Performance and Agency: The DGB Sites of Northern Cameroon 9781407303147, 9781407333298

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l na tio ne di nli ad l o ith ria W ate m

BAR  S1830  2008   DAVID  

Performance and Agency: The DGB Sites of Northern Cameroon

PERFORMANCE AND AGENCY: THE DGB SITES OF NORTHERN CAMEROON

Nicholas David with contributions by Judy Klassen, Scott MacEachern, Jean Maley, Gerhard Müller-Kosack, Andrea Richardson and Judy Sterner

BAR International Series 1830 9 781407 303147

B A R

2008

Performance and Agency: The DGB Sites of Northern Cameroon Nicholas David with contributions by

Judy Klassen, Scott MacEachern, Jean Maley, Gerhard Müller-Kosack, Andrea Richardson and Judy Sterner

BAR International Series 1830 2008

ISBN 9781407303147 paperback ISBN 9781407333298 e-format DOI https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407303147 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

BAR

PUBLISHING

TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables

iii

List of Figures

iv

List of Digital Materials

vi

Acknowledgements

x

Technical Notes

xi

Chapter 1 Introduction

1

The northern Mandara mountains The montagnards Regional archaeology and history Discovery of DGB sites The basics of DGB site location and architecture Theoretical approach The plan of this book

1 1 3 3 6 8 8

Chapter 2 Survey and the distribution of DGB sites A primer of DGB monumental architecture The survey DGB site typology and distribution

9 9 14 31

Chapter 3 Excavations at DGB-2

35

DGB site stratigraphy The team Excavation procedures

35 36 36

The construction sequence at DGB-2 Phase I Phase II Phase III

37 37 40 42

DGB-2 Stratigraphy Central Platform (Phase I) South Platform (Phase I) West Terrace (Phase I, episode 2) Southeast Platform (Phases II and III) Northeast Platform (Phases II and III) North Terrace (Phase II) Dating and Functions

43 44 46 46 47 52 54 55

Chapter 4 Excavations at DGB-8

57

The construction sequence and subsequent formation processes Phase I Phase II Phase III: from abandonment to the present Construction and reconstruction

57 57 59 59 60

Stratigraphy South Platform (Phase I) The North and Southwest Platforms (Phase II) Dating and Functions

60 60 65 72

Chapter 5 Artifacts, ecofacts and the cultural sequence at DGB-2 and DGB-8 Ceramics Metals and slag Grinding equipment and other lithic artifacts Other materials

73 73 94 98 99

i

Ecofacts: faunal remains Conclusion: DGB material culture and the cultural sequence

Chapter 6 Site sequence, functions and the climate of DGB times Architectural evidence for seriation Artifactual evidence DGB site functions: watch and water towers Climate in DGB times

99 101

103 103 105 107 112

Chapter 7 Concepts, migrations, representations

115

Concepts and migrations Representations: indigenous constructions of the past Conclusion

115 119 123

Chapter 8 Energetics and agency

125

Introduction Modeling architectural energetics Performance and agency Conclusion: the DGB culture in broader context

125 125 136 142

Appendix: Analysis of sediment samples

147

Bibliography

149

Please note that the digital material referred to overleaf is available to download at www.barpublishing.com/additional-downloads.html

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LIST OF TABLES 1.1. Environment and culture in the southern Lake Chad basin 18,000 BC to AD 1900 2.1. Locations and characteristics of DGB sites 2.2. A formal typology of DGB sites 2.3. Site areas and size classes 2.4. Intervisibility of DGB sites 3.1. The South entrance and South stair trenches: excavation units and layers 4.1. DGB-8: comparison of infillings of the silos in the South and North platforms 5.1. Simplified statistics by ceramic classes and phase ranges showing the main quantitative contrasts between DGB and Mafa ceramic series 5.2. DGB-2 pottery weights (kg) and sherd counts by excavation unit and inferred phase ranges of ceramics 5.3. DGB-8 pottery weights (kg) and sherd counts by excavation unit and inferred phase ranges of ceramics 5.4. Comparison of mean sherd weights (g) from DGB-8 and DGB-2 5.5. DGB-8: percentages of plain, decorated and morphon sherds by phase 5.6. Types of impressed and applied decoration represented in the DGB-2 and DGB-8 series 5.7. Rim diameter classes 5.8. Ratios of flanged sherds to tripod leg sherds in DGB and Mafa series 5.9. Other DGB ceramic forms from DGB-2 5.10. DGB-2: forms of morphons by unit and phase 5.11. DGB-8: forms of morphons by phase 5.12. Partial census of rigid containers in a Mafa compound at Mafmay, 1986. 5.13. Pots present in the Mafmay compound represented in figure 5.6 categorized by broad functional categories 5.14. Percentages of selected pot and sherd classes of Mafa sample, DGB-8 Mafa series and summed DGB-2 DGB series presented to facilitate comparisons of function 5.15. DGB-2 metal artifacts and iron slag by phase, unit and layer 5.16. DGB-8 metal artifacts and iron slag by phase, unit and layer 5.17. DGB-2 hammerstones and pestles summary by phases 5.18. DGB-2 other lithics 5.19. DGB-8 other lithics 5.20. DGB-2 faunal remains identified by Elizabeth Arnold, University of Calgary 5.21. DGB-8 faunal remains identified by Elizabeth Arnold, University of Calgary 8.1. Tasks, workforces and labor involved in DGB platform construction 8.2. Estimates of construction materials procured per worker day 8.3. Estimates of areas, volumes and worker days required for construction of the main elements of DGB-2 8.4. Estimates of areas, volumes and worker days required for construction of the main elements of DGB-8 8.5. Estimates of areas and volumes of special architectural features (free-standing wall, silos, internal passages) at DGB-2 8.6. Estimates of areas and volumes of silos 8.7. Comparison of worker days estimates for the construction of DGB-2 and DGB-8 as calculated above and by Andrea Richardson (2006) 8.8. Some characteristics of Mandara montagnard initiation ceremonies Appendix Table. Results of sediment sample analyses

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LIST OF FIGURES 1.1. The northern Mandara region, showing main administrative units, towns and selected villages. 1.2. Ethno-linguistic groups in the northern Mandara area. 1.3. The DGB area showing sites and approximate village territories. 1.4. Sketched reconstruction of DGB-8 by Owen Murray. 2.1. DGB-1: the North Central platform. 2.2a. Mafa house platform, in fact a large terrace, supporting the stone wall of an entrance room, Mafmay. 2.2b. Mafa room wall showing erosion of exterior daub surfacing, Guzda. 2.2c. Podokwo terrace and house walls at Oujila. 2.3a. Detail of DGB-10 retaining wall, a boulder terrace. 2.3b. Mafa wall incorporating in situ and small boulders around back of compound, Upay. 2.4. DGB-2: excavation in the North terrace. 2.5. DGB-2: the West terrace free-standing wall, much decayed and rebuilt by Mafa. 2.6. DGB-7: two tall terrace or skirting walls support the northwest end of the Central platform complex. 2.7. DGB-1: the north end showing the North East buttress (left) and the North 1 platform (center). 2.8. DGB-8 South platform: southwest corner of passage. Drawing by O. Murray. 2.9. Fine terraces immediately below DGB-6. 2.10. DGB-8, South platform: the North stair. 2.11. Judy Sterner stands on a stairway leading up towards DGB-7 from the east. 2.12. The North platform silo, its near margin (SW) damaged in the process of discovery. 2.13. Outline plan of the DGB-1 and DGB-2 complex as surveyed in January-February 2002. 2.14a. DGB-1 plan. 2.14b. North to South (A-B) and East to West (C-D) transects across DGB-1. 2.15. DGB-1: construction sequence as inferred from façade abutments. 2:16. The west side of DGB-2 seen from DGB-1. 2.17. Plan of DGB-3. 2.18. Plan of DGB-4. 2.19. DGB-5 seen from the northwest on a day of thick harmattan. 2.20. DGB-12: GPS-calibrated sketch plan showing in situ boulders and DGB structures. 2.21. DGB-13: GPS-calibrated sketch plan showing DGB structures. 2.22. DGB-14: sketch plan. 2.23. View of DGB-6 looking northeast from the slope of Nduval hill. 2.24. DGB-7 plan with transect along line A-B. 2.25. DGB-11-plan2001.jpg DGB-11: sketch plan. 2.26. DGB-10: GPS calibrated sketch plan. 2.27. DGB-16: GPS calibrated sketch plan. 2.28. DGB-15: sketch plan. 2.29. Extract from figure 1.1 showing the distributions of DGB sites and of immovable querns and grindstone mortars. 3.1. Plan of DGB-2 showing units excavated in 2002, surface and subsurface features. 3.2 The construction sequence at DGB-2. 3.3. DGB-2: sketch by Owen Murray of the lintel and other rocks roofing the north end of the Southeast passage. 3.4. DGB-2, Northeast platform: section at the west end of the South entrances trench. 3.5. DGB-2, Southeast platform: the blocked south entrance to the Southeast passage. 3.6 DGB-2, Southeast platform: profile along the center of the North entrance. 3.7. Radiocarbon (HEMS) determinations from DGB-2 (TO-11106-8) and DGB-8 (TO-11109, 10 & 11). 4.1. DGB-8: plan of the site at the end of the excavation, and idealized section from north to south. 4.2. The construction sequence at DGB-8. 4.3. DGB-8, South platform, West wall trench: north-south section reconstructed from field notes and images. 4.4. DGB-8, North platform staircase: view from above showing the distinctive curved treads. 4.5. DGB-8, North platform Silo: profile projected against its northeast quadrant. 5.1. DGB-2: bowl-mouth jars from the Northeast platform, East passage, Outer chamber. 5.2. DGB (1, 3-8 all from DGB-2) and Mafa (2 from DGB-8) sherds showing decorative techniques. 5.3. DGB pot forms 5.4. DGB pottery from DGB-2 and 8. iv

5.5. DGB and Mafa pottery from DGB-2 and 8. 5.6. Mafa compound at Mafmay 1986. 5.7. DGB-2, Northeast platform: ovicaprid bones and an iron amulet from the deposits overlying the West Passage. 5.8. DGB and Mafa artifacts of iron and a swollen jar neck. 5.9. DGB-2: 1.ground and polished stone ax; 2, ground and polished chisel tip. 6.1. DGB-5: iron currency bars found at or near the site. 6.2. Three views of a cuprous figurine 7 cm tall from DGB-13. Illustration by Owen Murray. 6.3. DGB-10: iron “bracelets” with tapered ends forged into the links of a chain. 6.4. A priestly title holder (Mbəsefwoy) on his rock in the Sukur Patla. 6.5. DGB-12: the lintel-roofed fissure. 6.6. Variation in the levels of Lake Chad over the past millennium. 7.1. Phase 1 and 2 migrations into the DGB area and the time-transgressive Godaliy migration. 8.1. Mason Ngaïbi Fidi at the entrance to DGB-1. 8.2. DGB-1, Northern outlier, wall collapse. 8.3. Experimental façade built on DGB-2 Central platform. 8.4. Named sites in and around the northern Mandara mountains.

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LIST OF DIGITAL MATERIALS Digital materials are available to download at www.barpublishing.com/additional-downloads.html. Besides the materials listed below they include color versions of many of the greyscale figures in the text.

Dfigures 1.1. Christian Seignobos’s (1982a) sketch of the northeastern portion of DGB-1 showing the entrance to the lintelroofed passage. Reproduced with his kind permission. 1.2. DGB-11 seen from the north with DGB-6 on the shoulder of Mt Nduval behind and DGB-7 below and to the left. 2.1. DGB-8: part of the west wall of the South platform showing a tendency to coursing and the use of wedges. 2.2. DGB-1: the southern wall of the entrance passage seen from the north entrance and showing the contrast between the massive blocks of the earlier wall that forms part of the Central platform and the less regular construction characteristic of the wall within the East Central addition. Curiously the lintel roofing of the passage within the addition is far more regular and impressive than the botched roofing of the inner half of the passage. 2.3. The east side of DGB-1 seen from DGB-2 with the Mudukwa massif in the background. The DGB-2 West terrace wall is in the foreground. 2.4. The rubble-filled sunken courtyard within the DGB-1 Central platform. The western passage can be seen on the left of the image and the much-damaged entrance to the main entry passage on the bottom right. 2.5. The southwest end of the DGB-1 entrance passage. 2.6. DGB-1: the blocked northern entrance to the passage into the site. Note the relatively poor quality of the East Central addition and how it abuts the much finer façade of the North Central platform. 2.7. DGB-1: remains (seen from the south) of footings of structures on the much damaged east side of the South Central platforms. 2.8. DGB-1: the Southeast walls seen from the South platform. 2.9. DGB-1:the west side. Note the tall terraces on the right (south) side of the image. Part of the Northern outlier is visible on the left hand side. 2.10. The DGB-1 Northern outlier viewed from the west with the south end of DGB-1 behind. 2.11. DGB-2: The North entrance to the Southeast platform under excavation. The lintel covered entrance to the phase 1 passage is visible. 2.12. DGB-2: the massive retaining wall showing its relation to the site above.. 2.13. DGB-2: block and boulder construction of the retaining wall beneath the site. 2.14. DGB-4: blocked western entrance on the north side of the site. The façade on the left side of the image has been almost entirely rebuilt. Its DGB characteristics are evident only where, behind the green melon and upright sorghum stalk, it passes behind the wall next to the entrance. 2.15. Massive boulders with grinding and threshing hollows immediately below DGB-5. Gerhard Müller-Kosack inspects the terraces surrounding the site plateau. 2.16. Team members descend the stairway leading down from DGB-12 into the Gwodaliy valley. 2.17. DGB-12: the Southeastern boulder terrace in the foreground with the Center boulder terrace above and the southwestern terraces in the left distance above the figures sitting on a boulder.. 2.18. DGB-1: Gerhard Müller-Kosack emerges from the lintel-covered fissure, seen here from the northwest, at the base of the slope below the site. 2.19. DGB-13 from the south-southeast, showing DGB façades. 2.20. DGB-13 from the west. Men are standing on the largely natural platform that is the highpoint of the site. The Mondossa massif is visible in the background. 2.21. DGB-14 and a shrine grove on a rocky knoll in the Mudukwa valley. The contrasting geology, lesser fertility and absence of compounds on the Udal-Uzal range across the Mondossa valley are evident. 2.22. DGB-7, in the center of the image, seen from the slope to the west that leads up to DGB-6. The Central platform complex and the broad curves of the Northwest and Southwest terraces standout to the left of the large compound. 2.23. DGB-7: the southeast boulder terrace and east side of the Central platform complex seen from the south. 2.24. DGB-7: the north end of the site seen from near the stairway on the steep slope below with, in the foreground, part of a DGB boulder terrace 2.25. DGB-8 seen from the southeast when first visited in December 2001. vi

2.26. DGB-8: part of the façade of southeast quadrant of South platform as first seen in December 2001. 2.27. DGB-9 viewed from the west. The join between the platforms is obscured by shadow. Note the absence of any surviving DGB style façade. 2.28. Werere, a shrubby tree with inconspicuous flowers in pendulous racemes (inset) which are picked and threshed to obtain the seeds. 2.29. Nduval: there are at least 19 occupied compounds and two abandoned house platforms in this view of the south side of the valley leading up from Bigide to Nduval. Photo: Scott MacEachern. 2.30. DGB-10 seen from the east. The small platform is at the high point on the near skyline with the north slope of the main Upay summit in the background. 2.31. DGB-10: the small platform seen from the southeast. DGB walling can be glimpsed beneath the vegetation. 2.32. Assistant Baldena Mbozoum inquires about the iron bracelets (inset) found near DGB-10. 2.33. Nine grain-grinding hollows on a boulder 160 m east of DGB-10. 2.34. DGB-16 seen from the west. The site is on the ridge top in the middle distance with a fine African ebony tree near the center of the image. 2.35. DGB-16: panorama looking southwest to the field hut from the pair of tall rocks marked on the plan. 2.36. DGB-16: the east side seen from the southeast. Baldena Mbozoum stands in front of the lower boulder terrace. The staircase in the upper boulder terrace can be seen to the left of the mahogany (Khaya senegalensis) tree. (The field hut did not exist in 2004 when this picture was taken.) 2.37. View from DGB-15 to Mt Tamde (l.) and the Sukur plateau (r.), some 25 km to the southwest. 2.38. DGB-15: view north from the outcrop above the South platform across the site and the Moskota valley. Scott MacEachern is inspecting the lintel-roofed passage. The North platform is hidden in vegetation behind Pierre Kinyock (dark hat).The fragment of freestanding wall can be glimpsed left of the rock with spectators. 2.39. Panorama from DGB-1. The main topographic features and sites are labeled. The image covers two of the three areas from which post-DGB migrations reached the DGB area, Muktele territory (Mt Zuelva) and Sulede (see chapter 7). 4.1. DGB-8: the two phase passage through the site viewed from near its western entrance. In the foreground on the left is part of the northern alcove and beyond and to the right the south wall alcove. The North platform staircase is almost entirely hidden, but beyond it the abutment of the south wall of the North platform onto the north wall of the South platform can be seen as can most of the narrower passage through the South platform. 4.2. DGB-8, South platform staircase: detail, showing the construction of lower and upper treads, a lower threshold that extends under the façade to the right (west) and a pavement of small granite slabs. 4.3. DGB-8: the South annex abuts the South platform, while the deposits on the right consist mainly of the rubble core of the Southwest platform. Owen Murray, J.-M. Datouang Djoussou and Judy Sterner relax in the welcome shade of a large hackberry tree (Celtis integrifolia). 4.4. DGB-8: West passage: the better preserved alcove in the south wall. This is overlain by rubble much of which may be the result of Mafa dumping. The blocks at the top of the image have been excavated and piled in this area of the site. 4.5. The timber-roofed entrance passage into the former hilltop residence of the chiefs of Wazang, Mofu-Diamaré cluster, Extreme-North Province. 4.6. DGB-8, South platform staircase: excavation in layer 1b; a probable lintel stands upright in the stairwell. The upper steps of the staircase are in a poor state of preservation with some tread blocks displaced. 4.7. DGB-8, South platform silo. Note the relatively poor quality of the walling and a basal sherd from a storage jar in the bottom right of the image. 4.8. DGB-8, South platform, West wall trench: in this image, taken from the south during excavation of layer 2b, the west façade of the South platform and the passage entrance is on the right; the left side of the trench is dug through rubble representing both Mafa dumping and the core of the Southwest platform. At the far end of the trench, the south wall of the North platform abuts the west façade of the northern half of the South platform. At the top of the image, a pot is one of three at the shrine under a tree. 4.9. DGB-8, North platform: the south wall between the South stair (left) and its abutment against the South platform. This is the same wall shown in 4.8 after cleaning assisted by heavy rain. Note the use of wedges to position the bottom row of blocks and of fillers where the wall abuts the South platform. 4.10. DGB-8, South platform Annex, South wall trench: at the bottom of the trench the boulder over which the wall is built also marks the join between the fine façade of the annex and the much cruder work, incorporating a bulging reddish block, of the Southwest platform façade.

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4.11. DGB-8, North platform, west quadrant. The façade is here destroyed probably by the growth of trees, past and present. 4.12. DGB-8, North platform: the western end of the lower wall abuts the North platform façade. The west end of the buttress (here abutting the lower wall) is also visible. 4.13. DGB-8: façades of the North platform and the Lower wall West. In the lower left of the image the buttress abuts the Lower wall West. Note the fine coursing, also characteristic of the buttress. 4.14. DGB-8, North platform staircase. The backdirt above it is from the Main trench. 4.15. DGB-8, West passage: a lintel probably fallen from the constriction point between the two alcoves. It was beneath this rock that we found fragments of AA batteries and a piece of cloth. 4.16. DGB-8, Southwest platform staircase. Frank Kense has revealed a brown surface within the stairwell, suggesting that the collapse of this part of the platform into the West passage took place over a period of time sufficient for soil formation to have begun. The right hand side of the staircase is represented by the column of blocks beneath Kense’s elbow. (The pile of rocks behind the top of the ranging pole were removed in excavation and stored there for lack of space elsewhere.) 4.17. DGB-8, North platform, Main trench and Silo. The silo is revealed by a curved line of blocks, perhaps four of which were removed before it was recognized, during excavation of the second spit of the Main trench. 4.18. DGB-8: excavated rocks piled on the south half of the South platform. In the foreground is the black stone shrine to which offerings are made to prevent the nndodiy from returning. 5.1. DGB-2: bowl-mouth jars from the Northeast platform, East passage, Outer chamber. 5.2. A Mafa short-rimmed nshengelek jar with exteriorly thickened lip and a minimal flange. 5.3. A collared Mafa pot for cooking meat. The collar, in this case broken, collects and liquids that boil over and direct them back into the pot through a hole or holes that pierce the vessel wall. Such pots are frequently equipped with tripod legs. 5.4. Two detached flanges about 2.5 cm high from DGB-2 seen in cross-section and from above. Both are decorated with TPR. 5.5. Mafa blok pots stored by a Guzda elder in the mud dome over his main granary and used to store ritual paraphernalia. The pot on the left has a flange comparable to DGB examples. 5.6. A typical modern form of V-handle from a village in Gaboa abandoned probably in the 20th century. The piece is correctly oriented and would have been attached near the maximum diameter of a jar used to fetch water. 5.07. A double-sided quern (42 x 16 cm) from the South platform, West trench at DGB-8. 5.08. DGB-8, North platform silo: block with two cupules from layer 1b (Phase III). 6.1. Terrace facing at Ar-Wede-Wede, the former hilltop residence of the chiefs of Duvangar. Wedges have been used to position the larger blocks and smaller fillers but not to fill interstices between them and thus smooth the façade. 6.2. Detail of a wall at the Mokoulek residence constructed lower down the Duvangar mountain in the early 20th century (Vincent 1991, vol. 1:249). The thin slabs of metamorphic rock are particularly characteristic of this mountain. 6.3. Façade detail at the former hilltop residence of the chiefs of Wazang. The lower part represents the closest approximation to DGB walling we have seen anywhere in the Mandara mountains. 6.4. Usman Bello, chief of Wazang, and followers in the interior courtyard of the mountain residence. This is accessed through a subterranean passage, the entrance to which is in the center rear of the image. 6.5. Exterior of a Chikide wall protecting the sacred area between two kitchens. Photo: Gerhard Müller-Kosack. 6.6. Three views of a cuprous figurine 7 cm tall and a brown polished pebble stated to have been dug up together on DGB-13. 6.7. A mother of twins dances on her granary at the ceremony that marks their coming out of the house and presentation to the public, Tekassuw, Sukur, November 1992. 6.8. The Fimbidi festival, Fali of Jilvu, 2007: newly-wed wives, wearing bunches of leaves over modern dress, dance on the big boulder in the bottom left of the picture and the initiands, identifiable by the crossed strips of cloth on their upper bodies, in the grove behind. Their male and female kin dance on the hillside and skyline. Photo: James H. Wade and Márta Galántha. 6.9. The entry passage into the former chiefly residence at Wazang. 6.10. The entry passage into the former chiefly residence at Duvangar. 7.1. Ceremony of appeasement held at the madzagay shrine beneath DGB-1 in November 2002 at the successful conclusion of the DGB-2 excavation. The elder responsible is dripping chicken blood on the upper of the two stone uprights that comprise the shrine. In front of the lower upright is an altar in the form of a pot (see inset) on which viii

blood has also been spilt and ground ochreous earth deposited. Two heads of sorghum lying beside the pot are part of the offering. 8.1. Hide men, women and youths of both sexes build a dam at Tur, 1989. 8.2. Mason Ngaïbi Fidi at his house in Guzda. He built the wall behind him single-handed. 8.3. The house of the chief of Sukur seen from the east, showing the contrast between the rarity of granite blocks in and immediately surrounding the complex and their abundance only a few meters away. 8.4. DGB-2, on top of the hill in the middle distance, seen from the east with the Mudukwa range in the background. Note the abundance of rocks and rocky outcrops within a short distance of the site and the daub pit in the foreground. 8.5. The DGB-2 Northeast platform Test 1 trench.

