Ounjougou (Mali): A history of holocene settlement at the southern edge of the Sahara

• Published in: Antiquity Vol. 78; no. 301; pp. 579 - 593
• Main Authors: Huysecom, E., Ozainne, S., Raeli, F., Ballouche, A., Rasse, M., Stokes, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.09.2004; Portland Press; Antiquity Publications/Cambridge University Press
• Subjects: Archaeology; Archaeology and Prehistory; Business; Ceramics; Dogon Plateau; Generalities; grinding implements; Historic artifacts; History; Holocene; Holocene Epoch; Human settlements; Humanities and Social Sciences; Keywords; Land settlement; lithic industry; Mali; Metallurgy; Neolithic; Neolithic Age; Niger-Congo languages; Occupations; Organisation and history of research; palaeoenvironment; Paleoecology; Prehistoric era; Prehistory and protohistory; Sahara; Settlement archaeology; settlement history; Synthesis; West Africa; Mali; Africa; Sahara; ceramics; Mali; settlement history; grinding implements; West Africa; palaeoenvironment; lithic industry; Holocene; Dogon Plateau; Neolithic; Settlement; Plateau; Synthesis; Preservation; Geology and climatology; State; Object; Recording; History; Pleistocene; Pottery; Lithic industry; Palaeoenvironment
• ISSN: 0003-598X; 1745-1744
• DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00113237

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.