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Swiss Archaeologist Digs Up West Africa's Past
NZZ Online ^ | 1-19-2007 | Simon Bradley

Posted on 01/20/2007 3:55:34 PM PST by blam

19. January 2007, Swissinfo

Swiss archaeologist digs up West Africa's past

A Swiss:led team of archaeologists has discovered pieces of the oldest African pottery in central Mali, dating back to at least 9,400BC.

The sensational find by Geneva University's Eric Huysecom and his international research team, at Ounjougou near the Unesco:listed Bandiagara cliffs, reveals important information about man's interaction with nature.

The age of the sediment in which they were found suggests that the six ceramic fragments : discovered between 2002 and 2005 : are at least 11,400 years old. Most ancient ceramics from the Middle East and the central and eastern Sahara regions are 10,000 and between 9:10,000 years old, respectively.

"At the beginning, the very first piece we found stayed in my desk drawer for years, as I didn't realise how old it was," Huysecom told swissinfo.

Huysecom heads a 50:strong interdisciplinary team, composed of 28 international researchers ? mainly from Germany, Mali, Switzerland, France and Britain : on the largest current archaeological research project in Africa, entitled "Human population and paleo:environment in West Africa".

Ounjougou was selected as the location, "as everything led us to believe that there we could follow the evolution of man, the environment and the climate", explained Huysecom.

The site is an archaeologist's dream: a ravine made up of layers of easy:to:date sediment rich in West African history.

Significant findings

Since the launch of the project in 1997, the team has made numerous discoveries about ancient stone:cutting techniques and tools, and other important findings that shed light on human development in the region.

But the unearthing of the ancient fragments of burnt clay is one of the most significant to date. Huysecom is convinced that pottery was invented in West Africa to enable man to adapt to climate change.

"Apart from finding the oldest ceramic in Africa, the interesting thing is that it gives us information about when and under what circumstances man can invent new things, such as pottery," he explained.

"And the invention of ceramic is linked to specific environmental conditions ? the transformation of the region from desert into grassland."

Grasslands

Some 10,000 years ago, at the end of the ice age, the climate is thought to have fluctuated between warm and cold periods. This led to the formation of an 800:kilometre:wide band of tropical vegetation extending northwards from the Sahel region, which attracted people who slowly moved north from southern and central Africa.

Wild grasses and pearl millet started sprouting on the former desert land. But for man to be able to eat and properly digest the new plants, they had to be stored and cooked in pots.

"Man had to adapt his food and way of life by inventing pottery," said the Geneva professor.

The invention of ceramic also coincided with that of small arrowheads : also discovered by the team ? and which were probably used to hunt hares, pheasants and other small game on the grassy plains.

To date, East Asia ? the triangle between Siberia, China and Japan ? is the only other area where similar pottery and arrowheads have been found which are as old as those in West Africa, explained Huysecom.

"This is important, as they both appear in same way, at the same time and under similar climatic conditions, which indicates that man has certain modes of adaptation to cope with environmental changes," he commented.

Ahead of the final publication of the team's research findings this year, Huysecom is returning to Ounjougou to rejoin his colleagues, in particular those from West Africa "who are extremely proud of the discovery".

He plans to scour the region for caves and other settlement sites to try and find out exactly where the pottery came from so as to determine more precisely the age of the fragments.

"We know [from the sediment] that they are at least 11,400 years old, but they could be 50 or even 1,000 years older."

swissinfo, Simon Bradley


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: africa; archaeologist; godsgravesglyphs; mali; pottery; swiss
I believe the oldest pottery ever found was found in Japan and dated to 13,000 years ago.
1 posted on 01/20/2007 3:55:36 PM PST by blam
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To: SunkenCiv

GGG Ping.


2 posted on 01/20/2007 3:55:57 PM PST by blam
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To: blam
Yep and according to Al Sharpton there are inscriptions using Calculus.
3 posted on 01/20/2007 4:32:34 PM PST by Parley Baer
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To: blam; FairOpinion; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 24Karet; 3AngelaD; 49th; ...
Thanks Blam. I think the oldest fired pottery was in the form of small figures, found in a Cro-Magnon site in eastern Europe, all of them deliberately broken.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.
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4 posted on 01/20/2007 9:29:38 PM PST by SunkenCiv ("In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, they're not." -- John Rummel)
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To: blam

BTTT


5 posted on 01/22/2007 12:11:04 AM PST by zimdog
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To: SunkenCiv; Millee; Allegra; Jersey Republican Biker Chick; carlr; PaulaB; Maximus of Texas; ...
Re: ...I think the oldest fired pottery was in the form of small figures, found in a Cro-Magnon site in eastern Europe, all of them deliberately broken.

"...deliberately broken..." Hummmmmmmmmm...

Most likely... the Cro-Mag was having a fit over seeing our 'Caveman' commercials on TV...

Don't blame him... I like the ones where they use only me better!
6 posted on 01/22/2007 1:06:51 AM PST by Bender2 (Nancy P needs to spend a few weeks with her supporters in Tehran...)
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To: blam

Call me when they find the missing link.


7 posted on 01/22/2007 1:17:29 AM PST by MaxMax (God Bless America)
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To: Bender2; blam

Dolni Vestonice
Dolni Vestonice

quoting Cro-Magnon Man by T.Prideaux
It would be another 15,000 years or so before other men, living in what is now Japan, learned to turn clay into pots; yet, as the evidence from Dolni Vestonice attests, ceramics had already been invented. When the kiln hut was first investigated in 1951, its sooty floor was littered with fragments of ceramic figurines. There were animal heads-bears, foxes, lions. In one particularly beautiful lion head there is a hole simulating a wound, perhaps intended to help some hunter inflict a similar wound on a real lion. The floor was also cluttered with hundreds of clay pellets bearing the fingerprints of the prehistoric artisan; he probably pinched them off his lump of unbaked clay when he first began to knead and shape it to his desire. And there were limbs broken from little animal and human figures. They may have cracked off in the baking, or when the ancient ceramist tossed aside a work that failed to please him.
James Shreeve discusses this kiln and overall site on pp 276-286.
8 posted on 01/22/2007 9:28:58 AM PST by SunkenCiv ("In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, they're not." -- John Rummel)
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To: SunkenCiv

Why would hunters hunt fox and lion?


9 posted on 01/22/2007 4:22:30 PM PST by Sawdring
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To: Sawdring

Self-preservation? Self-defense? Magic -- to take on the abilities of those creatures?


10 posted on 01/23/2007 10:13:57 AM PST by SunkenCiv ("In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, they're not." -- John Rummel)
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11 posted on 12/12/2010 1:18:02 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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