Dtables 5.1. DGB-2 Pottery weights and sherd counts. 5.2. DGB-8 Pottery weights and sherd counts by phase 5.3. Provenience of artifacts illustrated. 5.4. DGB-2: details of pottery morphology and decoration. Refer to Dnote.pdf for explanatory notes. 5.5. DGB-8: details of pottery morphology and decoration. Refer to Dnote.pdf for explanatory notes. 5.7. DGB-8 querns, upper grindstones, hammerstones and pestle. 5.8. DGB-2 faunal remains identified in the field by N. David and A. Richardson. 5.9. DGB-8 faunal remains identified in the field by N. David and A. Richardson.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to many people and institutions for the many kinds of support that they have offered me in the course of the realization of this monograph and all that has gone into it since fieldwork began in December 2001. Team members Judy Sterner, Gerhard Müller-Kosack, Owen Murray, Andrea Richardson, Frank Kense and Stella Cattini contributed generously of their time and skills to the success of the project. Several of them have contributed sections, or in the case of Owen Murray, illustrations to this study. Jean-Marie Datouang Djoussou, then an MA candidate at the University of Yaoundé I, joined us in 2002 and continued to work with us in subsequent years. He remains a close and trusted colleague. So does Edward Matenga, Conservator of Great Zimbabwe, who worked with us as a consultant for ICCROM in 2002. Assistants Baldena Mbozoum and Paul Jikdayé Zlagana and Excavation Foreman Jean Korné of Guzda are friends who have done far more for us than their roles required. Gazawa Zadak and Zinahad Wandala, keepers of DGB-2 and DGB-8 respectively, facilitated our research at Kuva and Mtskar and themselves worked on the sites. With them, Paul Matakon, Gaydi Hawada, Gdaydi Viche, Bova Mada, Medugwe Hawadak, Sawalda Samanda and Albert Wandala formed the core of our workforce at DGB-8, and Mahamma Zadak, Keleved Bangui, Matakon Tshineved, Matakon Kodje, Tchemaye Yami, Ganeva Kala, Bladi Bange, Medugwe Gaytele, Sawalda Tshineved, Paul and Gdaydi Ngelewu at DGB-2. Their names deserve to be recorded. After returning from the field, I submitted six radiocarbon samples to the IsoTrace AMS Radiocarbon Facility at the University of Toronto and received the best and most thoughtful service from Roelf Beukens and his colleagues ever experienced during a long career. It is a scandal and a disgrace that this laboratory is suddenly to be closed. The loss of AMS expertise to archaeologists in and beyond Canada will be immense. I thank Elizabeth Arnold for her kindness in identifying our faunal samples. In the course of writing up our materials I also asked the assistance of Jean Maley, climatologist, and Scott MacEachern, archaeologist. Each replied in such a way that my only possible response was to invite them to coauthor sections of the monograph. This, to its great benefit, they agreed to do. I am particularly pleased that Scott MacEachern has accepted my invitation to take over the DGB project. I know he will pursue it in ways that are both archaeologically interesting and beneficial for Africa and Africans, and in particular the Mafa who live among the monuments. The Hon. Jean Gonondo, Member of the National Assembly, is a remarkable man who has made Guzda a showpiece of sustainable development in his Mayo-Tsanaga circumscription. He and Madame Jeanne Gonondo provided us with housing at Guzda and offered us their friendship and warm hospitality besides invaluable logistic and overall support. The village heads, canton chiefs, mayors, sub-prefects of the Koza and Mozogo arrondissements and the prefect of Mayo Tsanaga department and their subordinates all gave us every assistance. I thank Joseph Peyo, Public and Cultural Affairs Officer at the Canadian High Commission in Yaoundé, and his colleagues both for their interest in the project and for their active assistance. Dr Raymond Asombang, First Technical Counselor at the Ministry of Culture, and Dr Christophe Mbida, Director of the National Archives of Cameroon, offered us both administrative support and collegiality. The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada has funded the Mandara Archaeological Project, including the research presented in this volume, since 1984. I am deeply grateful. The Department of Archaeology and the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Calgary have been consistently supportive. Particular thanks go to Dr Anne Katzenberg, Head of Archaeology, and Dean Stephen Randall. Nicole Ethier, departmental administrator, has guided me through the swamp of PeopleSoft accounting. Much of the material was written up during my tenure of a visiting fellowship at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, in 2003, where, as at Calgary, I enjoyed and learned much from my colleagues. I thank Joseph King and the International Center for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) for their continued interest in the project and the future of the DGB sites. Above all, I want to thank Judy Sterner, wife and colleague. Our ongoing seminar on the anthropology and archaeology of the Mandara mountains is only one of the many highpoints of my life with her. Nic David Calgary 14 January, 2008

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TECHNICAL NOTES Figures, Dfigures, Tables and Dtables In late 2001 I went into the field armed for the first time with a digital camera and discovered the freedom of being able instantaneously to check that I had captured the desired image. Digital photography released us from endless descriptive note taking. It allowed me, even during excavations where, in a team of 15 or more, there were on occasion only two of us qualified to maintain proper records, to spend my time thinking about relationships and processes. As Valentine Roux so notably demonstrated in her 2000 monograph Cornaline de l’Inde, digitization offers immense benefits in the area of publication. Thus whereas, despite the importance of the visual in archaeology, financial constraints on publishers commonly limit the number of images that can be produced in hard copy to a few black and white photographs and some line drawings, it is becoming common for a CD with dozens of images in full color to accompany the printed volume. And so here. The black and white figures in the text represent the minimum required to sustain the archaeological record of our research and to allow the reader to follow its course while lazing in the bath or otherwise distanced from her or his computer. Many of the printed figures are reproduced on the accompanying CD in the colors of the originals. In addition a substantial number of other digital images are recorded on the CD and cited in the text as Dfigures. These images convey the experience of the research, put flesh on the line drawings, and provide evidence that can be used both to support and test our inferences. They allow detailed examination of certain artifacts and the publication of other images such as panoramas that would require prohibitively expensive foldout sheets to reproduce in hard copy. We have also provided digital tables (Dtables) that present in detail the data that underlie the synthetic tables appearing in the text, allowing graduate students to reanalyze our materials (and no doubt to detect a number of arithmetic errors, none of which I dare say will undermine our conclusions!).

Orthography The DGB area is contained within the Mokolo 4c-d (Feuille NC-33-XIV-4c-4d) map sheet of the République Fédérale du Cameroun, Carte de l’Afrique central au 1/50,000, Type Outre-Mer, Tirage préliminaire. Paris: IGN 1965. Toponyms on these sheets are often erratic renderings by expatriate surveyors of local names and are sometimes misplaced. We have therefore, while retaining spellings commonly used on maps and in the literature for places and groups at some distance from the region in which the DGB sites are situated, standardized toponyms in their vicinity (Table). These spellings are intended to approximate linguists’ renderings of Mafa terms while omitting special phonemes and tonal markings. In spelling words in the languages of the Mafa and their neighbors I have adopted a simplified orthography and omitted tone markers. The following special characters are used: ə = schwa б = implosive b δ = implosive d zl = voiced lateral fricative sl = unvoiced lateral fricative. In his section of chapter 7 Gerhard Müller-Kosack standardizes his spelling of Mafa to that of the Lexique mafa (Barreteau and Le Bléis 1990).

xi

TABLE. TOPONYMS Spelling in this volume

Spelling on maps and/or other sources

North Lat.

East Long.

Bao Batuwey Bigide Shugule Guzda-Krbay Guzda-Makanday Jingliya Koza Kuva Mafmay Magumaz Mazay Mohorr Mondossa Moskota Mtskar Mudukwa Muzua Nduval Ruwa Sulede Turu Udahay Udal Upay Uzal Vreke Vurkasa Vuzod Wulad Ziver Zlama Zuelva

Bao Batouay, Batoueye Biguidé Chougoulé Gousda Gousda-Makanday Djingliya Koza Kouva Mavoumay Magoumaz Mazay Mohour Mondouza Moskota Mtseukar (mislocated at Kuva) Moudoukoua Mouzoua Ndouval Roua Soulédé Tourou Oudahay Oudal Oupay Ouzal Vréké, Vrdeke Vourkaza Vouzod Oulad Zivèr Ldama Zouelva

10° 48’ 10° 52’ 10° 54’ 10° 48’ 10° 52’ 10° 49’ 10° 50’ 10° 52’ 10° 55’ 10° 53’ 10° 39’ 10° 52’ 10° 39 10° 54’ 10° 57’ 10° 53’ 10° 55’ 10° 53’ 10° 54’ 10° 47’ 10° 45’ 10° 55’ 10° 38’ 10° 56’ 10° 53’ 10° 56’ 11° 02’ 10° 58’ 10° 51’ 10° 52’ 10° 52’ 10° 50 10° 57

13° 55’ 13° 45’ 13° 48’ 13° 45’ 13° 49’ 13° 51’ 13° 52’ 13° 53’ 13° 48’ 13° 48’ 13° 46’ 13° 50’ 13° 52’ 13° 50’ 13° 51’ 13° 49’ 13° 50’ 13° 50’ 13° 47’ 13° 60’ 13° 55’ 13° 44’ 13° 48’ 13° 49’ 13° 47’ 13° 50’ 13° 50’ 13° 50’ 13° 47’ 13° 51’ 13° 47’ 13° 49’ 14° 02’’

xii

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION The dry stone structures that are the subject of this book are located in the Mandara mountains of the Extreme North province of Cameroon and are known to the Mafa who live among them as diy-geδ-bay, best glossed as “ruins of chiefly residence”. From this the term “DGB site” is derived, having the advantages of brevity and of lacking implications regarding function.

The northern Mandara mountains The reader is referred to Le Nord du Cameroun (Boutrais et al. 1984), the Atlas de la Province de l'Extrême-Nord du Cameroun (Seignobos and Iyébi-Mandjek, eds, 2000) and to Hallaire’s (1991) Paysans montagnards du NordCameroun for convenient introductions to the natural and human geography of the Mandara mountains. Most data in this section are drawn from these sources. The Mandara mountains although defined somewhat variously by authors are generally agreed to extend on both sides of the Nigeria-Cameroon border from the Benue-Kebbi valley north to the Zelidva hills, some 130 km south of Lake Chad. We are concerned with the northern part of the range, defined here as lying within a rectangle extending from Mubi at 10° 15’ N and 13° 16’E, east to Maroua (14° 20’ E) and north to 11°15’ N (Fig. 1.1). Within this area the mountain range and surrounding inselbergs rise from 550 meters to the summit of Mount Upay at 1494 m. To the west lie the Yedseram river plains and to the east the Diamaré plain, drained by the Tsanaga and Louti rivers. To the north, the Mozogo-Koza plain drained by the Ngassawé river and its tributaries divides the mountains into eastern and western horns. That part of the western horn lying in Nigeria is known as the Gwoza hills, including their northern Zelidva spur. The eastern horn terminates at Mora, the most recent capital of the Mandara precolonial state. Mandara is a Kanuri corruption of the term Wandala, which properly refers to the state’s dominant ethnic group (Barkindo 1989:17). In the southeast the Louti drains to the Atlantic but most drainage is to Lake Chad. However, the northward flow of many rivers and streams is largely blocked by the Bama ridge, a complex geological feature extending from northwest of Maiduguri to the southeast through Bama and across Cameroon, passing some 20 km north of the mountains, to Bongor on the Logone. In the mid-Holocene this ridge at times formed the shoreline of Lake Mega- (or Palaeo-) Chad. During wetter periods lagoons and marshes formed behind (south of) the ridge. The mountains are formed of basement complex granites and related rocks, migmatites and gneisses, with localized volcanics, including Mount Zuelva, basalt lava flows on the Kapsiki plateau and trachyte needles, the fantastic

remnants of Pelean eruptions, around Rhoumsiki. Although these are small mountains, the topography is rugged and deeply incised by seasonal watercourses. Mountains rise steeply from the surrounding plains and the upper part of massifs is often a chaos of boulders. In contrast, much of the inner part of the range consists of upland plateaus, 700-1000 m above sea level, dotted with smaller but still rugged hills. The climate is tropical sahelo-sudanic with a marked rainy season from May/June to September/October and a dry season from November to March. December and January are cool and dry with dust-laden harmattan winds blowing from the Sahara. April and May are uncomfortably hot with sharply rising humidity. Mean monthly temperatures at Mokolo vary from 30.5°C in April, just before the rains, to 23.5° in August at the height of the rains and 24° in December. Temperatures on the plains are 2-3° hotter. Precipitation, averaging 1020 mm between 1944 and 1995 at Mokolo on the plateau but only 795 mm at Maroua and 705 mm at Mora, decreases from south to north and from mountains to plains. Rainfall is highly variable from year to year, month to month and, in any one year, from place to place. These conditions, especially when combined with high population densities, tend to produce gravelly or sandy skeletal soils (regosols) and, on parts of the plateaus, shallow ferruginous tropical soils. Both require considerable human labor and organic input for them to become productive. While the climax vegetation was once forest, this is everywhere degraded. Acacias, most notably winter thorn (Faidherbia [Acacia] albida), Isoberlinia doka, Boswellia dalzielii, jujube tree (Zizyphus spp.), mahogany (Khaya senegalensis), Parkia, hackberry (Celtis integrifolia), African ebony (Diospyros mespiliformis), tamarind (T. indica), numerous figs (Ficus spp.) and borassus palm are amongst the common trees, most carefully encouraged and controlled if not actually planted. Mangoes, key limes, guavas and neem trees are colonial introductions. Grewia mollis, the custard apple (Annona senegalensis) and Piliostigma thonningii are common shrubs, exploited for their leaves, bark, fruits or wood. With the exception of rocky peaks and of those parts of the plateaus that have low population densities, the northern Mandara range can be considered as a vast garden.

The montagnards Boutrais et al. (1984) remains a useful source on the peoples of the Mandara mountains, as are the Atlas de la Province de l'Extrême-Nord du Cameroun (Seignobos and Iyébi-Mandjek, eds, 2000), Sterner’s (2003) The ways of the Mandara mountains and Müller-Kosack’s (2008) http://www.mandaras.info encyclopedic web site.

Performance and agency

Figure 1.1. The northern Mandara region, showing main administrative units, towns and selected villages. The arrow indicates the DGB area. Contours at 607, 914 and 1067 m (2000, 3000 and 3500 feet.).

Figure 1.2. Ethno-linguistic groups in the northern Mandara area.

2

1. Introduction mysterious and dangerous people of the past, against whose powers shrines are sometimes erected on or next to the sites. The only additional test excavated site in the mountains is a large and recent midden close to and protected by its association with the house of the chief of Sukur (Smith and David 1995). Thus, if we are to provide an archaeological context for the DGB sites, it cannot be limited to the mountains but must extend to the surrounding plains south of Lake Chad where most archaeological research has been carried out. The account set out in Table 1.1, beginning with the Kanemian hyperarid period at the end of the Pleistocene, relies heavily upon recent syntheses by Breunig (2004), Brunk and Gronenborn (2004) and MacEachern (in prep.).

The mountain peoples, or montagnards, are speakers of languages assigned to the Central (or Biu-Mandara) branch of the Chadic family. They are divided into numerous ethno-linguistic groups, some consisting of single communities of a few hundred speakers (Fig. 1.2). The Mafa, numbering over 140,000 and extending across the border into Nigeria, constitute the largest linguistic group. However, Mafa settlements or clusters of settlements were formerly independent political entities. Before market towns and administrative centers sprang up in the colonial period, most montagnards lived in unnucleated settlements. Often described as egalitarian or acephalous, their societies were most frequently governed by a combination of petty chiefs or priest-chiefs, title holders and clan elders (David and Sterner 1999). Durum, part of the Mofu-Diamaré cluster, was the largest and most powerful chiefdom but is only 90 sq. km in area with a population of 10,100 (Vincent 1991:142). Population densities range from under 20 per km2 on the plateau southwest of Mokolo to over 140 per km2 to the south and west of both Koza and Mora.1 These high densities have been achieved over the past few hundred years, partly by a high birth rate and partly by immigration, in response to the raiding and slaving carried out by Sudanic states of the plains: Baghirmi, Wandala (Mandara), Borno and, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Fulbe or Fulani (Seignobos 2000; MacEachern in prep.).

It plays out against a wildly varying environment characterized by major fluctuations of Lake Chad (Maley 1981, 2004; Thiemayer 2004) that respond to changes in precipitation and temperature in especially the southern parts of the Chad basin. Around 5500 cal. BC Lake Mega-Chad stood at 320 m above sea level, filling the Bodele depression. The blue Lake Chad so familiar from African maps corresponds to a lake stand at 280 m and has not existed since the early 1960s. At present, as can be readily checked by reference to Google Earth, the northern basin lacks open water. This is due to a combination of climatic factors and Nigerian dam building and other hydraulic works on the Komadugu Yobe and Komadugu Gana. Dams have also been built on the Logone and Chari rivers and open water – Lake micro-Chad – now exists over only a small portion of the southern basin.

The economy is primarily agricultural and, although Mokolo and other highland towns are commercial centers, most montagnards are farmers with an average purchasing power parity (PPP) still less than US$1 a day. They cultivate sorghum and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) as staples and a considerable variety of other cereals (e.g., eleusine), leguminous (e.g., Vigna unguiculata) and root (e.g., sweet potatoes) crops, besides leafy vegetables (e.g., roselle), peppers and fruits (e.g., limes and mangoes). Peanuts (Arachis hypogea) and cotton are the primary cash crops (David 1976). They also keep cattle, sheep and goats (and more recently pigs), usually confined within the compound during the farming season, and some poultry, mainly chickens but also ducks and occasional guinea fowl.

This bald summary of the archaeological sequence in the southern Chad basin suffices for the moment. In chapter 8, following the description of the DGB sites and their excavation, we explore parts of it further, considering the place of the DGB sites in their broader archaeological context.

Discovery of DGB sites DGB sites are located within an area bounded by the deep Moskota river valley to the west and north, the Mondossa stream to the northeast, the Koza-Mozogo plain to the east and the Guzda river to the south. However their actual distribution is much more restricted. All sixteen are contained within a 23 km2 area on and immediately to the northeast of Mt Upay (Fig. 1.3). This falls within the territories of seven villages in the cantons of Koza (Koza arrondissement) and Moskota (Mozogo arrondissement). There is to the best of our knowledge no detailed map of village boundaries outside those of the Guzda confederation, comprising Mtskar, Muzua, Mazay, Mafmay, Wulad, Guzda-Krbay and Guzda-Makanday, compiled by Müller-Kosack (2003). Village boundaries were subject to frequent change in precolonial times and reordering and reassignment to higher order administrative entities has continued from the colonial period to the present (Iyébi-Mandjek and Seignobos 2000).

Regional archaeology and history Because of high population densities and the exceptional fertility of abandoned compounds, the mountain landscape is continually being reworked. Terraces and houses are built, reconfigured, abandoned and rebuilt. Only under special circumstances do sites endure as coherent entities for more than a few generations. The 16 DGB sites are the outstanding exceptions, their survival due partly to the fact that, in a landscape where fields have painstakingly to be cleared of rocks, their accumulations of such materials tend to discourage cultivation, and, secondarily, to their association with 1

Locally they exceed 200 per km2 where, since the 1930s, montagnards have been able to cultivate the plains while keeping their houses in the mountains above (Boutrais 1973:82).

3

Performance and agency

TABLE 1.1. ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURE IN THE SOUTHERN LAKE CHAD BASIN 18,000 BC TO AD 1900.

Approx. timescale cal. BC/AD* 18,000-10,000 BC

Environment and Culture Kanemian hyperarid period; Lake Chad dry. Southern basin virtually uninhabited.

9000 BC

Lake at moderate maximum. The dugout boat of the early 7th mill. BC found at Dufuna on the Komadugu Gana is representative of hunter-fisher-collectors living around Lake Chad. Hunter-gatherers assumed to exist in northern Mandaras in this and subsequent periods.

6400 BC 5500-5100 BC

Short dry phase Lake Mega-Chad at times at maximum (320 m.) reaching Bama ridge. First ceramics in 6th millennium BC at Konduga on Bama ridge.

5000-1800 BC

Fluctuating lake; evidence of marked climatic deterioration from ca 2650 BC and pronounced aridity at end of this period. No evidence of human occupation around the lake survives.

1800-800 BC

Some lacustrine transgression within earlier part of period (lake at 287-290 m.). First pastoralists (Gajiganna culture) penetrate southern Chad basin from north and settle within Bama ridge. Climatic deterioration in late 2nd millennium BC leads to disappearance of Sudano-Guinean plant taxa from this area. Pearl millet evidenced from 1200 BC. Regional differentiation of culture recognizable in subsequent Gajiganna phase (1000-800 BC) also characterized by increasing mobility of population. Limited evidence of contemporary “Neolithic” occupation in the peripheries of the Mandara mountains although ax and quern factories, as at Mt Makabay near Maroua and Gréa inselberg, supplied both the region and the stoneless plains to the north with these essential tools.

800-500 BC

Late Neolithic mound settlements in the firki (black cotton soil) plains east of Maiduguri and north of Bama ridge to ca 700 BC, followed by a hiatus to ca 600 BC. Development of a proto-urban and at least partly iron-using centre at Zilum (ca 600-400 BC), 50 km north of Maiduguri. Transition to Iron Age evidenced in spread of iron technology and new ceramic industry to peripheries of and perhaps into Mandara range. Continued use of quarry sites.

500 BC-AD 500

Generally drier period though moister from AD 300-400 . Iron technology becomes widespread. Firki mounds reoccupied. Mud (adobe) architecture. Deep querns, as yet only relatively dated, suggest some occupation of mountains by farmers likely practicing a mixed agricultural/pastoral economy.

AD 500-1400

Generally moister but with pronounced aridity ca AD 800-900. Numerous, some large and some multiple, mound sites around northern edges of Mandara range. Horses/ponies and evidence of iron smelting present at some sites. Favored parts of mountains, e.g., small plateaus and broad ridges, certainly occupied though no coherent sites as yet identified.

AD 1400-1900

Fluctuating lake with considerable disparities between northern and southern basins (see Brunk and Gronenborn 2004: 111, Fig. 4). Foundation of Birni Gazargamo in AD 1472 as capital of Kanem-Borno. Expansion of state power (Borno, Baghirmi, Mandara and in 19th century Hausa-Fulani) in southern Chad basin at the expense of Kotoko “princedoms”, other chiefdoms and societies. DGB sites in early part of this period. Raiding of and trading with peoples in and around northern Mandaras stimulates major population increase in mountains.

4

1. Introduction

Figure 1.3. The DGB area showing sites (numbered) and approximate village territories (lower case) based on the Carte d’Afrique Centrale au 1/50,000 (Type Outre-Mer) , République Fédérale du Cameroun, Feuille NC-33-XIV-4c-d, IGN Paris 1965 (Tirage préliminaire). occupied before the settlement of the groups now present (our translation). Thus Boutrais posed questions regarding the age and function of the sites to which this monograph attempts to provide answers.

DGB sites make their first timid appearance in the literature when the geographer Jean Boutrais (1973: Map 11) located “ruines de fortifications” on a map showing the distribution of compounds in the Upay-Mudukwa massifs that he had produced as part of his 1968-69 study of the colonization of the plains of northern Cameroon by montagnards.2 The sites located are all within Kuva village land: they include DGB-1 and its northern outlier, which together constitute the largest of all the sites, DGB-2 and DGB-3 (Fig. 1.3). In the text Boutrais (1973:112) remarks:

A year later Boisseau and Soula (1974, vol. 1:54), authors of a lengthy text on Mafa cosmology, reproduced a photograph of the tallest platform at DGB-1 with the caption “Forteresse mystérieuse près de Mudkwa” in a chapter on regional history, but without mentioning it in the text. It was not until the dry season of 1981 that Christian Seignobos and Alain Beauvilain undertook a three-day study of DGB-1, reported by Seignobos (1982a) in a short article containing an exquisite sketch of the north entrance (Dfig. 1.1) and a plan of the higher portion of the site. Besides a description of DGB-1 and a mention of DGB-2, Seignobos notes the existence of comparable sites, which he characterizes as “acropolises” and “oppida”, at Mondossa (DGB-5 and/or 12), Mtskar (DGB-8 and/or 9) and, mistakenly according to our subsequent research, at Vurkasa, six kilometers to the north in the Moskota massif. He also provides information on oral traditions: the Mafa claim that the sites predate their arrival in the region and that they were built by men described as “red” or with bronzed skin. Buried

On the Moskota heights there are some ruins of fortifications. The present inhabitants do not know who built them. They suggest the former existence of peoples possessing a more elaborate political organization than that of montagnards today. In the myths of certain montagnards, terraces already existed at the time of their arrival on the massifs. It is very probable that the massifs were already 2

We have as yet been unable to find any reference to DGB sites either in the National Archives in Yaoundé, where many early documents described as “non-classés” have either been lost, stolen, or merely misplaced, or in the Centre des Archives d'Outre-Mer in Aix-enProvence. According to Seignobos (1982a:41), DBG sites have been known to exist – presumably by outsiders – “since the colonial period”.

5

Performance and agency that the restriction of DGB site distribution to Mt Upay and the area immediately to its northeast became apparent.

inside are “agricultural tools (regalia ?) and even clothing ? … The tall doorway that gives access to the heart of the best preserved oppidum at Kuva is called the ‘horse doorway’” (p. 41, our translation).

The fall of 2002 was devoted mainly to the excavation of DGB-8 and 2, but during this period and in the course of a brief visit in 2004, thanks in large part to the efforts of our assistant Baldena Mbozoum, we were able significantly to extend the number and range of the sites with the identification of DGB-12 in Mondossa, DGB-13 and 14 in Mudukwa, DGB-15 in Nduval on the western shoulder of Upay, and DGB-16 on its lower southeastern slopes. A brief visit in January-February 2007 allowed me to introduce Scott MacEachern to the sites, to check out and dismiss two candidate sites, and to improve the plans and notes on sites previously only briefly visited.

In a final section Seignobos hypothesizes that the sites were “acropolises linked to points where power was crystallized …. They seem to have served as the base for the habitation of a chief in the middle of buildings [compounds] that, unlike those of the Mafa today, were grouped together”. Seignobos concludes by considering the likely origins of the builders of the sites: while it is hard, he says, to be specific they may have comprised part of “a stratum of mixed farmers [agro-pasteurs] who occupied part of the Mandara mountains during an epoch that it is hard to determine”; it is possible that they were “palaeo-Glavda”. However, “One thing is certain: these ruins were linked to centers of power, certainly coming from the plain” (pp. 44-45).

During these years we also followed up various reports of the existence of DGB sites in nearby settlements and in other parts of the Mandaras (e.g., Vurkasa, Vreke). Even as they expanded our knowledge of the ethnographic and historical context, neither these nor other excursions (notably around Gudur), resulted in the discovery of DGB sites. Thus, while it is perhaps unlikely that DGB-16 completes the census, it seems improbable that any large sites remain to be found or that the distribution presently established will be significantly modified by future research.

Perhaps because Seignobos published in the little circulated Revue Géographique du Cameroun his article failed to attract the interest of archaeologists; indeed it was only several years later that we ourselves became aware of it. Meanwhile in 1985 Gerhard Müller-Kosack (2003) began his research on the history of settlement in the Guzda village cluster. He soon learned about the existence of DGB sites and in 1986 introduced Judy Sterner and myself to the Kuva sites (DGB-1, 2, 3 and 4).3 Although we were enormously impressed, our research efforts were at that time and for many years after directed elsewhere (see David and Kramer 2001; Sterner 2003). Other archaeologists we encouraged to take up their study were unable to do so or had other priorities. And so it was not until late in 2001, with my interests turning to material signatures of practice and agency, and in collaboration with Judy Sterner and Gerhard Müller-Kosack, that further research began to be undertaken and the archaeology of the DGB sites investigated in a program of survey and, in 2002, excavation.

The basics of DGB site location and architecture The majority of sites are located along the margins of what we have named the Gwodaliy watershed after a small (865 m) peak of that name at the head of the valley system.5 DGB-14 is located on a knoll in a small unnamed drainage to the northeast that we call the Mudukwa valley since it obtains much of its water from the Mudukwa massif. DGB-13 is located on that massif and DGB-10, 15 and 16 on Mt Upay. Field of view appears to have been a primary concern in deciding where to locate a DGB site. While some sites have splendid vistas over the surrounding plains, all but DGB14 overlook at least part of the Gwodaliy drainage. There is a high degree of site intervisibility (Dfig 1.2).

In 1985-86 Müller-Kosack had visited and photographed further sites, DGB-7 in Bigide, and DGB-8 and 9 in Mtskar, and heard of others, DGB-5 in Mondossa, DGB6 in Bigide and DGB-10 high on Mt Upay, that he was unable to visit but located with considerable accuracy. He was also told of a grave on Vuzod that was attributed to the nndodiy (or nndoday), reputed builders of the sites.4 We later visited the grave and found it to be a Mafa interment located at the edge of a cemetery. Between December 2001 and February 2002 our team had visited, photographed and precisely located all these sites and one other, DGB-11 in the Warkama quarter of Bigide. Detailed plans were made of DGB-1, 2 and 7 and notes and sketches on the remainder. It was during this season

The basic elements of DGB architecture are the platform and the attached terrace (Fig. 1.4), formed of a rubble core with a flat and smooth façade made of undressed stone blocks usually of granite. Flatness is achieved by choice of plane faces of blocks for the facing and their careful positioning so that they do not project differentially from the façade, which is nonetheless characterized by some degree of horizontal curvature and vertical batter. The blocks are set dry without mortar and are laid in such a manner as to give the impression of coursing. Smoothness of façade is achieved by the

3

In 1986 Müller-Kosack visited and photographed DGB sites 1 through 4 and 6 through 9 (using the present system of numbering). He also learned the locations of sites 5 and 10 and heard of others. He wrote up his observations in an unpublished manuscript, “Photo-graphic images of the Mondouza and neighbouring strongholds” (Müller-Kosack 2001). 4 See Müller-Kosack’s section of chapter 7 for a discussion of nndodiy and other Mafa concepts relating to the DGB sites.

