Reviews SYLVAIN OZAINNE. Un N´eolithique Ouest-Africain: cadre chrono-culturel, ´economique et environnemental de l’Holocene r´ecent en Pays dogon (Mali) (Journal of African Archaeology Monographs 8). xi+293 pages, 92 colour and b&w illustrations. 2013. Frankfurt: Africa Magna; 978-3-937248-33-2 hardback €35.90.
Besides fabric analysis, another significant feature examined is decorative motifs and their experimental reconstruction. Here, as in the rest of the morphotypological study, Ozainne proposes a completely new and largely automatic classification model specifically created for these repertoires.
This impeccable monograph by Sylvain Ozainne presents important material for the understanding of Sub-Saharan Africa, a region for which up-to-date information has hitherto been scarce. The volume is the outcome of a research programme run by the University of Geneva, directed by Eric Huysecom, which aimed specifically to investigate the peopling of the Dogon countries. In this context, the Late Neolithic has become particularly important and the project has made numerous contributions clarifying this topic. Though the main focus of the volume is the data from the Ounjougou site and nearby areas (the Bandiagara cliff and the plain of S´eno) in southern Mali, the author frames the results within a mature discussion of wider issues. This includes questions such as, what was ‘the Neolithic’ and, more importantly, how should it be defined in West Africa? Reappraisal of this theme is particularly helpful in the context of a region where archaeological approaches to this issue are fairly new. Previous studies have focused mainly on the Saharan Neolithic, including the Nile Valley and north-eastern Africa more generally (e.g. Krzy˙zaniak & Kobusiewicz 1984). West Africa, however, presents distinctive characteristics, especially in terms of its cultigens, far removed from the modes and timing of the North African examples.
With Chapter 5, the narrative shifts to a general level, to build an environmental framework and a chronological summary of the Dogon country during the Late Neolithic. Based on Chapters 2–4, this overview presents updated and clarified sequences of regional populations and phasing proposed by Huysecom et al. (2004). As Ozainne reminds us, however, the different phases do not correspond in any way to socio-economic or cultural groups, temporally or spatially defined, since their role is merely to gather the information into a unitary scheme.
The accuracy which characterises Ozainne’s analytical study is typified by his treatment of the ceramic evidence, which is extremely detailed and aimed at defining objective technological indices (e.g. fragmentation, surface condition, degree of firing).
Ozainne’s reconstruction of the Late Neolithic sequence of the Yam´e valley comprises five phases (4, 5a, 5b, 6, 7). Phase 4 (Late Neolithic I) dates to 2660– 2240 cal BC. Phases 5a and 5b (Late Neolithic II) date to 1780–1430 and 1310–830 cal BC respectively. It is during this time that the beginnings of millet (Pennisetum glaucum) cultivation indicate important economic transformation. Phase 6 (810–400 cal BC) is a period of transition between the Late Neolithic and Early Iron Age, and finally, phase 7 (510–230 cal BC) is attributed to a regional aspect of the Early Iron Age. What is the place of the Bandiagara plateau in West Africa? Ozainne answers this question in Chapters 6 and 7, which attempt to reconstruct a broad palaeoenvironmental, economic and cultural picture of Sub-Saharan West Africa. Here, Ozainne’s interpretation draws on all available sources to examine changes in environment and lifeways. In his opinion, it is the capacity to respond to the various questions regarding economic organisation and the ways that the productive economy spread C
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The monograph concentrates on the data of the Late Holocene, c. 3400–809 cal BC. Chapters 2– 4 present, individually but almost identically, the three archaeological complexes of Ounjougou, the Bandiagara escarpment, and the plain of S´eno. On the basis of this new evidence, Ozainne proposes an update and clarification of the Holocene sequence formerly established for the region.
Here, too, the sequence is based on the Late Holocene ceramic traditions reconstructed through automatic seriation intended to detect ‘breaks’ in the main ceramic forms and decorative motifs. All of this is lucidly described by the author, though the accompanying tables do not provide sufficient keys for the reader (e.g. for the abbreviations used). Similarly, having pottery drawings collected together at the end of the volume does not facilitate easy consultation.
