Excavations at Gao-Saney: new evidence for settlement growth, trade, and interaction on the Niger...

Journal of African Archaeology Vol. 11 (1), 2013, pp. 9–37 9

Excavations at Gao sanEy: nEw EvidEncE for sEttlEmEnt Growth, tradE, and intEraction on thE

niGEr BEnd in thE first millEnnium cE

Mamadou Cissé, Susan Keech McIntosh, Laure Dussubieux, Thomas Fenn, Daphne Gallagher & Abigail Chipps Smith

Abstract

Along with Ghana, Gawgaw (Gao) was an important regional trading polity mentioned by Arab chroniclers in the later first millennium CE. In the later tenth century, al-Muhallabi wrote of the dual towns of Gawgaw, one the residence of the king and the other a market and trading town called Sarneh. The large settlement mound of Gao Saney, located seven kilometers east of Gao, has long been thought to be the site of Sarneh. Excavations in 2001–2 and 2009 were the first sustained archaeological explorations of the main, 32-hectare mound, providing new information on function, subsistence economy, material culture, and chronology, and expanding considerably on earlier inves-tigations by T. Insoll and R. Mauny. This article presents a broad overview of the recent excavations, focusing particu-larly on the evidence for spatial differentiation (domestic and workshop areas), chronology (both radiocarbon and ceramic) and involvement in trade networks.

Résumé

Avec le Ghana ancien, Gawgaw (Gao) était un des plus im-portants royaumes mentionnés par les chroniqueurs arabes pendant la fin du premier Millénaire après JC. Tard au dixiè-me siècle, al-Muhallabi a fait une description des deux villes de Gawgaw, l’une, la résidence du roi et l’autre, une ville de marché et de commerce appelé Sarneh. Le grand tertre de Gao Saney, situé à sept kilomètres à l’est de Gao, a long-temps été pensé être le site de Sarneh. Les fouilles de 2001–02 et 2009 ont été les premières explorations archéologiques d’envergure sur la butte principale de 32 hectares, offrant de nouvelles informations sur la fonction, l’économie de subsis-tance, la culture matérielle, et la chronologie, et amplifiant considérablement les investigations antérieures de T. Insoll et R. Mauny. Cet article présente une vue d’ensemble des ré-centes fouilles, se focalisant particulièrement sur les preuves de la différenciation spatiale (zones domestiques et ateliers), la chronologie (à la fois avec le radiocarbone et la cérami-que) et l’implication dans les réseaux commerciaux.

Keywords: Niger Bend, Gao Saney, Mali, trade networks, glass beads, copper

DOI 10.3213/2191-5784-10233 Published online June 9, 2013 © Africa Magna Verlag, Frankfurt M.

Mamadou Cissé 8 mamadouCissé[email protected] * Chef de la Mission Culturelle de Kangaba, Cercle de Kangaba, Région de Koulikoro, S/C BP 91, Bamako, Mali Susan Keech McIntosh 8 [email protected] * Department of Anthropology, Rice University, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA

Laure Dussubieux * The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Dr., Chicago, IL 60605-2496, USA

Thomas Fenn * School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Emil W. Haury Anthropology Bldg. #30, 1009 E. South Campus Dr., P.O. Box 210030, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA

Daphne Gallagher * Department of Anthropology, 308 Condon Hall, 1218 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA

Abigail Chipps Smith * Department of Anthropology, Washington University, Campus Box 1114, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899, USA

M. Cissé et al.

Journal of African Archaeology Vol. 11 (1), 201310

Introduction

The development of trade networks and their rela-tionship to the emergence of early towns and polities have been pervasive themes in West African history, beginning with colonial-era assumptions about the central role played by Islam and the “Golden trade of the Moors” (Bovill 1968) in the emergence of towns and states. Arab chroniclers writing between the 8th–10th century identified two major polities extant in the Western Sudan at that time: Ghana and Gawgaw/Kawkaw (Gao) (lEvtzion & hopkins 1981). While details are sparse (more so for Ghana than for Gaw-gaw), the sources are unambiguous on the significant role these two first millennium polities played in the gold and salt trade. The unresolved question of whether trans-Saharan trade extended substantially further back in time, and, if so, on what scale has been examined by numerous authors, relying on Classical historical sources, numismatic, and archaeological evidence (e.g., law 1967; swanson 1975; Garrard 1982; livErani 2000; mattinGly 2011; fEnn et al. 2009; macdonald 2011; wilson 2012). For bulky, heavy items, such as salt and copper, the spread of the camel as a desert pack animal in the first millennium CE is seen by many as essential to the development of Saharan transport. Fuller evaluation of these questions requires additional well-dated and well-contextualized archaeological evi-dence. In recent years, increasing numbers of imports of copper and glass in sites just south of the Sahara have been recovered from deposits dating to 400–800 CE, a period bounded by the decline and fall of the western Roman Empire on one end and the consolidation of the Arab conquest of North Africa on the other. The excavations at the large settlement mound of Gao Saney provide an important dataset relevant to these questions, with unusually abundant evidence of imported goods (especially glass) and settlement expansion dating to the latter part of this time period.

Located seven kilometers east of Gao, Gao Saney has long been thought to be the site of Sarneh, one of the dual towns of Gawgaw described by al-Muhallabi in the tenth century (lEvtzion & hopkins 1981: 174), as well as the dynastic center from which the 12th–13th century Muslim kings and queens buried at the nearby cemetery ruled. Excavations in 2001–2 and 2009 at Gao Saney were the first sustained archaeological explora-tions of the main, 32-hectare mound. In this article, we report results from the three excavation units that probed the six to seven meters of deposits at the mound. The data provide important information on the chro-nology of occupation, spatial differentiation, changes in material culture and subsistence economy, and the settlement’s participation in trade networks. The occu-pation sequence at all three units appears, surprisingly,

to antedate the royal burials at the Saney cemetery. We present a broad overview of the findings, but focus particularly on the evidence for the development of trade and interaction at the site, contextualized with reference to other first-millennium sites with evidence of trade (Fig. 1).

Geography and environment

Gao lies within the Sahelian climatic zone, charac-terized by semi-arid tropical climate with high inter-annual variability and unpredictability in rainfall. Gao and its region receive an annual average of 250–300 mm of rain confined largely to July–September (insoll 1996: 2). From December–February, it is cool and dry, but the harmattan wind blows strongly from the north beginning in February. The maximal temperature often reaches 45°C, particularly during the hot, dry season between April and June. Limited rain-fed cultivation of millet is undertaken along the wadis and ponds that develop during the rainy season. Gao’s subsistence base relies primarily on rice cultivation by Songhay farmers in the Niger River floodplain during the flood period from November–February, and garden cultiva-tion on the riverbanks. Inundation also produces a luxuriant growth of borgu (Echinochloa stagnina), a water weed harvested to feed livestock, attracting pastoralists and their herds through the dry season. Immediately east of Gao lies sandy, acacia scrubland and dunefields cut by ancient stream channels, includ-ing the broad Tilemsi Valley, which extends north over 700 kilometers, and the narrow Wadi Gangaber chan-nel, on which Gao Saney is located (Fig. 2). Whether water flowed seasonally in the Gangaber during the period that Gao Saney was occupied has been a topic of considerable speculation, as it is too dry today to sustain year-round habitation without digging deep wells. The dominant ethnic groups in the Gao region today are the Songhay, who are mainly sedentary farm-ers who grow rice, millet and sorghum, but special-ized sub-groups of Sorko (fishers) and Gow (hunters) also exist, as well as the Tuareg/Tamashek, nomadic Berber-speakers who favor the dunes and interdune depressions in the region.

Historical sources for early Gao/Gawgaw

Along with Ghana, Gawgaw was a regional polity of considerable importance by the late ninth century, when the Arab geographer, Yakubi, described it as “the greatest of the realms of the Sudan, the most important and powerful. All other kingdoms obey its king” (lEvtzion & hopkins 1981: 21). In 985 CE, the Egyptian chronicler al-Muhallabi (quoted by Yaqut,

Excavations at Gao Saney

Journal of African Archaeology Vol. 11 (1), 2013 11

Fig. 1. Map of sites and regions mentioned in the text.

Fig. 2. Map showing the major sites (shaded) and landforms around Gao.

M. Cissé et al.


writing in 1212–1224 CE; lEvtzion & hopkins 1981: 174) wrote of the two towns of Gawgaw: a market and trading town called Sarneh on the eastern bank of the river, and a royal town with its mosque and palace west of the river where the king and his entourage live, which was also presumably the locus of the king’s treasure houses filled with salt. In 1067/8 CE, al-Bakri provided some additional details, based on a tenth century report by al-Warraq, that confirmed the presence of the dual towns (one Muslim and one royal, inhabited by a Mus-lim king called Qanda and a still-pagan population), and also noted that salt was used as currency (lEvtzion & hopkins 1981: 87).