5

The valley has been referred to in previous publications as the Shikewe, but this toponym has no validity. Debouching onto the plain the Gwodaliy becomes, according to the Mokolo 4c-d map, the Mozua.

6

1. Introduction

Figure 1.4. Sketched reconstruction of DGB-8 by Owen Murray. constructed but abutting existing structures at a lower level. Thus at DGB-8 the North and Southwest platforms were built onto the original South platform. On steep slopes one or more skirting walls, i.e., narrow terraces, support the platform above, and may be supplemented by a buttress, crescentic in plan. Such walls and a buttress are associated with the DGB-8 North platform. A few DGB terraces are enclosed by free-standing walls: Depending upon locally available raw materials, some terraces are built of rounded boulders rather than blocks. Not all DGB terraces are attached to platforms and some may be functionally distinct from the platform and attached terrace complexes. Broad stairways lead up to several sites and at two (DGB-2 and 10) tall retaining walls, i.e., massive terraces, of DGB construction are located below the rest of the site.

insertion of rock wedges that fill up the interstices between the blocks. Since many of the architectural features of DGB sites are not visible on the surface, it is typically fragments of their characteristic façades that first allow a site to be recognized as DGB. Common architectural features include staircases that offer access to platform tops, and passages, a meter or so wide, that divide platforms into two or pass between them. Passages are walled in the manner of façades and in some cases are crossed or roofed with stone lintels. Silos, well-like structures built into platforms in the course of their construction, are also found. Sites grow by the addition of platforms, built onto earlier ones and of similar height, and of terraces, similarly 7

Performance and agency material and social structures that they inhabit. In the course of the play such process inevitably results in changes both to the actors and to the structures. Thus archaeological sites are both outcomes of agential processes and inputs into others that exerted effects on the society that built them. One aim of this monograph is to discover and explicate the play of agency in relation to the archaeological monuments it describes.

With the exception of a midden beneath DGB-1 as yet no other kinds of sites attributable to the builders of the monuments have been identified although we infer that the roofing of a granite fissure beneath DGB-12 with giant lintels is to be attributed to them.

Theoretical approach It is the task of anthropology and especially of its subdiscipline archaeology to explain human development over the long term. In doing so it is helpful to conceptualize society in a manner that is acceptable to and workable by both archaeology and socio-cultural anthropology and in a way that effectively connects the mental and the material realms.

In recent years the topic of performance has received considerable attention in archaeology (e.g., Inomata and Coben, eds, 2006) and material culture studies (e.g., Mitchell 2006). The term forms part of the title of this monograph because performance is an element in the play of agency and one that is, as I will argue in chapters 6 and 8, of particular relevance to interpretation of DGB sites.

The model of society we favor combines complexity theory, and specifically that relating to complex adaptive systems (CAS) (Gell-Mann 1994a and b), with the structuration and practice theories of Giddens and Bourdieu. The advantages of such an approach are that it admits and can cope with change and even transformations, but does not deny that the most fundamental transformations – of sensory input into behavioral output – occur in the human mind. Such processes are an integral part of the theory of CAS, which are systems that continuously take in information, find regularities in the data stream, and compress them into modifiable schemata that are used to describe the world, make predictions, and prescribe behavior. Society’s human actors are, in this view, endowed with intentionality and considered as active social agents, both structured by and structuring social institutions and their material surroundings (Giddens 1982). Confronting the environment, their behavior emerges from the interplay of their biology with knowledge and ideas that are open to discursive elaboration, and with what practice theorists refer to as habitus, unthinking dispositions and basic know-how that constitute a practical cultural competence (Bourdieu 1977:86). CAS combined with structuration and practice theory provides a viable foundation for a conceptualization of human society that can be complemented on the one hand by more specialized theories relating, for example, to social dynamics and on the other by approaches that focus on particular elements or subsets of the general theory, as for example that associated with the concept of agency (Dobres and Robb 2000).

These then are the theoretical underpinnings of this volume and the bases for a conceptualization of society through time and space that is logically coherent and practically useful, denying neither the immanence of mind nor the relevance of matter.

The plan of this book Following this introduction, chapter 2 presents basic information on all known DGB sites and suggests a typology. Chapter 3 is an account of the excavation and dating of DGB-2 emphasizing its complex sequence of construction and reconstruction. Chapter 4 similarly presents the excavation of DGB-8. In chapter 5 we analyze the artifacts and ecofacts from the excavated sites and the light they throw upon the cultural sequences. Chapter 6 begins by extending the discussion of cultural sequence to the full set of sites. It then briefly evaluates and discards a number of the functional interpretations that were suggested prior to extensive fieldwork and excavation. Finally, by considering the archaeological evidence in the context of regional ethnology and the environmental record, we build a case for their having been centers of community ritual and performance related to water and reproduction. In chapter 7 Gerhard MüllerKosack investigates concepts and traditions held by the Mafa regarding the population of the region and the builders of the sites. While these traditions throw little or no light on DGB culture, Judy Sterner shows that the DGB sites have had the more recent, turbulent, history of the region projected upon them. Finally, chapter 8 returns to the theoretical questions raised above and, after considering the energetics of DGB site construction, reassesses the sites in terms of the agential processes that brought them into being and the influence that they in turn exerted on their builders. A final section places the DGB culture in its broader archaeological and cultural context.

Agency is commonly defined as the capacity of an agent, physical or analytical, to act in and on the world. However, until that capacity is realized in social action and its consequences are observed or inferred, it is of little interest to the anthropologist. We come in as observers and interpreters of the play of (social) agency, the process of interaction between actors and the simultaneously constraining and enabling environmental,

8

Chapter 2 SURVEY AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF DGB SITES A primer of architecture

DGB

monumental

A more detailed account of DGB architecture provides necessary background for the description of the 16 DGB sites.

unmistakable.6 Even where DGB masons were constrained to build with boulders they show a concern to produce a flat façade (Fig. 2.3a) that is not evident in comparable constructions by Mafa or other Mandara montagnards (Fig. 2.3b). The term boulder terrace refers to DGB terraces with façades showing a high boulder to block ratio.

Platforms and terraces Platforms and terraces are the basic elements of DGB architecture (Fig. 1.4). The first platforms built on sites are tabular sub-circular, egg-shaped or elliptical constructions, from about 4 to 15 meters across and ranging in height from a meter or so to over six. From the original platform, sites typically grow by the addition of platforms and terraces which necessarily have at least one concave side. Platforms and, we suspect, all or most terraces were built on bedrock and have a rubble core held in place by its own weight and the smooth façade that is the most recognizable feature of DGB sites. The bonding of façades and the rubble behind them required that interiors and exteriors be built at the same time. Masons may have preferred to lay the blocks or boulders of the façade with their long axis extending into an bonding with the rubble core, but this was by no means always the case. By far the greater part of platform and terrace cores consists of irregular granite blocks resting directly on each other with, originally at least, little or no intervening matrix. Thus rock rested on rock and, so long as the façade held, the rocks on the inside were fixed in place. It is evident at DGB-2, where we excavated in some relatively undisturbed platforms, that the many openings in the surface of the primary open rubble fill were stopped up using smaller rocks before the platform or terrace was surfaced with silty sandy gravel or gravelly silty sand, still used today for making daub for house building and floor surfacing. This would have been tamped down and may once have been sealed with finer materials. The original thickness of the smaller rock layer was perhaps ten centimeters and of the surface daub 15 to 20 cm or more.

DGB façades DGB sites are immediately recognizable by their dry stone walling which, unlike any other past or present in the region, is characterized by smooth façades of carefully selected blocks or boulders of the granite and related rocks available in the vicinity of the site. These façades form part of platforms, terraces and occasionally free-standing walls. Figure 2.1 shows a particularly fine example. The contrast with local Mafa terrace and wall construction (Fig. 2.2a and b), with Podokwo stone walls at Oujila (Fig. 2.2c) and with all others in the region is

Figure 2.1. DGB-1: the North Central platform, a particularly fine example of DGB façade, with, on the left, the passage entrance to the site. There is no evidence to suggest that façade blocks were quarried: like the rubble of platform and terrace interiors they were collected from the omnipresent scatter and numerous outcrops in site vicinities. Blocks were not dressed, although unwanted edges and projections were sometimes struck off. They are of various shapes, with a preference for the rectangular that had most often to be satisfied with the merely rectanguloid. Much depended on what rocks were locally available: the DBG were capable of building fine, flat-faced terrace facades with boulders over a meter in maximum dimension. Façade blocks were laid with a concern for coursing, not achieved for any distance due to the limited availability of rectangular blocks. Use of an irregular block in façade construction often necessitates the addition of smaller rocks, termed fillers, and disruption of the course. The smoothness of façades is enhanced by the insertion of stone wedges, some structural and pre-placed to give blocks the desired orientation and to maintain them in position, and others cosmetic, filling in cracks between blocks (Dfig. 2.1).

6

The closest parallels are with structures recently built under European Catholic missionary influence, although these utilize mortar in their construction.

Performance and agency

Figure 2.2a. Mafa house platform, in fact a large terrace, supporting the stone wall of an entrance room, Mafmay.

Figure 2.2c. Podokwo terrace and house walls at Oujila.

Fig. 2.2b. Mafa room wall showing erosion of exterior daub surfacing, Guzda.

Figure 2.3a. Detail of DGB-10 retaining wall, a boulder terrace.

There is a marked contrast in the number of wedges between the upper parts of walls that have long been exposed to the elements and in lower portions that have remained protected behind fallen rubble or later built terraces or platforms (Fig. 2.4). Wedges have a tendency to become displaced over time, primarily by vegetation, with consequent slumping and splitting of façades, the toppling of blocks and the appearance of voids caused by movement of the façade that renders some blocks nonload-bearing. These factors lead to partial loss of the characteristics that distinguish DGB walling from that of other montagnards.

The basal course of façades rests on rotting bedrock. There are no foundation trenches. Prior to construction deposits were scraped away to ensure that façades (and perhaps the whole area of the platform or terrace) rested on a firm surface. On this the builders set the first layer of blocks, using wedges to ensure that their upper surfaces lay horizontal and ready to receive the second course. Free-standing walls have two smooth façades and a narrow rubble core. More fragile than platform or terrace façades, free-standing walls are always poorly preserved with only fragments of the original structure remaining (Fig. 2.5). One or more skirting walls were usually built 10

2. Survey and distribution

Fig. 2.3b. Mafa wall incorporating in situ and small boulders around back of compound, Upay.

Figure 2.5. DGB-2: the West terrace free-standing wall, much decayed and rebuilt by Mafa. constructed. Where these were required, as for instance at the entrances to passages and staircases, they would pile blocks on top of each other without anchoring them alternately in the walls on either side (Fig. 2.8). Thus, despite the use of some times massive blocks low in corner positions, the upper parts of corners were unstable and liable to collapse. Flat façades are of symbolic significance in the ethnographic present. Their meaning and distribution are discussed in chapter 6.

Platform superstructures Structures of various kinds, some temporary, were sometimes built on platforms. The footings of what appear to have been three small rooms, all less than 2 m in diameter, were noted at DGB-1. There are rock piles at DGB-2, including one on the Central platform, some of which may represent the ruins of superstructures, though most were probably produced in post-DGB times either by farmers clearing the surface of their fields of rocks and blocks fallen from DGB structures or by hunters digging for their prey. Burnt fragments of a finer kind of daub used in the region to build granaries and other small structures were recovered from both DGB-2 and 8 in deposits eroded from platform surfaces; some from DGB2 show stick impressions.

Figure 2.4. DGB-2: excavation in the North Terrace showing the contrasts in the number of wedges and the state of the façade below and above ground. around the base of platforms built on steep slopes (Fig. 2.6). A related form is the buttress, in essence a short section of skirting wall, crescentic in shape, but sometimes of considerable height (Fig. 2.7). The upper surviving portions of free-standing walls and platform and terrace façades are often repaired by Mafa who make no attempt to emulate DGB aesthetics. It is sometimes not possible to identify a façade as DGB until one has revealed the portion below modern ground level.

Terrace types

While façades were built with a batter of about 10%, in other respects the DGB architectural imagination was better developed than their engineering skills. Accustomed to working with curved shapes, their corners were poorly

Terraces are either attached to platforms or other terraces or are independent, as at a number of sites including DGB-7 and 12. In either case and whether their façades

11

Performance and agency

Figure 2.8. DGB-8 South platform: southwest corner of passage, its upper portion collapsed in antiquity. Drawing by O. Murray.

Figure 2.6. DGB-7: two tall terrace or skirting walls support the northwest end of the Central platform complex. Their upper parts have been much repaired by Mafa.

Figure 2.9. Fine terraces immediately below DGB-6, the low mound on the left skyline. Neither of these has been studied in any detail. In close proximity to some other sites, for example DGB-1 and DGB-6, there are fine agricultural terraces that may have originated in DGB times although their façades now show no typically DGB features (Fig. 2.9).

Passages and lintels Passages are present in at least four DGB sites (1, 2, 8 and 15) and, since they are not always visible on the surface, almost certainly others. Passages may transect a platform into more or less equal parts as at DGB-8 or run along or close to the wall of an earlier platform as at DGB-1 and 2. They may pass through the platform or stop within it. Some of the former and all those of the latter type have roofs formed by lintels overlain in some instances by rubble and/or typical platform surfacing. At

Figure 2.7. DGB-1: a tall buttress supporting the North and North Central platforms and itself supported by a skirting wall. are of blocks or boulders, their fine construction is indicative of DGB origin. At DGB-2 and again at DGB10 (Fig. 2.3a) there are massive independent terraces – or retaining walls – some distance below the rest of the site. 12

2. Survey and distribution DGB-2 a lintel-roofed passage was subdivided by walling into inner and outer chambers. At the same site and at DGB-15 passages with lintel roofs descend into the platform. DGB-1 has a particularly fine example of a lintel-roofed passage built in two construction phases that forms an entrance to the site (Dfig. 2.2). Passage walls are generally identical to, and may be formed by, platform façades. Some passages exhibit a shallow Sshape in plan view, formed either by the line of the passage walls or, in one case at DGB-8, produced by offset alcoves. Stone lintels are still of cultural significance in the region. At Sukur only members of the chiefly and closely allied clans have the right to place a lintel across the entrance to their compound. Among the Mofu-Diamaré some chiefly compounds occupied until recently were entered through passages roofed with lintels of wood or stone (Seignobos 1982a; Vincent 1991). Stone lintels occur over passages and, in some instances, over staircases inset into platforms. Wooden lintels may in some cases have complemented ones of stone. Beneath DGB-12 massive stone lintels span a natural fissure in the granite. We infer therefore that lintels were a symbolically meaningful element of DGB architecture, marking important entrances.

Staircases and stairways Figure 2.10. DGB-8, South platform: the North stair, its upper part much damaged. In the bottom right of the image, the lower east skirting wall around the North platform abuts the South platform.

DGB sites are known to be associated with several kinds of stairs. The first type of staircase is inset into platforms and calls to mind a steep gully in a cliff, the resemblance being increased by the upper portion of the staircase turning to the left or right (Fig. 2.10). While the threshold at the bottom is straight, upper steps are typically curved, formed by one or two blocks with an angled block on either end that is keyed into the wall of the stairwell. Such staircases were necessarily constructed pari passu with the platform to which they give access. A poorly made staircase at DGB-2 appears to be a later insertion. Rather different staircases were built up the exteriors of two pre-existing platforms at DGB-2. Because they were inadequately integrated into the structures they are badly preserved. The lower steps are either straight or curve outwards. However it is not clear whether they constitute a separate type or merely reflect the difficulties inherent in adding a staircase to an already existing platform. Stairways, sometimes quite short, are found on the way up to several DGB sites, especially but not exclusively the more important ones (1, 2, 7, 12, 14 and perhaps also 6) (Fig. 2.11). They approach the monumental with some elements that can fairly be called megalithic. Although impressive they rarely extend for any distance and seem to have been built more to impress the visitor by rearrangement of blocks and slabs that lay close to hand than to facilitate particularly difficult passages. Since all the known stairways of this kind are associated with our sites, it seems reasonable to assign them to the DGB culture. They have not been studied in any detail.

Fig. 2.11. DGB-7: Judy Sterner stands besides a stairway leading up towards DGB-7 from the east. 13

Performance and agency

Silos

The survey

A silo is a sub-cylindrical void within a platform that was constructed as the platform itself was being built around it. Their smooth interior faces are the inverse of platform façades, which is to say that they are built up of more or less coursed blocks of granite held in position by the rubble surrounding them. Compared to exterior façades, those of silos show fewer wedges and less care taken over coursing (Fig. 2.12). This type of facility was designated “silo” because the term lacks the connotation of being dug down that attaches to “pit” or “well,” and is imprecise about function and intended contents. The two excavated examples are from DGB-8, but they are a recurrent feature of DGB architecture. Their original function remains unknown; quite unsuitable for holding liquids, the absence of any trace of plaster in the spaces between the wall blocks or of other plaster fragments such as might have sealed the interior of a gigantic basket is a strong indication that they were not used for the storage of grain. There is a possibility, discussed in chapter 6, that they served to condense water from fog.

Our description of the sites is organized by the villages – non-nucleated settlements – in which they are found (Fig. 1.3). Basic data about the sites are set out in Table 2.1. Linear measurements of platform complexes and sites are those of the smallest rectangle into which the surviving surface of the entity will fit. This is because the base of platforms and terraces is often obscured by rubble. Areal measurements are taken from plans using the QuickCad tool for this purpose, or estimated from plans or by standard formulae for the areas of circles and ellipses. Such estimates are indicated by ca before the areal figure given.

Kuva sites: DGB-1, 2, 3 and 4 The Kuva village area (Moskota Canton, Mozogo Arrondissement), includes the Kuva massif and the adjacent and somewhat higher (865 m) Mt Gwodaliy. In the late 1960s its population density, like those of most villages within which DGB sites are found, was in the range of 100-150 per km2 (Boutrais 1973: Map 2) Steep slopes on the northern and western sides contrast with relatively gentle slopes in the higher areas and to the south. While terraces are everywhere necessary, low angles of slope allow them to be broader, requiring less effort to build. Water is a problem and is fetched from progressively longer distances as the dry season progresses and into the early rains, eventually from the Moskota river bed across the Udal-Uzal range some 3.5 km to the north. Some relief has in recent times been provided by the building of a small dam on one of the upper branches of the Gwodaliy and by the boring of deep wells on the plains.

They are present at DGB-8 and 2, possibly at DGB-1 and 10, and will almost certainly be found at other sites.

DGB-1 (10° 55’ 09” N.; 13° 48’ 21” E., 805 m) The site is set on a hill rising and projecting southward from a broad ridge on the northern side of the Gwodaliy valley. There is slightly higher hill immediately to the west that has no archaeological site, and another, lower and less outstanding, 100 m to the east on which DGB-2 is located (Fig. 2.13). From DGB-1 and 2 most of the other DGB sites are visible, only DGB-14 and 15 being definitely invisible. Intervisibility here depends not only upon the lie of the land but also on the presence or absence of trees and other impermanent things, including harmattan dust. Our criterion for intervisibility – often imagined since the 1:50,000 map sheet is insufficiently precise and visibility is often limited to a kilometer or less during the harmattan when many sites were visited – is one that accords with local traditions. We envision bonfires being lit on DGB sites. If such a bonfire could be detected by persons on or close to another site, the two are considered intervisible.

Figure 2.12. DGB-8: the North platform silo, its near margin (SW) damaged in the process of discovery. Note the increase in the number of wedges beginning 120 cm below the surface.

The complex includes DGB-1 with its northern outlier and DGB-2, beneath which is a massive retaining wall, and two stairways, one on the slope 60 m east-northeast

14

2. Survey and distribution

Figure 2.13. Outline plan of the DGB-1 and DGB-2 complex as surveyed in January-February 2002. Location of boulders and outcrops beyond the limits of site structures is indicative only.

15

Performance and agency

TABLE 2.1. LOCATION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF DGB SITES Diy-Gid-Biy site number and designation by village UTM (cone 33P) coordinates by GPS and heights from map

Main characteristics Conventions regarding linear and areal measurements are explained at the start of the section on the survey. Area has either been measured from plans or estimated, in which case this is indicated by ca before the figure. Very large complex of platforms and western terraced extensions; covered entrance passage built in two phases; sunken courtyard; footings of 3 structures on surface. Midden at SE foot of site. Northern outlier platform complex. Stairway nearby. Large platform complex with western and smaller northern terrace extensions; partially covered passage; two lintel covered passages, one with two chambers; four staircases; silos. Stairway nearby; massive retaining wall to south. Medium-sized complex with at least 2 platforms; supporting terrace walls at each end. No major terrace associated. Ringed by terraces with some indications of DGB construction. Medium-sized platform complex with two visible entrances; steep supporting terrace walls at eastern end. Ringed by terraces, one with indications of DGB construction. Medium-large, but equivalence of measurements problematic. One low platform on a largely natural hill top with terraced sides, located in a col. Possible hut footing ca 3 m diameter on the platform.

Platform complex area (Linear dimensions) Rank size Ratio platform complex area : site area 675 m2 (55*22 m) R=1 1:2.5

Main site area excluding skirting walls and some separate terraces; (Linear dimensions) Rank size 1680 m2 (62*48 m) R=1 N. outlier ca 470 m2

470 m2 (32*32 m) R=3 1:1.5

720 m2 ( 33*39 m) R= equal 7

225 m2 (26*10 m) R=9 1:1,6

370 m2 (31*14 m) R=13

Cultivated and poorly preserved. Indications of internal features. Plane table survey.

ca 310 m2 (30*14 m) R=5 1:2.4 ca 170 m2 (16*14 m) R=11 1:4.2

ca 755 m2 (41.8*23 m) R=6

Medium-sized, but equivalence of measurements problematic. Two conjoined SW terraces, a C terrace and a N terrace amid large boulders. N and S boulder terraces. Natural fissure in granite roofed with massive lintels below site and fine lengthy stairway to south. Large platform complex and associated terrace (assumes area occupied by Mafa compound is DGB terrace).

ca 150m2 (area of SW terraces) (15*12.5 m) R=12 1:1.1

1640 m2 (SE boulder terrace excluded) R=2

Cultivated and poorly preserved; connected fragments of DGB walling on N side. Sketch plan. Physical characteristics compatible with DGB complex but neither platform nor terrace walls demonstrably of DGB style. Attribution based on presence of DGB pottery, oral tradition and discovery nearby of two iron currency bars of a hitherto unknown type. Medium to poor preservation with some rebuilding of walls. Sketch plan. DGB sherds collected.

ca 425 m2 (24.5*20.5m) R=4 1:2

ca 830 m2 (41*28 m) R=4

DGB-14 (Mudukwa-2) 0368635 E 1207923 N 765 m

Medium-sized but low platform complex on a knoll. One boulder terrace associated. Stairway below site

ca 200 m2 (16*16 m) R=10 1:3

DGB-6 (Bigide-1) 0368362 E 1205533 N 1025 m

Site low and much repaired/modified. Raised area in south considered as mediumsized platform complex, remainder as terrace. Short length of stairway noted to NE of site and very fine terraces to the east. Very large site with Central platform complex and associated NW, SW and SE terraces; largely natural boulder entrance feature at south end of unknown date. Skirting walls on steep slope below northern end. DGB boulder terraces and two stairways below and to N and E of site.

ca 230 m2 (18*17 m) R=7 1:2.3

ca 600 m2 (including boulder terrace) (38*21m) R=9 ca 540 m2 (37*20 m) R=10

DGB-1 (Kuva-1) 0369504 E 1207283 N 805 m

DGB-2 (Kuva 2) 0369607 E 1207306 N 800 m

DGB-3 (Kuva-3) 0369869 E 1206973 N 765 m DGB-4 (Kuva 4) 0369923 E 1206703 N 750 m DGB-5 (Mondossa-1) 0371647 E 1205986 N 805 m

DGB-12 (Mondossa-2) 0371970 E 1205415 N 845 m

DGB-13 (Mudukwa-1) 0367847 E 1207561 N 1025 m

DGB-7 (Bigide-2) 0368915 E 1205235 N 885 m

16

640 m2 (32*26 m) R=2 1:2.1

ca 720 m2 (46*20 m) R= equal 7 with hilltop treated as area of site.

1320 m2 (41*46m) R=3

Notes All sites were photographed.

The most important site, and the subject of Seignobos’s (1982) paper. Gross sequence of construction recoverable without excavation. Plane table survey. DGB sherds collected from midden. Less well-preserved than DGB-1. Plane table survey. Site excavated in 2002.

Site hard to evaluate as partially occupied by Mafa house. Sketch plan. DGB sherds collected in area of site and below. Poorly preserved. Sketch plan. DGB sherds collected. Community shrine in nearby grove. Very poorly preserved; only fragments of DGB walling visible. Mafa shrine in grove immediately east of site. Poorly preserved, sequence of construction not recoverable without excavation. Plane table survey. A few DGB sherds collected.

2. Survey and distribution TABLE 2.1. (continued) DGB-11 (BigideWarkama) 0368075 E 1206473 N 965 m

Small; two conjoined platforms with a low western extension. No major terrace associated. Ringed by terraces with indications of DGB construction and a boulder terrace to south.

70 m2 (12*8 m) R=14 1:5.7

ca 400 m2 (including boulder terrace) (26.5*14 m) R=12

Preservation of platform complex mediocre (site not cleared of bush). Detailed sketch plan. A few DGB sherds collected.

DGB-8 (Mtskar-1) 0370426 E 1204280 N 730 m

Medium-small two platform complex with passage, staircases, silos. Northern buttress. No major terrace associated.

205 m2 (17.5*16 m) R=9 1:1

210 m2 (19*16 m) R=14

DGB-9 (Mtskar-2) 0370828 E 1203951 N 730 m

Small; probably two conjoined platforms. No major terrace associated.

ca 30 m2 (6.5*5.7 m) R=15 1:1

DGB-10 (Oupay) 0368144 E 1203832 N 1165 m

Small site with single very small platform combining DGB walling (much rebuilt) with boulders probably in situ; adjacent boulder-built terrace. To east but nearby a massive boulder-built retaining wall, possible silo on terrace formed by it. Overall dimensions including retaining wall ca 42*28 m Medium-sized site; probable platform complex with upper boulder terrace; staircase. Lower boulder terrace.

ca 30 m2 (7*5 m) R=15 1:4.8

ca 50 m2 (includes estimated area of first surrounding terrace) (8.5*7 m) R=16 ca 145 m2 (excl. E retaining wall) (18*12 m) R=15

Appearance of poor preservation belied by excavation in 2002. Site used by Mafa for dumping trash. Plane table survey Appears much rebuilt. Physical characteristics compatible with but not demonstrably of DGB complex. Attribution supported by oral tradition. Gross dimensions measured. Poor preservation. Iron bracelet-like forms, some linked into chains, found nearby. Sketch plan. DGB sherds collected from platform.

