The markets in Jenne-jeno c.1000 AD by Charles Santore.
American archaeologists Rod and Susan McIntosh significantly
advanced our understanding of the archaeology of Iron Age Africa through their
excavation of the mound at Jenne-Jeno, located on the upper Niger River Delta,
in the modern African state of Mali. During the 1970s and 1980s, the impact of
African political independence on archaeology was demonstrated by the
initiation of numerous regional studies, which focused on local origins and developments.
The sites of Jenne-Jeno (ancient Jenne) and Jenne itself spanned 2,000 years of
occupation and, because of the archaeological work at the site, were subsequently
inscribed on the World Heritage List.
It was well known, and described in detail by Arab
chroniclers, that between AD 800 and 1500 the wealthy and sophisticated
Sudanese kingdoms of Ghana, Gao, Takrur, Tegdauost, and Mali dominated the
western Sudan, between Lake Chad and the Atlantic Ocean, and the resources and
trade routes farther south, and across central and west Africa. During the
nineteenth century these Sudanic kingdoms became French colonies, and during
the early twentieth century they were part of French West Sudan. Before the
1960s their historical significance was determined by their relationship with
North Africa.
This "Arabist perspective" meant that the cultural
and political achievements of these Sudanic people were seen to be the direct
result of their contact and trade with North Africa. French archaeologists and
historians who worked in the region were responsible for this colonial
attitude, but this does not diminish their contributions to its history and
archaeology. The French identified, surveyed, and protected many of the major
sites and compiled a detailed history of the region and its long relationship
with the Arab/Berber world. They also began the rediscovery of the protohistory
of western Africa and the Sudanic kingdoms and began to educate local African
archaeologists after World War II. During the 1970s French archaeologist
Raymond Mauny excavated the Sudanic kingdom sites of Koumbi Saleh and Gao.
Nonetheless, until the 1970s the whole sub-Saharan nature of
the Sudanic kingdoms was ignored. Instead, historians concentrated on its
architecture, inscriptions, trans-Sahara trade, and imports, but rarely
investigated the local context and content of these sites. Indeed, a rereading
of Arab chronicles during this period reveals detailed descriptions of local
pagan cults, fetishes, shrines, and sorcery, which were distinctly West African
in provenance, but had neither been noticed nor investigated. It became obvious
that if historical sources contained such different perspectives, then a
scientific and thorough archaeological investigation and analysis of these
sites was bound to come up with neglected evidence about the origins and
development of complex societies in the Sudanic kingdoms before Arab contact.
During the 1980s the consolidation of political independence in Africa impelled
archaeological investigations to answer some important questions about the
African past.
Jenne-Jeno (or Djenne) was an important staging post on one
of the wealthiest and most famous trade routes that operated across Africa over
the past 500 years. Gold, mined to the south of Jenne, was transported to this
river town, and then shipped in canoes to Timbuktu. From there it was sent via
camel trains to North Africa, and then on to Europe. Jenne-Jeno also supplied
the arid inland town of Timbuktu with most of its food in the form of cereals
and dried fish.
The excavation of the large, six-meter-deep occupation
mound, and the analyis of data by the McIntoshes, revealed that the city of
Jenne-Jeno was founded 2,250 years ago (ca. 250 BC) by iron-using people who
herded stock; fished and hunted; grew rice, millet, and sorghum; and were also
craftspeople and traders. The excavation of another two sites at Jenne-Jeno
provided evidence that the city had grown rapidly throughout the first
millennium AD until it covered, at its greatest extent, 76 acres in AD 850,
when its population was estimated to be around 27,000 people. During this
period Jenne-Jeno was surrounded by a 4-meter-high and 2-kilometer-long, mud brick
defense wall. After AD 1200 Jenne-Jeno's population declined, and it was
abandoned 200 years later.
The excavation of Jenne-Jeno proved that urban settlement
and a complex society (based on the creation of enough food surplus to trade
for raw materials, such as iron and copper, via long distance and east-west
trade in West Africa) had developed long before the trans-Saharan trade with
the North African Arabs, which was documented as beginning after the ninth
century AD. The idea that the Sudanic kingdoms were the result of contact with
northern Africa was disproved, as was the idea that Black Africa was incapable
of "civilization" without northern influences. Here was an
indigenous, wealthy, Iron Age culture of great social, cultural, and political
sophistication, in contact with and influencing the rest of West Africa a long
time before the arrival of Arabs or Europeans.
Further Reading
Connah, G. 2004. Forgotten Africa: an introduction to its archaeology. London:
Routledge. MacIntosh, R. J. 2001. Africa, Francophone. In Encyclopedia of
archaeology: History and discoveries, ed. T. Murray, 21-35. Santa Barbara, CA:
ABC-CLIO. MacIntosh, S. K. 2001. Africa, Sudanic Kingdoms. In Encyclopedia of
archaeology: History and discoveries, ed. T. Murray, 71-78. Santa Barbara, CA:
ABC-CLIO. McIntosh, S. K., and R. J. McIntosh. 1980. Prehistoric investigations
in the region of Jenne, Mali: A study in the development of urbanism in the
Sahel. Oxford: BAR. Muzzolini, A. 2001. Africa, Sahara. In Encyclopedia of
archaeology: History and discoveries, ed. T. Murray, 71-78. Santa Barbara, CA:
ABC-CLIO.
