Ounjougou is the name of a lieu-dit found in the middle of an important complex of archaeological sites in the Upper Yamé Valley on the Bandiagara Plateau, in Dogon Country, Mali. The Ounjougou archaeological complex consists of over a hundred sites. The analysis of many layers rich in archaeological and botanical remains has enabled establishment of a major chronological, cultural and environmental sequence crucial to understand settlement patterns in the Inland Niger Delta and West Africa. Ounjougou has yielded the earliest pottery found in Africa, and is believed to be one of the earliest regions (along with East Asia) in which the independent development of pottery occurred. Simon Bradley, A Swiss-led team of archaeologists has discovered pieces of the oldest African pottery in central Mali, dating back to at least 9,400BC , SWI swissinfo.ch – the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), 18 January 2007
Geographic and historical context of research A recent transformation of the Yamé River made possible the discovery of the archaeological richness of Ounjougou. Indeed, a major flood considerably changed the configuration of the watercourse by redesigning its much lower path, leading to strong regressive erosion in the surrounding Quaternary formations. This vertical incision, responsible for spectacular gullies now visible in the area, has created natural sections exceeding 10 meters in height.Rasse M., Soriano S., Tribolo Ch., Stokes S., Huysecom E. 2004. La séquence pléistocène supérieur d'Ounjougou (Pays dogon, Afrique de l'Ouest): évolution géomorphologique, enregistrements sédimentaires et changements culturels. Quaternaire 15/4, 329-341.Rasse M., Ballouche A., Huysecom E., Tribolo Ch., Ozainne S., Le Drezen Y., Stokes S., Neumann K. 2006. Evolution géomorphologique, enregistrements sédimentaires et dynamiques paléoenvironnementales holocènes à Ounjougou (Plateau dogon, Mali, Afrique de l'Ouest). Quaternaire 17/1, 61-74. The stratigraphic sequence revealed contains many archaeological layers attributable to a broad chronological range extending from the Lower Paleolithic to the present. The Ounjougou sequence is also notable for a series of extremely rich Holocene layers rich in well-preserved organic remains (charcoal, pollen, leaves, seeds and wood), offering the opportunity to directly address the relationship between human occupations and climatic and environmental variability throughout a long sequence.
Ounjougou was first discovered in 1994. Research carried out at the Ounjougou site complex between 1997 and 2004 led to the proposal of an initial scenario for the history of human settlement in the Dogon Country which, however, still contained several archaeological or sedimentary gaps.Huysecom E., Ozainne S., Raeli F., Ballouche A., Rasse M., Stokes S. 2004. Ounjougou (Mali): A history of Holocene settlement at the southern edge of the Sahara. Antiquity 78, n° 301, 579-593.Mayor A., Huysecom E., Gallay A., Rasse M., Ballouche A. 2005. Population dynamics and Paleoclimate over the past 3000 years in the Dogon Country, Mali. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 24, 25-61.Ozainne S., Lespez L., Le Drezen Y., Eichhorn B., Neumann K., Huysecom E. 2009. Developing a chronology integrating archaeological and environmental data from different contexts: the Late Holocene sequence of Ounjougou (Mali). In: Hajdas I., Della Casa P., Egli M., Hügi V., van Willigen S., Wörle M. Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium On Radiocarbon and Archaeology (Zürich 26th-28th March 2008). Radiocarbon 51 (2), 457-470. From 2005, research was progressively expanded to the Bandiagara Cliff and the Séno Plain with the aim of testing the settlement model defined at Ounjougou and understanding the different gaps shown in the Yamé Valley sequence. Many Pleistocene and Holocene sites were discovered.Huysecom E., Mayor A., Ozainne S., Robion-Brunner C., Ballouche A., Cissé L., Eichhorn B., Garnier A., Le Drezen Y., Lespez L., Loukou S., Rasse M, Sanogo K., Serneels V., Soriano S., Soulignac R., Taibi N. & Tribolo C. 2010. Le Pays dogon et son passé: apports de la douzième année de recherches du programme « Peuplement humain et évolution paléoclimatique en Afrique de l'Ouest ». In: Jahresbericht SLSA 2009. Zürich et Vaduz: Fondation Suisse-Liechtenstein pour les recherches archéologiques à l'étranger, 79-176.Soriano S., Rasse M., Tribolo C., Huysecom E., 2010. Ounjougou (Pays dogon, Mali): une séquence à haute résolution pour le Paléolithique moyen d'Afrique sahélienne. Afrique. Archéologie et Arts, 6, 49-66.Tribolo C., Mercier N., Rasse M., Soriano S., Huysecom E. 2010. Kobo 1 and L'abri aux Vaches (Mali, West Africa): Two case studies for the optical dating of bioturbated sediments. Quaternary Geochronology 5, 317-323.Mayor, A. 2011. Traditions céramiques dans la boucle du Niger. Ethnoarchéologie et histoire du peuplement au temps des empires précoloniaux. Frankfurt am main: Africa Magna Verlag. (Journal of African archeology monograph series; 7, Peuplement humain & paléoenvironnement en Afrique de l'Ouest; 2).Ozainne S. 2013. Un Néolithique ouest-africain. Cadre chrono-culturel, économique et environnemental de l'Holocène récent en pays dogon (Mali). Journal of African Archaeology monograph series, 8 (Peuplement humain et paléoenvironnement en Afrique de l'Ouest, 3). Frankfurt am Main: Africa Magna VerlagMayor A., Huysecom E., Ozainne S. & Magnavita S., 2014. Early social complexity in the Dogon Country (Mali) as evidenced by a new chronology of funerary practices, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 34, 17-41. Fieldwork in the Dogon Country was interrupted in 2011 due to increasingly unstable security conditions.