DGB-16 (Lower Oupay) 0369153 E 1204412 N 885 m DGB-15 (Nduval) 0366539 E 1205010 N 1230 m

Medium-sized site with two separate platforms, one containing a lintel-covered passage that leads into a rock shelter formed by a boulder outcrop. N terrace preserves a fragment of free-standing wall.

ca 110 m2 (15*7.5 m) R=13 1:4.2 ca 260 m2 (23.7*13.6 m) R=6 1:3

ca 460 m2 (27*17 m) R=11 ca 780 m2 (41*29 m) R=5

Poorly preserved under what are probably remains of Mafa house. Sketch plan. DGB sherds collected. Relatively well preserved. Sketch plan. DGB sherds collected.

of DGB-2, and another, less well defined, 350 m to the north-northwest of DGB-1 on the way down to the water point, 830 m to the northwest, presently used in the earlier part of the dry season. DGB-3 and 4 are located 460 and 690 m away respectively and are not considered part of the same grouping. Access is by all weather road from Koza or Mozogo to Ouzal Catholic Mission and then up the small Mondossa valley to the house of the Lawan (village head) of Kuva. The 30 minute hike to DGB-1 and 2 from the Lawan’s house includes a 250 m gain in altitude. There are Mafa compounds in the vicinity but none are known ever to have been built on either site. Neither is used for trash disposal. However, some rocks were robbed from DGB-1 for the building of the small dam noted above. Local authorities soon put a stop to the practice, which does not seem to have caused much damage.

2.14). Overall dimensions are 62 m north-south and 48 m east-west. The steep slope to the east is largely natural, though there are numerous remains of supporting or skirting walls. The platforms (South, South Central 1 and 2, Central, North Central and North) dominate the shallow valley separating DGB-1 and 2 (Dfig. 2.3). Boulders and bedrock outcrop at the south end of the South platform which is nowhere more than a meter high, but the original surface of the hill must slope down to the north as the North Central platform, its surface only a meter higher than that of the South, is at least 6.5 m in height, its base hidden by skirting walls, the lower of which appears to have served as a walkway around the north end of the site. On a terrace below, two standing stones serve as altars for a Mafa madzagay shrine (discussed in chapter 7) for the propitiation of enemy or evil spirits.

DGB-1 was cleared of brush and surveyed in January 2002 using a plane table.7 The spine of the site consists of a line of platforms oriented north-south and 55 m long by up to 23 m wide to the west of which are a series of terraces that fall steeply to the floors of the gully that separates the site from its Northern outlier and the narrow valley between DGB-1 and the hill to the west (Figure

Unusually among DGB sites there are two independent, South and North Central, platforms. However it is the latter, with a sub-circular 15 by 14 m surface area, onto which other platforms, terraces and buttresses began to be built, eventually incorporating the South platform into the expanding whole. It should be emphasized that reconstruction of the building sequence is necessarily simplified, depending as it does upon observations of façade abutments (Fig. 2.15).

7

In anticipation of a program of conservation to be undertaken by ICCROM and the Cameroonian Ministry of Culture, J.-M. Datouang Djoussou (2004) prepared a detailed, wall by wall, report on the state of preservation of DGB-1.

The Central platform incorporates a passage entrance from the north, a small sunken courtyard and a second 17

Performance and agency

Figure 2.14a. DGB-1 plan. Recent agricultural terraces are omitted. The granite blocks outlining platforms and terraces are stylized and not to scale. A-B and C-D indicate the lines of the North-South and East-West transects shown in Figure 2.14b.

18

2. Survey and distribution

Figure 2.14b. North to South (A-B) and East to West (C-D) transects across DGB-1. Conventions as in Figure 14a with inferred below ground façades indicated in paler gray.

19

Performance and agency midden deposits immediately beneath and to the north of them contain diagnostic DGB ceramics. During the survey of the site undertaken in January 2002 we paid less attention to the western terraces. Nonetheless these are impressive structures with façades up to 4.8 m tall (Dfig 2.9). Unlike the platforms they are now regularly cultivated. Numerous small agricultural terraces have been built on them, presumably using rocks fallen or robbed from DGB structures. Façade abutments are often obscured and their relative chronology can only be reconstructed in gross terms. In what appears to have been a final phase of construction but which is more likely to have occurred as a series of episodes, a Northeast buttress (Fig. 2.7) and two terrace/buttresses (West 2 and North 2), and the East Central entryway were added to the site. The Northern outlier is located across a small gully and immediately north of the western part of DGB-1 (Dfig. 2.10). Barely studied, it consists of at least two elements, the first being what is probably a small platform on its western side that has been incorporated into a larger platform approximately 23 m in diameter and up to 3 m tall on its eastern and southern sides. To the north the natural ground surface rises and the platform loses thickness, its northern limit being no longer recognizable. Beneath the platforms on the western side there are boulder terraces, some certainly of DGB construction. The outlier is not associated with significant densities of DGB or Mafa ceramics.

Fig. 2.15. DGB-1: construction sequence as inferred from façade abutments. Paler fills indicate progressively later phases of building. passage leading from it onto the West Central terraces (Dfig 2.4). Rubble now fills much of the courtyard and the connection between it and the passage to the exterior is complex and as yet unstudied. At present both passages leading from the sunken courtyard are roofed with lintels; however it is possible that the roofing of the main entrance passage is of a later phase associated with the building of a more impressive, though qualitatively inferior and less stable, entranceway (Dfig 2.5). The entrance passage has been partially blocked at some time in the past by rubble that half fills its outer end (Dfig. 2.6) but peters out as the passage slopes up to the south revealing, at its inner end, the original slab flooring. The façades of the North Central and Central platforms are so similar that we can infer that they were constructed by the same master mason or team. There are traces, probably dry stone wall footings, of two small structures on the top of the North Central platform, the most nearly complete about 2 m in diameter.

Were the Northern outlier located elsewhere it would be considered as a site in its own right, however its close proximity to DGB-1 renders this questionable. Excavation and dating are needed to resolve this issue. DGB-2 (10º 55’ 09” N.; 13º 48’ 25” E. 800 m) Located 100 m east of DGB-1 across a shallow valley and part of the same cluster, DGB-2 is regarded as a separate site inasmuch as excavation has confirmed that it possesses a full range of DGB features (Fig. 2:16). It was planned in January 2002 and again during excavations later that year. The ground falls away steeply to its east. As detailed in our account of the excavations (chapter 3 and Fig. 3.1) the site began with the building over bedrock of a Central platform, ca 2.5 m high with a staircase on its eastern side, to which were added South and North Central platforms, a Western terrace enclosed within a free-standing wall and accessed by an inset staircase let into the side of the Central platform, and a thick wall that formed a passage around the Central platform’s eastern side. A second major phase of building saw the construction of a Northeast platform containing passages and a silo, and a Southeast platform with a lintel roofed entryway (Dfig. 2.11). It also probably contains a silo.

The South Central platforms 1 and 2 are less well preserved, a considerable portion of their eastern façades having fallen down the eastern slope taking with them, in the case of South Central 1, much of the footings of two further overlapping and somewhat larger sub-circular structures (Dfig 2.7). The South platform, little built up above the natural ground surface at its southern end, overlooks a steep and rock-strewn slope to the south and to the southeast the Southeast walls, structures with free standing walls (Dfig 2.8). The poor quality of their surviving walling renders it uncertain but likely that they represent a DGB house or compound since unstudied

20

2. Survey and distribution

Figure 2.16. The west side of DGB-2 seen from DGB-1. Note the remains of the much damaged free-standing West terrace wall and the heavily pruned fig tree that obscures the blocked West staircase leading up onto the Central platform. Three workmen are building an experimental façade on the Central platform using rocks from the pile described in the text. farming on the West terrace where the collapse of much of the free standing wall would have had to be removed for cultivation to take place. The Kuva elder responsible for the site serves a wind shrine on this pile of rocks with a quern fragment as altar. Offerings are also made at a madzagay shrine a few meters northwest of the site where there is a large tree.

An open courtyard area formed between the Northeast and Southeast platforms constituted at this time the main entrance to the site and was surfaced with sandy gravel containing water worn pebbles. A small North terrace also dates to this phase in which the maximum dimensions of the site, 33 m north-south and 39 m eastwest (including the West and North terraces), were achieved. In a third phase the passage between the Central and Southeast platforms and the entryway were filled in and a staircase of a different design added on the south side of the Southeast platform. Apparently at the same time, the entrance to the eastern passage into the Northeast platform was destroyed and the passage partially infilled in the building of a second partially inset staircase up the platform’s southern side. The western staircase on to the Central platform was likely blocked at the same time. These modifications changed the pattern of access to the platform tops. The previous discreet access via the Southeast platform entryway, passage and inset staircase, or alternatively from the relatively private West terrace, was replaced by more open access via the staircases on the exterior of the Southeast and Northeast platforms.

The massive retaining wall (or terrace) 65 m southwest of DGB-2 (Dfig. 2.12 & 13), built of a mixture of blocks and boulders, has the effect of converting what would once have been a relatively steep slope to the south of the site into a gentler one. Whether this was required for agricultural or other purposes is unknown. Because DGB-1 was only surveyed while DGB-2 was both planned and excavated, our knowledge of the two sites is very different. However, at a gross level, they are similar in that: 1. both have sets of platforms overlooking a steep eastern slope, 2. the western side is characterized by one or more terraces, and 3. the primary access to the site is on the eastern side.

While most rocks in the immediate vicinity of the site can be accounted for as resulting from partial platform or wall collapse, a pile of rocks on the Central platform could possibly represent the remains of one of more DGB or later structures. However no wall footings are present and it is possible that the pile comprises rocks dug up by hunters on the site and others thrown up onto it by people

They differ in that: 4. whereas the walled West terrace of DGB-2 appears private, those on the West side of DGB-1 lack walling (with one possible exception). Both sites’ western 21

Performance and agency only evidenced in the lower part of some sections of façade. A pile of rubble obscures the northern part of what appears to be a typical elliptical platform at the southern end of the site. The northern, and probably subsequently built, end of the site comprises at least one platform but has been much damaged and partially rebuilt. Lines of blocks visible on the site surface may indicate the presence of passages or other features, but cannot be definitively interpreted without excavation. No entrances were identified on the exterior. At the southern end of the site the ground falls away steeply in a series of terraces.

terraces would have been visible from the hill immediately to its west, 5. the retaining wall south of DGB-2 created an open area between it and the site upon which people could have congregated; there is no such area south of DGB-1; on the contrary, there may have been a DGB compound located below and east of the South platform, and 6. there are at DGB-2 no midden deposits comparable to those found close to the Southeast walls at DGB-1; however it is possible that the infilling of the passages at the former site may represent comparable, almost certainly redeposited, materials.

Sherds scattered thinly in the area appeared to be of Mafa types and were not collected, nor did we hear of any ancient artifacts found in or near the site. We saw no evidence of shrines. This was also the case at DGB-4, in many respects a sister site.

The proximity of DGB-1 and 2 raises the question of their relative ages. In chapter 6 a case is made for the replacement of DGB-2 by DGB-1.

Figure 2.18. Sketch plan of DGB-4. Key and conventions as for figure 2.17. DGB-4 (10° 54’ 55” N.; 13° 48’ 40” E. 750 m) DGB-4 is located 250 m southwest of DGB-3 and is accessed in the same manner. We visited it in December, 2001 and sketched its outline. Details were added during a visit in 2007 (Fig. 2.18). There are Mafa houses close by. The site has terraces on its surface and serves as the focus of agricultural terraces which are regularly cultivated. Its platform complex, oriented at 290°, is 30 m long by 14 m wide. At the northern end, to which Mafa have attached buttress-like additions, the visible height of DGB walling is only about a meter, but the central and eastern parts of the site are considerably higher, perhaps following the natural lie of the land. Estimates of platform height in this area are hindered by the presence of Mafa terracing. The northern side is better preserved with several lengths of DGB façade besides one definite and one probable entrance, the western one evidently and the other quite possibly the start of a passage (Dfig. 2.14). At least two conjoined platforms and associated skirting walls or buttresses can be inferred.

Figure 2.17. Plan of DGB-3. DGB façades are indicated by stylized blocks, others by lines, solid where planned and dashed where sketched. Vertical scale exaggerated. DGB-3 (10° 54’ 59” N.; 13° 48’ 33” E. 765 m) The site is located 430 m to the southeast of DGB-2 and lies lower on the same broad ridge overlooking the Gwodaliy drainage and the Koza-Mozogo plain to the northeast. It is accessed either from DGB-2 or by a wellconstructed path leading up from the Lawan’s house on the Mondossa valley road and passing by DGB-4. There are several Mafa compounds in its immediate vicinity. Like most other DGB sites, it is a local highpoint and the focus of agricultural terraces; its surface is cultivated. The site, oriented at 330°, is 31 m long by 14 m wide (Fig. 2.17). These dimensions include a low platform complex (26 by 10 m) and the first major surrounding terrace, the only one with surviving evidence of DGB construction. The platform complex, now standing a maximum of 1.05 m above the terrace is hard to interpret. DGB walling is

Although no major terrace is associated, a fragment of DGB façade to the west allows a provisional estimate of site area. At the southeastern end of the site the ground 22

2. Survey and distribution

Mondossa is also within the Moskota canton. From the Mondossa valley, here opening out onto the plain, the massif rises steeply to a cultivated ridge averaging little more than 100 m across. Its highest point is 870 m with lower outliers and less rugged landforms to the west and south. Population density in the 1960s was in the 150-200 range. Problems of water supply were managed in similar ways, the Moskota valley to the north being the source of last resort.

near the site by a forefather of the man living next to it of two iron artifacts best identified as currency bars of a hitherto unknown form (Fig. 6.1). Sherds on and around the site in some numbers include Mafa types and typically DGB morphologies some of which show stylistic differences from those excavated at DGB-2. They are discussed in chapter 6. Immediately below the site to the west, two massive boulders with numerous grinding hollows are evidence of occupation that predates the DGB culture by a considerable period (Dfig. 2.15). Since they were first used, approximately 3 m of deposit have eroded from around them and they have tipped to the south. Today they are used for drying crops and threshing beans.

DGB-5 (10° 54’ 27” N.; 13° 49’ 32”E. 805 m)

DGB 12 (10° 54’ 08” N.; 13° 49’ 43” E. 845 m)

The site is located on an rocky knoll between two hills. It has views over the Gwodaliy drainage and the KozaMozogo plain. It is approached by various paths leading up from Uzal Catholic mission and elsewhere in the Mondossa valley. There is a Mafa house immediately below the site at its northwestern end and others in the vicinity.

This, the easternmost DGB site, is located at the highest point of a ridge extending to the southeast of DGB-5, from which it is 670 m distant. It has a superb view over the Koza and Mozogo plains, the Gwodaliy drainage and across to Upay and Ziver. The site is accessed by a path leading up from the Uzal mission to the north or by a fine stairway leading up from the south (Dfig. 2.16). It is easily reached along the ridge from DGB-5. In the vicinity of DGB-12 this ridge becomes a plateau on the edges of which are located three Mafa compounds. Cultivation extends from the plateau over the site. Other houses are located over 100 m below the site to the SE.

falls away steeply in a series of terraces. No DGB ceramics were noted.

Mondossa sites: DGB-5 and 12

Figure 2.19. DGB2-0004 DGB-5 seen from the northwest on a day of thick harmattan. The site is best described as an outcrop ringed with narrow agricultural terraces (Fig. 2.19). There is no definable platform in DGB style nor are the terraces demonstrably of DGB construction. A summit plateau, oriented at 320°, is some 46 by 20 m with a raised terraced area, ca 16 by 14 m and of no great height, near its southeastern end. Lack of soil over most of the plateau inhibits its cultivation although the surrounding terraces are cultivated. A presumably natural hollow in the summit bedrock measures half a meter wide by the same depth and there are several much smaller hollows no deeper than 20 cm.

Figure 2.20. DGB-12: GPS-calibrated sketch plan showing in situ boulders and DGB structures.

Attribution of the site to the DGB culture rests not on the presence of typical platform or terrace façades but upon its placement in the landscape together with the DGB sherds present and the testimony of local inhabitants. The latter may have been influenced by the discovery at or

The site is of grossly triangular form and crisscrossed by Mafa agricultural terraces. Only natural features and DGB structures are indicated on the plan (Fig. 2.20). At the north end is a boulder terrace locally exceeding 2 m in height, below which the ground drops off steeply to the 23

Performance and agency northeast. To the south the ground rises past a terrace fragment to a Center boulder terrace located just east of the center of the site. A line of in situ boulders, the last at the high point of the site, extends from a tall boulder onto this feature, the façade of which incorporates other boulders (Dfig. 2.17). In the southeastern corner of the triangle is another boulder terrace. The southwestern corner comprises two terraces built of blocks, one abutting the other and both with characteristically DGB façades up to 1.8 m in height, that are hemmed in to the north by more of the giant boulders that litter the hill top. To the southwest the ground falls steeply away, while some 50 m to the south and 30 m below the site across a jumble of boulders is an area of granite slabs in which there are several fissures that hold water for some time after the rains. The largest of these is spanned by eleven massive lintels, undressed but set in position by, we infer, the builders of the site (Dfig. 2.18). There are also two clusters of grinding hollows in bedrock, one on top of the ridge and 30 m from the Southeast boulder terrace and another in the area of the slabs.

southwesterly direction up the Mudukwa valley soon becoming a path leading to the center of the settlement and the house of biy yam Mudukwa. From nearby a path following a small watercourse with beside it two traditional funnel-shaped wells and two more recently dug leads up to the north end of the site, also approached from the south by a steep path that never quite becomes a stairway. Immediately west of the site a small plateau offers good farmland presently shared by three families. The site, near the edge of a steep slope down to the east, is built around a natural outcrop and, unusually, is occupied by a Mafa compound shaded by a δaway (Anageissus leiocarpus) tree (Fig. 2.21; Dfigs 2.19-20). DGB façades up to 2 m high are preserved in the southeastern quadrant and there are smaller fragments in the southwest. At least one platform with attached terraces or buttresses is present. The small platform at the highest point of the site is for the most part natural outcrop. Neither it nor the lower platform attached to it shows any DGB façade. It was in this lower platform (marked X on the plan), the household head informed us, that while digging for daub he had found a small cuprous figurine in association with (“seated on”) a brown polished pebble (Fig. 6.2).

The site is atypical in possessing no platforms but only block- and boulder-built terraces with DGB façades, possibly because of its location at a high point around which more boulders than blocks were available. I am inclined to regard the Southwest terrace pair as the equivalent of platform complexes elsewhere. Main site area is 1640 m2 (SE boulder terrace excluded), making it one of the largest of the DGB sites, though its platform equivalent is ranked only 12 (see Table 2:3).8 Sherds, present on and in the immediate vicinity of the site, include characteristically DGB besides Mafa forms.

Mudukwa sites: DGB-13 and 14 Mudukwa is also part of Moskota canton. Here the massif, rising to 1131 m, is relatively easily accessed from the Mondossa valley via the Mudukwa valley which, with its tributaries, drains the eastern slopes and falls into the Mondossa stream. In contrast, much steeper slopes characterize its northwestern to southwestern sides, all within the Moskota drainage. At the height of the dry season water used to be fetched from the bed of the Moskota, a distance of up to 2.5 km with a height differential of up to 500 m. The most influential rainmaker, biy yam Mudukwa, resides in this village. Figure 2.21. DGB-13: GPS-calibrated sketch plan showing DGB structures (heavy lines), others that may follow DGB lines, and Mafa terraces (dashed lines). Mafa rooms and a threshing floor are indicated.

DGB-13 (10° 55’ 18” N.; 13° 47’ 27” E. 1025 m) Mt Gwodaliy, 800 m southwest of DGB-1 divides the main area of DGB distribution into a larger southeastern and a smaller northwestern, Mudukwa, drainage. DGB-13 is located high on the western rim of the latter with a fine view over the whole. It is most easily accessed from the road running up the Mondossa valley from Uzal. From this a rough track branches left and proceeds in a

DGB façades are limited to the southern part of the area defined by the multi-period terrace that delimits the complex. If they represent the full extent of the DGB site, its area would have been ca 425 m2. However it is possible that a larger DGB site of ca 830 m2 has been obscured by later construction and ongoing maintenance of terraces and other features.

8

If the Southwest terraces together with the Center boulder terrace are considered the core of the site, its area would at ca 1090 m2 (42.5 by 37.5 m) still be disproportionately large.

24

2. Survey and distribution involves a climb of some 200 meters followed by a 400 m descent and a tougher return journey laden with a heavy pot of water.

On the approach we found several characteristic DGB sherds, especially on a small plateau below it and 240 m to the southeast. There is a bedrock grinding hollow a few meters north of the site and remains of iron smelting at 935 m above sea level beside the path leading down to the north.

DGB-6 (10° 54’ 12”N.; 13° 47’ 44” E. 1025 m) This poorly preserved site is located on a shoulder of rocky Nduval hill9 with a magnificent view over the Gwodaliy drainage and the plains beyond (Fig. 2.23). It is most easily accessed by a path leading up from DGB-7, 630 m to the southeast and 135 m below. The nearest Mafa houses are near the base of the slope to its east.

DGB-14 (10° 55’ 29” N.; 13 ° 47’ 53” E. 765 m) DGB-14 is the most northerly DGB site and the one with the poorest field of view, only DGB-6, 7 and 13 being visible from it. Located 840 m northeast and 260 m lower than DGB-13, it is positioned on a knoll in the same drainage (Dfig. 2.21). There is a household 60 m to the west. A rocky grove 40 m to the southwest is said to contain an important community shrine at which biy yam Mudukwa sacrifices in times of trouble. The site, cultivated all over, consists of a much repaired and rebuilt platform or platform and terrace complex now nowhere more than a meter in height and a boulder terrace up to 1.5 m high some 25 m to the northwest (Fig. 2.22).

The site takes the form of an ellipse with long axis oriented at 44° and 37 m long by 20 m wide. It is cultivated all over and is the focus of low agricultural terraces. These and many loose rocks also occur on its surface. From DGB-11, 980 m to the north-northwest, it appears as a low mound. Although the outline may be close to the original, DGB façade is evident only in three places over very short lengths and up to three “courses” in the northwest and southwest quadrants and at the south end, which may once have had a compound built upon it. This area is higher than the rest and probably represents a platform or platform complex with much rebuilt walls now rarely more than 1 m in height. No passages, stairs or other architectural features were detected. The north end could be the remains of an associated terrace. If the whole is a platform complex it is anomalously large and low.

Figure 2.22. DGB-14: sketch plan. Numerous sherds in the vicinity of the site include characteristic DGB forms. One hundred meters to the northwest is a DGB stairway that leads down to a traditional well. Figure 2.23. View of DGB-6 looking northeast from the slope of Nduval hill. The Galdala inselberg stands out in the plain below.

Bigide sites: DGB-6, 7 and 11 Bigide forms part of the Canton of Koza. Its village area comprises a mountain section in the west and a valley portion in the east. Its southern boundary is the upper Guzda stream and to the west a ridge peaking at 1139 m separates it from Nduval village. Bigide is accessed by a track, dubiously motorable during the rains, that leads up from Mazay via Mtskar. It is densely populated (150-200 per km2 in the 1960s). Water is a serious problem in the height of the dry season when it has to be fetched from wells dug in the bed of the Moskota 3 km distant to the west. Each trip, and several may have to be made in the course of a day if there are livestock to be watered,

Twenty meters to the northeast there is a small but picturesque grove with another fine A. leiocarpus that hangs over a low cliff. Close to it is a shrine with a standing stone altar; a nearby cleft in the rocks with some sherds visible is said to contain objects found on the site. Below and to the north of the grove we thought we had found a short length of stairway on our first visit but have since been unable to relocate it. 9

It appears that the people who cultivate on this hill live in Nduval village, 1.7 km to the west of DGB-6.

25

Performance and agency

Figure 2.24. DGB-7 plan with transect along line A-B.

26

2. Survey and distribution Below the Central platform in the southeast quadrant there is a terrace 6 to 8 m wide and up to 2.1 m high, much of its surface covered by boulders, that is supported by a boulder wall of DGB construction that extends north to a bedrock and boulder outcrop marked by a fine tamarind tree (Dfig. 2.23). North of the tamarind the ground falls sharply away from the Central complex which is here supported by multiple narrow skirting terraces (Fig. 2.6). These continue round to the northernmost point of the Central complex. The Northwest terrace was similarly supported by skirting terraces, now largely obscured by reconfiguration, on its northern edge. Its western portion and the Southwest terrace are on flatter ground and did not require such revetment. The Southwest terrace was probably built after the Northwest but the join is obscured by rubble. The overall dimensions of the Central complex, the western terraces and the Southeast terrace are 41 by 46 m. Amidst the numerous terraces on the steep slope north of the site there are several that show evidence of DGB construction, including a fragment, 44 m to the north of and over 12 m below the join between the Central complex and the Northwest terrace, that adjoins the short section of stairway mentioned above (Dfig. 2.24).

Immediately below DGB-6 to the south-southeast there are a fine set of tall terraces that could well be of DGB origin, although this is not evident in their present façades which although well-built show no special concern for flatness (Fig. 2.9). DGB-7 (10° 54’ 02” N.; 13° 48’ 02” E. 885 m) Beautifully sited on a knoll overlooking the Gwodaliy valley to the north and east and the upper Guzda to the south (Dfig. 2.22), the site is accessed by a track, the mountain parts motorable only in the dry season, that departs from Koza and passes through Mazay and Mtskar. A stairway leads up to it from the north and there is another longer example 180 m to the east (Fig. 2.11), which we were informed is used by biy yam Mudukwa as he moves around the country. The site is cultivated and there are two handsome Mafa compounds immediately to the south and several others in the vicinity. It was planned using a plane table in early 2002, this plan being more summary than that of DGB-2, in particular as it relates to boulders, most of which are rather indicated than precisely located (Fig. 2.24). The core of the site consists of a Central platform complex oriented at 30° to which have been added a Northwest and a Southwest terrace. It is the focal point of a series of terraces, some of which show evidence of DGB construction. However, the site has been much modified from its original form. DGB walling is rarely preserved to any height and, as a characteristic feature of this site is the use of boulders to build the base of walls, it is in some cases only the evident concern with flatness of façade that allows DGB attribution. There has been considerable subsequent construction of agricultural terraces on the site, including on and around the Central complex. Roughly elliptical in form and 32 by 26 m in size, with walls now standing up to 1.85 m high, this was built over a bedrock outcrop that emerges from the platform as a cluster of boulders around the base of which there has been recent digging for daub. At its northern end there are the remains of a probable platform with a wall – possibly once part of an entrance – on the west surviving up to 1.35 m. The eastern side of this platform has been completely rebuilt and is surmounted by a rock pile less than a meter high on top of which is a Mafa diymbulom shrine represented by two standing stones. The original form of the northwestern quadrant of the Central complex cannot be determined as it has been largely reconfigured as a Mafa terrace which extends onto the Northwest terrace and, to the south, abuts what may be a sub-circular platform 3 m in diameter, integrated into the rest of the Central complex and of the same general height. This is comparable to a similarly problematic feature incorporated into the DGB-1 Northern outlier. Its northwestern part shows some DGB walling, but whether it was originally built as a separate platform is unclear. The southern end of the Central platform is characterized by another complex of boulders, some in situ and others moved so that they now, but not necessarily in the past, form a narrow entrance corridor.

