Architecture and Settlement Growth on the Southern Edge of the Sahara

doi:10.1017/9781108637978.014

13 - Architecture and Settlement Growth on the Southern Edge of the Sahara

Timing and Possible Implications for Interactions with the North

from Part III - Neighbours and Comparanda

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 March 2020

Kevin C. Macdonald

Edited by

Martin Sterry and

David J. Mattingly

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Martin Sterry: Affiliation:
University of Durham
David J. Mattingly: Affiliation:
University of Leicester

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Summary

Since the 1970s, there has been a significant increase in regional data sets relating to tell sites in the West African Sahel. Previous colonial notions that Trans-Saharan commerce in the Islamic era created the first Sub-Saharan towns and polities have now been largely abandoned; it is all too apparent that complex settlement systems were widespread in the south long before the eighth century. Yet questions of Trans-Saharan interactions with the Berber world in preceding centuries have not been so effectively addressed. In this chapter, I examine archaeological evidence for architectural development and settlement growth within the Hodh and Middle Niger basins: the Tichitt, Walata, Tagant and Néma escarpments, the Méma, the Inland Niger Delta, the Lakes Region, the area of Timbuktu and the Gourma (Fig. 13.1). The advent of different types of dry stone, coursed earth or mudbrick structures and the regional timing of settlement growth will be the primary factors under consideration.

Type: Chapter
Information: Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond , pp. 498 - 520

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108637978.014 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2020

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