Dr. Alioune Deme

In 1954 was established National Park Niokolo-Koba. After gaining independence and emerging from the state of Senegal the National Park was extended due to the biodiversity and wildlife protection. From this reason, in 1969 local villages had been relocated beyond area of the extended park. Villages have been linked to ecosystem of the tree savanna for centuries and they have been constituted as living functional unit. Trees in villages are not only the source of the necessary raw materials for local residents. They provide important role for their livelihoods and appropriate shelter from the sun. But their importance is also deeply connected with the healing and animistic tradition. In this beginning project, we study the relations between trees and villages with long-term continuity of settlement, but also with the newly relocated villages after constitution of the park. We identify which tree species are most common in abandoned villages and which can be an identifier of an abandoned settlement. Another goal is to map the use of these trees and find out which trees are sacred to the local people. Another question is, how the environment and structure of newly founded villages are reflected on the composition and the quantity of trees in the immediate vicinity of these villages, which are concentrated along the infrastructure? The research comprises ethnoarchaeology, dendrology, dendrochronology, vegetation ecology and ethnobotany.

There are hundreds of shell midden sites along the Senegambian coastline. The shell middens were first formed during an eustatic event known as the Nouakchottien marine transgression (6,800–4,000 bp). During that marine transgression, the sea shoreline was pushed back hundreds of miles in the interior. This engendered the flourishing of malacological fauna and several fish species. As a result of this, several natural shell midden were formed. From the Late Stone Age to the 2nd millennium ce, populations exploited the aquatic fauna, which resulted in the formation of anthropogenic shell middens. The littoral where these shell middens are found is divided into three archaeological culture areas. Archaeological excavations at some of those sites, such as Khant and Dioron Boumak, have shed light on the nature of the material culture, subsistence activities, and the cultural history in these areas. Research at Soukouta has added new data on iron technology to understanding of the shell ...

Excavation of the five hectare site of Walalde revealed an occupation by iron-using agropastoralists that began [800–550] cal BC, and continued until [400–200] cal BC. The earliest occupation phase appears to document a period of transitional iron use, with some worked stone in evidence. Smelting and forging slags and tuyeres are present in considerable quantities in the later phase. Copper with the distinctive chemical signature of the Akjoujt mines in Mauritania was also present after 550 cal BC, attesting to trade and interaction over long distances. Other important aspects of the Walalde sequence include ceramic materials and a series of red ochre burials. Possible cultural affinities with shell midden sites in the Senegal Delta, surface material from the Lac Rkiz region, and pastoralist sites of the ‘Boudhida Culture’ around Nouakchott are discussed. The article concludes with a consideration of Walalde’s significance to the debate over the origins of iron metallurgy in West Africa.

In 1954 was established National Park Niokolo-Koba. After gaining independence and emerging from the state of Senegal the National Park was extended due to the biodiversity and wildlife protection. From this reason, in 1969 local villages had been relocated beyond area of the extended park. Villages have been linked to ecosystem of the tree savanna for centuries and they have been constituted as living functional unit. Trees in villages are not only the source of the necessary raw materials for local residents. They provide important role for their livelihoods and appropriate shelter from the sun. But their importance is also deeply connected with the healing and animistic tradition. In this beginning project, we study the relations between trees and villages with long-term continuity of settlement, but also with the newly relocated villages after constitution of the park. We identify which tree species are most common in abandoned villages and which can be an identifier of an aband...

Today, African pastoralists are found mainly in the Sahel/Savannah belt spanning 6,000 km from west to east, flanked by the Sahara to the north and tropical rainforests to the south. The most significant group among them are the Fulani who not only keep cattle breeds of possible West Eurasian ancestry, but form themselves a gene pool containing some paternally and maternally-transmitted West Eurasian haplogroups. We generated complete sequences for 33 mitogenomes belonging to haplogroups H1 and U5 (23 and 10, respectively), and genotyped 16 STRs in 65 Y chromosomes belonging to haplogroup R1b-V88. We show that age estimates of the maternal lineage H1cb1, occurring almost exclusively in the Fulani, point to the time when the first cattle herders settled the Sahel/Savannah belt. Similar age estimates were obtained for paternal lineage R1b-V88, which occurs today in the Fulani but also in other, mostly pastoral populations. Maternal clade U5b1b1b, reported earlier in the Berbers, shows...