Agricultural Practices in the Upper Casamance Region, Senegal, 7th-19th Centuries AD: Archaeobotanical Results from Payoungou and Korop

Summary

As a result of more than 60 years of archaeobotanical research, West Africa is recognized as an important independent centre of crop domestication, and archaeobotany has shed light on the connection between the crops and foodways of West Africa and those of the American south. But much remains unknown of the history of timing and processes of West African crop domestication, and food production and processing within this ethnically and environmentally diverse region.

Formerly part of the greater Mali empire and an important player in Atlantic trade, the Upper Casamance region of Senegal has much potential for research into the nature of crops, crop diffusion and agricultural practices in the West African tropical savannah. This paper will summarize the findings of the first archaeobotanical analysis of the region using assemblages from the two villages of Payoungou (7th-19th c.) and Korop (13th-19th c.) and potentially associated agricultural and crop processing practices. 

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• Many People, Many Plates: Archaeologies of Foodways

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 845