No likely site of the royal town has yet been located across the river (on the west bank) from Gao, but a large mobile dune (‘La Dune Rose’) has partially covered the archaeological site near the village of Koima (insoll 1996: 32), raising questions about what may already have disappeared under the dune. Chronicles written in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (al-Idrisi, Kitab al-Istibsar, Ibn Sa-id — lEvtzion & hopkins 1981: 113, 151, 186–187) refer to the riverside town or city (in the singular) of Gawgaw, but offer some confusing details, indicating that caution is needed in interpreting these texts.

The other historical sources available for the early history of Gao are oral traditions (rouch 1953), the Timbuktu Chronicles of the Songhay empire — Tarikh al-Fattash (houdas & dElafossE 1913) and Tarikh al-Sudan (hunwick 1999) — and over a hundred funerary stele engraved in Arabic from Gao and the cemetery 500 meters northeast of Gao Saney (moraEs farias 2003). Varying interpretations of these sources have led to debates over both the ethnicity of the Za/Zuwa dynasts, identified by the Timbuktu tarikhs as the founders of Gawgaw, and the origin of the rulers identified as kings (malik) and queens (malika) on the funerary stele. One aspect of the ethnicity debate involves whether the Za/Zuwa dynasty originated further south at Kukiya and subsequently decamped to Gao (according to the Tarikh al-Sudan) or whether the dynasty emerged locally at Gao (according to the Notice Historique of the Tarikh al-Fattash — houdas & dElafossE 1913). The second aspect is the dispute over who the Za were: lanGE (1991, 1994), argued that the Za dynasty was of Mande origin and that the Songhay-speakers who today inhabit the region were latecomers who arrived from the east in the 15th cen-tury. hunwick (1980, 1994) on the other hand, insists that the Za were Songhay-speakers who moved to Gao in the ninth century from their previous capital further south on the Niger at Kukiya (near modern Bentia). moraEs farias (2003) adds a new twist to the debate, pointing out that the funerary stele of Za/Zuwa rul-ers appear in the 12th century, subsequent to the stele

of three Zaghi rulers, who are not mentioned in the Timbuktu chronicles. He proposes that the Timbuktu chroniclers, several hundred years later, may have extrapolated their sparse knowledge of the Zuwa dynasty back in mythical time (moraEs farias 2003: clxix), essentially erasing the Zaghi rulers, as well as the Qanda ruler of Gawgaw mentioned by al-Bakri (ibid.: clix). If he is correct, then members of the Za/Zuwa dynasty were not the earliest rulers of Gawgaw, and we do not know who was. Some of the early kings of Gao may have followed the Ibadite branch of Islam and thus not be commemorated by funerary inscrip-tions (hunwick 1980: 247–248).

There is general agreement that the three Zaghi rulers who died between 1100–1120 CE represent a transition in leadership towards the end of the 11th century. hunwick (1980, 1994) suggests that they reflect the seizure of power at Gao Saney by Masufa Sanhaja Berbers with commercial and ideological links to the Almoravids, whose hegemony throughout the western Sahara to Spain was consolidated in the eleventh century. These links would account for the funerary stele imported from Andalusia engraved in Kufic script. lanGE (1991) thinks the Zaghi rulers were local Berber traders who seized power. moraEs farias (2003: clviii) makes a nuanced argument that certain unusual aspects of the Zaghi rulers’ genealogies and names indicate that they inaugurated a new system of circulating kingship among several powerful groups in the area. Within this system of circulating ruler-ship, the notion of a “royal” town may have involved multiple locations (ibid.: clxii, §414). Archaeological data are our best hope for evaluating these diverse propositions.

There is a common assumption, however, that both the Zaghi kings and the subsequent Zuwa kings com-memorated on stele at the cemetery near Saney (their deaths cover the period 1083–1299 CE) lived at and ruled from Gao Saney. Raymond mauny (1952) believed that ‘there is good reason to think that the grand caveau (the brick-lined vault at the cemetery in which some funerary stele may have been found) and the mound of Gao Saney are contemporaneous’, and there has been little reason to doubt it until now. New evidence, however, places most of the documented occupation sequence at Gao Saney prior to the Muslim kings and queens commemorated on the cemetery stele.

Prior archaeological research in Gao

Investigation and documentation of the archaeological heritage of Gao focused primarily on epigraphy and Islam for much of the twentieth century. dE Gironcourt (1920) recorded funerary inscriptions in and around



Gao but did not know of the cemetery near Gao Saney. French administrators discovered the Saney cemetery and the royal stele in the 1930’s and carried out amateur, unrecorded excavations that Raymond mauny (1951, 1961) attempted, with limited success, to document in 1950. Between 1972 and 1978, Colin fliGht (1975, 1978) surveyed and documented the cemetery, and excavated several fired brick structures, among them the “grand caveau” that had earlier attracted amateur efforts (Fig. 3). fliGht (1979a, b) then turned his attention to the tell of Gao Saney in the hope of finding the palace of the royals who were commemorated at the cemetery. He opted to excavate, not on the main mound, but on the small mound to the west, in an area with a concentration of fired brick. He found and mapped the robbed out foundation of a massive building (Structure Q), that had been faced with white lime and red plaster (still intact). He proposed that fired brick was the building material used to construct Structure Q, tentatively interpreted as a massive kubba tomb, built perhaps ca 1100 CE. We have no information on whether there were any as-sociated artifacts, especially pottery, as Flight’s work, both at the cemetery and the western Saney mound, was mainly concerned with documenting structural features. Until Insoll’s pathbreaking excavations at Gao Saney and Gao Ancien began in 1993, the only other excavations at these two sites had been undertaken by mauny (1951, 1961). While we have descriptions of the mosque and fired brick mihrab he excavated at Gao Ancien, there are few published details of the Saney excavations (mauny 1952, 1961).

Insoll’s 1993 and 1996 excavations raised Gao archaeology to the status of a modern, holistic research enterprise (insoll 1996, 2000). He opened three sub-stantial units at Gao Ancien, a single 4x4 m unit at Gadei and a 2x2 m unit at Gao Saney. In addition, a small test pit was excavated across the river at Koima. Although the Saney excavation into an ashy midden was stopped at 2.3 m depth due to instability of the deposits, insoll (1996, 1997) was able to draw some preliminary conclu-sions about the nature of Saney and its relationship to Gao Ancien based on surface material in addition to the material recovered. The similarity of the local pottery as-semblages at the two sites convinced him that they were largely contemporaneous, while the low frequencies of luxury imported ceramics and glass at Gao Saney — in contrast to Gao Ancien, where they were much more common — suggested that elites were concentrated at the latter site. The difference in building materials further underscored this conclusion: fired brick and stone were prevalent at Gao Ancien, but could not be detected in any of the many looters’ pits at Gao Saney.

The evidence that Gao Ancien was primarily residential and elite has expanded with the excavations (largely unpublished) conducted since 2003 by the Malian Direction Nationale du Patrimoine Culturel in areas adjacent to Insoll’s units. These have revealed two extensive buildings in stone, both of which appear to represent a complex construction and use history, with evidence for multiple building phases (Fig. 4). The smaller of the two structures is constructed of schist

Fig. 3. Excavated units and structures at Gao Saney, with insets showing the grand caveau at the cem-etery (fliGht 1981: 96) and Structure Q at the southwest mound (fliGht 1979a).

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slabs and has a central room measuring 5.5 x 7.6 m with eight stone pillars (Fig. 5). A radiocarbon date from the floor level of the central room indicates a construction date of the late 9 th to early 10th century. An additional five dates from overlying deposits all fall between 920±60 bp and 1030±50 bp (900–1200 CE, calibrated; takEzawa & cissé 2012: 833)1. On the southern end of this building were two rooms, each measuring 3.1 x 2.2 m. Associated with this structure was a considerable quantity of exotic goods such as glass beads (n= >6000), an iron sword inlaid with brass, fragments of imported lusterware,

1 takEzawa & cissé (2012) report on certain findings at Gao An-cien and Gao Saney prior to 2009. The current article builds on these earlier findings and reports more recent research and new interpretations.

several dozen glass bottle fragments, copper-based ob-jects and two small gold fragments. The possibility that this pillar structure was an elite, or even royal residence has been proposed (takEzawa & cissé 2012), based on the high numbers of imported artifacts in the deposits. Since pillared architecture of this date in northern Africa is associated exclusively with mosques or churches (E. Fentress, pers. comm), this interpretation raises inter-esting questions about the source area from which this architectural model could have been drawn. The pillars and the orientation of the building are both suggestive of a mosque. While the absence of a mirhab along the eastern wall is puzzling (there is an entranceway where a mirhab might be expected to have been placed), early Ibadi mosques lacking a mirhab have been documented on the Swahili coast (horton 1991, 2004). Could this

Schist and laterite stone walls

Unfired brick structures

Fired brick structure

Schist wall structure

Excava on unit numbers

Units excavated down to the sterile(GMK/S1&S2; GKM/S3)

0 2.5 5m

GMK/S2

Key

LONG HOUSE

PILLAR STRUCTURE

GKM/S3

GMK/S1

6

1

2

3

4 5

7 12 14

15 19

31

16

32

13 11

33

2024

N

1

8

9

10

Fig. 4. The two main building complexes excavated at Gao Ancien since 2003.



pillar structure have been a small Ibadi mosque that served the Muslims in this elite sector of the town? Certainly links with Ibadite traders from Tahert existed at this time (lEwicki 1961).

