Jenné-Jeno
Encyclopedia
Jenne-Jeno is the original site of Djenné
, Mali
and considered to be among the oldest urbanized centers in sub-Saharan Africa
. It has been the subject of archeological excavations by Susan and Roderick McIntosh (and others) and has been dated to the 3rd century BC. There is evidence of iron-production, use of domesticated plants and animals, and complex homoarchical urban development as early as 900 AD.
Radiocarbon dates show that people first settled here permanently in about 250 BC. Between 750 and 1000 AD, after centuries of occupation stood an 82 acres (331,842.5 m²) near the river Bani consisting of a large tear-shaped mound surrounded by 69 hillocks, created by its people (which may have numbered up to 27,000), who built and rebuilt their houses. During this time period, notable changes are observed as having occurred. Previously, from the fifth to ninth century, houses at Jenne-Jeno were constructed with puddled mud or tauf foundations, later to be replaced by innovative cylindrical-brick architecture. While data on the source of this apparent innovation is scant, it is suggested that the process was indigenous since change is also seen with an accompanied continuity in pottery and the general structural lay-out of the houses; therefore it is unlikely that any change in ethnic composition had occurred. The first verifiable Islamic influence on the town appears in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the form of brass, spindle whorls, and rectilinear houses.
The inhabitants of Jenne-Jeno were an aquatic and largely subsistence based people. They accomplished what is thought to have been among the first examples of rice domestication on the continent and were the first in the Western Sudan
region to establish its signature mud-brick architecture; a predecessor to Sudano-Sahelian
. They also possessed their own iron technology and developed some of the finest terracotta figures in the region.
Djenné
Djenné is an Urban Commune and town in the Inland Niger Delta region of central Mali. In the 2009 census the commune had a population of 32,944. Administratively it is part of the Mopti Region....
, Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
and considered to be among the oldest urbanized centers in sub-Saharan Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. It has been the subject of archeological excavations by Susan and Roderick McIntosh (and others) and has been dated to the 3rd century BC. There is evidence of iron-production, use of domesticated plants and animals, and complex homoarchical urban development as early as 900 AD.
Radiocarbon dates show that people first settled here permanently in about 250 BC. Between 750 and 1000 AD, after centuries of occupation stood an 82 acres (331,842.5 m²) near the river Bani consisting of a large tear-shaped mound surrounded by 69 hillocks, created by its people (which may have numbered up to 27,000), who built and rebuilt their houses. During this time period, notable changes are observed as having occurred. Previously, from the fifth to ninth century, houses at Jenne-Jeno were constructed with puddled mud or tauf foundations, later to be replaced by innovative cylindrical-brick architecture. While data on the source of this apparent innovation is scant, it is suggested that the process was indigenous since change is also seen with an accompanied continuity in pottery and the general structural lay-out of the houses; therefore it is unlikely that any change in ethnic composition had occurred. The first verifiable Islamic influence on the town appears in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in the form of brass, spindle whorls, and rectilinear houses.
The inhabitants of Jenne-Jeno were an aquatic and largely subsistence based people. They accomplished what is thought to have been among the first examples of rice domestication on the continent and were the first in the Western Sudan
Sudan (region)
The Sudan is the name given to a geographic region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western to Eastern Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilâd as-sûdân or "land of the Blacks"...
region to establish its signature mud-brick architecture; a predecessor to Sudano-Sahelian
Sudano-Sahelian
The Sudano-Sahelian covers an umbrella of similar architectural styles common to the Islamized peoples of the Sahel and Sudanian regions of West Africa, south of the Sahara, but above the savanna and fertile forest regions of the coast...
. They also possessed their own iron technology and developed some of the finest terracotta figures in the region.