Tukuler
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Alioune Deme & Susan Keech McIntosh EXCAVATIONS AT WALALDÉ: NEW LIGHT ON THE SETTLEMENT OF THE MIDDLE SENEGAL VALLEY BY IRON-USING PEOPLES Journal of African Archaeology Vol. 4 (2), 2006, pp. 2**-2** 1
Abstract Excavation of the five hectare site of Walaldé revealed an occupation by iron-using agropastoralists that began [800-550] cal BC, and continued until [400-200] cal BC.
The earliest occupation phase appears to document a period of transitional iron use, with some worked stone in evidence. Smelting and forging slags and tuyeres are present in considerable quantities in the later phase. Cop- per with the distinctive chemical signature of the Akjoujt mines in Mauritania was also present after 550 cal BC, attesting to trade and interaction over long distances.
Other important aspects of the Walaldé sequence include ceramic materials and a series of red ochre burials.
Possible cultural affinities with shell midden sites in the Senegal Delta, surface material from the Lac Rkiz region, and pastoralist sites of the ‘Boudhida Culture’ around Nouakchott are discussed.
The article concludes with a consideration of Walaldé’s significance to the debate over the origins of iron metallurgy in West Africa
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In 1990, a multi-year, multi-phase research project commenced in the Middle Senegal Valley (MSV) re- gion around Cubalel as a collaborative effort by Rice University and the University of Dakar-Ch. Anta Diop (Fig. 1). As part of the area traditionally identified with the historical polity of Takrur, this region was selected for investigation to better understand the development of larger-scale, more complex settlements, and regional polities, using a methodology similar to that previously employed in the Inland Niger Delta around Djenné.
Tukuler
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Occupation at Walaldé began in the period 800-550 cal BC and continued until ca 200 cal BC. The sequence appears to document the transi- tion from stone- to iron-based technology, with the use of iron objects and stone initially, followed by evidence for iron smelting and forging from 500-200 cal BC. Copper with the distinctive chemical signature of the Akjoujt mines in Mauritania was also present after 500 cal BC, attesting to interaction over long distances. Other important aspects of the Walaldé sequence in- clude ceramics and a series of red-ochre burials.
Today, the subsistence system in this region displays a certain amount of specialization (although fishermen and herders grow some crops, and farmers – the agropastoral Tokolor – have some cattle), with considerable flexibility and mobility in response to the uncertainties of climate variation from year to year (BOUTILLIER 1962). The present -day distinction between transhumantFula pastoralists and agropastoralTokolor appears to have considerable time depth; ‘Felle’ and ‘Tochoror’ are identified in the MSV region on the 1339 map of Angelino Dulcert (LEVTZION ______________________________________________________________________________
from the ES thread 3 Jews' Maps link _______________________________________________________________________________
1974: 136). All these subsistence producers in the region today are Halpuular (“speakers of Puular”), a West At- lantic language closely related to Wolof and Serer. The Serer today live in the west central part of Senegal but are considered to have originally occupied the MSV until they migrated south in response to Islamization.
Other artifacts: Fired clay, stone, bone, shell Fired clay
A variety of indeterminate animal figurines, some with clearly modeled horns on a legless body (Fig. 17) dominated the small finds. These occurred throughout the sequence, but are more frequent in Phase I, which probably reflects the greater intensity of occupation during that phase (Tab. 5). Given the importance of herding in the Walaldé economy, the horned terracottas may be schematic representations of cattle.
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Lithics, shell and bone
Stone artifacts and manuports at Walaldé included * two perforated basalt pendants, * fragments of hematite (some polished), * two cornaline beads, * two chert scrapers, and * a large volume of laterite chunks, plus * river pebbles (2-3 cm long) that appeared to have been struck and fragmented, and * small pieces of sandstone, and quartz. A few of the sandstone pieces were shaped into probable grinders.
Chert is not a local material, ... Other exotics (cornaline and basalt) were quite rare. Most of the other stone materials, including laterite, were locally available from within a 5-10 km radius.