Trash accumulated atop the southern wall of the pillar structure in the 12th century (two radiocarbon dates), before a new, rather carelessly constructed schist wall was built on top of the fill. This wall was linked to the building of similar walls immediately to the south, re-using stone from either the pillar structure or the second, larger structure, dubbed the Long House (S.K. McIntosh and M. Cissé2). This extraordinary structure is constructed of alternate tiers of schist slabs and spheri-cal laterite blocks. The northern and western walls show evidence of more recent building or reworking of earlier walls. The southern complex of four long, narrow rooms (7.8–9.8 m long by 2.2 m wide) flanked by entryways to the east and west are the best candidates for original

parts of the structure. The date of the initial construction of the Long House and the nature of its deposits have not yet been evaluated.

The research at Gao Ancien underscores the sig-nificance of its participation in extensive trade networks that stretched to Egypt, Tunisia, and Spain. Insoll re-marked upon the vastly greater numbers of imports at the Gao sites than at the sites west of the Niger Bend, such as Tegdaoust and Kumbi Saleh, despite the much larger volumes of excavated deposits at those sites. As for Gao Saney, the evidence of manufacturing debris (e.g., crucibles, slag) and a type of crescent-shaped copper “ingot” prompted Insoll to conclude that it was a manufacturing center that could indeed be identified with the Sarnah of al-Muhallabi.

These observations and conclusions are largely supported by the results of the excavations described in this article, while new information adds to our under-standing of Gao Saney’s development and involvement in trade. In particular, the radiocarbon dates obtained clarify the chronology of the site, which is earlier than the 10th–13th century timeframe that Insoll proposed. The description for the first time of a very distinctive

Fig. 5. Pillar Structure at Gao Ancien, looking south.

2 S.K. McIntosh & M. Cissé, “Archaeological contributions to the early history of Kawkaw: 700–1000 CE”. Paper presented at the 19th biennial conference of the Society of Africanist Archaeolo-gists, Frankfurt, 2008.

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ceramic assemblage at Gao Saney allows detailed assessment of similarities with pottery assemblages beyond Gao itself, including Kukiya and the Oudalan to the south (arazi 1997, 1999; czErniEwicz 2002), and Gourma Rharous and Timbuktu along the Niger to the west (mcintosh & mcintosh 1986; park 2011), and Es-Souk to the north (nixon 2008, 2009).

The 2001–2 and 2009 excavations

In 2001–2, massive looting of Gao Saney by local people searching for beads prompted the Direction Nationale du Patrimoine Culturel of Mali to undertake rescue excavations in collaboration with the Museum of Ethnology of Osaka, Japan (takEzawa & cissé n.d.) (Fig. 6). Units GS1 (3x3 m) and GS3 (3x2 m) were located 300 meters apart in the northeastern and east central sectors, respectively, of the main mound in areas of undisturbed deposits. Unit GS1 was located three meters east of the unit that Insoll opened in 1993 (insoll 1996: 41–42). In 2009, another 3x3 m unit, ACGS, was placed two meters distant from GS1 at the northeastern border of the mound.

The 2001–2 and 2009 excavations proceeded by natural levels down to sterile. The 2009 excavations were careful to maintain fine stratigraphic control over individual depositional levels/contexts. The fine-grained control in ACGS made possible a more refined assessment of the excavated deposits in GS1 only two meters away in an area of the mound that was rich in highly informative trash and structural deposits.

Excavation and stratigraphy of ACGS and GS1 revealed a number of discrete episodes of pit digging, trash fill and building construction. At the top of both units, a large accumulation of trash extended to a depth of between 1.5–1.8 m. These deposits had ashy layers and large quantities of animal bones, glass beads, iron

slag, copper crucibles, and potsherds. Structural features of large rectangular mud bricks or lumps of banco were encountered between 1.5 and 5.5 m depth (Tab. 1, Fig. 7), with trash pits and intervening fill deposits between structures. These fills primarily consisted of the accu-mulation of domestic debris (bones, potsherds, glass, glass beads, iron and copper objects), manufacturing debris (melted glass, iron and copper) and fragments of banco bricks from mud wall collapse. The structural wall elements were underlain from 5.5 to 6.4 meters by trash deposits containing ash, glass beads, potsherds and some iron slag. No sterile layers were encountered throughout this excavated sequence; cultural deposits formed a continuous sequence overlaying sterile red-dish, homogeneous sand encountered at a depth of 6.1–6.4 m (Figs. 8 and 9).

The sequence of deposits in GS3 was somewhat different. The top trash layer was relatively shallow, underlain by a series of banco brick structures extend-ing from 0.3–2.6 meters (Tab. 1). Below the structural features were occupation deposits, including a pottery concentration (Feature 6) that marked an abandoned living floor at 3.55 cm depth. From 4.7 m depth to sterile at 7.0 m, the deposits were primarily trash ac-cumulations and wall melt. There was no evidence of glass bead processing debris in these early levels, in contrast to GS1 and ACGS.

Nine samples of wood charcoal were dated by Beta Analytic (for ACGS) and the University of Waikato (for GS1 and GS3 — takEzawa & cissé n.d.) (Tab. 2). For the neighboring units ACGS and GS1, the dates at the bottom and top seem to differ by 80–100 years, with the Waikato (Wk) dates being older. The potential significance of this cannot be assessed at this time. The only other radiocarbon date available for Gao Saney is on a wood charcoal sample of unknown provenience from the main mound of Gao Saney in the mid-1980s (raimBault & sanoGo 1991: 520, 522; the circum-stances under which the sample was collected are not reported). The date on the sample is 1000 ± 70 bp (Pa 412), calibrated to AD 975–1150.

Although al-Sadi claimed that Gao Saney was settled by North African Berbers during the second half of the eleventh century (hunwick 1999: xxxiv–xxxv), only one date (Beta 261360) supports occupation of the site as late as this.

The three dates provided by Waikato (Wk 12630 for GS1, Wk 12633 and 12634 for GS3) for the first and second feature complexes and their accumulation levels form a coherent ensemble. These complexes can be dated from the ninth to tenth centuries CE. This period coincides with the prosperity of Gao Saney. The earliest levels are dated by Wk 12635 (680–880;cal;CE) Fig. 6. Extensive looters' pits on the surface of Gao Saney.



Wall Features Description

ACGS Feature 1 Wall, NW corner; 10 layers of elongated sandy banco fragments used as bricksFeature 2 Wall structure built with lumps of bancoFeature 3 Wall, SE corner: rectangular wall built with long banco bricks 15–18 cm thickFeature 4 Wall fragment, SE corner abutting F.3: 10 layers of rectangular mud bricks 40 x 30 x 6 cmFeature 6 Wall fragment, SW corner; rectangular mud brick; related to Feature 4Feature 8 Wall fragment, NE corner: 5 layers of rectangular mud bricks 40–43 x 30–33 cmFeature 10 Wall extending along E side of unit: 4 layers of rectangular mud bricks 36–44 x 34 cm GS1 Feature 1A Wall segment, E sector; curved wall of sandy banco lumpsFeature 1B Walls, C sector; rectilinear structure of sandy banco lumpsFeature 2A Walls, N sector; two parallel rectilinear walls of mud brick 40 x 20 x 4.5 cmFeature 2B Wall melt, C sector GS3 Feature 1A Wall segment, NW corner, abutting F.1B, two layers rectangular mud bricks 40 x 20 x 4.5 cm Feature 1B Wall running NW-SE across unit, plus corner of adjoining wall in S; rectangular mud bricks 40 x 20 x 4.5 cm Feature 1C Wall, South sector; continuation of southern wall of F.1BFeatures 2A,2B Walls, C sector; small, curved structures of elongated sandy banco bricks 15–20 cm wide Feature 3 Walls, NW corner; 20 cm wide rectilinear structure of rectangular mud bricks 40 x 20 x 4.5 cm Feature 4 Wall running NW-SE across unit, adjoining wall of F.1C; 4 layers of rectangular mud bricks 40–42 x 23–25 x 5–6 cm Feature 5 Wall, NW corner; curved structure constructed with elongated banco lumps

Tab. 1. Wall features identified in the Gao Saney excavation units (for location within the stratigraphic columns, see Figures 8–10).

Fig. 7. ACGS: Feature 3 long banco wall structure (right) and Feature 4 rectangular mud brick wall structure (left).

