Flexibility Against Fragility at the Diallowali Site System during the 1st Millennium BC

Summary

The first millennium BC was a period of dramatic social and environmental change throughout West Africa. Along the Middle Senegal Valley (MSV), communities experienced rapid and dramatic changes to biospheric conditions accompanied by largescale technological, social, and economic reorganizations. On the western edge of the MSV, the inhabitants of the Diallowali site system developed a network of flexible institutions capable of maintaining a thriving community throughout this turbulent period. Despite the rapid and profound changes to the surrounding landscape, varying degrees of reliance upon hunting, fishing, agriculture, and animal husbandry, as well as long distance trade and craft production, contributed to over 700 years (1100 – 400BC) of intense occupation of the site system. Through an examination of changes in local conditions, and the synchronous shifts in settlement organization and subsistence practices, this paper investigates the social implications of intense and unpredictable climate change on Late Stone Age and Early Iron Age populations along the MSV.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21741