Start of the project: 1.12.2003, maximum term: 6 years

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Peter Breunig
Seminar für Vor- und Frühgeschichte
Archäologie und Archäobotanik Afrikas
Grüneburgplatz 1
60323 Frankfurt (Main)
Tel.: +49 (0) 69 - 798 32120
Fax: +49 (0) 69 - 798 32121
breunig@em.uni-frankfurt.de

In the last two millennia BC fundamental cultural changes took place in the West African Sahel. While the second millennium BC appears to be a period of the gradual emergence of food production, the subsequent first millennium BC witnesses discontinuities and innovations in various archaeological aspects. In the region currently under study (the Chad Basin in Northeast Nigeria), this has been proved by the conspicuous change of the settlement pattern during the duration of the so-called ‘Gajiganna Culture’ (ca. 1800- ca. 400 BC), for instance.
During the second millennium BC small to mid-size settlement mounds (ca. 1-4 ha) of sedentary farmers were replaced by smaller sites (ca. 1-2 ha) of probably more mobile communities, but partly also by very large flat sites (up to ca. 12-13 ha) which point to relative large, more complex and sedentary human agglomerations.
Recent fieldwork is focussed on the structure and organisation of the settlements. Applied methods are magnetic surveys and large-scale excavations. Research is carried out in close co-operation with the archaeobotanical subproject to gain more data on economy and environment as a base for further consideration of how far cultural and ecological change are connected.
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