Archaeobotanical Research of the SFB 268 in West Africa

Authors

  • Katharina Neumann

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21248/fvss.12.8

Keywords:

Archaeobotany, palynology, plant cultivation, vegetation history, Holocene

Abstract

An overview over 20 years of archaeobotanical studies in West Africa is given. The Holocene vegetation history of the West African savannahs and the development of plant cultivation were major research topics. The existence of climatically induced savannahs throughout the Holocene could be confirmed. Archaeobotanical data indicate the late emergence of agriculture around 2000 BC and the development of a cultural landscape in the course of the last 2000 years.

References

Diploma theses

HÖHN, A. (1997): Vergleichende Untersuchungen der Holzstruktur ausgewählter Mimosoideae und Caesalpinioideae (Leguminosae) Westafrikas. Diplomarbeit am Fachbereich Biologie der J.W. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main.

KAHLHEBER, S. (1995): Vergleichende anatomische und morphologische Untersuchung ausgewählter Paniceenfrüchte. Diplomarbeit am Fachbereich Biologie der J.W. Goethe- Universität Frankfurt am Main.

MORCZINEK, I. (1995): Diatomeen aus dem Mare d’Oursi – Ein Beitrag zur holozänen Paläoökologie des westafrkanischen Sahel. Diplomarbeit am Fachbereich Biologie der J.W. Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main.

UEBEL, D. (1996): Die Holzkohlen von Saouga (Burkina Faso) – Ein Beitrag zur Vegetationsgeschichte Westafrikas. Diplomarbeit am Fachbereich Biologie der J.W. Goethe- Universität Frankfurt am Main.

Dissertations

HÖHN, A. (2005): Zur eisenzeitlichen Entwicklung der Kulturlandschaft im Sahel von Burkina Faso. Untersuchungen von archäologischen Holzkohlen.– 159 S. + 79 S. [Dissertation im Fachber. Biologie und Informatik der J.W. Goethe- Univ. Frankfurt] http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2005/2253/

KAHLHEBER, S. (2004): Perlhirse und Baobab – Archäobotanische Untersuchungen im Norden Burkina Fasos.– 290 S. + 296 S. [Dissertation im Fachber. Biologie und Informatik der J.W. Goethe-Univ. Frankfurt] http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/volltexte/2005/561/

SALZMANN, U. (1998): Zur holozänen Vegetations- und Klimaentwicklung der westafrikanischen Savannen. Paläoökologische Untersuchungen in der Sahel- und Sudanzone NO-Nigerias.- Dissertation, Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. Ber. Sonderforschungsbereich 268, 13. Frankfurt a. Main, 144 S.

Publications

ALBERT K-D & KAHLHEBER S. (2001): Review of and outlook on an interdisciplinary research project. – Ber. SFB 268 17: 121-128.

ALBERT K-D, HALLIER M, KAHLHEBER S & PELZER C (2000): Montée et abandon des collines d’occupation de l’age de fer au Nord du Burkina Faso. – Ber. SFB 268 14: 335-351.

ALBERT K-D, LÖHR D & NEUMANN K (Eds.)(2004): Mensch und Natur in Westafrika. Abschlussbuch des SFB 268. Weinheim, Wiley-VCH.

ANDRES W, BALLOUCHE A & MÜLLER-HAUDE P (1996): Contribution des sédiments de la Mare d’Oursi à la connaissance de l’évolution paléoécologique du Sahel du Burkina Faso. – Ber. SFB 268 7: 5-15.

BALLOUCHE A (1998): Dynamique des paysages végétaux sahélo-soudaniens et pratiques agro-pastorales à l’Holocène. – Bull. Ass. Géogr. Françe 75(2): 191-200. https://doi.org/10.3406/bagf.1998.2035

BALLOUCHE A (2001): Un diagramme pollinique de la Mare de Kissi (Oudalan, Burkina Faso). Nouveaux éléments pour l’histoire anthropique de la végétation sahélienne. – Ber. SFB 268 17: 129-135.