Today, the term Ounjougou is associated with the research undertaken within the international program "Human population and palaeoenvironment in Africa", created in 1997.Huysecom E. 2002. Palaeoenvironment and human population in West Africa: an international research project in Mali. Antiquity 76, 335-336.Huysecom E., 2014. Archaeology of the Ounjougou Site Complex. In: Smith C. (ed), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology vol. 11, New-York: Springer, 5664-5670. This program is coordinated at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) by the laboratory Archéologie et Peuplement de l'Afrique at the Anthropology Unit, Department of Genetics and Evolution.
The archaeological and environmental sequence at Ounjougou
Pleistocene
A high resolution Palaeolithic sequence could be established at Ounjougou, in particular due to 50 optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates in strict association with the geomorphological analysis of the formations.Robert A. Soriano S., Rasse M., Stokes S., Huysecom E. 2003. First chrono-cultural reference framework for the West African Palaeolithic: new data from Ounjougou (Dogon Country, Mali). Journal of African Archaeology 1/2, 151-169. Moreover, some sedimentary gaps observed in the Ounjougou Pleistocene sequence appear to coincide with abrupt Heinrich climatic events during isotopic stage 3 (H5 and H4).Lespez L., Rasse M., Le Drezen Y., Tribolo Ch., Huysecom E., Ballouche A. 2008. L'évolution hydromorphologique de la vallée du Yamé (Pays Dogon, Mali): signal climatique et hydrosystèmes continental en Afrique de l'Ouest entre 50 et 4 ka cal.BP. Géomorphologie: Relief, Processus, Environnement 3, 169-185.Soriano S., Rasse M., Tribolo C. & Huysecom E., 2010. Ounjougou: a long Middle Stone Age sequence in the Dogon country (Mali). In: Allsworth-Jones Ph (ed), West African Archaeology. New developments, new perspectives, Oxford: BAR International Series 2164, 1-14.
The earliest evidence of human occupation is seen at several sites in the complex in the form of a lithic industry composed of quartzitic sandstone polyhedrals and sub-spheroids associated with worked cobbles (Soriano et al. 2010). The technological and typological aspects of these artifacts suggest an early phase of the Palaeolithic and have been observed in stratigraphic context in lenses of coarse sands indurated with iron oxide adhering to bedrock. An OSL date of the Final Middle Pleistocene, around 180,000 years, was obtained for the deposits overlying these formations, forming a terminus ante quem for this lithic industry. Its technical characteristics, however, suggest an age of at least 500,000 years ago. Although having widespread archaeological visibility, the Acheulean has until now been absent in the Ounjougou zone and the Dogon Country in general. This may indicate the existence in West Africa of regions unfrequented by Acheulean populations, although well represented in neighboring regions.
All of the other Pleistocene lithic industries at Ounjougou are chronologically associated with the Middle Palaeolithic. A Levallois core with preferential removals, found isolated in stratigraphic context, is the first evidence for the Middle Paleolithic at Ounjougou. The OSL date on the context places this core around 150,000 BP during the Late Middle Pleistocene. Middle Palaeolithic occupations in the Ounjougou zone, all open-air sites, become even more common during the Upper Pleistocene: 25 different typo-technological groups were identified between 100,000 and 22,000 BP, with a particular concentration during isotopic stage 3 between 50,000 and 30,000 BP ). The industries between 100,000 and 20,000 BP are extremely diverse. The appearance of blade production around 65,000 BP, followed by discoidal reduction around 60,000 BP, the appearance of foliate bifacial pieces around 50,000 BP and the disappearance of Levallois technique around 30,000 BP are the most notable events during the sequence. In the Middle Paleolithic sequence we also note the occurrence of a quartz cobble industry with characteristics comparable to an early Palaeolithic.Soriano S. 2003. Quand archaïque n'est pas ancien! Étude de cas dans le Paléolithique du Pays dogon (Ounjougou, Mali). Annales de la Fondation Fyssen 18, 79-92. The study of several sites at Ounjougou has also enabled description of a new industry with massive tools (rabots) and pieces obtained by bipolar-on-anvil percussion. The existence of this kind of assemblage was subsequently confirmed by the excavation of a rock shelter on the Bandiagara escarpment. The diversity of Middle Paleolithic industries and their succession without obvious logic suggests regular renewal of human groups in the region. Between 20,000 and 10,000 BP we then observe a significant hiatus, largely due to the dry Ogolian period.Soriano S., Rasse M., Tribolo C. & Huysecom E., 2010. Ounjougou: a long Middle Stone Age sequence in the Dogon country (Mali). In: Allsworth-Jones Ph. (ed), West African Archaeology. New developments, new perspectives, Oxford: BAR International Series 2164, 1-14.
Holocene
Early Holocene (>9500 BC-6750 BC)