There is a relatively sparse scatter of sherds over the site none of which have we been able to differentiate from Mafa wares. A fragment of a pair of grinding hollows was found on the surface and a number of grain grinding hollows occur on a bedrock outcrop 130 m to the northwest. DGB-11 (10° 54’ 42” N.; 13° 47’ 34” E. 965 m) DGB-11, in the Warkama quarter of Bigide, is located 980 m north-northwest of DGB-6. It is set on a ridge that projects eastwards from a southern extension of the Mudukwa massif and, although less commandingly situated than most other sites, has a fine view down the Gwodaliy valley (Dfig. 1.2). It is most easily accessed by a track leading from the small mission station below DGB-7. It was visited and sketched in February 2002 with corrections made on subsequent visits (Fig. 2.25). This small site, with a long axis slightly north of west, is overgrown by trees, bushes and the veld grape, Cissus quadrangularis, known for its medicinal properties. It comprises two conjoined platforms with façades surviving to 1.4 m and up to 1.8 m on the northwest side. Together the platforms measure 10 by 8 meters, with a western extension, not demonstrably DGB, at the same height incorporating a large in situ boulder that adds 2 m to its length. A lower extension, poorly preserved but still some 50 cm high, to the southeast is now integrated into a complex of small terraces. Platform façades preserve DGB characteristics despite considerable decay and rebuilding of their upper portions. Rubble is locally 60 cm thick on top of the platforms, suggesting some reduction in height, while a depression on each may perhaps indicate the presence of silos. Much of the platforms’ circumference is surrounded by low terraces,

27

Performance and agency DGB-8 (10° 53’ 31” N.; 13° 48’ 52”E. 730 m) The site, accessed by the same track that passes by DGB9 and leads on to DGB-7, is on the northern edge of what is here a narrow but flat-topped ridge between the valleys of the upper Guzda stream to the south and the Gwodaliy to the north, on which side the ground falls away steeply from the site. Down slope and less than 50 m to the northwest there is a grove containing a shrine. Two shrines are located actually on the site, one with three pots representing the chief god and his wife and a woman said to have mysteriously disappeared from the vicinity some time ago, the other a black stone on which sacrificial offerings are made to prevent the nndodiy, legendary builders of the site, from returning. Two compounds are presently established close to the site to the south and south east. When first visited in 2001, the site appeared as an eggshaped mound oriented at 340°, some 15 m long by 9 wide and about 3 meters high in the north and a meter lower in the south, uncultivated and overgrown (Dfig. 2.25). However, well-preserved and well-made sections of DGB façade were visible on the east side (Dfig. 2.26), in which we noted an entrance to the southeast, later revealed by excavation (see chapter 4) to be the start of a passage through the South platform (Figs 1.5 and 4.1). A curved linear arrangement of blocks traced on the surface to the south later proved to be top of the western façade of the South platform. On the northern edge, we noted several tiers of walling in DGB style, later described as skirting walls and a buttress.

Figure 2.25. DGB-11: sketch plan. poorly preserved on the south side. Those on the north and west sides are cultivated, those to the south and east being mostly too strewn with rubble, some deriving from local platform collapse, some perhaps having been deposited there during field clearing. While these terraces show only partial and questionable evidence of DGB construction, the boulder terrace to the south is of DGB style.

Zinahad Wandala, an elder who lives next to the site and is responsible for the shrines, told us of a staircase in the area of the entrance noted above but on the outside of the mound. His father had filled it in. He also said that the entrance was not open when he was young but supposedly, according to his father, the site “had a deep hole that you could drop stones into and hear them fall down.” It is probable that these stories relate to the staircase later excavated on the northern end of the South platform and to the silo in the North platform. The upper parts of both these features may have been filled in quite recently by local residents who, as do all in the area, regard pits of any kind as hazards to be filled in as soon as possible. The story of the deep well in relation to DGB sites is something of a cliché, as are other stories of things buried in DGB sites in order to prove the ownership of the kin groups who hold the land.

The sparse sherd scatter around the site includes some rusticated pieces probably of DGB origin. We noted no grinding hollows in the immediate vicinity, however a broad grindstone reused as a mortar is built into the façade of the eastern extension. The local inhabitants, of Gozla clan, have found no special artifacts near, much less in, the site, which they told us they disturb only minimally. It is not associated with any shrine.

Mtskar sites: DGB-8 and 9

Despite the presence of DGB ceramics in the site, we found no sherds on it or nearby that could be distinguished from those of the Mafa, nor any grinding hollows in its immediate vicinity.

Mtskar village is part of Koza canton. It holds the relatively gently sloping ridge between the Guzda valley to the south and the Gwodaliy to the north, possessing also some bottom land in both drainages though more in the latter. It is accessed by a motorable track that leads up along the Gwodaliy valley from Mazay before climbing the ridge to the east of DGB-9. Population density is comparable to that of Bigide. Water appears to have been less of a problem here than in Bigide, perhaps on account of better access to water in the Guzda drainage.

Had we cleared DGB-8 of bush in 2001, we might have recognized that it comprises conjoined platforms, but no surface observation could have given us more than an inkling of the complexities later revealed by excavation. At the time we regarded it as a small and simple site that

28

2. Survey and distribution could provide us with the experience we needed to tackle a larger monument such as DGB-2. And so it did!

area of the first surrounding terrace (see Tables 2.1 and 2.3).

DGB-9 (10° 53’ 20” N.; 13° 49’ 05” E. 727 m)

The Lawan makes an ngwalala (New Year/harvest festival) offering on a stone at the base of a tree a few meters to the southeast. Nothing distinguishes the comminuted sherds scattered around the site from Mafa wares. Some 350 m due south on the same ridge but at a lower elevation there is a small complex of grinding hollows and a boulder with 14 well-developed hollows is located half a kilometer to the to the east.

On the same ridge as DGB-8, DGB-9 is half a kilometer to the southeast and just east of a cleared area that serves as a football field. There are houses close by. First visited in December 2001, an attempt to plan it ten days later was aborted in the face of local complaints. A meeting with Lawan Matakon Faisam and elders dealt with this matter and resulted in permission to excavate at DGB-8, but we did not return to plan DGB-9 on account of its small size and absence of original walling.

Upay and Nduval sites: DGB-10, 16 and 15

The meeting of two curved facades on the west side suggests that the site may consist of two very small conjoined platforms, presently standing up to 140 cm above the surrounding ground surface. The whole measures 6.5 m north-south and 5.7 m east-west (Dfig. 2.27). It is incorporated into the agricultural terrace system and its top, on which grow two euphorbias, is cultivated. The façades have been repaired and rebuilt to such an extent that no definitively DGB façade is visible. Attribution of the site to the DGB grouping rests on its overall form and firm local tradition. In measuring overall site area we have included, for comparability with sites such as DGB-3 and DGB-4, a crude estimate of the

Upay and Nduval villages are both in Moskota canton. While the latter is most easily accessed via a no longer motorable track from Bigide, getting to upper Upay requires a stiff climb from whichever direction it is approached. The Upay massif comprises four rocky summits at 1494, 1327, 1234 and ca 1170 m. In their vicinity population density drops to 50-100 per km2 being elsewhere in the 100-150 range. Of special interest is the presence of a tree, werere in Mafa, which grows on the heights (Dfig. 2.28). Its seeds are used in soap and perfume production and are a significant source of income, compensating to some extent for a scarcity of arable land.

Figure 2.26. DGB-10: GPS calibrated sketch plan.

29

Performance and agency The focus of population in Nduval is the relatively flat pass at the head of the valley leading up from Bigide. However there is considerable settlement even on steep slopes (Dfig. 2.29). Water is said to be available throughout the year within each village’s boundaries, at Nduval primarily from a fine, perhaps spring-fed, traditional well. DGB-10 (10° 53’ 16” N.; 13° 47’ 37” E. 1165 m) DGB-10 is located on the summit of the broad east ridge of the Upay massif. It is separated from the main peak by a deeply incised upper tributary valley that falls into that of the Guzda stream. In addition to views over the Gwodaliy drainage and the Koza-Mozogo plain, the site also overlooks the Guzda valley and the mountains and plateau to the south. There are Mafa houses close by. The site is similar to DGB-2 in that it includes a platform and a massive retaining wall below (Fig. 2.26; Dfig. 2.30), but here the platform is tiny (ca 7 by 5 m and 1 m high) and largely contained within natural boulders, though it nonetheless possesses some diagnostically DGB walling in its eastern half (Dfig. 2.31). From the south side of the platform a boulder terrace partially built on bedrock extends southeast to a boulder outcrop. Some forty meters east-southeast of the platform, below a terraced slope interspersed with boulders is a boulderbuilt retaining wall up to 3.5 m high. A concern for flatness of façade argues for DGB attribution in both instances. A collapsed section of walling in the East terrace reveals that boulders were carefully placed with their long axes perpendicular to the façade. A circular feature ringed in stone and located centrally on this terrace might be an infilled silo. The overall dimensions of the site including platform and boulder terraces are about 24.5 m north-south by 46 m east-west.

Figure 2.27. DGB-16: GPS calibrated sketch plan lies 1.15 km to the northeast of DGB-10 and 280 m below. It is at the same height as DGB-7, 850 m to the north across the upper Guzda valley. Like other sites, it has fine views, though not of DGB-10, 11, 15 or the Mudukwa sites (Dfig. 2.34). It is most easily accessed from Bigide. There are several Mafa compounds in the vicinity, including one below it on the slope immediately to its north.

Zogway Manbiy, an elder living next to the site on the northwest, produced a number of iron “bracelets”, some linked together in a chain, that had been found some considerable time ago near the site when digging for daub (Dfig. 2.32). Comparable pieces are known from the Gwoza hills where they are worn across the chest (G. Müller-Kosack pers. comm. 2007). In addition to wares of probable Mafa origin, examples of DGB pottery, including horn lip-top handles on the rims of sherds from large bowls and bowl-mouth jar fragments, occur on the site, with a concentration of DGB sherds on the platform. Iron slag found may be associated with the Mafa occupation as smiths have lived here in the recent past.

Despite being cultivated and relatively clear of vegetation, the site is not easy to define (Fig. 2.27). There is a raised area, measuring about 7.5 by 15 m, on which in 2007 a field hut had been built, that may represent a platform complex (Dfig. 2.35). If so this has been much obscured by subsequent reworking, the building of agricultural terraces and perhaps a Mafa compound, which may account for a rock-ringed depression that could be the base of a sunken sheep or goat pen. Although fragments of DGB walling survive in this area they are nowhere more than 75 cm high. To the southeast is a boulder terrace over 2 m tall that retains its DGB characteristics over only part of its length. It incorporates an inset DGB-style staircase, the lower part of which is now infilled (Dfig. 2.37). Ten meters further east is a lower boulder terrace. On the western side of the site the ground falls steeply away from the raised area in a series of slab outcrops and terraces some of which have short lengths of DGB-style boulder construction. The plan represents these in a highly schematic fashion.

The location has attracted settlement for a very long time. The ridge is cultivable without major terracing. There are several ancient boulder and bedrock grinding hollows in the vicinity that precede the DGB period with a particularly fine example 160 m east of the site (Dfig. 2.33). DGB-16 (10° 53’ 35” N.; 13° 48’ 10”E. 885 m) DGB-16 is located in lower Upay on the shoulder of a ridge projecting north from the east part of the massif. It 30

2. Survey and distribution Both the northern and southern ends of the site are poorly delimited. To the south the raised area and the upper boulder terrace are separated from a small cultivated plateau by outcropping bedrock and a boulder with two large cupules. The northern end is a chaos of boulders, including some natural uprights, with a small grove dominated by a fine African ebony tree (Diospyros mespiliformis). This area shows no DGB features yet presumably played a role in the use of the site, if only as an observation point. In calculating the size of the site only the raised area and upper boulder terrace are taken into consideration, giving an area of ca 460 m2. Pottery is present in low densities on the site and includes DGB forms. We noted a single grinding hollow. DGB-15 (10° 53’ 54” N.; 13° 46’ 44” E. 1230 m) DGB-15 is the westernmost and at 1230 m also the highest DGB site, located on a ridge extending northnorthwest from the main Upay massif and overlooking the Moskota valley. It is accessed by a track leading up the upper Guzda stream from Bigide. The valley and the steep mountain sides are intensively settled and cultivated. The track terminates at a plateau-like pass that is the center of Nduval, with the house of the Lawan and a Catholic church. From here the site is 240 m above and 750 m to the southwest, past the well already mentioned and then up steep terraces. The site, intensively cultivated, has magnificent views, south to Tamnde mountain above Wula Hanko and the Sukur plateau (Dfig. 2.37),10 north up the western horn of the Mandara mountains and east to the Gwodaliy drainage and the plain beyond. DGB-10, 2 km to the southeast, is hidden by the summit of Upay.

Figure 2.28. DGB-15: sketch plan. The platform façades are hidden by rubble.

DGB site typology and distribution Typology Development of a typology of DGB sites should include variables such as forms and features present, organization and size, location in the landscape and relationship to other sites of various kinds. Our experience excavating DGB-2 and 8 makes it clear that one cannot predict the internal organization and features of a site before digging it. Furthermore, with the possible exception of the midden at the base of DGB-1, we have found no sites, except perhaps for DGB-5, that do not possess either platforms or terraces or features that can be regarded as their functional equivalents. A typology founded on presently available data must of necessity be inadequate. That said, I suggest the formal classification presented in Table 2.2. Size classes are based on platform complex areas with additional data on Main Site Area (Table 2.3).

From the site there are steep drop offs in all directions except along the ridge that links to the summit of Upay (Fig. 2.28). There are two platforms that, unusually, are separated by about 4 m. The South platform, about 1.5 m high – which might be considered a terrace as it abuts a chaos of boulders that forms the ridge top to the south – contains a lintel roofed passage that opens, so far as we can tell, into a low natural chamber formed by boulders (Dfig. 2.38). It is a likely analog to the low passage in the Northeast platform of DGB-2. The North platform is of similar size; a lower terrace wall abutting it on the southeast shows evidence of DGB walling in its lower part. Both platforms’ façades are obscured by vegetation and by rubble, some perhaps resulting from platform collapse and some from the clearing of rocks from fields. A North terrace was once bounded by a freestanding DGB wall, only a fragment of which remains.

Sites of the simple platform or platform complex form, type A in table 2.2, are in the medium and small classes. Type B includes the four sites with the largest platform complexes besides the enigmatic DGB-6. Type C sites are in the medium and small classes in terms of platform size, but the presence of unattached terraces causes their overall size to vary widely, from 145 to 1640 m2, even though we have excluded from those statistics those terraces and retaining walls that are well separated by distance or form from the platform complex and thus

There are no Mafa compounds in the immediate vicinity of the site. Ceramics, present in low densities, include DGB forms and there is a boulder with five graingrinding hollows a few meters south of the South platform. 10

Through the harmattan dust we glimpsed the peaks of Rhoumsiki, but they are not visible in the image.

31

Performance and agency TABLE 2.2. A FORMAL TYPOLOGY OF DGB SITES Site types

DGB sites

Comments

A

Platform or platform complex with or without minor attached terraces

3, 4, 8, 9 and perhaps the N outlier at DGB-1

B

Platform or platform complex with or without minor attached terraces and with one or more major attached terraces Platform or platform complex without major attached terraces but with at least one major unattached boulder-built terrace

1, 2, 7 and perhaps 6 and 13

The simplest type of site which may yet contain a considerable variety of architectural features. Attached terraces are clearly linked to platforms.

C

D

Other platform and/or terrace sites

E

Other kinds of DGB sites

10, 11, 14, 15, 16 and also 12 assuming its SW terraces are equivalent to a platform complex 5

Unattached terraces are not clearly linked to platforms and may be separate. The N terrace at DGB-16 is topped by a freestanding wall. Neither the platform nor the surrounding terrace (hilltop) area are of demonstrably DGB construction.

The SE Walls structures and midden below DGB-1

TABLE 2.3. SITE AREAS AND SIZE CLASSES. DGB site size class and number

Very large

Platform Complex (or equivalent)

Rank

675 640

1 2

1680 1320

1 3

1:2.5 1:2.1

470 425 310 260 230 225 205 200 170 150 110

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

720 830 755 780 540 370 210 600 720 1640 460

=7 5 6 5 10 13 14 9 =7 2 11

1:1.5 1:2 1:2.4 1:3 1:2.3 1:1.6 1:1 1:3 1:4.2 1:10.9 1:4.2

10

70 30

14 =15

400 145

12 15

1:5.7 1:4.8

9

30

=15

50

16

1:1.7

1 7

Large

2 13

Medium

4 15 6 3 8 14 5 12 16

Small

11

Main Site Area)

Rank

Ratio Platform Complex: Main Site Area

Notes MSA = Main Site Area MSA excludes N outlier (ca 470 m2) MSA excludes boulder terraces below and

unattached to site MSA excludes retaining wall beneath site MSA includes area of modern compound MSA includes terrace around platform MSA includes N terrace S raised area treated as platform complex MSA includes terrace around platform MSA includes boulder terrace Hilltop treated as MSA MSA excludes Southeast boulder terrace MSA includes upper but not lower boulder terrace MSA includes boulder terrace MSA excludes boulder-built retaining wall E of platform MSA includes crude estimate of first surrounding terrace

the North boulder terrace could well be agricultural while the Center and Southeast boulder terraces are more suggestive of house platforms. Once the ratio between the platform complex area and the Main Site Area rises above 1:2.5, it would seem that a wider range of functions is being sampled (Table 2.3). DGB sites are indeed a polythetic set in terms of their physical characteristics and structure. Although this discussion raises important questions as to the nature and functions of DGB sites, these are best left for chapter 6 in which, since no boulder terraces have been excavated, we will be particularly concerned with platform complexes and attached terraces.

more likely to be functionally differentiated from the site core. The upper boulder terrace at DGB-10, the walled North terrace at DGB-15 (which could be considered attached) and the upper boulder terrace at DGB-15, which incorporates an inset stairway, seem closely related to the platforms on the grounds of spatial proximity or presence of DGB architectural features. Other unattached terraces at sites DGB-2, 7, 10, 12, and 16 (lower example) and along the west side of the DGB-1 Northern outlier (Dfig. 2.10), seem likely to have formed part of agricultural infrastructure. Others again, for example at DGB-11 and 14, might be house platforms despite their close proximity to the platform complexes, while at DGB-12

32

2. Survey and distribution

TABLE 2.4. INTERVISIBILITY OF DGB SITES V = Intervisible; ? = Intervisibility doubtful; X = No intervisibility DGB sites 1

1

2

V

3

V

V

2

4

?

?

V

5

V

V

V

V

6

V

V

V

V

V

7

V

V

V

V

V

V

8

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

9

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

10

?

?

?

?

?

?

?

X

X

10

11

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

?

11

12

V

V

V

V

X

V

V

V

V

?

V

12

13

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

?

X

V

13

14

X

X

X

X

X

V

V

X

X

?

X

X

V

15

X

X

V

V

V

X

X

?

?

X

X

V

X

X

15

16

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

V

X

X

V

X

X

V

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

14 16

Note: Doubtful intervisibility relates primarily to DGB-10, however a person at DGB-10 would probably not have to move more than a few meters to observe a bonfire at any of those marked ?.

Figure 2.29. Extract from figure 1.1 showing the distributions of DGB sites and of single and grouped bedrock and immovable boulder querns and grindstone mortars (represented by gray ovals). Stairways associated with the sites are also indicated. 33

Performance and agency That being said, their distribution is not only restricted but coherent. All are sited on local high points or at least ones that afford good visibility over the surrounding region (Dfig. 2.39) Intervisibility between sites is such that an observer on any one of them, with the exception of DGB-14 in Mudukwa, has a direct line of view to see a majority of the others (Table 2.4). There is also some patterning by size in that there is a Very Large and Large site complex consisting of DGB-1 and-2 on the northern rim of the Gwodaliy watershed and another Very Large site, DGB-7, similarly equipped with large western terraces, facing it on the southern edge. DGB-13 appears to be a large site on the western side of the main area of distribution. There is no comparable large site either on the Upay massif or at the eastern end of the Gwodaliy drainage. This combination of site hierarchy by platform complex size and patterned distribution has implications for socio-political organization that are discussed in chapter 8.

Classification of the sites by area is a poor proxy for the more interesting statistic of labor expenditure. Volume, a better proxy, cannot be reliably calculated unless the site has been excavated and the height of platforms and the conformation of the natural ground surface determined. Architectural energetics and their implications for social and production arrangements are discussed in chapter 8.

Distribution The geographic distribution of DGB sites is restricted to the Upay massif and, immediately to the northeast, the Gwodaliy and Mudukwa drainages. The greatest distance between sites is only 5.5 km and all are contained within a 15 km2 heptagon or a rectangle 4.2 km north-south and 5.5 km east-west. We have good reason to believe that this distribution is real. Team members and local associates have been inquiring about the existence of such sites since we began fieldwork in 2001. We have walked much of the surrounding area including the Ziver and Vuzod massifs and have followed up claims of DGB sites on both that turned out to be false. We have visited Vurkasa, where Seignobos (1982a) was told there was a site, and Vreke, where we had heard rumors of one. Neither produced sites and their existence was specifically denied by informants who included the late chief of Vreke. Since 1986, when Gerhard Müller-Kosack introduced Judy Sterner and myself to the sites, we three, together and separately, have ranged all over the northern Mandara mountains on both sides of the modern frontier without finding or hearing of comparable sites. We are therefore justified in claiming, not that we have necessarily found all the monumental DGB sites as there may well be one or two minor and/or poorly preserved ones that have escaped us, but that the presently known distribution is genuinely representative of the actual distribution. We should repeat that, with the possible exceptions of the Southeast walls structures at DGB-1 and some possible house platforms, their living sites have so far eluded us, largely because we only gained a good idea of DGB ceramics during the DGB-2 excavations of late 2002 and have had no subsequent opportunity to search for living sites during the dry season after the harvest when they will be least difficult to find.

DGB sites are also all located on or in proximity to land that required relatively little terracing to be brought under sustainable cultivation, land that in several cases had been occupied in an earlier period by farmers making use of deep and demonstrably ancient grindstones (David 1998). Here it is necessary to anticipate the results of excavations to state that at DGB-8 and DGB-2 fragments of such deep grindstones were incorporated into the rubble fill of the sites. Comparison of the distributions of immovable querns and grindstone mortars – on bedrock and boulders – shows that, while there is considerable overlap, DGB sites are not regularly associated with such grinding equipment (Fig. 2.29). The overlaps in distribution are thus not due to contemporaneity but to a shared preference for settlement on the more easily cultivated land in the mountains. This chapter has described basic features of DGB monumental architecture, introduced the reader to the sites, and made observations on their gross typology and distribution. Before attempting to interpret the nature and use of the sites we must first describe our excavations and finds.

34

Chapter 3 EXCAVATIONS AT DGB-2 This chapter begins with an introduction to DGB site stratigraphy. Then, after briefly describing the team and the procedures used during the excavations undertaken between September 21st and November 18th 2002, I describe the sequence of construction at DGB-2. There follows a description of the stratigraphy necessary to assign the finds and radiocarbon dates to phases and in which more detail is given on architectural features. Although we excavated DGB-8 earlier we report on DGB-2 first, since this site is better preserved and has been substantially less affected by human activities after it ceased to be used by the DGB culture.

moistness, matrix appeared consistently redder in the field than in the laboratory. Typical platform surfacing DGB-2 Central platform, Test 2, layer 1: 10 Y/R 5/4 yellowish brown gravelly silty sand; “reddish-brown, slightly humic matrix, containing small stones and some burnt daub fragments.” This is original daub platform surfacing weathered in situ. Terrace surfacing

DGB site stratigraphy

DGB-2 N terrace, layer 1: 10 YR 5/6 yellowish brown silty sandy gravel; “light brown gritty earth”.

The deposits on DGB sites are derived from the local granites and related rocks with some eolian materials of primarily Saharan origin contributed by the harmattan winds of winter. In the course of our excavations at DGB-8 and DGB-2 we came to recognize patterning in the site sequences whether the deposits were in primary position, as in the case of platform cores and surfacing, or in secondary position, as in the case of passage infills and materials derived from platform surfaces. These patterns are described below

Original daub surfacing weathered in situ, here differing from the previous sample primarily in a higher proportion of gravel, most probably because it was taken from relatively lower in the sequence. On the West terrace at DGB-2, cultivated for many years, the top 10 cm were described as “loosely packed light brown soil,” gravel and imported water worn pebbles becoming more common in the 10-20 cm unit.

Construction of DGB platforms and of those terraces that we have excavated began by clearing down to bedrock. Bedrock sometimes took the form of slabs but more often of granite decaying in situ and with a somewhat irregular surface. Over this, the body of the typical DGB platform or terrace is formed by a core of rubble blocks of various sizes, originally with little or no matrix between them, much of what is presently found having accumulated by infiltration from above after initial construction. The surface of the rubble was then crudely sealed by the deposition of smaller rocks in the interstices between the uppermost blocks, and the whole was overlain by gravelly silty sand or silty sandy gravel, identified by our workmen as of the kind used today for making, with the addition of water, daub for building walls and laying floors (see Dfig. 3.16). We often refer to this material as daub; however it may have been deposited dry except perhaps for a surface layer that could well have been beaten. Centuries of weathering and biological action have affected the character of the matrix, most obviously its color which became browner with humification (the breakdown of plant materials that grew on the platforms). Characterizations of various kinds of deposits are listed below. Judy Klassen’s characterizations of sediment samples in the laboratory under full spectrum light (see Appendix) precede, in quotes, our field descriptions of the deposits including the larger inclusions. Due to

Atypical platform surfacing DGB-2 Central platform, Test 1, layer 1: 10YR 4/2 dark grayish brown, gravelly silty sand; “brown humic matrix”. The southern part of the Central platform at DGB-2 appears never to have received typical surfacing; this sample was taken from an area disturbed by animals and hunters.

