Hostname: page-component-5b777bbd6c-ks5gx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-22T09:14:57.587Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Interpreting standing stones in Africa: a case study in north-west Cameroon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Raymond N. Asombang
Raymond N. Asombang*
Affiliation:
Department of Arts and Archaeology, University of Yaoundé, PO Box 6544 Yaoundé, Cameroon (Email: asombang_Raymond@yahoo.fr)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Combining history and ethnography with a survey on the ground, the author shows how the megalithic monuments of Cameroon were the remains of many different kinds of site. Some were house platforms, others places for washing dishes. Others are certainly ceremonial, for family and kin-group meetings. The memory and opinion of current residents adds a fascinating aside to the function of these monuments, probably introduced four centuries ago, and their subsequent rôles in society.

Keywords

AfricaCameroonIron Agemegalithsethnoarchaeology
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 78 , Issue 300 , June 2004 , pp. 294 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Allison, P.A. 1962. Carved stone figures in the Ekoi country of the middle Cross River, Eastern Nigeria. Man 15:17–19.Google Scholar
Asombang, R.N. 1988 Bamenda in prehistory: the evidence from Eiye Nkwi, Mbi Crater and Shum Laka rockshelters (PhD thesis, University of London).Google Scholar
Asombang, R.N. 1999 Sacred centers and urbanization in West Central Africa. In Mcintosh, S.K. (ed.). Beyond Chiefdoms: pathways to complexity in Africa: 80–87. CUPGoogle Scholar
Chilver, E.M. & Kaberry, P.M.. 1967. Traditional Bamenda (notes on the pre-colonial history and ethnography of the Bamenda Grassfields); Buea Government printing press.Google Scholar
David, N. 1982 Tazunu: Megalithic monuments of Central Africa. Azania 17: 43–77.Google Scholar
David, N. 1983 The Central African Megaliths Project. National Geographic Society Research Reports 15:113–126.Google Scholar
David, N. & Vidal, P.. 1977 The Nana Modé village site (Sous Préfecture de Bouar, République Centrafricaine) and the prehistory of the Ubangian speaking peoples. West African Journal of Archaeology 7:17–56.Google Scholar
Fagg, A. 1972. A preliminary report on an occupation site in the Nok valley, Nigeria: Sumun Dukiya AF/10/70/1. West African Journal of Archaeology 2:75–79.Google Scholar
Harris, R.L. 1959 A note on sculptured stones in the middle Cross River area of South-East Nigeria. Man 177:112–114.Google Scholar
Joussaume, R. 1973 Le Megalithisme en Ethiopie. Archeologia 64:21–33.Google Scholar
Kopytoff, I. 1973 Aghem ethno-genesis and the Grassfields acumen. In Tardits, C. (ed). The contribution of ethnological research to the history of Cameroon cultures: 371–82. International Colloquium of CNRS 551, Paris.Google Scholar
Lebeuf, A. 1973 L’origine et la cosntitution des pricipautés kotoko (Cameroun septentrional). In Tardits, C (ed). (ed). The contribution of ethnological research to the history of Cameroon cultures: 209–218. International Colloquium of CNRS 551, Paris.Google Scholar
Lynch, B.M. & Robbins, L.H.. 1978 Archeoastronomical evidence in sub-Saharan Africa. Science 200: 766–768.Google Scholar
Marliac, A. 1973. L’état des connaissances sur le paléolithique et le néolithique du Cameroun (prospections de 1968–1969, 1970–1971) in Tardits, C (ed).’The contribution of ethnological research to the history of Cameroon cultures: 27–77. International Colloquium of CNRS 551, Paris.Google Scholar
Mohammadou, E. 1973 L’implantation des peuls dans l’Adamawa: (approche chronologique). In Tardits, C. (ed). The contribution of ethnological research to the history of Cameroon cultures: 229–247. International Colloquium of CNRS 551, Paris.Google Scholar
Nkwi, P.N. & Warnier, J.P.. 1982. Elements for a history of the Western Grassfields. Publication of the Department of Sociology, University of Yaoundé.Google Scholar
Rowlands, M.J. 1985. Notes on the material symbolism of Grassfields palaces. Paideuma 31:203–213.Google Scholar
Soper, R.C. 1985. Roulette decoration on African pottery: technical considerations, dating and distribution. The African Archaeological Review 3:29–51.Google Scholar
Vidal, P. 1969. La civilisation mégalithique de Bouar: prospection et fouilles 1962–1966. Recherches Oubanguiennes, 1 Paris firman-Didot.Google Scholar
Vidal, P. 1992. Au de la des megalithes: archéologie centrafricaine et histoire de l’Afrique Centrale. In Essomba, J.M. (ed.)’L’archéologie au Cameroun: 133–178. Paris, Karthala.Google Scholar
Zangato, M.E. 1990. New perspectives on megaliths from the northwestern part of the Central African Republic. Nyame Akuma 34: 17–19.Google Scholar