Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Iron Age Archaeology in The Gambia

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

Under the direction of Dr. Carla Sinopoli, Ms. Lawson will carry out analyses of archaeological materials recovered during fieldwork in The Gambia, West Africa. Lawson's fieldwork in the Gambia Valley, conducted between 1998 and 2000, represents one of the first attempts to systematically study the archaeology of this region of West Africa. Long known for its mysterious stone circle and tumulus monuments built in the first and early second millennia AD, very little is understood about the people of the Gambia Valley responsible for building these monuments, which often house human burials. In order to understand prehistoric polities in the region more fully, Lawson conducted a survey of archaeological sites located in the stone circle and tumulus zone. Over 60 village and associated iron-working sites were recovered, along with numerous monumental sites. Archaeological excavations were conducted at three of the village sites and at one iron-working site. National Science Foundation funds will be used 1) to conduct analyses of artifacts recovered during excavation and 2) to obtain radiocarbon dates from charcoal samples taken during excavation. Artifact analysis will concentrate on faunal and botanical remains. The analysis of such remains will give us a much better idea of the subsistence practices common in the Gambia Valley in the past. The identification of species utilized by past inhabitants will also help to reconstruct the natural environment at the time of site occupation; the environment has been subject to rapid deforestation in recent decades and so is different now than it was 500 or 1000 years ago. The attainment of radiocarbon dates from the excavated sites will allow for the construction of a regional chronology. Radiocarbon dating is one of the best dating techniques for archaeological sites, which are more than 500 years old. Because the Gambia Valley is so understudied, until Lawson's work only one radiocarbon date was available for the entire country (from a stone circle monument). By obtaining radiocarbon dates for each site excavated, it will be possible to study how politics and society have changed over the last 1,500 years in the Gambia Valley. Radiocarbon dating will also provide absolute dates for ceramic assemblages; changes in ceramic style are often chronologically sensitive. With the dates of ceramic assemblages firmly established, it will be possible to estimate the date of archaeological sites from surface finds alone. When the Portuguese first reached the Gambia River in the 1450's, they found it to be part of a dynamic trading system and home to many independent polities. Lawson's archaeological work in The Gambia will help to flesh out our understanding of how these Gambian polities developed and the changing roles they played in regional African trading systems, the trans-Saharan trade, and the later Atlantic trade. Knowledge of Gambian prehistory will add to the growing corpus of African archaeological data.