Either during site use or soon after abandonment, some of the platform surfacing described above was washed over platform edges. Where quickly buried, as for example on lower steps of staircases and in passages, it retains its red color. We cannot distinguish between such deposits and identical materials used to regularize the surface of passage floors. In basal deposits immediately above bedrock there is a mixture of daub and rotting granite. Lower deposits DGB-2 Northeast platform, South entrance exterior, layer 2: 10 Y/R 5/4 yellowish brown, gravelly silty sand; “mottled reddish-brown gritty soil”. DGB-2 Northeast platform, South entrance exterior, layer 2b: 10 Y/R 5/4 yellowish brown silty sandy gravel; “hard, redder, grittier material with many stones”. DGB-8 South platform, passage, layer 2a: 10YR 5/6 yellowish brown silty sandy gravel; “hard, gritty, yellowishred sand with clay cement”. These samples consist mainly of daub redeposited from platform surfaces, becoming harder with depth, sometimes

Performance and agency to the point of requiring a pickax to dig. The hardness was misinterpreted in the third example as being due to the presence of clay cement.

Sandy gravel obtained from a streambed and deposited in a silo. Waypoint 114, Stream bed, 10YR 6/4 light yellowish brown sand.

Basal deposits DGB-2 Southeast platform, North entrance exterior, layer 2c: 10YR 4/4 dark yellowish brown gravelly silty sand; “hard stony reddish material containing small rounded river pebbles of quartz”.

Material gathered from a local streambed for purposes of comparison with the previous sample and differing from it primarily in the lower proportion of gravel.

The team

DGB-8 South platform, North stair, layer 2b: 10YR 5/6 yellowish brown silty sandy gravel; “hard, gritty, reddish deposits with many small stones but few rocks”.

Team members fully engaged in the archaeology consisted of Nicholas David, director, Andrea Richardson (2003), then a Master’s student, and Owen Murray, artist and photographer. Jean Korné, a Mafa welder and handyman resident at Guzda, was engaged as foreman and rapidly learned to excavate, teaching by example and communicating with the workmen on our behalf when their French was inadequate for the task. Eight male residents of Mtskar were hired to excavate DGB-8 and twelve from Kuva formed the main workforce at DGB-2.

This material differs from the lower deposits described above primarily in the presence of material deriving from the decaying granite bedrock. Collapsed platform materials A second phase of platform deterioration begins when, primarily as the result of vegetation forcing out wedges and weakening façades, platform edges collapse, releasing facing blocks, rubble and matrix onto the deposits below. We do not know how long it takes for this to occur, but the period is often to be measured in centuries rather than decades. Human demolition of platforms would have indistinguishable effects.

We were assisted by archaeologist Frank Kense on a full time basis between October 15th and November 12th. Judy Sterner was primarily responsible for collecting oral traditions relating to the sites but, together with our assistant, Baldena Mbozoum, on occasion took over responsibility for an excavation unit. Gerhard MüllerKosack with his assistant, Paul Jikdayé Zlagana, were working on broader historical questions but also helped out. Jean-Marie Datouang Djoussou, a student at the University of Yaoundé conducted a study of Mafa terracing later incorporated into his Master’s thesis (2003); he too excavated from time to time. Edward Matenga, the Conservator of Great Zimbabwe, visited us for two weeks in November in the capacity of consultant to ICCROM charged with making recommendations on the conservation of DGB sites (Matenga 2002).

Upper passage infill DBG-8 North platform, South stair, layer 1: 10YR 4/3 brown gravelly silty sand; “rubble in brown humic matrix”. The sample is of the matrix typically found associated with rubble infill. In the North platform Main trench at DGB-8, apparently identical matrix was associated with the rubble core of a platform from which the original surfacing had been removed as a result of cultivation and erosion. Middle passage infill DGB-8 West passage, layer 1c-2a: 10 Y/R 5/4 yellowish brown silty sandy gravel; “patchy in color, ranging from reddish to ‘beige’ or ‘khaki’”.

Excavation procedures With only two archaeologists full time on site until the welcome arrival of Kense, the training of local excavators and the constraints of a prolonged rainy season, money and matériel militated against maintenance of the exhaustive notes and three-dimensional controls that characterize the well-tuned excavation. On the other hand, digital photography allowed us to maintain a good visual record. Intensive study and reconciliation of images, field notes, records of samples collected, plans and other data have allowed us to achieve syntheses that accurately, if not always very precisely, represent the complexities of the construction and depositional sequences. I betted that, by digging two sites at a fast pace while avoiding the destruction of architectural features, we would learn more and have a better chance of stimulating further research than if we carried out two or three limited but highly controlled test excavations – and that we would not in the process lose or destroy any critical information. I believe we won the wager, but that is for others to judge.

At the interface of upper rubble infill and lower deposits, the character of the matrix results in part from the duration of weathering of underlying redeposited daub layers, and in part from simple admixture of upper infill and lower deposits. Other materials DGB-2 Northeast platform, West passage, outer chamber interior: 10YR 4/4 dark yellowish brown sand; “light brown to ‘grayish’ sand, grit, and a scatter of stones fallen into the chamber overlying a thin horizon of mottled reddish-yellow sand traversed by roots and containing a few river pebbles and several small rocks”. These are deposits on the floor of a chamber in a roofed passage. They combine construction debris with sand introduced by water filtering down through platform surfacing. DGB-8 North platform Silo, layer 3: 10 YR 6/4 light yellowish brown sandy gravel; “coarse riverine sand and fine gravel”.

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3. Excavations at DGB-2 designed to elucidate this sequence, obtain artifact assemblages related to phases, and to define the functions of the site and its parts – while doing minimal damage to DGB architecture.

Rubble platform or infill deposits on DGB sites are formed of blocks frequently 40 cm or more in maximum dimension lying at all angles and often with space between them. Such open rubble precludes the maintenance of archaeologically respectable section walls or vertical spit limits. Measurements below surface or below datum (BS or BD and always in centimeters) in such deposits are approximations. Digging in rubble requires the maintenance of considerable batter on trench walls, especially when, as in the case of DGB-8, the torrents of a prolonged rainy season threaten serious damage. On the other hand, the nature of the rubble effectively precluded disturbance by burrowing animals larger than a ground squirrel. What vertebrates did penetrate the site – mainly snakes and rodents – seem to have done little damage, though they are no doubt responsible for downward displacement of matrix and small artifacts. Snails also seek spaces in rubble to estivate and often die. All matrix excavated was passed through a 7.5 mm sieve.

Physical connections and especially abutments of architectural elements permit development of partial sequences, but this is of no help if construction took place simultaneously in different parts of the site. For example, we lack independent means of radiometric or typological dating precise enough to discriminate between, say, the building of the West terrace and the first episode in construction of the Northeast platform. We have therefore to rely on similarities such as the infilling of passages and the construction of exterior staircases on the Southeast and Northeast platforms to cross-date those platform sequences. We can in this particular instance support our inference by reference to the stratigraphy of the courtyard area between the platforms, but this is unusual. Our definition of three construction phases represents the reading of the evidence that makes the best sense in the light of our present understanding of DGB sites (Fig. 3.2).

The naming of excavation units is sometimes problematic. Thus by the end of the DGB-8 excavation we had discovered that the trench dug along the west wall of the South platform, the “South platform West wall trench”, was actually dug for most of its length into the eastern edge of a Southwest platform unrecognized at the start of the dig and for a while misidentified as a “Southwest Courtyard.” We retain the South platform West wall trench designation as the trench was dug to investigate this feature. In describing the stratigraphy, we have integrated various parts of this trench that were excavated at different times and different names. The same principles are applied elsewhere.

In phase I, episode 1, the Central, South, and North Central platforms were built and, in episode 2, the West Terrace. The building of a “thick wall” to create the Southeast passage is also, we infer, associated with phase I. Phase II saw the construction in two episodes of the Southeast and Northeast platforms, and the addition of the North terrace. Phase III was characterized by a remodeling of access to the Southeast and Northeast platforms that involved the infilling of passages and demolition of earlier features besides the building of staircases that, taken together, imply significant differences in access to and, by implication, use of the site. Dfigure 3.1 shows simplified plans of the site at the end of each phase.

Before beginning an excavation unit, the person in charge would equip himself or herself with bags for potsherds and other finds. Their labels specify the unit and spit to be excavated, the latter usually in BS terms. However, because spits were adjusted wherever possible to the stratigraphy, there is sometimes a disparity between the bag label and what was actually dug. Unlike layers, which are the product of post-excavation analysis, bag labels relate directly to field notes.

Phase I The Central, Southern and North Central platforms Phase I, episode 1

The construction sequence at DGB-2

Construction at DGB-2 began with the clearing of the footprint of the Central platform – or at least the line of its façade (wherever observable) – down to bedrock, followed by the building of the platform and its East stair (Dfigs 3.2 and 3.3).

Figure 3.1. shows the plan of the site as revealed by excavation in November 2002. Prior to excavation we had been unable to distinguish the South and Southeast platforms, nor was it clear that the North terrace was a built feature (see Fig. 2.13). Visible wall abutments indicated several construction events. In the course of excavation we were able to refine this sequence into phases, defined as the expression in architecture of a plan that may subsequently have been elaborated but without fundamental change in the form or use of the site. Phases are subdivided into episodes, each of which subsumes one or more construction events. Excavations were

The relationship between the South and Central platforms is problematic. The South platform façade, surviving in places up to 185 cm high, abuts the Central platform in the west, as does its lower part at the eastern end. However, its upper part is here fully integrated into the Central platform wall. From this junction an exploratory trench was dug westwards along the projected original southern edge of the Central platform. This showed that the façade sinks below the surface and is locally buried

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Performance and agency this extension and the adjacent part of the Central platform were either not built up to the same height as the latter platform’s north end, or possibly were lowered at some later date. The mixed fill used to build the upper part of the South platform, where it is up to 75 cm deep, and the southern portion of the Central platform thins to the north, lensing out along a line of depressions extending eastwards from the West stair. These represent not a passage or a silo but merely the openwork rubble characteristic of lower platform fill that, for whatever reason, was either never sealed and covered with daub or, as mentioned above, later lost its upper layers. The rubble pile on top of the Central platform may derive in part from digging in this area, perhaps by persons hunting ground squirrels.

beneath up to 80 cm of heterogeneous fill before rising again to the west. At first we thought that the wall must have collapsed or been torn down before the South platform was built. However, the discovery of open rubble (in typical fashion forming the bottom layer of the South platform) packed against the base of the buried Central platform wall argues for intentional placement of blocks rather than wall collapse. Higher in the sequence, lenses of fill, some containing fragments of burnt daub, extend across the line of the Central platform southern wall, linking the fill of the two platforms (Dfig. 3.4). We interpret this to mean that the south end of the Central platform as originally planned was never completed, nor, unlike its northern part, was it surfaced with daub. Instead the platform surface area originally planned was enlarged by the addition of the South platform, though

Figure 3.1. Plan of DGB-2 showing units excavated in 2002, surface and subsurface features.

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3. Excavations at DGB-2 At the southern end of the South platform the exposure by erosion of some tilted slabs invited more exploratory digging. The state of preservation here is very poor as the result of repairs and the displacement of wall facing blocks by bushes growing out of the platform. We found no evidence of a staircase but cannot entirely exclude the possibility that a ramp, similar to the sloping original floor of the covered passage leading into DGB-1, might once have given access to the South platform. If so, it would be a unique feature and its lower portion has been entirely destroyed.

The West terrace and Central platform West stair Phase I, episode 2 In the north the West terrace abuts the North Central platform; its southern limit is unclear, partially hidden by a rock pile, but it must once have connected to the South platform. We dug three trenches in order to understand the nature of the terrace and establish a stratigraphic connection between the base of the Central platform and the façade and free-standing wall that form the western limit of the terrace. The Central platform rests on bedrock that slopes down to the west. The sequence of deposits on the terrace’s western side is that typical of DGB platforms. As bedrock rises on its eastern side, the rubble thins and disappears, only the upper deposits extending to the foot of the Central platform wall. Cultivation has dispersed any activity-associated artifact clusters that may once have existed. The top of the Central platform is disturbed in the area of the West stair, resulting in damage to the latter’s top course or courses, and making it difficult to reconstruct its and the platform’s original height in this area. It was something over 2.25 m. Our excavation of the West stair left the fig tree and the wall blocking the stairwell in place. The staircase is narrower, 55 cm as against 80 cms, than the East stair and less well constructed (Dfig. 3.5). The wall of the stairwell, particularly on the north side, is uneven and poorly made. The steps were made with one or two stones rather than three and were not curved in the same way as in the E stair. Neither are the treads tied into the stairwell walls, nor is its opening integrated into the Central platform façade. All these characteristics are consistent with the stair being an insertion into the platform, added to give access to the West terrace, rather than an original feature. The West stair gives the impression of being intended for less formal use than the East stair, and this accords with the presence of a freestanding wall around the W terrace.

Figure 3.2. The construction sequence at DGB-2. Phases refer to phases of construction and not cultural phases sensu Willey and Phillips (1958).

The suppression by infilling of the West stair most probably occurred with that of the East stair at the start of phase III.

The North Central platform abuts the Central platform and although not all the northern facade of the latter is visible on the surface enough can be followed to make it clear that it was completed before the North Central platform was built. Construction of this platform in turn preceded the building of the West terrace which abuts it to the west. It seems most economical to consider that the building of the North Central platform constitutes a construction event comparable to that of the South platform and to retain it within phase I, episode 1. While no part of the North Central platform was excavated, its northeast limit and connection to the North East platform were clarified as we worked in that part of the site.

The “Thick Wall” forming the Southeast passage At a time that could be contemporary with the building of the Central platform or as late as the start of Phase II, a thick wall was built to the east of the Central platform, following its curve from just south of the east stair around to the southwest, thus defining a passage about 80 cm wide. Inasmuch as passages are an important feature of DGB sites, we infer but cannot demonstrate that it was an original element of the site. It is even harder to attribute a utilitarian function to this passage than to the one at DGB-8.

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Performance and agency the East Central entryway at DGB-1. Blocks were piled against the eastern side of the thick wall and the newly constructed lobe was defined to the east by a typical façade, supported lower down the slope by one or more skirting walls of which only small parts are presently traceable on the surface. A deep depression in the rubble of the eastern part of the platform is interpreted, on evidence from the Northeast platform presented below, as the collapsed remains of a silo that formed an integral part of the new construction. The southern end of the thick wall was also incorporated within the platform but subsequently rendered unrecognizable by modifications dating to phase III.

Phase II The Southeast platform A formal north entrance spanned by at least two stone lintels was added at the north end of the passage and at the same time the eastern part of the platform was constructed, incorporating the thick wall, the squared northern end of which was preserved. At the same time the northern end of the passage was spanned by a lintel that in turn supported (in a manner reminiscent of corbeling) other rocks and deposits, forming a bridge over the passage about 1 m wide (Fig. 3.3; Dfig. 3.6). Placing this lintel required adjustment of the upper part of the Central platform façade. Although we found no other lintels along the line of the passage, more may remain buried beneath passage fill which was only excavated to bedrock at the northern and southern ends. However we doubt that more of the passage was covered, at least with stone. Had there been stone lintels, there would have been no obvious need in phase III to infill the passage with rubble and potsherds. More probably considerable space would have remained beneath the lintels as there is at DGB-1 in the covered passage in the Central platform that leads from the sunken courtyard out onto the western terraces.

As with the east entrance to the South platform passage at DGB-8, one entered the northern entrance to the Southeast platform passage over a threshold and an interior step set in reddish daub (layer 2c).

The Northeast platform Our excavations in the Northeast platform were less extensive than those just described, focusing on its southwestern ‘neck’ in which we had observed a lintel low within the platform and beneath a thick overburden of in situ rubble. This appeared to be part of a lintelcovered passage leading down into the body of the platform. Excavation began south of the neck at the boundary between the edge of the platform and a rubble strewn area that extended south to the north entrance of the Southeast platform. As noted elsewhere, we may regard this area, bounded on three sides by the Southeast, Central and North Central, and Northeast platforms, as a courtyard open to the east that formed the main entrance to the site during phase II. The courtyard sequence is typical of off-platform deposits formed by erosion (Fig. 3.4; Dfig. 3.7); that is to say that a basal layer, mottled and here containing rounded quartz pebbles, relating to the period of construction and use of the site, was overlain by daub-derived material containing architectural burnt daub fragments, redeposited from platform surfaces. This was overlain by rubble resulting from the partial collapse of the North Central and Northeast platforms and from suspected recent diggings, probably made in the course of hunting, that had exposed the low lintel. Removal of these deposits revealed a façade bordered to the west by the North Central platform and to the east by a phase III feature, a skirting wall or buttress that supports the main body of the platform (Dfig. 3.8). The façade is pierced by three features: two blocked passage entrances of phase II and a phase III staircase.

Figure 3.3. DGB-2: sketch by Owen Murray of the lintel and other rocks roofing the north end of the Southeast passage, as seen from within the passage.

Phase II, episode 1 The Northeast platform was built in a single episode. This involved the construction of two passages in the neck part of the platform adjacent to the North Central platform and of the main body of the platform to the northeast. The West passage, something under a meter wide, was built as two façades, one against rocks laid along the façade of

The conformation of the new entrance gave access both to the East stair onto the Central platform and to the passage. Since we found no boundary between this new entrance and the eastern part of the Southeast platform we can infer that they were built as a unit, very much as with

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3. Excavations at DGB-2 formed the floors of the chambers which were strewn with a mixture of construction debris and material, mainly sand, fallen from between the lintels. The West and East passages were built at the same time. If this were not the case then we should have found, either on the surface or in the course of digging down, the remains of a façade to the east of the lintels covering the West, chambered, passage. This does not exist: instead there is a continuous spread of typical platform deposits over this area. The same argument applies to the remainder of the platform. We have no reason to subdivide the building of the Northeast platform into episodes. The significance of a well-marked depression in the eastern part of the Northeast platform became apparent late in the season when Owen Murray noted that several layers of blocks apparently in situ bordered the depression’s southern side. The blocks, held in place by the rubble behind them, form a downwards widening arc (about 1.5 m across at the top and extending down beneath the upper 1.5 m presently visible) like that of the interior of a large silo, but their inner surfaces do not form a smooth façade. This arrangement is best accounted for as the remains of a silo that has collapsed in on itself leaving a partial impression in surrounding tightly packed rubble. While no such arc was detected on the Southeast platform the similarity in the form and relative location of the depression make us reasonably confident that a silo also existed in that area. The relationship between the far end of the East passage and the bottom of the silo is unknown. We dared not work in this area for fear of collapse of the rubble overburden.

Figure 3.4. DGB-2, Northeast platform: section at the west end of the South entrances trench. the North Central platform and extending from it between 0.7 m and 1.5 m in width. Its eastern facade was built against the rubble that separates the West and the East passages. The latter enters the platform and led, curving from the façade down to the northeast to connect with the low lintel noted above. Beyond this lintel we could see others descending into the platform in a north-northeasterly direction. Neither the West nor the East passage passes through the platform. The West passage, as at DGB-8 shallowly S-shaped in plan, is compartmented by walls inserted across it to form two chambers. Only 60 cm separate the inner face of the north wall of the inner chamber (227 cm long by 92 cm across and 182 cm high) and the outer face of the north wall of the platform. The chamber wall was thus built as the inner side of the platform facade. The wall separating the inner and outer chambers was constructed before the roof lintels were set in place. Then the smaller outer chamber (115 cm long by 90 cm across and 185 cm high) was formed by walling up the passage entrance. We accessed the chambers by digging down from the surface to the stone lintels and by removing the southern lintel over each chamber.

It was probably at the end of this episode that earth containing river pebbles imported at some cost in labor was laid down the courtyard area extending from the Northeast platform’s south entrances across to the north entrance of the Southeast platform. Erosion of materials from platform surfaces would have begun the moment the platform was completed.

The North terrace Phase II, episode 2 Façade abutments demonstrate that the building of the North terrace postdates the construction of the West terrace and of at least part of the Northeast platform. It is therefore assigned to phase II, episode 2 as it seems unlikely that it would have been added by phase III builders whose primary concern was rearranging access to the site. A small test pit against the west wall of the Northeast platform demonstrated that this terrace is a DGB construction with a typical sequence. It also revealed something approaching the original state of a DGB façade. In that part of the Northeast platform wall that had been buried in the course of building the terrace and was thereafter protected by it, a multitude of wedges held the wall blocks tightly together, giving a more finished impression (Fig. 2.4). Here the façade lacked the

The width of the passage narrows from 90-95 cm at the base and mid-height to about 75 cm below the lintels. The walls are quite well coursed but not as finely finished as platform façades. The north wall of the inner chamber and the wall between the chambers are less well constructed with no attempt at coursing and cruder use of wedges. The wall blocking the entrance to the passage was built after the lintels had been set in place, with masons initially working on both sides. As the wall reached about 1.4 m in height the mason on the inside crawled out through the gap, from which point on up the inner face is irregular. More care was expended on its outer side. Decaying bedrock with the occasional slab 41

Performance and agency gaping cracks seen higher up that result from displacement of wedges, caused by weathering and by vegetation growing in cracks, followed by movement of blocks. The same effect was seen on that part of the North Central platform façade revealed by the trench dug down into the Northeast platform to reveal the lintels roofing the West passage (Dfig. 3.16). Although there are several places on the upper Northeast platform wall in this area where vertical alignments of block edges had suggested possible entrances, the test excavation demonstrated that these linear arrangements did not continue below ground level. There was never a passage entrance on this side. It is unclear why the North terrace was built unless to extend the West terrace and/or to support the North Central and Northeast platforms. A pile of rubble separating the North from the West terrace presently renders it somewhat difficult of access. Perhaps for this reason the North terrace appears to never to have been cultivated, with the result that its upper deposits have retained their original lithology to a greater extent than elsewhere. Within the pile of rubble mentioned above, which mainly represents the remains of the free-standing wall around the West terrace, was found a French coin dated 1923.

Figure 3.5. DGB-2, Southeast platform: the south entrance to the passage is blocked by a wall built at the start of Phase III and a staircase built against it leads up onto the platform.

Phase III Phase III is characterized not by substantial new construction but by a remodeling of parts of the Southeast and Northeast platforms that implies significant changes in access and in use of the site.

south end of the Central platform and the South platform may also have been sources of passage infill. This would account for their lower heights in this area. From the generally good preservation of the passage walls it would seem that the infilling happened very quickly, but a partial wall collapse on the west side suggests that either filling was not everywhere complete, or that there was later slumping of the passage infill which in turn allowed the upper part of the wall to fall in. It was in this area, where the original top of the wall had been less than 50 cm BD, that a small industrial metal buckle was found in the fill at a depth of 137 cm BD. Presumably this had worked its way down either through interstices in the rubble or as the result of animal (rodent, reptile or amphibian) action. It reminds us that much of the brown humic matrix of the upper passage fill may postdate the initial infilling.

Remodeling the Southeast platform Remodeling of the southwestern part of the Southeast platform involved radical changes to access to both this and the Central platform. These affected the thick wall that had created the passage in phase I and the phase II addition of an entrance at the north end of the platform. Indeed the passage and entrance were obliterated. The southern end of the thick wall and adjacent platform materials were taken down as necessary in order to build an exterior staircase up onto the platform (Fig. 3.5). In the passage of time this stair has been largely destroyed, but enough remains to show that it was of a new and different type, little recessed into the platform and with a broad bottom tread that is outwardly convex and higher ones that are likely to have been straight.

Filling in the south end of the passage was hardly necessary to support the new staircase but was part of a radical alteration of access and movement about the site which also involved infilling the Central platform East stairwell and the Southeast platform North entrance. The East stair was blocked off by a crude rock wall of which only the lower part remained in place at the time of excavation, bulging outwards from the weight of rubble packed into the stairwell behind. In the area of the North entrance, infilling involved some collapse or throwing down of lintels, but no wall was built across it.

As part and parcel of this remodeling, the newly built façade that forms the back of the staircase was extended west as a free standing wall to block the south end of the Southeast passage. The passage was then filled up with earth, rubble and cultural debris consisting mainly of potsherds. Some of the infilling may have come from the eastern portion of the Southeast platform which retains none of the surfacing that is likely once to have had. The 42

3. Excavations at DGB-2 modification to the covered passage below. Unfortunately, after the site ceased to be used, not only did the upper part of the staircase itself decay, but the pre-excavation surface topography suggests the possibility of post-abandonment digging in this area, both adding to the difficulty of deciphering the precise sequence of events. We did not remove a second ex situ lintel that lay across what remained of the passage near its entrance, but dug behind it, following the passage as it curved to the northeast towards the low lintel. Having established the connection between the modified entrance and the remainder of the passage, we did not dare excavate further beneath a massive and potentially unstable rubble overburden. It would seem that the passage in this area was not more than 150 cm high.

Symmetry would suggest that the blocking of the Central platform West stair and the infilling of its stairwell took place at the same time as that of the East stair, but this cannot be demonstrated. After blocking of the West stair, there would have been no easy access to the West terrace unless one existed in the poorly preserved areas to the north or south of its free-standing exterior wall. The Northeast platform sequence suggests that one or more of the fragmentary skirting walls supporting the Southeast platform on its eastern side may have been constructed at this time.

Remodeling the Northeast platform Here too phase III begins with destruction and infilling of a passage, an event no doubt charged with significance. The southern, exterior, part of the East passage was torn down in order to build a staircase up onto the platform (Dfig. 3.8). To gain the required width it was necessary to obliterate the passage entrance. This involved removal of lintels and of the upper part of its walls. Once a space had been cleared, blocks were set in position to form the west side of the new stair. This intruded into the area of the East passage entrance and at the same time broke the line of the façade, moving it a few centimeters to the south. A fragmented lintel forms part of this new façade and spans the remains of the older passage entrance, which was reduced in width and in height. In its present position the lintel forms an integral part of the western side of the stair. It also testifies to the only building accident we can identify at either DGB-2 or DGB-8: either it was dropped or a large rock was dropped on it, shattering it into five pieces.11

A last addition, added after the staircase, was a thick skirting wall that is well preserved next to the staircase but loses integrity as it extends around to the north. Partially buried under rubble, it is not clearly identifiable in fragmentary wall remains on the steep northern side of the platform. Remains of comparable skirting walls extend around the eastern side of the Southeast platform, but more work would be required to attribute them to phase II or III.