BALLOUCHE A & NEUMANN K (1994): Contribution à la connaissance du peuplement et du paléoenvironnement holocène du Sud-Est du Burkina Faso. – Association Ouest Africaine d’Archéologie, Actes du 5ème Colloque, Porto- Novo, Benin, pp. 3-21.

BALLOUCHE A & NEUMANN K (1995a): A new contribution to the Holocene vegetation history of the West African Sahel: pollen from Oursi, Burkina Faso and charcoal from three sites in northeast Nigeria. – Veg. Hist. Archaeobot. 4: 31-39. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00198613

BALLOUCHE A & NEUMANN K (1995b): La végétation du Sahel burkinabé à l’Holocène: la Mare d’Oursi.– 2nd Symposium on African Palynology, Tervuren (Belgium). Occasional Publication CIFEG 31 Orléans, pp. 19-25

BALLOUCHE A, KÜPPERS K, NEUMANN K & WOTZKA H-P (1993): Aspects de l’occupation humaine et de l’histoire de la végétation au cours de l’Holocène dans la région de la Chaîne de Gobnangou, S.E. Burkina Faso. – Ber. SFB 268 1: 13-31.

BALLOUCHE A, AKOÉGNINOU A, NEUMANN K, SALZMANN U & SOWUNMI MA (2000): Le projet „Dahomey Gap“: une contribution à l’histoire de la végétation au Sud-Bénin et Sud-Ouest du Nigéria. – Ber. SFB 268 14: 237-251.

BREUNIG P & NEUMANN K (1996): Archaeological and Archaeobotanical Research of the Frankfurt University in a West African Context. – Ber. SFB 268 8: 181-191.

BREUNIG P & NEUMANN K (1999): Archäologische und archäobotanische Forschungen in Westafrika. – Archäol. Nachrichtenblatt 4: 336-357.

BREUNIG P & NEUMANN K (2002a): From hunters and gatherers to food producers: new archaeological and archaeobotanical evidence from the West African Sahel.– In Hassan F (ed.): Ecological Change and Food security in Africa’s Later Prehistory. New York et al., Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp. 123-155. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-47547-2_9

BREUNIG P & NEUMANN K (2002b): Continuity or discontinuity? The 1st millennium BC–crisis in West African prehistory. – In LENSSEN-ERZ T et al. (eds.): Tides of the Desert. Contributions to the Archaeology and Environmental History of Africa in Honour of Rudolph Kuper. Africa Praehistorica 14: 499-505.

BREUNIG P & NEUMANN K (2004): Zwischen Wüste und Regenwald. Besiedlungsgeschichte der westafrikanischen Savanne im Holozän. – In ALBERT K-D, LÖHR D & NEUMANN K (eds.): Mensch und Natur in Westafrika. Ergebnisse aus dem Sonderforschungsbereich 268 "Kulturentwicklung und Sprachgeschichte im Naturraum Westafrikanische Savanne". Weinheim, Wiley-VHC, pp. , 93-138.

BREUNIG P, BALLOUCHE A, NEUMANN K, RÖSING F, THIEMEYER H, WENDT KP & VAN NEER W (1993): Gajiganna - New Data on Early Settlement and Environment in the Chad Basin. – Ber. SFB 268 2: 51-74.

BREUNIG P, NEUMANN K & VAN NEER W (1996): New research on the Holocene settlement and environment of the Chad Basin in Nigeria. – Afr. Arch. Rev. 13(2): 111-145. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01956304

FRANK T, BREUNIG P, MÜLLER-HAUDE P, VAN NEER W, VOGELSANG R, NEUMANN K & WOTZKA H-P (2001): The Chaîne de Gobnangou, SE Burkina Faso: archaeological, archaeobotanical, archaeozoological and geomorphological studies. – Beitr. Allgem. Vergleichende Archäol. 21: 127- 190.