Reviews that allows us to speak of a Neolithic status. Ozainne reconstructs the sequence of events that led to the establishment of agriculture in West Africa. The economic transformation is also linked to environmental changes although he stresses the difficulty of associating climate change directly with social transformation. Particularly significant, in the Late Holocene, is the severe arid event of c. 2200– 1800 BC which marked the transition to drier conditions throughout West Africa with the beneficial effect of opening up forested areas. The Neolithic-type transformation, through the spread of animal husbandry (cattle and caprines), and of agriculture based on millet is described in Chapter 6, employing charts of isochronous curves obtained by mapping the published data with GIS. Chapter 7 then uses these results to create a “sc´enario” (p. 192) for the settlement of the Late Neolithic of West Africa. One of the most important results is the elucidation of migration phenomena from the southern Sahara starting from the Late Neolithic I. During the recent Holocene, the whole of West Africa felt strong influences from the Saharan area in the form of people and ideas moving north-east to southwest. Overall, this volume supplies new data both on the appearance of animal and plant species, especially millet, linked to early agriculture and on the palaeoenvironmental features of the region. All of this is lucidly presented and supported by quantitative analysis. Ozainne proposes a more inclusive definition of the term Neolithic, as a process comprising all the various stages accompanying the establishment of the productive economy. As is well known, following the deliberations of the Pan-African Congress, use of the Eurocentric term ‘Neolithic’ has been of limited value in African contexts. Aimed initially at re-evaluating the originality of the African situation, this earlier approach may eventually have confirmed, incorrectly, the idea that the continent did not witness crucial stages in the development of human societies. Ozainne’s more subtle approach to this period in Africa, however, is one which can be shared.
References HUYSECOM, E., S. OZAINNE, F. RAELI, A. BALLOUCHE, M. RASSE & S. STOKES. 2004. Ounjougou (Mali): a history of Holocene settlement at the southern edge of the Sahara. Antiquity 78: 579–93. C
KRZYZ˙ ANIAK, L. & M. KOBUSIEWICZ. 1984. Origin and early development of food-producing cultures in north-eastern Africa. Pozna´n: Pozna´n Archaeological Museum.
BARBARA E. BARICH ISMEO–International Association for the Study of the Mediterranean and the Orient, Rome, Italy (Email:
[email protected]) ´ . 14,000 a˜nos de alimentaci´on en el Per´u. ELMO LEON 664 pages, 19 colour plates, 6 tables. 2013. Lima: Fondo Editorial Universidad de San Mart´ın de Porres; 978-612-4088-86-5 paperback $100. Just in case it’s escaped your notice, Peruvian food is the latest culinary trend. In London alone four Peruvian restaurants, one Michelin starred, have opened in the last two years. The world’s most famous chefs, among them Ferran Adri`a and Alain Ducasse, have declared that Peru ‘holds the key to the future of gastronomy’ (Smillie 2014). As Peru has emerged from its recent past of economic and social turmoil, the rest of the world is now discovering what Peruvians themselves have always known: that the country enjoys an extraordinary gastronomic tradition. That tradition is based, in large part of course, on the fusion of culinary styles that make up modern Peru: western Mediterranean from Spain and Far Eastern from Japan and China, among others. For example, ceviche, the national dish, is the freshest fish ‘cooked’ in a leche de tigre of lime juice, salt, chilli and onions, thereby entailing both Old and New World elements. Yet the reason why Peruvian food is a true cuisine, rather than a mere farrago of different styles, is because it is founded upon one of humanity’s very few ancient hearths of agriculture, located in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions and adjoining one of its richest marine resources. This, then, is the matter of Elmo Le´on’s magisterial 14,000 a˜nos de alimentaci´on en el Per´u (‘14,000 years of food in Peru’). Le´on is one of Peru’s most respected archaeological scholars, holding various positions in the Museo Nacional del Per´u, the Pontificia Universidad Cat´olica del Per´u (PUCP), and the Universidad San Mart´ın de
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