DGB-2 Stratigraphy In this section I describe the depositional sequences of the units excavated at DGB-2, giving more details on some of the features, primarily in order to establish as closely as possible the relative ages of the artifacts from the various layers. This is a task fraught with uncertainty as so much of the assemblage is in secondary position, having been dumped in passages or otherwise redeposited. Very few artifacts can be considered primary refuse, i.e., found in the place where they were first discarded.

Whether or not the Phase III builders felt it necessary for structural reasons to infill the surviving outer part of the East passage, these events offered them an opportunity to use it as a dump for the disposal of considerable amounts of pottery, including some almost complete vessels and large sherds, and of quantities of very poorly preserved bone. This is suggestive of the remains of feasting, a possibility we investigate in the context of the ceramic assemblage as a whole. A similar concentration of bone was found outside the passage at the same depth in layer 2b and may well represent the same disposal episode.

Description takes the following form: Unit name followed by a brief description of its location, the reason it was excavated and other salient information. Layer number as finally defined and “as excavated”, followed by a description of the deposits.12 Layer numbers are specific to the excavation unit and do not necessarily correlate across units.

The staircase combines old and newer features. Its lower part is recessed but not tied into the platform as is the Central platform East stair. As to the upper part, the west side is missing and the east side is poorly integrated with the body of the platform. The treads are straight rather than curved, but there is, unlike the Southeast platform staircase, no exteriorly convex bottom step. The surviving remains curve upward slightly to the northeast. As its construction proceeded, the staircase rose upwards and back into the platform, requiring less and less

A brief discussion of the phase attribution of the finds follows. It should be emphasized that admixture of earlier or later materials is almost always possible. We are concerned here to assign ceramic series and other artifacts to broad groups that can be situated chronologically relatively to each other. These groups are named: phases I, I-II, II in situ, II redeposited (at the start of phase III), II-III, and I-Mafa, this last including

11

Our workmen worked with bare heads and hands and soft shoes, flipflops, or bare feet. They suffered no more than occasional minor bruises, cuts and scrapes despite their manipulation of picks, axes, and hoes, and constant manhandling of large rocks.

12

Depths are given in centimeters Below Datum (BD) or Below Surface (BS) and, unless otherwise indicated, should be regarded as averages for the layer in question.

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Performance and agency Discussion

materials from deposits that have been extensively reworked and are thus subject to post-DGB admixture. There are no deposits that contain uniquely phase III materials. More information on phase attribution of artifacts is given in chapter 5.

This test was of value in showing that a passage did not extend from the blocked West stair into the platform, nor was there any evidence of a silo in this area. The artifacts recovered from this disturbed area could be of any age from phase I to the present. However, inasmuch as we were unable to identify any post-DGB occupation in the immediate vicinity, it is likely that most finds are contemporary with the site.

Central Platform (Phase I) Five excavation units impinged on the Central platform, the northern part of which is higher by thirty or more centimeters than the southern. At the foot of the slope between the two parts a discontinuous series of depressions are aligned west to east from the West stair almost to the eastern edge of the platform, with an extension northwards to the west of the East staircase. A pit recently dug by hunters through the upper deposits into open rubble is at the north end of this line of depressions. The Central platform Test 1, at the intersection of the west-east and north-south lines of depressions, was designed to check for the existence of a passage or possible silo.

C Test 2 Test 2, measuring 1.5 by 3.5 m, was laid out at on an approximately NW-SE orientation at the northern end of the Central platform and approximately 2 m southeast of the junction of the Central and North Central platforms. It was excavated in order to examine the construction sequence of the interior of a platform and to search for possible sub-surface structures. Layer 1 “Spit 1” (0-40 BD)

Central platform Test 2 was a 1.5 by 3 m trench dug into the northern part of the platform also in the hope of finding subsurface features. It too was abandoned when it was seen that the typical DGB platform sequence extended over the whole area.

Reddish-brown, sandy matrix, containing small stones and burnt daub fragments, overlying and penetrating rubble lying only a few centimeters beneath the surface. Quartz pebbles were not noted in this deposit. As we found no trace of subsurface structures, the test was abandoned. Pottery was present (2 kg) but not common given the size of the unit.

Excavation of the East staircase showed it to possess features stylistically identical to two at DGB-8. An original feature of the Central platform, the staircase’s southeastern corner had been partially dismantled in phase II and rebuilt to accommodate the lintel that spans the northern end of the Southeast passage. In phase III the stairwell was blocked off and filled in. The well preserved top of the stairwell establishes within a few centimeters the original height of the northern part of the Central platform.

Discussion Although the surface of the Central platform has been subject to erosion over the centuries, this part of its subsurface appeared little disturbed by humans. Perhaps because of its relative difficulty of access or because of the presence of a Mafa wind shrine, the platform seems never to have been cultivated. This was confirmed by informants. The tripartite sequence of coarse daub over small rocks over rubble blocks is typical of the better preserved platforms and terraces at the site.

Central platform Test 1 This informal unit represents the rapid investigation of a depression about 1.1 m in diameter in the platform surface, located 7 m south-southwest of datum and at the eastern end of a line of depressions terminating to the west in the blocked West staircase. We had thought that the depression might indicate the presence of a silo or a passage, however it more probably represents recent hunters’ digging in an attempt to recover a ground squirrel: a similar pit located close by was identified as such by local residents.

Contamination by more recent materials may have occurred, but the ceramic series should be primarily of phase I age.

East Stair The East stair was recognized as an entrance into the Central platform early in the excavation of the Southeast platform’s North entrance. Its excavation involved removal of infilling that had occurred at the start of phase III. The stairwell measures 56-72 cm wide by 190 cm from front to back, and is 172 cm deep.

Layer 1a “Clearance” (20-105 max. BD) Rubble, with some large blocks at the surface, and brown humic matrix. At this point, not having discovered any subsurface features and seeing that rubble continued down, we abandoned the test. A total of 7 kg of potsherds was recovered, a considerable amount given the small size of this unit. In addition there was one upper grindstone and a quartz hammerstone.

Layer 1b “Unblocking” and “0-80 BS” (20-100 BD) Rubble with brown sandy matrix in the upper portion and open rubble below on the western side of the unit. A thin reddish deposit was noted on the first step down at 81 BD. 4 kg of pottery were recovered.

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3. Excavations at DGB-2 large blocks in the remaining infill hindering progress and their removal risking collapse of the blocking wall, excavation ceased. Outside the stairwell the deposits consisted of rubble in a brown humic matrix. Within the stairwell large rocks predominated in the infill and the matrix was similar. An estimated 35.3 kg of pottery were collected mainly at or near the surface. A ground and polished stone chisel (catalogued as 86:1) was recovered on the first step down from the top of the staircase.

Layer 1b “80-base” (100-217 BD) Rubble, open or with a brown sandy matrix, overlying steps at 106, 143, 180 and 217 BD. On the second and third steps down (and perhaps on steps below) there was a ≤5 cm deposit of reddish material. 1.6 kg of pottery, a small bone sample, and a carbon sample (not run) were recovered.

Discussion This is the best preserved staircase; the horizontal top of its stairwell indicating that, while platform surfacing materials were undoubtedly reduced in thickness by erosion, there has been no significant erosion or removal of structural blocks. This establishes the approximate original height of the Central platform.13

Discussion This staircase is of the same general type as those identified at DGB-8 and the Central platform East stair. It is however significantly narrower and less well-built – a necessary consequence of having been inserted into a preexisting platform – and seems likely to have served a less public function.

The East stair was preserved by being infilled in a single episode at the start of phase III. The entrance to the stairwell from the passage was roughly walled off and the area behind filled with rocks topped with more rubble in an earthy matrix. The rough walling, which has sagged into the North entrance, was recorded as surviving to a height of ca 125 BD and may have existed above. If so, it was not recognized in excavation. The reddish deposit on staircase steps is a sample of the original surfacing of the platform carried down by erosion from the platform surface and buried before weathering had resulted in a color shift into the brown range.

The large majority of the artifacts recovered come from above and around the remains of the stairwell rather than from its infill. While we might expect most of the series to date to phase I both before and after its construction in episode 2, disturbance, repairs and infilling in phase III might have introduced later phase II materials.

South Wall trench West of the point where the east side of the South platform joins the south wall of the Central platform, the Central platform south wall disappears below ground surface reappearing some 5 m to the west. The exploratory South wall trench, actually dug into both the Central and the South platforms and approximately 0.5 m wide, was dug to establish the relationship between the two platforms in this area.

Layer 1b is equivalent to the same layer in the Southeast platform North entrance and the artifactual materials are likely to date to the preceding phase II. There may be some contamination with more recent materials at the top of the sequence but, since the infilling was brought up to the level of the platform surface, this is not likely to be important and does not justify designating the upper level as layer 1a or even 1a-b.

Layer 1 ”South wall clearing” (35-140 BD at the southernmost point of Central platform)

West Stair

The deposits along the line of the wall were somewhat variable. At the east end some 30-40 cm of rocky light brown earth overlay up to 35 cm of reddish earth containing burnt daub fragments. The latter deposit does not exist further west and probably represents a dump. At different points along the line of the Central platform wall, one or other of these deposits extends unbroken from the Central across to the South platform, overlying the wall. The unfinished top of the Central platform’s South wall descends rapidly if irregularly from its eastern junction with the South platform wall at 45 BD to depths of 90-116 BD, before rising again to the surface at 70 BD near its western junction with the Central platform. Open rubble typical of platform interiors is packed against the Central platform wall, which continues down below the arbitrary base of excavation at ca 140 BD. The trench was rich in potsherds producing an estimated 32.2 kg. Lithics included an upper grindstone and an iron amulet was recovered from the eastern end of the trench.

The West stair, attributed to Phase I, episode 2, was dug to investigate the western end of the discontinuous and irregular linear depression in the surface of the Central platform that extended from a blocked entrance to the location of Test 1. The stairwell proper is 155 cm long by 55 cm wide. Layer 1 “Clearance” (27-117 BD) The initial test excavation was extended in search of passage walls about 50 cm to the north of the stairwell and for over a meter beyond it to the east. In the process, somewhat irregular blocks that delimited the staircase on its northern side were isolated at a depth of about 68 BD under some 50 cm of overburden. Realizing that she was dealing with a staircase, Andrea Richardson ceased digging outside the stairwell. She went on to find two steps, at 98 and 117 BD. There are probably three lower steps, but at this point, with

Discussion 13

The South Wall trench is important both for its contribution to understanding the history of site

It also provides a strong indication that at DGB-8, where the stairwell tops slope down towards platform margins, there was collapse of the outer portions of platforms and some general reduction in platform height.

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Performance and agency Layer 1a “0-10 BS” (211-221 BD)

construction and because the rich ceramic series is broadly attributable to phase I, episode 1.

Loosely packed light brown earth with, localized along the southern edge of the unit, quartz pebbles (well-rounded by stream action) and gravel (small rock fragments varying from angular to rounded), some imported from a stream bed. There were very few larger rocks. The 1.3 kg of pottery consisted of small sherds.

South Platform (Phase I) South Test The south wall of the South platform is in parts poorly preserved and elsewhere shows evidence of repairs, probably by Mafa. In order to investigate the possibility of a staircase suggested by a large slab, about a meter of the wall was cut back.

Layer 1 “10-20 BS and 20-30/40 BS” (221-231 and 231240 BD) The 10-20 BS spit contains deposit similar to but slightly redder than above with pebbles and gravel in the southwest corner and tree roots in the south. The lower spit was described as reddish sandy material with some gravel but no pebbles. Many small angular rocks (≥ 5 cm) were present at the base of the layer. In the upper spit the sherds weighed 2.6 kg and tended to be larger in size. In the lower the 1.9 kg of pottery was concentrated in the south half of the unit. A small fragment of iron flow slag was collected.

Layer 1 Clearing of vegetation and loose rubble revealed the slab first noted and another higher and further back from the façade. Both are tilted down to the south, but as they are not set into any structure and were underlain by rubble in a brown matrix, we concluded that they form part of the platform core (Dfig. 3.09). The test was abandoned. There was much (20.8 kg) pottery.

Layer 2 “Below rock pavement” (240-270 BD) The upper part of this deposit, which was only excavated in the southern 1.5 m of the unit, consisted mainly of small angular rocks and sandy reddish matrix. They overlaid larger rocks, some over 50 cm in maximum dimension, that continue down to bedrock, which slopes down to the west. 0.6 kg of pottery was recovered.

Discussion There was no staircase up the south wall of the South platform. Unlike the trenches on the West terrace and Test 2 on the Central platform, but like Test 1 and the South wall trench on that platform, our very limited excavation produced a lot of pottery. The construction of the southern part of the Central platform and parts if not all of the South platform made use of whatever materials, including midden deposits, were readily available. Instead of the formal standardization of the construction sequence found in several other parts of the site, here the impression given is of builders working against time and making use of whatever materials lay to hand.

Discussion is postponed until after the two other tests on the terrace have been described.

West terrace Test 2 Test 2 was located between the west wall of the Central platform and Test 1. It was excavated to determine the relationship of the terrace to the Central platform.

Although a considerable portion of the sherds collected came from inside the platform, our excavation was superficial and undertaken in a poorly preserved area in which earlier repairs had taken place. It is possible that the bulk of the sherd collection is of phase I, but this cannot be demonstrated on the basis of its provenience. The sample is thus assigned to phase I-Mafa.

Layer 1a “Surface” Rocks from a pile extending into the unit were removed, in the course of which a kilogram of sherds was collected.

Layer 1b “0-20 BS” (212-232 BD) Mostly brown humic material, sandier in the north half of the unit and with pebbles and gravel in the southern half. A few large rocks. Two saplings were removed from the center of the unit into which penetrated the roots of the large fig to the south. Sherds totaling 4.1 kg were scattered throughout the unit with two large specimens in the south above the gravel.

West Terrace (Phase I, episode 2) Unlike any other excavated part of the site, this terrace had been used for hoe cultivation of sorghum, pearl millet and other crops for many years. The top 10-20 cm has been thoroughly and repeatedly churned over.

Layer 2 “20-30/40 BS” (232-245 BD) Hard reddish material with a little gravel traversed by large roots. The base consists of decaying granite bedrock sloping down to the west. There was less pottery (2.1 kg) than in the layer above.

West terrace Test 1 The excavation unit, dug in order to reveal the structure of the terrace and in the hope of ascertaining its function, was located near the center of the terrace, north of a pile of rubble and the fig tree that partially obscured the blocked Central platform West stair. Measuring 3 m by 1.5 m, it was oriented north-south.

West terrace Test 3 The southern edge of Test 3 extended from the freestanding wall on the west side of the West Terrace to a point 1.5 m west of the northwest corner of Test 1 (Dfig. 46

3. Excavations at DGB-2 compounds, particularly in areas used for socializing and domestic tasks, as around men’s rooms, bedrooms and kitchens. The free standing wall would have conferred a degree of privacy. The 21.8 kg of potsherds recovered from the three tests is the approximate equivalent in weight of one and a half large storage jars. This does not suggest large scale dumping, neither did we find much grinding equipment discarded in this area, which is unlikely to have been domestic in function.

3.10). It was dug to investigate the construction of the West terrace and the free-standing wall on its western side. Layer 1 “0-20 BS” (202-222 BD) At the west end of the trench a considerable amount of rubble, some relating to a recent Mafa agricultural terrace located to the south and some deriving from the freestanding wall, overlay the deposits. These consisted of the same light brown soil found elsewhere on the terrace, together with a scattering of pebbles. 5.8 kg of pottery was recovered, the larger portion from near the wall where a disproportionate number of larger sherds suggests that they were being placed or tossed for the convenience of DGB occupants or more probably Mafa farmers. Four quartz hammerstones and one quern were also found in this layer.

The finds from the surface and layer 1a could contain artifacts of any period from phase I to the present. Layer 1b and undifferentiated layer 1 series may well contain some recent materials (layer 1b rather less so) but are likely to comprise mainly DGB artifacts of phase I, episode 2. The layer 2 series are more likely to be strictly contemporary with episode 2 though they could include earlier items incorporated into terrace fill.

Layer 2 “20-base” (222-255BD) Stones and small rocks overlie open rubble of larger blocks with a little brown humic matrix between them. Roots were present near the wall. Bedrock, estimated at ca 430 BD in this area, was not reached. The layer produced 2.5 kg of potsherds, very few of which occurred in the rubble. The base of the inner side of the freestanding West terrace wall was found at 229 BD, resting on the façade of the terrace beneath.

Southeast Platform (Phases II and III) North Entrance The passage between the Central platform and the thick wall built in phase I was extended to the north in Phase II to form the North entrance. The conformation of the rubble in this area and the existence of a wall abutting the east side of the Central platform had suggested the presence of an entrance and the unit was dug to explore this possibility.

Discussion Decaying granite bedrock sloped downwards to the west of the Central platform. In order to form a horizontal terrace a platform about 2 m high with some very large blocks at its base was first constructed. The area between the façade and a contour line below the base of the Central platform wall was then infilled with rubble blocks, over which smaller rocks and stones were packed to seal the surface. Probably at this time the free-standing wall began to be built on top of the terrace facade. Only a small portion of this wall, once at least 1.5 m in height, remains upright and much of that has been repaired. Its DGB authorship, hardly recognizable at first sight, is evident in the double façade with rubble core construction and the care taken to produce a smooth façade that can still be detected in better preserved sections. Coarse reddish daub was then deposited over the roughly sealed surface of the terrace. Incorporated into this material and concentrated near the entrance to the West staircase were rounded quartz pebbles and other gravel collected from a watercourse. Similar pebbles were found scattered elsewhere in the upper deposits. The original nature of the deposits that surfaced the West terrace has been substantially modified by cultivation and weathering, perhaps also by the application of dung and other fertilizers, but it seems probable that, just as its three layer (matrix over small rocks over rubble) sequence is identical to that of the better preserved DGB2 platforms, so the nature of the matrix was once also the same.

Figure 3.6. DGB-2 Southeast platform: reconstructed profile along the center of the entrance from the excavation units “North Entrance Exterior” to “Passage South of Lintel”. The North entrance unit extends from the lintel at the northern end of the Southeast passage between the Central and Southeast platforms north to the actual entrance to the complex (Fig. 3.6). The width of the unit varies from 90 to 135 cms. At the start of the excavation a rubble slope led upwards from the edge of the platform to the ground surface above the lintel. At a later stage, a small trench was dug across and outside the northern threshold to the complex. This was designated the North entrance Exterior trench and is discussed separately below.

If the original surface of the terrace was indeed daub then it would not have been used for agriculture. Such surfaces are often laid today between structures within domestic

47

Performance and agency The layer produced 2.7 kg of sherds, some “soft and eroded”. Sherd orientation was not noted.

Layer 1a “Clearance + Surface-150 BD” (35-150 BD in area of lintel) Layer 1a, located north of the Southeast passage, comprises rubble sloping down from south to north with some brown humic matrix. It contains quantities of potsherds. Local variations in the deposits derive partly from the vegetation. A Sterculia setigera tree with 172 pairs of dark and light rings was growing in the entrance a meter north of the lintel and a hackberry (Celtis integrifolia) grows near the entrance to the platform. Their roots affect the deposits and are associated with browner coloration. Intentional dumping at the start of phase III is largely responsible for the formation of these deposits. Individual dump episodes are rarely identifiable, although just west of the Sterculia tree a concentration of rubble and pottery containing little matrix speaks of just such an episode. The pottery totals almost 9 kg. Here and throughout level 1 potsherds were oriented in all directions.

Layer 2b “Black” (262-268 BD under the lintel) A black greasy lens complex up to 10 cm thick, less compact than 2a but locally interspersed with it (Dfig. 3.11), extends north for over a meter from the lintel, sloping slightly downwards. It included very few stones of any kind and may represent the remains of fires lit on the platform surface and washed down into the passage where they spread out over an surface incised by small erosion channels. This lens contained 2.9 kg potsherds, mostly lying flat rather than randomly oriented, suggesting that this surface had remained exposed for some time.

Layer 2c “Lower red” (268-285 BD under lintel) This material was excavated in the area between a step about a meter from the north entrance and the southern limit of the unit, formed here by a rock step at the passage entrance beneath the lintel. The deposits consisted of hard, reddish material overlying looser yellow-brown sand up to 10 cm thick lying around and between bedrock decaying in situ. Pottery in this layer was sparse (0.8 kg), occurring in small fragments and often eroded. A small rectangular iron fragment was recovered at 291 BD.

Layer 1b “Upper and 150-242 BD” (150-169 BD in area of lintel) Rubble and brown humic matrix is permeated by tree roots. A slab ca 85 cm long was found lying along the passage east of the East stair and identified as a possible fallen lintel. The top of another lintel, this one in situ, was identified at 70BD at the northern entrance to the passage. It supports other rocks, covered only by a poorly developed sod, that roof the northern meter of the passage (Fig. 3.3). This was left in place. To the north and west of the lintel an opening into the Central platform was identified which after further excavation was recognized as the infilled top of the Central platform East stair. A small portion of its upper infill was included with this excavation unit. An estimated 59 kg of pottery necessitated sampling. Lithics collected included upper grindstones, a granite pestle, several quartz hammerstones, a piece of polished greenstone (24:9), and the butt of a flaked ground stone axe (43:1).

Discussion is postponed until after consideration of the adjacent Exterior unit.

North Entrance Exterior This unit initially extended from a step within the entrance at a depth of 275 BD north to a line some 80 cm north of the entrance, in which area it extends west-east from the wall of the Central platform to a line 30 cm east of the entrance. Layer 1a and part of 1b had already been removed in this area with the North Entrance unit and the sequence starts within layer 1b-c.

Layer 1c “Yellowish” (169-240 BD in area of lintel) A yellowish rubbly layer with considerably more matrix than above was recognized at 169-240 BD under the lintel and at 209-232 BD to the north of the Sterculia tree. It thinned down slope to 275BD at the entrance, becoming indistinguishable from layer 1b near and beyond the threshold. A small part of the rubble deposit filling the top of the deliberately blocked Central platform East stair was removed with this unit, but the rest was excavated separately. 18.5 kg of pottery included a small complete black bowl (53:1) recovered from under the lintel. Several iron artifacts, a tanged knife (53:2), a small knife or arrow head (53:3) and a socketed sickle with a broken tip (53:5) were found in the same area and a quartz lip plug (64:1) lay at 236 BD just above the base of the layer. Two carbon samples were collected but not run.

Layer 1b-c “275- Red” (275-315 BD) Rubble, brown humic matrix with roots present. A broad granite threshold was discovered at 309 BD at the entrance to the complex. The distinction between this layer and the underlying redder deposits was less clear in this part of the site due to the penetration of tree roots and proximity to the surface. Pottery was present in abundance, totaling 19.2 kg and a socketed hoe-like tool (91:1) was also found.

Layer 2a-b “315-338 BD” (310-335 BD) Only the area outside the threshold was dug in this and the underlying layer. Hard, stony, reddish matrix mottled with brown patches associated with root action. A charcoal stained area was noted and is visible in the base of the east section. A charcoal sample taken here was not run. One large bag of pottery (2.3 kg) was collected.

Layer 2a “Red” (232-262 BD in area of lintel) The hard reddish gravelly matrix contains substantially less rubble than above. Under the lintel, the deposit contains bands of fine gray, probably ashy, material from which we collected a charcoal sample (TO-11107) that gave a date of 460±50 BP. A meter north of the lintel a slab measuring 96 by 46 cm was embedded in the surface of this layer and identified as a likely fallen lintel. A few water worn pebbles were noted at the northern entrance to the complex.

Layer 2c “Basal gravel” (335-342 BD) The large block forming the threshold of the N entrance was shown to extend under the walls on either side, and, like the bottom course of walls, to have been positioned by means of wedges. Hard stony reddish material containing small rounded quartz river pebbles, locally clustered, were

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3. Excavations at DGB-2 concentrated in the upper part of the unit and formed a fragmentary pavement at 338 BD to the east of the entrance. A charcoal sample [TO-11106] was collected from amongst this river gravel and provided a date of 880±50 BP. The deposit rested on granite bedrock decaying in situ and, while it is generally equivalent to layer 2c inside the North entrance, material beneath the main gravel spread likely antedates the construction of the site. It seems certain that the river pebbles were intentionally laid down as part of the flooring of the site entrance, rather than having been deposited subsequent to site abandonment by erosion from platform surfaces. There was only 0.4 kg of pottery in this layer. The 14C date determined is considered to represent a terminus a quo for the site.

they have been redeposited their age within the DGB sequence must be regarded as uncertain and they are designated the phase II redeposited (IIr) series. Layer 1a is distinguished from layer 1b only because of the greater probability of contamination by recent materials. Earlier artifacts could also have been incorporated into the fill or derive from the collapse of earlier structures, but their contribution is likely to be insignificant. Similarly later materials may have worked their way down into the fill – an example from the Passage south of lintel unit is described below – but again such items are both rare and small. The layer 2a-b deposits date to phase II but may contain some phase I materials. Layer 2c is similar but with a greater possibility of admixture of phase I or even pre-DGB artifacts. However this is not evident in the artifacts recovered.

Discussion: North Entrance and North Entrance Exterior units Nature of deposits. Layer 1 represents in the main a single event that initiated the phase III remodeling of the site during which the passage and its entrances were infilled with rubble. While the mass of the infill consists of materials intentionally deposited to obliterate the passage and its northern entrance, a portion, especially of layer 1a, relates to the collapse of the entrance itself and a much smaller amount derives from long term degradation of the Central platform.

Passage South of Lintel The curved passage, oriented generally northeastsouthwest, is formed by the southeast edge of the Central platform and the wide, originally free-standing, thick wall that later came to form the west side of the Southeast platform. The unit, ca 80 cm wide and initially 8 m long, extended from just south of the lintel to a line close to the wall that blocks the passage at its south-western end. It was dug to investigate the nature, direction and extent of the passage.

At a depth of approximately 170 BD under the lintel, lower towards the north, the matrix becomes “yellowish” but the deposit is otherwise very similar: rubble in an earthy matrix rich in potsherds. This color change was taken as differentiating layer 1c from 1b but relates less to time than to depth below surface. More matrix has filtered down between the rubble blocks into layer 1c, and its yellower color results from lesser weathering and humification. These layers are a single depositionary unit.

Layer 1a-b “Upper” (40-160 BD) Rubble, brown humic matrix with, from 3.6 to 4.7 m south of the lintel, a rubble contribution resulting from the partial collapse of the Central platform wall. As elsewhere the infill was rich in potsherds with the total estimated at 175.5 kg. Fourteen quartz or quartz-rich hammerstones and one upper grindstone were found and an iron pouch amulet (36:2) was recovered at 126 BD a meter north of the wall that blocks the south end of the passage. A small flat industrial metal buckle (36:1) was found at a depth of 157 BD (ca 90 BS) in the area where the Central platform wall had collapsed into the passage. Since there seemed to be no purpose in accumulating larger samples of artifacts, excavation was stopped at ca 160 cm BD along most of the passage and at about 125 BD at the southwest end where recognition of a wall blocking the passage had led to the distinction of a South entrance Interior unit.