GRONENBORN D, WIESMÜLLER B, SKORUPINSKI T & ZACH B (1996): Settlement history of the Kala-Balge region, Borno State, Nigeria. – Ber. SFB 268 8: 201-213.

HÖHN A (1999): Wood anatomy of selected west African species of Caesalpinioideae and Mimosoideae (Leguminosae): a comparative study. – IAWA J. 20(2): 115-146. https://doi.org/10.1163

HÖHN A (2002): Vegetation changes in the Sahel of Burkina Faso (West Africa). – Analysis of charcoal from the Iron Age sites Oursi and Oursi-village. – In THIÉBAULT S (ed.): Charcoal Analysis. Methodological Approaches, Palaeoecological Results and Wood Uses.- British Archaeol. Report, Internat. Series 1063, pp. 133-139.

HÖHN A (2007): Where did all the trees go? Changes of the woody vegetation in the Sahel of Burkina Faso during the last 2000 years. – In CAPPERS R (ed.): Fields of change. Progress in African archaeobotany. Groningen Archaeol. Studies 5: 35-41.

HÖHN A, KAHLHEBER S & HALLIER-VON CZERNIEWICZ M (2004): Den frühen Bauern auf der Spur – Siedlungs- und Vegetationsgeschichte der Region Oursi (Burkina Faso).– In ALBERT K-D, LÖHR D & NEUMANN K (eds.): Mensch und Natur in Westafrika, 221-288. Abschlussbuch des SFB268. Weinheim, Wiley - VCH.

HOELZMANN P, GASSE F, DUPONT LM & SALZMANN U (2004): Palaeoenvironmental changes in the arid and subarid belt (Sahara-Sahel-Arabian Peninsula) from 150 ka to present. – In BATTARBEE RW, GASSE F & STICKLEY CE (eds.): Past Climate Variability through Europe and Africa.Dordrecht, Kluwer, 219-256. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-2121-3_12

KAHLHEBER S (1999): Indications for agroforestry: archaeobotanical remains of crops and woody plants in medieval Saouga, Burkina Faso. – In VAN DER VEEN M (ed.): The exploitation of plant resources in ancient Africa. New York, Plenum Publishers, 89-100.

KAHLHEBER S & NEUMANN K (eds.)(2001): Man and Environment in the West African Sahel – An Interdisciplinary Approach. – Ber. SFB 268 14. Frankfurt a. Main, 555 p.

KAHLHEBER S & NEUMANN K (2007): The development of plant cultivation in semi-arid west Africa. – In DENHAM TP, IRIARTE J & VRYDAGHS L (eds.): Rethinking agriculture: archaeological and ethnoarchaeological perspectives. One World Archaeology 51. London, University College Press, 320-346.

KAHLHEBER S, ALBERT K-D & HÖHN A (2001): A contribution to the palaeoenvironment of the archaeological site Oursi in north Burkina Faso. – Ber. SFB 268 17: 145-159.

KLEE M & ZACH B (1999): Crops and wild cereals of three settlement mounds in NE-Nigeria - charred plant remains and impressions in ceramics from the last 4000 years. – In VAN DER VEEN M (ed.): The exploitation of plant resources in ancient Africa. New York, Plenum Publishers, 81-88.

KLEE M, ZACH B & NEUMANN K (2000): Four thousand years of plant exploitation in the Chad Basin of NE Nigeria, part I: The archaeobotany of Kursakata. – Veg. Hist. Archaeobot. 9: 223-237. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01294637

KLEE M, ZACH B & STIKA H-P (2004): Four thousand years of plant exploitation in the Chad Basin of NE Nigeria, part III: Plant impressions in potsherds from the Final Stone Age Gajiganna Culture. – Veg. Hist. Archaeobot. 13: 131- 142. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-004-0037-8

MAGNAVITA S, HALLIER M, PELZER C, KAHLHEBER S & LINSEELE V (2002): Nobles, guerriers, paysans. Une nécropole de l’Age de Fer et son emplacement dans l’Oudalan pré- et protohistorique. – Ber. Allgem. Vergleichende Archäol. 22: 21-64.