Bone artifacts seem to be restricted to Phase I, ... Shell artifacts are rare, but the perforated Anadara senilis cockleshell beads are of great interest, as they indicate contact with the Atlantic coastal lagoon where this species lives.
Metals
Of special interest was the large iron bracelet on the left arm of the Feature 5 burial. Two copper earrings were recovered near the left temporal of this burial. Three other copper objects were recovered from other contexts: another earring and two beads (Fig. 18 and Tab. 6)
The distinctive chemical composition of the ear- rings – with arsenic, as already mentioned, and minor levels of nickel – is similar to copper from the Mau- ritanian mines at Akjoujt, which is the presumed ore source. The date of the Phase II occupation at Walaldé, from which all the copper (save the bead just discussed) comes, overlaps convincingly with the radiocarbon dates for the Akjoujt mines in the period ca 500-200 cal BC. There is no evidence for copper smelting at Wala- ldé, so these objects were likely made elsewhere.
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Subsistence economy
Fauna
Most of the identifiable remains are domestic stock. Over half were cattle, and approximately 10 % were ovi- caprines (Tab. 9). Domestic dog and cat are present. One possible camel bone was identified from W2. If verified, this would push back the earliest occurrence of camel in this region by several centuries. Guinea fowl was rare, as were remains of wild animals that included possible frag- ments of a cheetah-size wild felid, monkey, a large sample of tortoise, frog, rodent, hare, crocodile and fowl. Most of the taxa are consistent with a riverine environment.
Flora
... thus far definitively identified domestic Pennisetum millet (S. Murray, pers. comm.)
The first millennium BC occupation at Walaldé: Overview and discussion
Walaldé Phase I occupation (800-550 cal BC)
Agropastoralists with millet and cattle, plus a few sheep and goat, first occupied Walaldé sometime between 800 and 550 cal BC. ... Occupation was initially sparse and episodic, with low artifact densities in the earliest levels, but a high degree of comminution of potsherds suggests exposure of mate- rial on the surface to trampling during periods of slow accumulation.
Among the earliest depositional events were two flexed inhumations (Features 4 and 9) of males aged 40+ years. In both cases, it appears that the body was sprinkled with red ochre and wrapped in an organic shroud (grass mat? animal skin?) and/or placed under a tent that was set alight and which burned very quickly and at relatively low temperatures. This caused superficial calcining and burning of some bones.
Comparative multivariate craniometric analysis by Isabelle RIBOT (2003) of the Feature 9 skull indicated that it was more similar to present-day West African groups such as Ashanti than to North Africans and modern Serer.
* The vault appears to be long and broad, * the face is high and prognathic with long zygomatics, * the nose is moderately high and wide, and * the mandible is relatively large
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The material culture of these early inhabitants consisted notably of iron artifacts and stone (hematite, laterite chunks, and fragmented pebbles) and bone, in addition to pottery and a variety of fired zoomorphic figurines.
Most materials were locally available from within a 5-10 km radius. Only stone beads (cornaline and basalt), chert, and A. senilis were obtained over substantial distances. These exotics were quite rare.
The early assemblage is provisionally assessed as tran- sitional Iron Age. While iron artifacts are present in the earliest levels, two very small pieces of slag and a tuyere fragment are the only evidence for smelting in this early phase.
... the Walaldé Phase I iron artifacts, ... are among the earliest, well-dated, in situ iron in West Africa, ...
The affinities of this early assemblage are sug- gested by the pottery, which shares some similari- ties in vessel rim form and decoration with pottery to the west and north. Ceramics collected from the surface by R. Vernet (pers. comm.) in the Lac Rkiz area show close affinities, as do ceramics excavated by M.A. MBOW (1997) from the oyster shell middens at Poudioum and Bole de Mengueye near St. Louis on the Senegal River delta. Both forms and certain distinctive decorative motifs recall Walaldé:
...