M. Cissé et al.


Top

Sterile

Top

Sterile

SE 2.0 1.0 SW 1.0 2.0 NW

.5

1.0

.5

2.0

.5

3.0

.5

4.0

.5

5.0

.5

6.0

.5

1.0

.5

2.0

.5

3.0

.5

4.0

.5

5.0

.5

6.0

wall

Friable sandy loam with lumps

STERILE

Key

Fig. 8. ACGS natural strata, South and West profiles.

Unit Level Lab # Sample depth (m) Date bp Calendar years (calibrated)

ACGS 2 Beta 261360 0.35 – 0.45 950 ± 60 Cal AD 980 – 1220ACGS 33 Beta 261361 5.68 – 5.70 1170±40 Cal AD 770 – 980GS1 2 Wk 12629 0.80 – 0.84 1083 ± 42 Cal AD 880 – 1030GS1 7b Wk 12630 2.72 – 2.91 1297 ± 52 Cal AD 650 – 870GS1 14 Wk 12631 5.60 – 5.80 1227 ± 42 Cal AD 680 – 890GS3 1 Wk 12632 0.20 – 0.35 1124 ± 37 Cal AD 780 – 990GS3 5 Wk 12633 0.96 – 1.26 1189 ± 54 Cal AD 690 – 970GS3 12 Wk 12634 3.55 – 3.60 1126 ± 44 Cal AD 780 – 1010GS3 16 Wk 12635 6.40 – 6.50 1246 ± 37 Cal AD 680 – 880

Tab. 2. Radiocarbon dates from Gao Saney 2001–02 and 2009 excavations. Note: Calibrated dates for Beta and Wk are from INTCAL04 (2004) and talma & voGEl (1993) at 2 sigma and rounded to the nearest 10 years. The Beta dates are reported with 12C and 13C fractionation corrections; the Wk dates are reported with 13C fractionation correction.



and Wk 12631 (680–890 cal CE) and Beta 261361 (770–980 cal CE), suggesting a date for initial settlement in the eighth century CE. Within a very short time, the extent of the area of active archaeological deposition was 300 m East-West — the distance between ACGS/GS1 and GS3. Figure 10 presents a schematic summary of chronological relationships among the deposits of units ACGS, GS1 and GS3.

In sum the proposed calendar chronology for the occupation of the eastern sector of the main Gao Saney mound is largely between 700 and 1100 CE.

Gao Saney pottery

The ceramic assemblage from Gao Saney was re-markably homogeneous in all three excavated units, throughout all the deposits. We have defined the main characteristics of the pottery for the period 700–1100 CE on the basis of 5700 rim and body sherds, which were recorded using the multivariate methodological approach that S.K. mcintosh (1995) devised for the analysis of the Inland Niger Delta ceramic assemblages from Jenné-jeno and surrounding sites (cissé 2011: Chapter 6). This sherd total represents a sample of the

SE SW3m 2m 1m 0m

1m

2m

3m

4m

5m

6m

1

2

3

45 6

89

10 F2

11111314

1415

17 17

2020

21

22

24

25

26

27

23

2829

29

30

31

33

34

35

F4

F3

F6

F9

NW1m 2m 3m

1m

2m

3m

4m

5m

6m

1

2

3

4 56

89

10

F1

7b

1113

19

1415

17

20

21

22

24

25

26

27

23

2829

29

30

31

33

34

35

F4

F1

F6

F9

Fig. 9. ACGS excavated levels, south and west.

M. Cissé et al.


(Cal AD 780-1010)

ACGS GS1 GS3

L. 1–10

F2F1

L. 11–14

F3

F4

F6

F5,7Pit

L. 16–21

L. 22–24

L. 25–26F8

PitF9

L. 27–32

F10

L. 33–34

F11Level 35Sterile

L. 1–4

F1B

F1A

L. 6–7

L. 14

Level 15Sterile

1124 ± 37 BP

F1A F1B

F2A F2B

F1C

F3

F4

L. 6–9

F4C

F5

pottery clusterF6

1126 ± 44 BP

F7

L. 13–15

L. 16

Level 17Sterile

F2AF2B

L. 1Trash

(Cal AD 780-990)

L. 2–5

L. 10–12

(Cal AD 680-880)

0 m

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

5.5

6

6.5

L.5

L. 8–13

Sequences ofdomesticaccumulation,wall melt,wall collapse

Trash, domestic accumulation,wall collapse

7m

7.5

Trashaccumulation;

copper melting/casting debris

(Cal AD 650-870)

(Cal AD 980-1220)

(Cal AD 880-1030)

Domestic trash

Structures ofbanco chunks

Accumulation

Domesticaccumulationand trash pits

Wall fall, post-occupationaccumulation

Domestic accumulation

Wall fall, post-occupation,accumulation

Trash: domestic,glass debris

Curved wallsbanco brickDomesticaccumulation

Domesticaccumulation

Banco brickgranary

Domesticaccumulation

Abundant cultural material

(Cal AD 680-890)

(Cal AD 770-980)

Trash

Fig. 10. Schematic summary of deposition contexts and chrono-logical relationships among the excavated units. Triangles show the unit and depth from which dated samples were collected.

excavated sherds in any level that produced over four, 25x43 cm bags of pottery in a given day (cissé 2011: 157) and all the sherds from levels producing fewer than four bags of pottery. Only three sherds of wheel-thrown, imported pottery were recovered.

The full assemblage is described in detail elsewhere (cissé 2011). Here we provide a general sense of the assemblage, which can be done with

some brevity, as it is dominated to a remarkable degree by a single vessel type: organic-tempered jars with long (>5 cm), funnel-like everted rims decorated with broad parallel channels and often a combination of red slip, white and/or black paint (Figs. 11, 12; this form is referred to as a “bottle” in takEzawa & cissé 2012). Black paint is more common in the lower levels than the upper. There is another distinctive, but less common vessel type:



small simple-rim bowls with fine paste, decorated with impressed comb in linear or geometric patterns and then slipped and burnished (Figs. 13, 14). Other forms are present, but these two are the most distinc-

tive (Fig. 15) and account for 70–80 % of the as-semblage in each unit. Body sherds, and sometimes rim necks, are covered with impressed patterns, of which rolled, twisted twine, mat impressions, and

Fig. 11. Long, everted “funnel-neck” rims.

0 2 6 10 20 cm

GS3, L.12ACGS, L.2

ACGS, L.13 ACGS, L.18

GS3, L.16ACGS, L.30

ACGS, L.30

ACGS, L.2ACGS, L.2

ACGS, L.3

Fig. 12. Channeled and painted funnel-neck rims.

M. Cissé et al.


Fig. 13. Sherds of red slipped, burnished and comb-impressed bowls.



ACGS, L.7 ACGS, L.22 ACGS, L.22

GS1, L.6 GS3, L.10 GS1, L.6

GS1, Feat #2 GS3, L.12 GS1, L.6


ACGS, Feat #5 ACGS, L.2

0 2 6 10 20 cm

GS1, L.10

Fig. 14. Simple rims, dominated by comb-impressed bowls.



Fig. 15. Frequency of rim types, showing dominance of Long Everted funnel-neck vessels and Simple rims. The category "Other" includes Thickened, Beaded, Potlids, and Ledged rims. Level Groups are: Final trash levels in unit, Upper Structural levels, and Lower trash levels.

Fig. 16. Twine patterns recognized at Gao Saney (English terminology from hurlEy 1979; sopEr 1985; mcintosh 1995; haour et al. 2010; nixon 2008. French terminology from Gallay et al. 1998; czErniEwicz 2004; haour et al. 2010; nixon 2008).

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

ACGS

GS1

GS3

Uni

ts

Rim forms

Short Ev (60, 70) Long EV (80, 90) Simple Other

Final, N = 258

Upper, N = 224

Lower, N = 98

Final, N = 143

Upper, N = 104

Lower, N = 140

Final, N = 22

Upper, N = 109

Lower, N = 90

Natte ?

?

? "Bird foot" twine (Twine 32), mat

Folded strip roulette, (Twine 4) Roulette en fibre plate pliée

"Sisal" (Twines 30 + 31); Impressed Cord- Wrapped Decors (PFI-3 and PFI-5)

Vannerie ?; Peigne Filetée Imprimée

French terminology

Twisted string roulette/ twisted twine/cord roulette (Twines 6+7)

Cordelette simple/ cordelette torsadée

Roulette tools Impression Semiology English terminology

M. Cissé et al.


a pattern nicknamed “sisal” are the most frequent. The impressed patterns found on Gao Saney pottery are shown in Figure 16 and their relative frequency on body sherds in Figure 17.