MÜLLER-HAUDE P & NEUMANN K (1995): Böden und Vegetation in Trockenwäldern Südwest-Burkina Fasos.– Ber. SFB 268 5: 177-188.

NEUMANN K (1999a): Charcoal from West African savanna sites - questions of identification and interpretation. – In VAN DER VEEN M (ed.): The exploitation of plant resources in ancient Africa. New York, Plenum Publishers, 205-220.

NEUMANN K (1999b): Early plant food production in the West African Sahel - new evidence from the Frankfurt project. – In VAN DER VEEN M (ed.): The exploitation of plant resources in ancient Africa. New York, Plenum Publishers, 73-80.

NEUMANN K (2001): Masakwa farming in the Chad Basin of Northeast Nigeria – Introduction. – Ber. SFB 268 17: 9-13.

NEUMANN K (2002): Die westafrikanische Savanne – eine Kulturlandschaft. – In REIKAT A (ed.): Leben in Westafrika. – SFB 268 „Kulturentwicklung und Sprachgeschichte im Naturraum Westafrikanische Savanne). Frankfurt am Main, Plexus-Verlag, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, 70-83.

NEUMANN K (2003): The late emergence of agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa: Archaeobotanical evidence and ecological considerations. – In NEUMANN K, BUTLER EA & KAHLHEBER S (eds.): Food, fuel and fields. Progress in African archaeobotany. Africa Praehistorica 15: 71-92.

NEUMANN K (2005): The romance of farming – plant cultivation and domestication in Africa. – In STAHL AB (ed.): African Archaeology. A Critical Introduction. Malden, Blackwell, 249-275.

NEUMANN K & BALLOUCHE A (1992): Die Chaîne de Gobnangou in SE Burkina Faso - Ein Beitrag zur Vegetationsgeschichte der Sudanzone WAfrikas.– Geobot. Kolloq. 8: 53-68.

NEUMANN K & BALLOUCHE A (1995): Anthropogenic Change in the Vegetation History of the Sahel - Only a Question of Viewpoint? – 2nd Symp. Afr. Palyn., Tervuren (Belgium) 1995. – Publ. Occas. CIFEG 31: 27-33.

NEUMANN K & MÜLLER-HAUDE P (1999): Forêts seches au Sud-Ouest du Burkina Faso: végétations - sols - action de l’homme. – Phytocoenol. 29(1): 53-85. https://doi.org/10.1127/phyto/29/1999/53

NEUMANN K & SALZMANN U (2001): Feuerökologie der westafrikanischen Savannenlandschaft. Würde die Savanne ohne Brand existieren? – In BUSCH B, GOLDAMMER JG & DENK A (eds.): Feuer. Schriftenr. Forum 10, Köln, Wienand, 280-289.

NEUMANN K & VOGELSANG R (1996): Paléoenvironnement et préhistoire au Sahel du Burkina Faso. – Ber. SFB 268 7: 177-186.

NEUMANN K, BALLOUCHE A & KLEE M (1996): The emergence of plant food production in the West African Sahel: new evidence from northeast Nigeria and northern Burkina Faso. – In PWITI G & SOPER R (eds.): Aspects of African Archaeology. Papers from the 10th Congress of the PanAfrican Association for Prehistory and Related Studies. Harare, University of Harare Publications, 441-448.

NEUMANN K, BREUNIG P & KAHLHEBER S (2000): Early food production in the Sahel of Burkina Faso. – Ber. SFB 268 14: 327-334.

NEUMANN K, BUTLER EA & KAHLHEBER S. (eds.)(2003): Food, Fuel and Fields. Progress in African archaeobotany. – Africa Praehistorica 15: 1-304.

NEUMANN K, HAHN-HADJALI K & SALZMANN U (2004): Die Savannen der Sudanzone in Westafrika - natürlich oder menschengemacht? – In ALBERT K-D, LÖHR D & NEUMANN K (eds.): Mensch und Natur in Westafrika. Abschlussbuch des Sonderforschungsbereichs 268. Weinheim, Wiley – VCH, 39-68.

