Tichitt-Walata and the Middle Niger - PanAfrican Association of ...

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436 Kevin C. MacDonald fact remains the almost exclusive temper of the Tichitt tradition .throughout its long span of years, with sand and grog occasionally added or substituted. Everted rims, as well as red slip, only begin to appear in the Nkahl and Naghez phases (IV-V), with twisted twine remaining the dominant decor. By the Chebka and Arriane phases (VI-VII) everted rims have become common accounting for c.40-50% of all rims. Cord-wrapped stick motifs become common again, and start to be used as roulettes instead of only for impression (cf. Fig. 5 for ceramics from phases VI-VII). Finally, in the AkJinjeir phase (VIII) applied plastic motifs become common, and vessels grow much larger and have less decor. The Tichitt assemblages only become analogous with those· of Ndondi Tossokel'during the Chebka and Arriane phases (e.g. higher proportions of everted rims, rouletted cord-wrapped decor, etc.). Their resemblance is not absolute, however, as some Tichitt vessels of these phases feature knotted twine decor (cf. Hurley 1979: Type 165), a manipulation entirely absent in the Merna. Discussion: regional chronology Dating the Kobadi facies The earliest known date for the human occupation of the Middle Niger comes from the site of Tiabel Goudiodie. This site has been dated on freshwater oyster shells (Etheria elliptica) to between 2570 and 2410 cal BC (Togola and Raimbault 1991). As usual with dates on freshwater materials, however, a carbonate reservoir effect of several hundred years should be allowed for, thus an initial occupation date of around 2000 BC is more likely for the site. It is difficult to know what the sequence of dates from the site of Kobadi actually date culturally, since all but one of them are conventional collagen dates run on surface-collected bone, and Ndondi Tossokel materials are known to also occur on the site (Raimbault and Dutour 1989, MacDonald 1994). The earliest date, 1740-1510 BC, was run on burned hippopotamus bone, and is thus most likely associated with the aquatically based Kobadi tradition. More recently, an as yet incompletely published date (Georgeon et al. 1992: 86) was run on an unspecified material from the 1989 excavations. Its result, 1740-1440 BC (3305±80 BP), is very close to that of the early 'hippo bone'. The middle dates are less certain, coming from indeterminate burned bone (1260-900 BC) and mammalian vertebrae (930-610 BC) respecti vely, the latter date coming from samples collected by Mauny in 1954 (Georgeon et at. 1992). The most recent date (770 to 380 BC) was run on the cranium of a late inhumation recovered eroding from the midden surface. It is evident that we are dealing with a lengthy and probably multi-faceted occupation at Kobadi (c. 1750-400 BC). How punctuated this may have been by gaps in occupation, and the extent to which typical Kobadi wares continued throughout it, will only be clarified with the publication of a complete excavation report by Raimbault. A single radiocarbon date has recently been run on hippo ivory from the lowest Kobadi facies occupation layer of Kolima-Sud (layer V, KLS- l lv.25). The result of this apatite determination was as follows: 3365±70 BP11740-1530 cal BC (GX-21192-AMS). This date is comparable to the two earliest dates from Kobadi itself, and when bracketed by a date associated with Ndondi-Tossokel ceramics in the upper Kolima-Sud sequence (see below), suggests a minimum temporal range of 1750 to 1300 BC for the Kobadi facies. Dating the Ndondi Tossokel and Beretouma facies Test excavations carried out at the site of Kolima-Sud in 1990 provide our only definitive date for Ndondi Tossokel and Beretouma ceramics in context. There, two sondages revealed occupational deposits of 2.5 m in depth containing four principal occupational layers (MacDonald 1994). In
Tichitt- Walata and the Middle Niger: evidence for cultural contact in the second millennium Be 437 layers I to III cattle remains and cattle figurines appear with Ndondi Tossokel ceramics. Kobadi ceramics, which were present from the sites first occupation (layers IV and V), disappear before layer III and are replaced fully by Beretouma ceramics which continue beside those of Ndondi Tossokel. In the absence of substantive charcoal deposits, a cattle molar (Bos cf taurus, M2) from the Layer IIIIII interface (KLS-l, Iv. 1 0) was submitted to Geochron Laboratories for apatite dating. The result was: 3084±73 BP11420-1230 cal BC (GX-19814-AMS) (MacDonald and Van Neer 1994). Also, at least for the dating of N dondi Tossokel tradition, we may turn to the Dhar Tichitt Phase VI-VII Chebkal Arriane wares with which it is closely stylistically associated. The calibration of dates assigned by Munson (1989) to these phases, and the poorly chronologically defined Naghez phase, would place their one sigma range between 1400 and 800 Be. This would appear to be in line with our single date from the Merna. But here, unfortunately, we venture onto the much debated ground of Dhar Tichitt chronology (Holl 1986; Munson 1989; Muzzolini 1989). Suffice to say that another re-evaluation of the Dhar Tichitt sequence is in progress, which will hopefully clarify this matter for the time being (MacDonald and Munson in prep.). Conclusion: the Merna before the Empire of Ghana In the Merna we have a particularly early West African example of multi-cultural contemporaneity within a single region. There are at least two groups involved. The Kobadi Tradition, with physical and material cultural roots to the northeast at Hassi el Abiod (Raimbault and Dutour 1989, Georgeon et al. 1992), and the Ndondi Tossokel tradition with material and economic roots to the northwest at Dhars Tichitt-Walata. The earlier occupants of the region are manifestly the Kobadi folk, robust "Mechtoid" fisherhunter-gatherers who first colonised the shrinking lacustrine region around 2000 Be. Human osteology has been used to link them with similar early Holocene fisher-hunter-gatherer populations from the Saharan site of Hassi el Abiod (Georgeon et al. 1992). Their movement to the Merna has been portrayed as a response to environmental change - a retreat with the lacustrine regions which maintained their aquatic subsistence lifestyle. Upon their arrival in the Merna, they were still producing a geometric microlith industry, but this seems to have given way to an opportunistic utilised flake industry (MacDonald 1994). Their hunting and fishing prowess in this virgin landscape appears to have been epic, with kills of elephants, hippos, crocodiles, and massive Nile perch and catfish of up to 2.5 m in length. Only at Kobadi and Kolima Sud, where ceramics of the Ndondi Tossokel facies are associated, do we have any evidence for food production associated with the Kobadi tradition. Around 1300 BC we have evidence that a new group had entered the zone with close affinities to Dhar Tichitt's ChebkalArriane phase (c.1400-800 BC). It would seem that the Dhar Tichitt tradition, with only small quantities of arable land, had long been under pressure to expand. Indeed, settlement hierarchies first visible at Dhars Tichitt and Walata around this time may represent traces of simple chiefdoms organised to defend the decreasing supply of land (Munson 1980; Holl 1985a). It is even possible that population pressures and territorial restrictions were responsible for a shift to the actual domestication of millet at the site (Munson 1976; Amblard and Pemes 1989). From this time, off-shoots of the Dhar Tichitt tradition begin to appear in small mobile settlements along the margins of the Merna's inundatable plain. Their economy would seem to have been based on pastoralism, but we have no data to show us whether they were also cultivators. Could they represent a pastoral sub-group of a Dhar Tichitt cultural complex? Or, were they true agro-pastoralists for whom the Merna was only a grazing and shallow-water fishing stop on an elaborate seasonal round? We do not yet know.
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