Subsistence economy, production, and trade at Gao Saney

The information available on subsistence at Gao Saney comes from unit ACGS, from which flotation samples from all levels and over 50 kilograms of faunal remains were recovered. Domestic caprines and cattle dominate the assemblage throughout, with faunal numbers especially high in the trash deposits of the middle and upper levels (Tab. 3). The large bovids are likely to be cattle, and the medium bovids, caprines. Where identification was

possible, both goats and sheep were present in sig-nificant numbers in all phases, though goats were somewhat more common. Domestic caprines as a whole considerably outnumber cattle in all phases, a pattern also noted at Gao Ancien (macdonald & macdonald 1996). This contrasts with the situa-tion at Iron Age Jenné-jeno to the west and the Late Stone Age settlements in the Lower Tilemsi Valley to the north, where cattle predominate (macdonald 1995; manninG 2011). linsEElE (2010) suggested that the predominance of caprines at Iron Age sites in Nigeria and Burkina Faso could indicate stock keeping by agricultural villagers rather than mobile herding practices, but further research is needed to substantiate this hypothesis at Gao Saney. Camels appear only in the middle levels and were likely consumed as well as used for transport, as indicated by cut, saw, and burn marks on elements from both adult and juvenile individuals. Wild taxa identified included small numbers of typical Sahelian species, such as Hippotragus equinus and Gazella dorcus.

The small number of fish is perhaps surprising in view of the hypothesis that the Wadi Gangaber was flowing and connected to the Niger for at least part of the year during the wetter climatic conditions that pre-vailed ca 700–1000 CE (insoll 1997: 12; mcintosh 1998: 70 and 72). However, it may be due to sample or preservation bias, or the consumption preferences of the inhabitants. Fish also were a surprisingly minor component of the faunal assemblage from excavations at Gao Ancien, despite careful screening (macdonald & macdonald 1996). They appear to have been much more common at Gadei (cook 2000).

In the 26 flotation samples from ACGS, over 140 seed, fruit, nutshell, and other botanical fragments were identified to at minimum the level of family (Tab. 4). Pearl millet was the dominant domesticate,

Fig. 17. Relative frequency of twine motifs on body sherds from unit ACGS. Level Groups are: Final trash levels in unit, Upper Structural levels, and Lower trash levels.

Tab. 3. Summary of taxa identified by A.C. Smith in the Gao Saney faunal assemblage from unit ACGS, by level groups.

TAXA 1–10 11–26 27–34 TOTALSNISP MNI NISP MNI NISP MNI NISP MNI

Wild Bovids 2 2 9 6 0 0 11 8Domestic Cattle 49 6 68 14 17 7 134 27Domestic Caprines 113 18 125 46 29 15 267 79Camelus dromedarius 0 0 6 6 0 0 6 6Large Bovids 157 18 256 50 68 20 481 88Medium Bovids 465 20 517 54 86 14 1068 88Small Bovids 33 7 33 13 1 1 67 21Equidae 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1Carnavora 3 2 15 9 0 0 18 11Rodentia 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1Fish 45 4 37 11 5 4 87 19Aves 26 6 16 10 2 1 44 17

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Final

Upper

Lower

ACGS body sherd twine motifs

"Sisal" Mat ("bird foot") Twisted twine Folded strip roulette Unident. Tw

n=487

n=289

n=191

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Final

Upper

Lower

ACGS body sherd twine motifs

"Sisal" Mat ("bird foot") Twisted twine Folded strip roulette Unident. Tw

n=487

n=289

n=191



accounting for over a third of all seeds recovered, with rice represented only in the form of uncarbon-ized silica-rich chaff from a small number of contexts (GallaGhEr 2011). However, rice was also noted by the excavators in GS1 and GS3 deposits and recovered from excavations at Gadei (fullEr 2000).

In addition to the domesticates, a range of edible tree fruits were identified at the site. All are from species typical of the Sahel (Burkhill 1985–2004), and many are known to be actively managed and pro-moted by modern societies (e.g., baobab, desert date, jujube). Of the represented species, only desert date, jujube, and likely Leguminosae B would have been considered high quality firewoods. Finally, the botani-cal assemblage includes a range of wild species, many of which are commonly collected and consumed (e.g., greens of false sesame, seeds of Paniceae) (Burkhill 1985–2004). Most of these plants can also provide fodder. Overall, the identified plant assemblage is composed of species common in Sahel environments, and there is little evidence for a bias towards plants occurring in riverine settings.

Copper

Of the 809 copper-based artifacts recovered, over 400 were fragments of copper crescents (curved objects plano-convex to biconvex in cross-section with taper-ing ends — Fig. 18). insoll (1996: 77) previously reported surface finds of 125 copper-based crescents collected by both Alastair Lamb in 1971 and himself in 1993 at Gao Saney. Because of their regular shape, he suggested that these were likely used as currency. Should these be shown to sort into standardized size and/or weight categories, this idea will have robust support. Nearly all the crescents recovered from ex-cavation are fragmentary, however, making it difficult to assess the degree of standardization. Fifty-four ad-ditional copper items were identifiable in form, and included rings, wires, vessel fragments, rods, nails, and bells (Fig. 19). The remaining 350 pieces were unidentifiable fragments and bits of copper sheet. The upper trash levels of ACGS contained almost 150 small crucibles, many of which had greenish vitri-fied residues, suggesting that smiths were engaged in melting and casting copper in this area of the site.

Level 2Levels 3–10

Levels 11–26

Levels 27–34

Number of Samples: 4 5 10 7

Domesticated Crops

GRAMINAE Pennisetum glaucum pearl millet seed x (3) x (4) x (6) x (5)GRAMINAE cf. Oryza sp. rice chaff x (3)

Trees and Shrubs

BALANITACEAE Balanites aegptiaca desert date nut x (1)BOMBACACEAE Adansonia digitata baobab shell x (2) x (2)LEGUMINOSAE Leguminosae B seed, shell x (2) x (3) x (2)MORACEAE cf. Ficus sp. ficus seed x (1)RHAMNACEAE cf. Zizyphus sp. jujube shell x (1)TILIACEAE Grewia cf. bicolor shell x (1) x (3) x (1)TILIACEAE cf. Grewia sp. shell x (1) x (1) x (2) x (4)

Grasses, Herbs, and Other Plants

AIZOACEAE Glinus sp. seed x (1)AMARANTHACEAE vel. CHENOPODIACEAE Unidentified seed x (1) x (1)

CAPPARACEAE Cleome sp. seed x (2) x (1)CUCURBITACEAE Cucurbitaceae A seed x (1) x (1) x (3)CYPERACEAE Unidentified achene x (1) x (1)GRAMINAE Paniceae caryoses x (3) x (1) x (2)LEGUMINOSAE Papilionoidae seed x (2) x (2) x (2)PEDALIACEAE Ceratotheca sesamoides false sesame seed x (1)PORTULACACEAE Portulaca oleracea purslane seed x (1) x (1)PORTULACACEAE Portulaca sp. seed x (2)RUBIACEAE Spermacoce ssp. seed x (2) x (1)

Tab. 4. Summary of taxa identified by D. Gallagher in the Gao Saney botanical assemblage from unit ACGS, by level groups. Parentheses indicate number of contexts in which species was identified.

M. Cissé et al.


Fig. 18. Sample of Crescent copper frag-ments from the exca-vated units at Gao- Saney.

Fig. 19. Sample of identifiable copper artifacts.



Molds have not been found, so it is not known what secondary products were fashioned. Iron-smithing may also have occurred in the area, as almost fifteen kilograms of slag were recovered from the upper trash levels of ACGS and GS1. Almost no slag was found in GS3 300 meters away.

A small sample of the copper-based metals from Gao have been examined with archaeometric analyses. However, analyses of the metallurgical materials are in the early stages and only preliminary results from lead isotope analysis are available. A total of nine objects have been examined (7 crescents, 1 sheet fragment and 1 wire fragment), and all appear (based on color) to be made from unalloyed copper. Future work will provide elemental analyses of these and more samples, as well as optical microscopic and additional lead isotopic analyses. The current lead isotope analysis, by multicol-lector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS), of seven unalloyed copper crescents suggests that Tunisian ores from the Diapir zone are a strong source region candidate for the metal used in their manufacture (fEnn 2011). The isotopic ratios data for the crescents are very similar to comparable data on other copper-based metals from first millen-nium CE contexts at Kissi (Burkina Faso), Es-Souk (Mali), Marandet and Azelik (Niger), and Igbo-Ukwu (Nigeria) (Willett & Sayre’s Group 2), which all may have derived from ore sources located in Tunisia (fEnn et al. 2009; willEtt & sayrE 2006; fEnn 2011). Lead isotopic analyses of unalloyed copper wire and sheet metal, however, indicate that these objects likely derive from different sources, possibly located in Morocco. It is noteworthy that copper is as common as iron in most levels in the excavated units, particularly since iron is likely from local sources. While it had earlier been suggested that Gao may have been supplied with iron from the Gourma-Rharous region, and/or the Kukiya/Bentia and Gorwol regions (mcintosh & mcintosh 1986 in insoll 1996: 78; insoll 1996: 78, 2000: 139; arazi 1999), surveys conducted in 2002 by the Direc-tion Nationale du Patrimoine Culturel discovered iron smelting sites nearby in the fossil valley of Anchaouadj (toGola et al. 2004a: 21–22). There is also a massive laterite outcrop across the river from Gao on the West Bank, although its potential as an ore is not known.