NEUMANN K, KAHLHEBER S & UEBEL D (1998): Remains of woody plants from Saouga, a medieval West African village. – Vegetation History Archaeobot. 7: 57-77. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01373925

NEUMANN K, SCHOCH W, SCHWEINGRUBER FH & DÉTIENNE P (2001): Woods of the Sahara and the Sahel - an anatomical atlas. With a contribution by H.G. Richter. – Bern, Stuttgart, Paul Haupt.

PETIT LP, BAGODO O, HÖHN A & WENDT KP (2000): Archaeological sites of the Gourma and Mékrou Plains. – Ber. SFB 268 14: 229-236.

SALZMANN U (1996a): Holocene Vegetation History of the Sahelian Zone of NE Nigeria: Preliminary Results. – Palaeoecol. Africa 24: 103-114.

SALZMANN U (1996b): Pollenanalytical Studies in NE-Nigeria: Preliminary Results from the Manga Grasslands and Lake Tilla, Biu Plateau. – Ber. SFB 268 8: 321-333.

SALZMANN U (1997): Holozäne Vegetationsgeschichte NONigerias: Pollenanalytische Untersuchungen in den Manga Grasslands. – Würzburger Geogr. Arb. 92: Geowissenschaftl. Untersuchungen Afrika 3: 51-69.

SALZMANN U (2000a): Between desert and forest: The Holocene savannas of NE-Nigeria. – Ber. SFB 268: 14: 21-32.

SALZMANN U (2000b): Are savannas degraded forests? – A Holocene pollen record from the Sudanian zone of NE-Nigeria. – Vegetation History Archaeobot. 9: 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01295010

SALZMANN U &. HOELZMANN P (2005): The Dahomey Gap: an abrupt climatically induced rain forest fragmentation in West Africa during the late Holocene. – The Holocene 15(2): 190-199. https://doi.org/10.1191/0959683605hl799rp

SALZMANN U & WALLER M (1998): The Holocene vegetational history of the Nigerian Sahel based on multiple pollen profiles. – Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol. 100(1/2): 39-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0034-6667(97)00053-5

SALZMANN U, HOELZMANN P & MORCZINAK I (2002): Later Quaternary climate and vegetation of the Sudanian zone of NE-Nigeria deduced from pollen, diatoms and sedimentary geochemistry. – Quaternary Res. 58: 73-83. https://doi.org/10.1006/qres.2002.2356

VOGELSANG R & NEUMANN K (1996): Paléoenvironnement et préhistoire au Sahel du Burkina Faso.– Ber. SFB 268 7: 177-186.

VOGELSANG R, ALBERT K-D & KAHLHEBER S (1999): Le sable savant: Les cordons dunaires sahéliens au Burkina Faso comme archives archéologiques et paléoécologiques pour l’Holocène. – Sahara 11: 51-68.

WALLER M & SALZMANN U (1999): Holocene vegetation changes in the Sahelian zone of NE-Nigeria: The detection of anthropogenic activity. – Palaeoecol. Africa 26: 85-102.

ZACH B & KLEE M (2003): Four thousand years of plant exploitation in the Chad Basin of NE Nigeria II: Discussion on the morphology of caryopses of domesticated Pennisetum and complete catalogue of the fruits and seeds of Kursakata. – Veg. Hist. Archaeobot. 12: 187-204. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-003-0016-5

ZACH B, KIRSCHT H, LÖHR D, NEUMANN K & PLATTE E (1996): Masakwa Dry Season Cropping in the Chad Basin. – Ber. SFB 268 8: 349-356.

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Published

2009-01-01

How to Cite

[1]
K. Neumann, “Archaeobotanical Research of the SFB 268 in West Africa”, FVSS, vol. 12, pp. 22–26, Jan. 2009.

Issue

##article.pages##
22-26

Section

Articles