Further north, beginning 20 km south of Nouakchott and continuing 100 km to the north, ... this same distinctive impressed motif, as well as guilloche decoration, but the fabric is heavily tempered with chaff, not grog. Occupied by semi-sedentary pasto- ralists, the Boudhida sites include large settlements on inland dunes and small coastal shell middens. The Boudhida assemblage differs significantly from Walaldé in its wealth of lithics, * such as flaked points, * ground stone axes, * grinding stones, * bone and shell tools, and its diverse copper industry (Fig. 19).
Boudhida is presumed to be largely contemporaneous with the Akjoujt Chalcolithic – 2600-2200 bp. The nature of a possible cultural affiliation among these three areas is unclear.
<< The Akjoujt phase lasted from 3rd Dynasty Egypt throughout all of the Old Kingdom. >> << Walalde from around Shoshenq III/Osorkon IV to around Ptolemy Epiphanes including the >> << last 24th Sais, 25th Kush, and 26th native Dynasties before Persians and Greco-Romans >> ___________________________________________________________________________________________
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Walaldé and the debate over the origin of metallurgy in Africa
Currently, only three sites in West Africa – Taruga and Opi in Nigeria and Walaldé in Senegal – have pro- duced a combination of evidence that includes first millennium cal BC 14C dates in undoubted, stratigraphi- cally-sealed association with metallurgical remains, published metallurgical analysis of slags and other residues, and descriptions or reconstructions of fur- nace type and technology. Dekpassanware in Togo will soon join this small group once Killick’s analyses are available (DE BARROS 2003, 2006).
Interestingly, the smelting furnaces at these three sites show important differences.
At Taruga, the thirteen furnaces excavated by FAGG (1969) were * forced draft (bellows-driven), * non-slag-tapping furnaces * ranging in diameter from 40-100 cm * consisting of a low shaft * over a shallow pit dug approximately 30 cm into the ground (TYLECOTE 1975).
Some 300 km further south in Nigeria, the contemporaneous furnaces at Opi, on the ore-rich Nsukka-Udi cuesta, were * low-shaft, * forced draft furnaces * ranging in diameter from 85-125 cm. In contrast to the Taruga furnaces, however, the Opi furnaces had * slag-tapping pits * connected by channels (OKAFOR & PHILLIPS 1992; OKAFOR 1993).
The Walaldé furnaces were much smaller *– as small as 25-30 cm in diameter – * with slag accumulating to a depth of only 2-6 cm, indicating that very little ore was processed in each smelt. As with the Taruga furnaces, these were non-slag-tapping.
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Concluding Remarks
Walaldé offers some new pieces in the puzzle of the transition to iron in sub-Saharan West Africa, although we are still a long way from being able to see the entire picture. Several points seem potentially significant.
Copper artifacts from Akjoujt ores testify to the circulation of pastoralists/agropastoralists and objects in western Mauritania ca 2600-2200 bp. The Walaldé settlers seem to have arrived from the north ca 2500 bp, bringing pottery with similarities to that of coastal groups in both the Senegal Delta (Neolithic oyster collectors) and the coastal bays and lagoons and inland dunes near Nouakchott (Chalcolithic agropasto- ral/hunters/shellfish collectors).
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@tukuler Was waiting for you to finally post this... Are you using Post #2 as a placeholder?
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Tukuler
multidisciplinary Black Scholar
Member # 19944
quote:Originally posted by Tukuler: Concluding Remarks
Walaldé offers some new pieces in the puzzle of the transition to iron in sub-Saharan West Africa, although we are still a long way from being able to see the entire picture. Several points seem potentially significant.
Copper artifacts from Akjoujt ores testify to the circulation of pastoralists/agropastoralists and objects in western Mauritania ca 2600-2200 bp. The Walaldé settlers seem to have arrived from the north ca 2500 bp, bringing pottery with similarities to that of coastal groups in both the Senegal Delta (Neolithic oyster collectors) and the coastal bays and lagoons and inland dunes near Nouakchott (Chalcolithic agropasto- ral/hunters/shellfish collectors).
Do you think these pastoralists might have been the Equidians ?
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