Glass

The 2001–02 and 2009 excavations recovered almost 800 glass beads in the 0.5 cm screens. Over 85 % came from the two northeastern periphery units, GS1 and ACGS (Fig. 20), and two-thirds come from the lowest occupation levels, dated to the eighth to tenth centuries. One quarter of the beads — almost all of them from GS1 and ACGS — were melted, malformed or unfinished

and may represent glass-manufacturing debris. In ad-dition, 168 vessel glass fragments — all but a dozen of them unidentifiable as to form — were recovered. This comprises all the glass recovered from ACGS, but some of the glass from GS1 and GS3 was taken to Japan for analysis. Those items are not included in this study or in the glass totals.

Bead description and recording was informed by the approach used by Marilee wood (2005: 29 –42, 2011), who generously spent two days at Rice Univer-sity sharing her knowledge and experience. insoll’s (1996, 2000) documentation of Gao beads was also helpful for comparative purposes. Overall, the assem-blage is generally monochrome. Over 90 % of the beads are or once were blue/green weathering to off-white (Fig. 21). Most of the beads are thin cylinders or ob-lates (Fig. 22) produced by drawing and cutting a glass cane. The presence of significant numbers of remelted beads and fragments (Fig. 23) suggests that beads were reheated on site in order to smooth and round the cut ends. Among the beads, Wood identified 127 beads of the Zhizo series first recognized in the Shashe-Limpopo area of Zimbabwe. Zhizo beads are drawn, and the cut ends were left sharp. Many air bubbles are visible, es-pecially under a 10x loupe. The bead color is commonly blue, green or yellow. As Wood did not study the entire assemblage, this may not represent the total number of Zhizo-type beads present. It should be emphasized that “Zhizo” implies a particular production process, and does not imply a source area in southern Africa.

Information on chemical composition of 47 Gao Saney beads is available from analysis by L. Dussubieux at the Field Museum of Natural History using LA-ICP-MS (Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry). Thanks to the available compositional data from several major production and consumption centers of glass (South and Southeast Asia, Near East,

Fig. 20. Frequency of Gao Saney glass beads by Level Groups.

M. Cissé et al.


North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa), it is possible to identify general source areas (dussuBiEux et al. 2008; hEndErson et al. 2004; lankton 2008; lankton & dussuBiEux 2006; roBErtshaw 2008; roBErtshaw et al. 2010). We provide a general description of these results and comparison with beads from other West African sites. A more detailed, specialist article on chemical composition and comparisons is planned.

All analyzed Gao Saney beads are soda-lime-silica glasses, with the exception of one bead that is 93 % lead, 6 % silica. The other 46 are divided into two broad groups: 44 of the beads are plant-ash soda-lime-silica glass (v-Na-Ca) and two are mineral soda-lime-silica glass (m-Na-Ca) (Fig. 24). The earliest glass, found in Mesopotamia, was manufactured using soda plant ash as a flux. Starting around the 8th century BC, soda

Fig. 21. Gao Saney glass bead colors. Fig. 22. Bead shape categories.

from mineral deposits (e.g., natron) replaced soda plant ash. Particularly during the 4th to 8th centuries AD, mineral soda glass was produced in Egypt and the Syro-Palestinian region, then distributed widely throughout the Mediterra-nean basin. Toward the end of the 1st millennium AD the use of natron declined (shortland et al. 2006), and a return to plant ash occurred. However, the soda plant ash glass tradi-tion may have continued in Mesopotamia, and Sassa-nian glassmakers produced such a glass from the 3rd to

the 7th century AD (mirti et al. 2008, 2009). If the Arab invasion of the 7th century AD caused the fall of the Sassanian Empire, the expansion of the Muslim world may have served as a vector of diffusion for the soda plant ash glass that became the dominant glass type again after the 8th century AD through the Middle-East and the Mediterranean region (GratuzE & Barrandon 1990; hEndErson et al. 2004). Among Gao Saney plant ash glasses, eight have a high level (>10 %) of added lead (v-Na-Ca-Pb) with higher tin, both probably added to produce a yellow or green opaque glass. Plant-ash soda-lime glass has been found at many West African sites including Jenné-jeno, Gao Ancien, Es-Souk, Kissi and Igbo Ukwu (Brill in mcintosh 1995: 256; fEnn et al. 2011; roBErtshaw 2008: 429–430; roBErtshaw, maGnavita et al. 2009; roBErtshaw et al. 2010: 5). In West Africa, mineral soda glass has been reported

Fig. 23. Examples of beads and fragments deformed during remelting, probably to smooth sharp ends.

Cylinder Oblate

Sphere Tube

Ellipsoid Bicone

Disc

Cylinder Oblate

Sphere Tube

Ellipsoid Bicone

Disc

Cylinder Oblate

Sphere Tube

Ellipsoid Bicone

Disc



manufacture of trade beads include Gujerat (India), the Libyan Fazzan, and probably somewhere in the Adrar des Iforas, extrapolating from the several carnelian bead ateliers documented in the Tilemsi Valley (Gaussen & Gaussen 1988: 177–187; Insoll et al. 2004). Identify-ing specific source areas by chemical composition may prove to be difficult; the first attempt to chemically differentiate Indian and African carnelian was incon-clusive, with some overlap between the Gujerati and West African samples (Insoll et al. 2004: 1172). The case for local bead manufacture of imported carnelian is indicated by the presence of carnelian debitage at Gao Saney. Some of the beads could of course be imported in finished form. Sources for the flint and granite would be available in the Adrar des Ifoghas.

Summary and discussion

The eastern sector of Gao Saney was initially occu-pied ca 700 CE by a community with a mixed millet/caprine- and cattle-based subsistence economy and a distinctive ceramic assemblage dominated by channeled and polychrome-painted funnel-neck jars. At the north-eastern periphery (units ACGS and GS1), secondary glass processing was among the earliest activities that took place. Glass beads appear to have been cut from drawn canes and heated on a flat surface to smooth the ends, resulting in numerous broken, malformed, and melted beads in the trash deposits that accumulated on the red, sterile sand. The glass composition indicates a source in the Middle East, probably east of the Euphra-tes. Thus, Gao Saney was a participant in regional and long-distance trade from its inception. Other non-local items in the lowest levels included carnelian, flint, and granite grinding stones.

Three hundred meters to the west, towards the center of the site (unit GS3), the initial trash deposit

Fig. 24. Plot of potassium oxide and magnesium oxide constituents in glass beads from Gao Saney, as determined by LA-ICP-MS. The two low magne-sium beads were produced using natron, rather than plant ash as a flux.

in the Gao Ancien, Igbo Ukwu and Es-Souk glass as-semblages (DussubIeux 2009, 2010; Fenn et al. 2011; RobeRtshaw 2008: 429, 2010).

None of the analyzed Gao Saney glass belongs to the soda-lead-silica type of glass (Pb-Na-Si); a subgroup of plant ash soda glass with high lead with no tin (P. Rob-ertshaw, pers. comm. 2010) that has been found at Gao Ancien and the Al-Basra (Morocco) glass assemblage dated to the tenth-eleventh centuries AD (DussubIeux 2009; RobeRtshaw, benco et al. 2009). Additionally, all the analyzed samples of Gao Saney beads have low proportion of alumina (< 3 %, with the exception of two beads with 4.6 %), unlike the earliest South and Southeast Asian “trade wind beads” whose “distinctive feature is their high alumina content varying from 5 % to 15 % as-sociated with low concentration of magnesium” (PoPelka et al. 2005: 90; DussubIeux et al. 2008: 798). Nor do the Gao beads resemble the high alumina/high lime glass manufactured in Ife (lankton et al. 2006: 122–123).

DussubIeux (2009) points out two areas as the like-ly production sources of many Gao Saney beads. The natron soda-lime glass was made in the Syro-Palestinian region while the soda plant ash glass was manufactured in the Middle East. Specifically, Robertshaw suggests that the soda plant ash glass “came from east of the Euphrates based on the high MgO and K2O concentra-tions” (P. Robertshaw, pers. comm. 2010).

Other non-local items

Other imported items at Gao Saney included twenty carnelian beads (plus carnelian debitage), four cowries (Cyprea moneta, one with the back removed), flint, and granite grinding stones. The cowries originated in the Indian Ocean. Known sources of carnelian (a red chalcedony known as cornaline in French) used in the

M. Cissé et al.


included mainly domestic debris, suggesting the exis-tence of functionally differentiated sectors of the site from its founding.

