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POSTERS
Abstract
Iron Age Subsistence at Kirikongo, Burkina Faso
Daphne Gallagher
Museum of Anthropology, Michigan
This poster presents the preliminary analysis of seeds recovered
from the 2004 excavations at Kirikongo, Burkina Faso (directed by
Stephen Dueppen, University of Michigan). The site, located in the
Mouhoun Bend Region, is a small 8 ha. mound complex inhabited from
ca. A.D. 400-1400. Kirikongo has excellent architectural
preservation and its intact stratigraphic deposits are regularly
sealed by crushed laterite floors. The economy was based on a
mixture of wild and domestic resources (both plant and
animal). Notably, Pennisetum glaucum and Digitaria exilis are
present throughout the sequence, and there is some evidence of
intensification in the weed and fallow plants. Oil producing nuts
such as Butrospermum paradoxum and Sclerocarya birrea occur
regularly in the later part of the sequence. The
paleoethnobotanical data, in conjunction with the detailed faunal
analyses in progress, will make a significant contribution to our
understanding of early agricultural village economy in West Africa.
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