The Journal of African History 32 (2), 221-250.
Tamari, T. 1995. Linguistic evidence for the history of West African “castes”. In: Conrad, D.C. & Frank, B.E. (eds.), Status and Identity in West Africa. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, pp. 61-85.
Togola, T. 2008. Archaeological Investigations of Iron Age Sites in the Mema Region, Mali (West Africa). Cambridge Monographs in African Archaeology 73, BAR International.
Uebel, D. n.d. The charcoal record of the site Tongo Maaré Diabal (Mali). Unpublished report. UCL Institute of Archaeology.
van Doosselaere, B. 2014. Le Roi et le Potier. Étude technologique de l’assemblage céramique de Koumbi Saleh, Mauritanie (5e/6e-17e siècles AD). Reports in African Archaeology 5. Africa Magna, Frankfurt.
van Neer, W. & Boucoum, H. 1991. Etude archéozoologique de Tulel-Fobo, site protohistorique (IVe-Xe siècle) de la moyenne vallée du Fleuve Sénégal (République du Sénégal). Archaeozoologia 4, 93-114.
Walicka Zeh, R.A. 2000. Building practice and cultural space amongst the Bambara, Senufo and Bozo of Mali. An ethnoarchaeological study. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. University of London, London.
Walicka Zeh, R.A. & MacDonald, K.C. 2004. An ethnoarchaeological study of architectural remains and spatial organisation, an example from the site of Tongo Maaré Diabal, Mali. In: Sanogo, K. & Togola, T. (eds.), Proceedings of the 11th Congress of the PanAfrican Association for Prehistory and Related Fields. Institut des Sciences Humaines, Bamako.
Wickens, G.E. 1969. A Study of Acacia albida Del. (Mimosoideae). Kew Bulletin 23 (2), 181-202.
Woodhouse, J. n.d. Boata Furnace, Gourma, Mali. In: MacDonald, K.C. (ed.), Final Report on the 1995/1996 Southern Gourma Field Season. Unpublished Report to the British Academy, ref. BA-AN1928/APN2336, London, 9-18.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 689 | 144 | 8 |
Full Text Views | 373 | 74 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 141 | 79 | 3 |
This article summarises the results of four seasons of excavation at Tongo Maaré Diabal (AD 500-1150), near Douentza, Mali. Deep stratigraphic excavations were directed by MacDonald and Togola in 1993, 1995 and by MacDonald in 1996. Complementary, large exposure excavations of the abandonment layer were undertaken by Gestrich in 2010. The combined excavation results speak to topics of craft specialisation, trade, and social organisation. They provide evidence of a specialised blacksmithing community situated at the margins of early Middle Niger and Niger Bend statehood and urbanisation.
All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 689 | 144 | 8 |
Full Text Views | 373 | 74 | 1 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 141 | 79 | 3 |