Accompanying the appearance above the basal trash levels of wall material and rectilinear structures made with large, rectangular mud bricks, were much higher frequencies of copper and iron objects, although evidence for metal-working remained scarce. Copper crescents, some with a chemical composition indicating a likely source in Tunisia, were especially numerous in the deposits associated with these structures. They may have functioned as a currency. Were these struc-tures perhaps the trading houses at Sarneh to which al-Muhallabi referred in the 10th century? A series of construction episodes was documented in each of the three excavation units, indicating a rapid rate of rebuilding and accumulation, with four to six meters of domestic deposition in the space of three centuries. The sandy banco material used in construction likely had limited resistance to wind and rain.

A final phase of trash accumulation marked the uppermost deposits in all three units. In the northeast periphery units, this trash layer was 1.5 meters thick and contained abundant iron slag, melted copper and copper crucibles, suggestive of smithing activity nearby.

The relatively short, early chronology for the excavated deposits was a surprise. The occupation sequence began ca 700 CE and ended by 1050 CE, with one date near the top of the final trash deposit in ACGS (980–1220 cal CE) offering the possibility of continuing activity into the twelfth century. The quantity of copper and glass, plus the evidence of their secondary processing at different periods, is consistent with a sector involved in crafts, trade and marketing of imports, supporting the identification of Saney with the historical 10th century trade town of Sarneh. By the twelfth century, when al-Idrisi mentions Gawgaw but makes no reference to dual towns, Saney may have been largely abandoned. Evidence for a twelfth and thirteenth century occupation by the royals interred at the nearby cemetery has not been found. However, the western half of the mound has not yet been investigated and may ultimately provide evidence of a later extension of occupation. Even if surface deposits have been severely deflated, there should be evidence of later ceramics on the surface (such as Mauny’s surface finds of what appears to be 11th–12th century Spanish lusterware — insoll 1996: 65). There is also the possibility that the Berber rulers attested at the nearby cemetery maintained a nomadic lifestyle. insoll (1996: 46) reminds us that moraEs farias (1990: 85) established a link between a number of the stele inscriptions at the cemetery and the 20th century calligraphies of the Tuareg Kel-es-Suk. Perhaps banco-based architecture at Gao Saney was

replaced by tents in the late eleventh century (a pos-sibility also mentioned by insoll 1996: 46), marking the end of the rapid accumulation that characterized the site for four centuries.

An important point to be made with regard to the excavation sequence and the epigraphic evidence from the Saney cemetery is that there is almost no chrono-logical overlap. The earliest funerary inscription at Saney cemetery (n. 33a.1 — moraEs farias 2003: 33) is dated 481 AH/1088 CE. We may well ask whether the apparent end of the occupation sequence in the 11th century is possibly linked to the late 11th century transition represented by the Zaghi kings, prior to the establishment of the Za/Zuwa dynasty. If hunwick’s (1980) hypothesis is correct, this transition involved the triumph of Sunnite Islam over Ibadite Islam, associated with the rise of the Almoravids. Further, if kingship cir-culated among powerful families during this transition, as moraEs farias (2003) has proposed, the physical location of the kingship may have shifted over time, possibly involving more ephemeral sites.

The question of who lived at Gao Saney is an inter-esting one. insoll (1996: 46), extrapolating from the va-riety of scripts found on the cemetery stele and assuming the contemporaneity of the cemetery and the occupation mound, argued for a polyglot community of indigenous and Muslim North African/Berber peoples.

He proposed that the banco/pisé/tauf architecture at the site might be a Songhay technology, while acknowl-edging that banco was in widespread use in North Africa and elsewhere (insoll 1996: 45; banco architecture is documented in the early first millennium CE at several middle Niger sites — mcintosh 1995; macdonald 1997–8; park 2010). The rectangular mud brick archi-tecture documented by the Gao Saney excavations is approximately contemporaneous with rectangular mud brick at Tongo Maare Diabel, near Douentza (macdon-ald 1997–8) and Es-Souk (nixon 2009). This technology dates back to the first millennium BCE at Garamantian sites (mattinGly 2003: 160–176).

The Gao Saney pottery provides strong evidence for a local, Niger River-based population element at the site. The Saney assemblage lies within the broad zone of first millennium CE polychrome pottery found along the Ni-ger from the lower Inland Niger Delta (mcintosh 1995; arazi 2005; schmidt et al. 2005) and the Lakes region (raimBault & sanoGo 1991), to Timbuktu (mcintosh & mcintosh 1986; park 2011) and downriver past Gao to Ansongo and Bentia (arazi 1997). Within this ‘Niger River polychrome zone’ (S.K. McIntosh and M. Cissé, see footnote 2), forms, pastes, and tempers change from one region to another, but the prominence of red/black/white paint, with or without red slip is a constant.



Further away from the river, polychrome is present in the first millennium but relatively rare at Akumbu in the Mema (toGola 2008), Es-Souk (nixon 2008), Oursi village and Kissi 3 in northern Burkina Faso (maGnavita et al. 2002: 44; czErniEwicz 2004: 127–132). Polychrome wares appear in the Inland Niger Delta and Lakes region up to Timbuktu between 100–300 CE (mcintosh 1995; raimBault & sanoGo 1991: 345, 437; park 2010). Polychrome wares earlier than the seventh century have not been documented at Gao Ancien or Saney, but across the river at Koima, an assemblage of short everted rims and ogival rims, often embellished with paint (predomi-nantly black) appears to resemble the Middle Assemblage (100–650 CE) at Tombouze (park 2011; based on Koima pottery collected by S. McIntosh).

Interestingly, at Tombouze 1 just southeast of Timbuktu, a novel assemblage of channeled funnel-neck jars and slipped, burnished, comb-impressed bowls becomes dominant between 650–770 CE, almost exactly contemporaneous with the same as-semblage at Gao Saney (park 2011). It seems likely that this assemblage developed somewhere within the Niger Bend polychrome zone, but we currently have no conclusive evidence as to where that might have been. If Hunwick is correct that Songhay from the south moved to Gao in the late seventh century, then we should expect to find evidence of an earlier, clearly related, funnel-neck pottery assemblage in places such as Bentia and perhaps across the river in the Oudalan or at Kissi. Both channeled, everted rim vessels and slipped and burnished comb impressed pottery are present in the Iron Age deposits (dated between ca 2100–1800 bp) at Oursi (czErniEwicz 2004). In fact, almost 75 % of the rim sherds have channeling (ibid.: 41). In addition, mat impression (our “bird foot” motif) is the dominant impressed motif at Oursi. The Oursi sequence thus presents clear possibilities for regional antecedants of the Gao Saney assemblage. At other sites, the chronology is either unknown (surface collections at Kukiya/Bentia — arazi 1999) or later than the early assemblage at Gao Saney (Kissi 40 settlement site pottery sequence — maGnavita 2006; Saouga — czErniEwicz 2004). It is clear that this earli-est Gao Saney assemblage differs substantially from the earlier polychrome pottery of the Lakes region and Inland Niger Delta, areas likely to have been occupied by ancestors of the Mande-speaking Bozo and Soninke (mcintosh 1995). We agree with insoll (1996: 95) that the archaeological evidence does not support Lange’s hypothesis of Mande-speakers in early Gawgaw. The Gao Saney assemblage is also different from contemporary sites presumed to have been occupied by Berbers; at Es-Souk, for example, the commonest forms in the later first millennium CE are large, undecorated jars, and painted decoration is rare (nixon 2008, 2009).

Preliminary conclusions on trade and interaction at Gao Saney

Local interactions: Gao Saney and Gao Ancien The first millennium materials recovered from Insoll’s excavations at Gao (both Gao Ancien and Gadei) pro-vide a starting point for assessing interactions between “Old Gao” and Gao Saney. The occupation sequence in both cases began in the seventh or eighth century, with banco/banco brick architecture and the distinctive pot-tery assemblage we have described here. We have con-firmed the virtually identical nature of the Gao Saney assemblage with that at Gadei (by consulting the Gadei finds, superbly curated by Insoll and stored in Gao) and that in the basal levels inside the Pillar Structure at Gao Ancien (by the analysis of pottery by S.K. McIntosh from the unpublished excavations previously noted). While this may have been a heterogeneous, polyglot community of Berbers and Songhay, as oral histories suggest, along with North African merchants, the lo-cal pottery was stylistically homogeneous throughout this early period. The same, or very similar ceramics were used by the artisan/merchant population at Gao Saney and the elites who began to construct the Pillar Structure at Gao Ancien ca 900 CE. Further details on the chronology of the various construction and use phases of the excavated structures await more detailed analysis of the Gao Ancien material.

Insoll’s pioneering work pointed to an urban con-figuration that went beyond the dual town dichotomy of the historical sources. He suggested a more complex urban configuration, with multiple, heterogeneous com-munities with distinct specializations, “across which religious allegiance, and political and economic power, were distributed according to changeable patterns that are not yet clear” (moraEs farias 2003: clviii). Our ex-cavated sample from Gao Saney is too limited to permit any well-developed conclusions about these patterns, although the differentials that insoll (1996: 46) noted in the abundant evidence for manufacturing/artisinal activity at Gao Saney and its apparent absence at Gao Ancien, as well as in the frequencies of elite goods, have been sustained and elaborated. We have not recovered any evidence relating to religious practice at Gao Saney main mound. The kubba tomb (structure Q) excavated by Flight and the Saney cemetery stele were the main evi-dence for Islam at Gao Saney, and they appear to postdate the occupation sequence we have documented.

