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A New Survey of Radiocarbon and Thermoluminescence Dates for west Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

D. Calvocoressi
Affiliation:
University of Ghana
Nicholas David
Affiliation:
University College, London

Extract

There are signs that the familiar bias towards research on the Later Stone Age of the southern Sahara and Sahel and on the Iron Age of other parts of West Africa is beginning to be redressed, although Nigeria and Ghana still furnish the vast majority of dates from the southern coastal states. Historical and protohistorical archaeology is becoming increasingly popular, and some areas, for example southern Mali, are receiving serious attention for the first time. Dates are now appearing in large numbers; this paper reports on 355 new radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dates.

Multi-disciplinary research has helped to clarify the Holocene environmental and cultural-stratigraphic sequence in several areas, including the Aïr and Ténéré in Niger and coastal Mauretania and Senegal. There is now strong evidence of a centre of copper metallurgy in the Azelik region of Niger in the 1st millennium b.c. which may well have facilitated the spread of iron working to Nigeria. At the same time, new dates from Mali may indicate a second diffusion route through the western Sahara. In Nigeria, new and early dates for the Nok culture are supported by thermoluminescence dating. Recent work on the later Metal Age of Senegal has permitted the description of four partially overlapping zones, and should soon lead to understanding of their internal and external relationships. Similarly, a substantial body of data has been accumulated, though not yet published, on the Iron Age of the Inland Niger delta. In the more southerly parts of West Africa, several new dates from just north of the forest refer to the emergence of the earliest Akan groups in Ghana and of Oyo in Nigeria. Previously reported dates from Ife and Benin have now been supplemented by a series of thermoluminescence dates.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

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109 There are again differences between the results of the two laboratories.

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112 The last of these is believed by Willett to be contaminated.

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119 We are grateful to Dr F. N. Anozie for information on there dates.

120 We are grateful to Dr V. E. Chikwendu for information on these dates.

121 We thank Alain Marliac for these dates and the following references: Delibrias, G., Muller, J.-P., Paris, F. & Siefferman, G., ‘Datation par la méthode du C14 d'un volcan situé près de Foumbot (Ouest-Cameroun) et du rajeunissement géomorphologique de cette région’, Communication au Colloque géomorphologique volcanique (Paris, 1975), andGoogle Scholar A. Marliac, ‘Prospections dessites néolithiques et postnéolithiques au Diamaré (Cameroun)’, Cah. O.R.S.T.O.M. (Sci. Hum.), à paraître.

122 See footnote 45. Another sample which gave a modern reading is presumably either contaminated or does not relate to the ancient copper workings, see série, Diop III, 1972, 696.Google Scholar

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124 We are grateful to M. R. Talbot for these dates and comments.

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