Large-scale excavations undertaken since 2003 at Gao Ancien (takEzawa & cissé 2012), have uncovered two major structures, as previously described, but too little of the material has yet been analyzed to permit detailed conclusions about functional, political, eco-nomic, or chronological patterning, beyond the general

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observations that exotics were far more common at the smaller Pillar Structure than at the massive Long House. Unfortunately, most of these excavations were conducted in units as large as 10x10 m that effectively mixed finds from multiple contexts, such as different room interiors, trash pits, and areas inside and outside the structure, within each arbitrary 20 cm excavation level, making interpretation difficult (takEzawa & cissé 2012: fig. 10). If these different contexts can be teased apart from excavation notes, the associated material has the potential to transform our understanding of the history of Gao Ancien.

Broader networks of trade and interaction

The data from Gao Saney powerfully situate the site within much more extensive networks of trade and inter-action. The presence of very similar pottery assemblages near Timbuktu, Gourma Rharous, and Bentia clearly indicate river-based cultural interaction along the Middle Niger, as already mentioned. But Gao Saney joins the growing ranks of archaeological sites that document an expansive increase during the first millennium CE in the movement of exotics, both interregionally, between the Sahara to the Sahel, and across the Sahara to North Africa. Over thirty years ago, discoveries at Jenne-jeno opened the idea that locally organized regional and interregional exchange networks in the western Sudan predated the organization of the trans-Saharan trade by Arab-speaking North Africans. The numbers of non-local materials (stone, iron, copper, gold) recovered from the Jenne-jeno excavations were relatively small, but they were interpreted as markers of the site’s participation in a steadily expanding and intersecting set of largely indig-enous exchange networks that reached into the Sahara by the fifth century CE and into the goldfields by the tenth century (mcintosh & mcintosh 1981). This provided an alternative to theorizing pre-Arab, long-distance trade in West Africa primarily in terms of an impetus from Punic or Roman North Africa.

At Gao-Saney, the copious evidence as early as 700 CE for secondary processing of glass beads from a likely source in Middle East/Iran suggests that demand for beads was well established by that date. There are also a few mineral-soda-lime beads that point to a Near Eastern source. Further south along the eastern Niger, glass beads are regularly found in graves dating from 400–1000 cal CE at Kissi, and one glass bead was re-covered from an earlier grave dated 50 cal BCE–430 cal CE (maGnavita 2003, 2009), documenting the early movement of glass. At Tombouze, glass beads were found in levels dated between the 2nd–7th centuries (park 2010). The Kissi beads are primarily plant-ash soda-lima glass that is compositionally similar to the beads at Gao-Saney, Gao Ancien, Es-Souk, Marandet,

Azelik, and Igbo-Ukwu (dussuBiEux 2009, 2010; fEnn et al. 2011; lankton 2007; roBErtshaw, maGnavita et al. 2009). Of particular interest are segmented glass beads, present at Gao Ancien (insoll 1996: 128), Es-Souk (nixon 2008: 294) and also Tegdaoust (vanackEr 1984: 34). The Gao-Saney excavations recovered over 200 fired clay segmented beads that appear to imitate these glass beads (suggested in insoll 2000: 102). The Kissi excavations also produced segmented clay beads (maGnavita 2003: 131, 2009: 90).

Although only nine of the over 200 copper cres-cents from Gao Saney have been analyzed by MC-ICP-MS, these have lead isotopes similar to those in copper from Es-Souk, Marandet and Azelik, Igbo-Ukwu (group 2) and Kissi (fEnn 2011; fEnn et al. 2009). There ap-pears to have developed by the mid-first millennium CE an important copper distribution network from the north (possibly Tunisia) through Marandet and, later, Gao (secondary processing centers) south to Igbo Ukwu.

As the evidence accumulates, the magnitude of the difference in the level of consumption of copper and glass on the eastern vs. the western side of the Niger Bend is interesting. To the east, glass beads are abundant and seemingly ubiquitous. Copper is also recovered in substantial quantities. On the western side, these exotics are much less frequent. In the far west, along the Senegal River, copper and glass are virtually absent for most of the first millennium (mcintosh et al. 2013). There may be several factors involved beyond participation in trade, including differential contexts of consumption, different patterns of recycling ver-sus deposition, or differential recovery and reporting standards in excavation, but the pattern merits deeper investigation.

It must not be forgotten that salt, while archaeo-logically invisible, was a highly significant trade item at Gao, noted to have constituted a major part of the king’s treasure (cuoq 1975: 78; mcdouGall 1990). Gawgaw apparently controlled at a certain point an un-derground salt mine at Tutak, hypothesized to have been Taoudenni (al-Bakri, in lEvtzion & hopkins 1981: 87). How far back in time the trade in salt or other largely invisible items may extend is a subject of considerable debate, with strong arguments recently advanced for the development of a Garamantean exchange network in items with low archaeological visibility, including salt, in the early first millennium CE (mattinGly 2011), if not much earlier (livErani 2000). Few Mediter-ranean items have been found south of the Sahara, so they were evidently not among the items passed down the line by the Garamantes (macdonald 2011). The model proposed by mattinGly (2011) resembles that initially set out for Jenne-jeno: a series of intercon-nected regional and interregional networks, rather than



an open route extending from the Mediterranean to the sub-Saharan zone. wilson (2012) has developed this model in considerable detail for the Garamantes during the Roman period.

Ultimately, reconstructing how networks of trade and interaction developed over time in various parts of West Africa will require a much higher density of data on the production, consumption, and distribution of traded items than is currently available. For example, we need more detailed information on the spatial locus, specific contexts, organization, and scale of production and consumption. In this regard, the recent wave of chemical characterization studies on glass and copper already referenced, and studies of secondary production loci such as Marandet and the Tegdaoust workshop site (vanackEr 1979) and Gao Saney are very significant. The study of distribution systems in the absence of written records is much more challenging, because these are very diverse, ranging from simple recipro-cal exchange replicated across several successive territories (down-the-line exchange) to redistribution, central place market exchange, freelance middleman trading, and ports of trade. The extensive literature on exchange systems developed during the 1970s to 1990s (usefully reviewed by costin 2001) is rarely referenced when discussing early trade in West Africa, but it provides valuable insights for both theorizing the possible varieties of pre-Arab trade and exchange and identifying the kinds of data that will support or refute our various hypotheses.

What we can say at present is that accumulating data indicate that the region along the eastern Niger was involved in networks that moved imported glass and copper from distant sources, beginning by at least 400 CE. The Gao Saney and Gao Ancien excavations demonstrate the involvement of these sites in these networks in the eighth to tenth centuries on a scale that is exceeded only by Igbo Ukwu among known sub-Saharan sites. We look forward to the time — hopefully in the not-too-distant future — when it will again be possible to explore further the areas in Mali and Niger that hold exceptional promise for illuminating the early development of these networks.

Acknowledgements

Thanks are extended to the Osaka National Museum of Ethnology (Japan) and Rice University for funding the 2001–2 excavations at Gao Saney and the Waikato lab radiocarbon analyses. The field participation and funding leadership of Shoichiro Takezawa is gratefully acknowl-edged. The 2009 excavations were made possible by Rice University research funds. Thanks to Abigail Smith for field assistance during the excavations. Analyses of the

ACGS materials were funded by a dissertation research grant from the Social Sciences Research Institute at Rice. The research was strongly supported by the Ministry of Culture of Mali and its national and local branches (the Direction Nationale du Patrimoine Culturel (DNPC), the Gouvernorat of Gao, the Direction Régionale de la Jeunesse, des Sports, des Arts et de la Culture (DRJSAC) of Gao and the Mission Culturelle of Gao). We would like to thank the Ministers of Culture, Mohamed El Moctar, and Cheick Oumar Sissoko, and also the General Sec-retary of the Ministry of Culture, Al Hady Koita, who granted official permissions and actively supported the Gao projects. Special thanks are extended to Klessigue Sanogo, the Director of the DNPC and Moulaye Couli-baly, who generously provided a vehicle and a driver for M. Cissé’s dissertation research at Gao Saney. Many thanks also to colleagues and friends in the DNPC, the Mission Culturelle and the DRJSAC of Gao — especially Sidi Lamine Kone, El Moctar Toure, the late Boubou Gassama and his family, and Issa Coulibaly. We are also grateful to Klena Sanogo, the Director of the Institut des Sciences Humaines, Mamadi Dembele and Daouda Keita for their support and encouragement. Tim Insoll and Sonja Magnavita kindly read a draft of this paper and made helpful suggestions for its improvement. The constructive input of an anonymous reader is also grate-fully acknowledged.

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