Layer 2 represents an entirely different type of deposition. Layers 2a and 2b consist of material from platform surfaces washed into the phase II passage either during its use or after, but necessarily before the phase III infilling. Since there is continuity between these layers in the small part of the passage excavated under the phase II lintel and in the northern entrance, it would seem that layers 2a and 2b relate primarily to phase II , and that much of whatever had accumulated in the passage previously was removed when remodeling of the entrance took place. The reddish daub-like material of layer 2c may represent either earlier colluvium or perhaps the remains of an intentional surfacing of the entrance and passage. Its yellower sandy lower portion derives from disintegration of the bedrock.

Discussion The Passage south of lintel unit was only excavated to approximately 1m below the surface. Collapse of part of the Central platform into the passage had occurred after infilling as the fill settled, allowing the industrial buckle to work its way down into the rubble. The excavation unit was entirely within the rubble layers with brown humic matrix and its artifactual contents can be considered with those of layers 1a and b in the North entrance.

The presence of river pebbles at the entrance to the complex repeats a motif of marking entrances in this manner already noted on the West terrace near the base of the blocked Central Platform West stair.

South Entrance Interior

Age of Artifacts. Layer 1 passage infill represents the initial moment of the phase III remodeling of the site and thus the artifactual contents of these layers are likely to relate primarily to the preceding phase. However, since

The southwestern end of the Southeast platform passage was blocked at the start of phase III by the building of a 49

Performance and agency stratigraphic position strongly suggest that this spit represents a first episode of dumping that initiated the infilling of the passage. It is thus comparable to layer 1b in the North entrance.

wall running from the southwestern end of the thick wall in a northwesterly direction to abut the eastern wall of the South platform. The new wall, originally well over a meter high, rested on the bedrock slabs that form the floor of the passage in this area, sloping down to the south and west. While the wall’s (south-facing) exterior surface was finished in recognizably DGB style, its inner side was formed by rocks little if at all differentiated from the rubble fill of the passage. Excavations were conducted both north and south of this blocking wall, the units being designated South entrance interior and South entrance exterior respectively (Table 3.1). The former represents fill in the south-western end of the passage not previously excavated as part of the Passage south of lintel unit.

Layer 2c “Spit 4” (200-223 BD) A wedge of material resting on bedrock remained at the inner foot of the blocking wall. It contained some blackish soil but consisted mainly of hard reddish to yellowish material some deriving from the underlying decaying bedrock. It most probably represents a mixture of deposits, some associated with and others deposited prior to the building of the wall. A 14C sample numbered 76, suggesting derivation from spit 3, was taken at a depth of 215 BD and should be assigned to this unit, but was not run. Less than a kilogram of pottery was recovered.

Since, except at the surface, there is no direct connection between the interior and exterior trenches we shall consider them separately beginning with the interior. This unit was 80-100 cm wide and extended from the blocking wall about 1.7 meters north along the passage.

Discussion The South entrance interior was excavated down to bedrock. The general stratigraphy was closely comparable to that identified at the northern end of the passage, the differences being associated with building of the blocking wall at the south end of the passage.

Layer 1b “Upper” and “Spit 0” (125-165 BD) A good part of the upper deposits had been removed as part of the Passage south of lintel unit. The Upper and Spit 0 units removed the remainder of the rubble and its brown humic matrix. A considerable amount (11 kg) of pottery includes the upper part of a two-storey pot with an everted rim. Some small fragments of bone were collected.

The layer 1b series is identical to that from further north with the spit 3 materials separate as representing the first dumping episode. Layers 2a and b are similarly identical to those further north. The small layer 2c (spit 4) series may also be assigned to phase IIr despite the possibility of admixture with earlier materials.

Layer 2a “Spit 1” (165-180 BD)

South Entrance Exterior

In order to build the wall blocking the southern end of passage, the DGB workers, as was their custom when building walls, dug down to bedrock in order to obtain a firm base. In doing so they must have removed some of the materials already present in the passage. It appears that the deposit in the northern and western part of spit 1, described as “reddish-yellow soil” is the equivalent of layer 2a further north. In the southern and eastern part, extending less than a meter from the wall and most of the way across it, the excavators found “a sterile, tightly packed, rubble layer that blended into the blocking wall.” This is best considered as part of the wall. The reddish-yellow deposit contained less than a kilogram of pottery.

This unit was located south of the wall blocking entrance to the Southeast passage. It extended 70 cm to the southwest and was bounded to the northwest by the South platform. To the east it extended to and part way onto the phase III staircase up the Southeast platform. We found the upper part of the exterior side of the blocking wall already exposed, having been repaired by Mafa, probably in order to clear the low agricultural terrace at its foot. The lower part of the wall, later revealed by excavation, is recognizably DGB in style (Dfig. 3.12).

Layer 2b “Spit 2 180-205” and 1b “Spit 3 (180-195)”

Layers 1 and 2 “Blocking wall” (36-100 BD)

Spits 2 and 3 are similarly differentiated horizontally: spit 2 to the northwest, 3 to the southeast. Spit 2 was characterized as a black soil filling in a depression, though we suggest that its south eastern edge represents the line along which the wall builders cut in order to reach bedrock. Spit 3 is described as rich in burnt construction daub “around and below” the rubble of spit 1. It also contained a great deal of pottery. At the northern end of the unit bedrock appeared at 195 BD. The nature and contents of these spits confirms their very different origins. Spit 2 produced 3.2 kg of pottery including a unique bulbous pot neck (77.1, Fig. 5.8:1). This is consistent with it being, as is layer 2b to the north, primarily composed of materials eroded from platform surfaces. Spit 3, on the other hand, produced an estimated 26.3 kg of sherds, a density comparable to that of layer 1b elsewhere. The dual concentration of pottery and burnt daub combined with its

The upper, repaired, part of the blocking wall was removed to the general ground level. The artifactual material recovered included 0.8 kg of sherds and an iron tool socket (66:1), the latter seemingly identical to modern Mafa examples.

Layer 1 “Spit 0 and Spit 1” (100-125 BD and 125-162 BD) Brown earth with numerous small rocks. Progressively more of the blocking wall is revealed in this and lower layers. 5.6 kg of potsherds were recovered from spit 0 and in spit 1 an abundance (12.2 kg) of potsherds was associated with a small amount of fragmentary mammalian bone.

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3. Excavations at DGB-2 TABLE 3.1. THE SOUTH ENTRANCE AND SOUTH STAIR TRENCHES: EXCAVATION UNITS AND LAYERS.

South Stair Excavation units Layer Spit 1: 125-150 BD 1 Spit 2: 150-175 BD Absent Spit 3: 175- 220 BD Bedrock pavement

3

and

South Entrance Exterior Excavation units Layer Spit 0: 36-125 BD 1a Spit 1: 125-162 BD 1 Spit 2: 162-192 BD Absent Spit 3: 192-~215 BD reddish loose soil Bedrock to north and a surface within layer 3 to south (later dug down to pavement as part of South stair Spit 3).

3

Blocking wall “Blocking wall rubble” 36- ≥ 99 BD with in situ wall top defined at 99 BD

Base of wall at 228 BD Bedrock

S Entrance Interior Layers Excavation units 1b Upper: 30-125 BD 1b Spit 0: 125-165 BD 2a 2b 1b 1-2

Spit 1: 165-180 BD Spit 2: 180-205 BD Spit 3: 180-1950 BD Spit 4: 200-223 BD Bedrock

Note that as the deposits were often steeply sloping, the depths BD given should be regarded as averages.

Layer 2 “Spits 2 and 3” (162-192 BD and 192-215 BD)

both in the process. The South stair was less well built than the inset Central platform East stair: its elements were applied onto rather than tied into the platform. Thus, like the South stair on the Northeast platform, it was less stable and has survived only in close proximity to the blocking wall.

Reddish earth with stones, more compact towards the base. The first step of the Southeast platform South stair was exposed at 182 BD. The base of the unit at ca 215 BD is formed in part by bedrock and immediately south of the wall by an irregular pavement of rocks at the foot of the South stair. Pottery remains common (8.5 kg) in spit 2, less so (1.4 kg) in spit 3. A small lump of rusty iron (79:1) and three bone samples were collected in spit 2.

In order further to investigate the relationship between the passage, the south end of the thick wall and the staircase, a South stair unit was excavated. This involved extending the South entrance exterior trench some 50 cm to the south. Test 2 extended this unit a further meter around the base of the South stair. Prior to excavation some further cleaning of the staircase removed rubble from on and around the four fragmentary steps of the staircase but did not identify any more treads.

Discussion The stratigraphy in this area at the foot of the South and Southeast platforms is quite different from that on the inside of the blocking wall. Here all or most the deposits were formed after the phase III wall and South stair had been built. The excavated area forms part of a Mafa agricultural terrace in the construction of which there may have been considerable movement of earth, rocks and artifacts. The color difference that distinguishes layers 1 and 2 is devoid of archaeological significance. In both layers, materials including artifacts may have derived from the partial collapse of the South platform, the blocking wall, the south end of the thick wall that formed the Southeast passage, the South stair, and from deposits and artifacts introduced into the area, perhaps in the process of terrace building, at dates subsequent to the abandonment of the site.

Layer 1 “Spit 1 and Spit 2” (125-150 BD and 150-175 BD) The deposit consisted of brown earth with many rocks down to a reddish surface 4.4 kg of potsherds were collected in spit 1 becoming more abundant in spit 2, where they totaled an estimated 22.9 kg. .

Layer 1-2 “Test 2: spit 1” (186-205 BD) Although lower in absolute terms, spit 1 of test 2 appears comparable to layer 1 and the upper part of layer 2. It produced 6.3 kg of sherds.

As it is impossible to distinguish materials from these different sources on the basis of their stratigraphic positions, it follows that the archaeological materials from these units are of little evidential value at least for seriation despite the majority being probably of DGB origin. They may date to any part of the DGB occupation, or later.

Layer 2 “Spit 3” (175-230 BD) Reddish earth with stones down to bedrock (sloping down to the southwest) and rocks laid on bedrock to form a (now at least) somewhat irregular paving at the base of the South stair. Pottery was here remarkably and inexplicably more abundant (23.6 kg est.) than in the adjacent spits 2 and 3 of the South Entrance Exterior unit (9.8 kg). An iron arrowhead (124:1) was recovered at 214 BD.

South Stair and Test 2

Discussion

The phase III South stair up the Southeast platform was built onto and into the south end of the phase I thick wall and adjacent portion of the Southeast platform, damaging

The stratigraphy in this area is identical to that of the adjacent South entrance Exterior trench and the same 51

Performance and agency Pottery was collected to an estimated total of 20.8 kg. Other artifacts included two upper grindstones and four hammerstones.

cautions apply as to the age and derivation of the deposits and their artifactual contents, which is to say that they must be assigned to phase I-Mafa and may include postDGB materials.

Layer 2a “Reddish” and “Spit 2” (294-311 BD in NW corner)

Southeast platform Test 1

A trench was now opened in front (south) of the entrances, laid out on a WNW-ESE axis and extending almost seven meters from its junction with the North Central platform eastwards to beneath the phase III skirting wall supporting the Northeast platform. The deposits, sloping down over 20 cm from west to east, consisted of more compact reddish brown earth with some stones, a few rocks and inclusions of burnt daub. Carbonaceous and bunt daub rich lenses are visible in the profile at the western end of the trench (Fig. 3.4). 8.5 kg of pottery included a stopper for a narrow-necked jar (135:1). A barbed iron lance (135:2) was located in front of the eastern blocked entrance at 347 BD. Fragmentary bone in this layer included Bos teeth.

In order to investigate the top of the South stair and the relationship between the Thick Wall and the eastern portion of the platform, a test unit oriented ENE-WSW and approximately 2 m by 3 m in area was excavated in the southwestern portion of the platform next to the thick wall. Layer 1a “Surface” Loose material and 1.2 kg of sherds were removed.

Layer 1b “Spit 1” (47-77 BD at the east end and 55-90 BD at the west end)

Layer 2b “Spit 3” (311-353 BD in NW corner) and ”Spit 4” (353-368 BD in NW corner)

Rubble, some open and some with light brown humic matrix between the elements. The upper part of the southeastern face of the thick wall was now seen to show the characteristics of a DGB façade. As no subsurface structures had been found, the excavation was abandoned at this depth. 4.2 kg of potsherds were recovered.

Hard, redder, grittier material with many stones and some large rocks probably fallen from the façade continues down to a gravelly layer first reached at 375 BD in the northeast corner of the trench beneath the skirting wall. Spit 4 represents more of the same material dug westwards from that point to expose the surface of the gravel. In the west profile, a red lens rich in burnt daub fragments crosses the spit boundary. 10.8 kg of pottery were recovered, including, from in front of the eastern blocked entrance and at the base of the level, an almost complete bowl-mouth jar at the base of spit 3 with the neck and part of the upper body of another placed carefully over it (Dfig. 3.15). Protected by a large adjacent rock, for a considerable period they had lain partially buried, as is indicated by erosion of their upper surfaces. Beneath them in spit 4 was a concentration of bone in the extremely poor state of preservation characteristic of DGB sites. This concentration is at the same depth as another found in the midden layer 2a-b of the East passage (see below) and, despite the blocking of the entrance to the East passage that physically separates them, both may have been deposited in the same disposal event. An iron hoe-like tool (138:1) was found at the base of spit 4 in the northwest corner, and an upper grindstone was recovered. Two carbon samples were taken from spit 3, one (137:1) from the base of the blocked entrance to the east passage and the other (137:2) from the southwest corner of the unit at 318 BD. From spit 4 a sample (138:1) of charred bone [TO11108] gave a date of 280±50 BP. This should be regarded as a terminus ante quem since it proved impossible to extract clean collagen and the material dated, the total organic residue after demineralization, may be contaminated by later materials.

Discussion This test demonstrated that the thick wall was indeed a wall. It also showed that the upper part of the South stair had not been preserved. While there was no trace of any kind of subsurface structure within the area of test 1, a marked depression to the north and east probably represents a collapsed silo. It is likely that most artifacts from spit 1 were deposited at the time this part of the platform was being built. They would therefore be of phase II or earlier date. In this context it should be noted that in 2001 a ground stone ax was found on the northeast side of this platform embedded in rubble stratigraphically equivalent to spit 1.

Northeast Platform (Phases II and III) South Entrances During survey a lintel had been noted set back low on the southern side of the Northeast platform (Dfig. 3.13). The South entrances unit was excavated in order to investigate this feature and possible entrances along the south side of Northeast platform. Dfigure 3.14 shows the spits as excavated.

Layer 2c “Spit 5” (368-378 BD in NW corner)

Layer 1 “Cleaning & Spit 1” (250-290 BD in NW corner)

Mottled reddish-brown to yellowish-brown matrix with river gravel, penetrated by roots, resting on bedrock. There was considerably less (1.3 kg) pottery in this layer.

Loose rock and dark soil were removed in the area south of the low lintel and down the slope to the south. This initial exploration removed surficial materials and revealed walling that incorporated two passage entrances and a staircase along the south side of the platform.

Discussion Prior to excavation, the concave conformation of the ground surface south of the low lintel, where a heap of

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3. Excavations at DGB-2 rubble was to be expected, suggested that hunters had been digging for game. In the process they would have dislodged rocks and earth some of which would have come to rest on the slope to the south and some perhaps further down the eastern slope beneath the site. This loose overburden produced the majority of the deposits removed as layer 1, although rubble fallen from the area of the southern junction of the North Central and Northeast platforms also contributed. By the time this unit was completed much of the Northeast platform’s South staircase had been exposed. The remaining spits cleared the lower part of the staircase and revealed the complex southern façade of the Northeast platform, with its two blocked passage entrances dating to phase II and the stairway added, as on the Southeast platform, in phase III. During that remodeling the eastern passage entrance had been much reduced in height and width.

the lintels that roofed the West passage. In the southern part of the area where the platform surface was not preserved this involved the removal of rubble, some of it loose and some in situ, extending west to the façade of the North Central platform. Further north a formal trench extended over an area of 8.7 m2 along and across the line of the passage.

The deposits of layers 2a, 2b and 2c are similar to the layers with the same designations in the Southeast platform North entrance seven meters distant across the courtyard partially enclosed by platforms but open to the east that we infer constituted the main entrance to the site during phase II. The continuity of layer 2c from one side of this courtyard to the other is strongly suggested by its position directly overlying bedrock and the presence of quantities of imported river gravel containing rounded quartz pebbles. But in the area of the Northeast platform South entrances layers 2a and 2b postdate the construction of the phase III stair, while in the Southeast platform North entrance they predate the infilling of that area at the start of phase III. It would seem that, in addition to the destruction of the exterior part of the East passage, all or most of deposits in the area of the South entrances that had formed above layer 2c prior to phase III were removed in order to build the base of the staircase up the south side of the Northeast platform. There seems, however, to be a good probability that all or some of deposits removed for construction purposes would have been replaced. If so layer 2b would represent materials redeposited from the North Central and Northeast platform surfaces in phase II that was later removed and re-redeposited in phase III.

Although excavated prior to spit 1, the Rubble above West passage unit corresponds stratigraphically more closely to Spit 2. The deposit consisted of open rubble and a little light brown matrix. Lintels were exposed at the base of the unit. The Rubble above West Passage unit produced 0.4 kg of sherds whereas spit 2 was sterile except for the obviously ritual deposit of an iron amulet and a few goat or sheep bones in the lower rubble directly over the inner chamber.

Layer 1 “Spit 1” (105-125 BD) Spit 1 was dug in the area of the formal trench. The deposits consisted of small stones and river pebbles in a light brown gritty matrix overlying rubble, some blocks reaching almost to the surface (Dfig 3.16). A little over 0.1 kg of sherds was recovered and a few bone fragments.

Layer 2 “Rubble above West passage” and “Spit 2” (125-180 BD)

Discussion The trench revealed the typical DGB platform building sequence. The addition of river pebbles to the original daub-like upper surfacing is of significance and, together with the offering found in spit 2, emphasizes the ritual significance of the West passage and its contents. The small series from spits 1 and 2 are well associated with the building of the platform and can, with the usual provisos regarding contamination, be attributed to phase II. The larger, but still small, collection of sherds from the Rubble above West passage, only some of which was in situ platform material, is likely to include a few phase I artifacts from the North Central platform, phase II materials from the Northeast platform, and later elements.

West passage and chambers

Layer 2c can be attributed, like 2c across the courtyard, primarily to phase II. Layer 2b dates to an early moment in phase III, though its artifactual series may well contain a good proportion of phase II materials. The deposition of a complete, pierced, pot in Spit 3 of layer 2b may represent a ritual of closure or abandonment. The layer 2a deposits derive from the same erosion of platform surfaces as layer 2b but those of layer 1 are of a later time during which the façades of the North Central and Northeast platforms had begun to collapse. Their artifact series can also for the most part be attributed to phases II and III.

The passage and chambers were described above as part of the construction sequence. Despite care taken by the builders to fill in gaps between the lintels with small rocks, some sand had fallen into the chambers in antiquity. We dislodged more material, particularly when lifting the southern lintel over each chamber in order to obtain access. Outer Chamber “First chamber interior” (375-385 BD) Beneath light brown to “grayish” sand, grit, and a scatter of stones fallen into the chamber was a thin horizon of mottled reddish-yellow sand traversed by roots and containing a few river pebbles and several small rocks. We interpret this material, with the exception of the river pebbles, as construction debris and the rocks as unused wedges. Near the northeast corner a rock some 40 cm long by 25 wide by 30

Trench over West Passage “Test 1” In order to avoid disturbing DGB walling, this trench was dug from the surface of the Northeast platform down to

53

Performance and agency cm tall may have been used as a step to assist in entry and exit. Two bowl-mouth jars (Fig. 5.1) were located in the northwest corner of the chamber, resting against the wall and tipped towards each other in such a way that the mouth of the larger was cupped by the mouth of the smaller (Dfig. 3.17). A hole had been pecked through the upper body of the larger jar and there was pecking in a similar position on the smaller that had not penetrated the vessel wall. Beneath the larger pot were four bowl sherds, two of which fitted together and a rim sherd that formed part of a small almost complete bowl (147:3) found underneath, containing bone fragments and traces of what might have been ochreous oil. In the northeast corner of the chamber next to the rock was another large bowl sherd, very poorly made.

edge at 323 BD. Slightly lower was a concentration of bone fragments and pottery, mostly bowls and pots. Among these pots was a pedestalled bowl (149:1, Fig. 5.4:10) with its base present but broken off, the mouth and neck of a bowl-mouth jar and a legless tripod cooking pot (149:3, Fig. 5.3:7) with a flange around its lower body and a tall, bowl-like, rim which explains its designation as a “two-storey” pot. Pots and sherds totaled 13 kg. A cuprous button-like bead (149:4) was found at the very base of this layer towards the south end of the unit. Two carbon samples were collected but not run.

Layer 2c “Spit 3” (370-385 BD) Reddish sandy soil, yellower below as it grades into bedrock rotting in situ. Potsherds totaled 1.4 kg.

Inner Chamber “2nd chamber” (401-408 BD)

Discussion

Beneath material dislodged in the course of excavation, the bedrock floor of the southern part of the chamber was overlain by 5-8 cm of reddish-yellow granitic sand with inclusions similar to those found in the outer chamber. Mottled browner deposits in the northern part were full of fine rootlets. Some unused wedges were scattered about. More obviously than in the case of the outer chamber, a rodent’s nest and droppings, besides insect parts and a peanut shell indicated that this was a living environment. Similarly too, a pot, in this case a black bowl (150:1) with one sherd broken from the rim, had been placed in the northwest corner. It contained granitic sand probably fallen through the roof. A few fragments of unidentifiable bone may represent a mason’s or a rat’s lunch.

Infilling of the passage followed the narrowing of its entrance during phase III remodeling and must have taken place over a very short period, perhaps the DGB equivalent of a day’s spring-cleaning. Layer 1 consists of building debris associated with phase III but which may well originate from phase II structures. Layer 2a-b represents a midden 70 cm deep and contains materials likely to be primarily of phase II date. The layer 2c deposits formed in phase II prior to the phase III (layer 2a-b) disposal event.

The deposits in the two chambers show no special characteristics and belie the obviously ritual character of artifact deposition in the two chambers. This juxtaposition of the banal and the ritually charged is still characteristic of regional cultures. The artifacts are firmly dated to phase II.

The small layer 1 series is most likely to contain redeposited materials of phase II with some phase III or later materials. Layer 2a-b comprises a well-sealed context, the artifacts within it most probably dating from phase II. Artifacts associated with the layer 2a-b disposal event may well have been pressed down into layer 3, but since it also is dated to phase II this is of little account. It is best to assign this whole series to the phase II redeposited category.

East Passage “Test 2”

North Terrace (Phase II)

Surficial debris had been removed from this area as part of South entrance layer 1.The East passage unit mainly comprised midden deposits filling the lower portion of the east passage over an area 1.6 m in length, extending from the low lintel south to a fallen lintel 50 cm behind the blocked entrance. Remodeling in order to accommodate the base of the stair had reduced the width of the passage to a minimum of 50 cm wide. Towards the north it retained its original width of ca 80 cms.

North Terrace Test

Discussion

A 1.5 by 1 m test pit was dug along a short section of the northwestern wall of the Northeast platform starting 2.2 m from the junction of the North Central and Northeast platforms. It investigated the possibility that the chambered passage in the Northeast platform emerged in this area. Layers 1-2 “Layer 1” (250-355 BD)

Layer 1 “Spit 1” (285-300 BD)

The top 25-30 cm was a light brown gritty earth. From 275 to 290 BD, the deposit was composed of small rocks (≤10 cm) in a red gravelly matrix. Below 290 BD, the deposit was open rubble to the base of the excavation. The wall base was not reached. The test produced 0.9 kg. of pottery.

Light brown, fairly loose, gritty dirt containing stones and rock fragments. Its removal exposed the tops of what is left of the original passage walls. The layer produced 1.4 kg of pottery.

Layer 2a-b “Spit 2” (300-370 BD)

Discussion

Mottled reddish-brown gritty soil with a few rocks, numerous artifacts and a little burnt daub. Many roots. Besides one heavily eroded upper grindstone in this layer, a piece of a quern was found tipped on its end with its top

The North terrace was constructed in manner identical to the northern part of the Central platform and the West terrace. As already noted, that part of the Northeast 54

3. Excavations at DGB-2 earlier materials: the date must be regarded as a terminus post quem for phase II and probably all construction at the site. TO-11107 from layer 2a in the North entrance to the Southeast platform is an excellent date from deposits washed into the passage during phase II and predating its phase III infilling. The TO-11108 sample is of charred bone and, since the total organic residue had to be dated, the determination must be considered unreliable. This is unfortunate since layer 2b in the Northeast platform, South entrances unit from which it came contains reredeposited phase II and also phase III materials. Taken as a group, these dates are best read as placing phase II in the first half of the 15th century AD, but they cannot be used to infer either the date when construction began at the site or the time that it ceased to be used. Internal evidence – the consistency of phase I and II construction techniques, the absence of wear on the treads of the Central platform East and West stairs – suggests that phases I and II fit into a short period of time, decades or generations rather than centuries, and although phase III was a period of major remodeling, the builders of the time still affected DGB construction style as evidenced in aspects of the staircases and the skirting wall added to the Northeast platform. They do not appear to have left much in the way of garbage or rubbish behind them, and there seems no reason to attribute any significant duration to that phase. It is perfectly possible that from the time that the first platform was built at DGB-2, through the additions of phase II and the remodeling phase III to eventual abandonment, less than a century had passed. As is shown in chapter 5, the results of ceramic analysis are consistent with this view.

platform exterior revealed by excavation must approach the original state of DGB façades (Fig. 2.4). Although the terrace dates to the latter part of phase II its artifactual contents are most likely to relate to the phase as a whole.

Dating and Functions DGB-2 is quite well preserved once the surficial rubble has been tidied up or cleared away. Some platform and terraces retain much of their original surfacing and the site contains within it almost all the features known from the larger set of sites: platforms, terraces, skirting walls, different kinds of passage and of staircase, at least one silo and a free-standing wall. Only a sunken courtyard and the footings of structures atop platforms are missing. It certainly merits the conservation program to be jointly undertaken by the Cameroonian state, ICCROM and hopefully other institutions.

Dating Charcoal, exceedingly rare in both excavations, consisted mainly of tiny fragments and flecks. The three DGB-2 carbon samples, two of charcoal and one of burnt bone, submitted represent the largest collected, and similarly for the three charcoal samples submitted from DGB-8. Of the three dates run on DGB-2 samples, T0-11106 comes from Layer 2c “Basal gravel” over rotting bedrock outside the North entrance to the Southeast platform (Fig. 3.7). The sample may well predate the site or include

Figure 3.7. Radiocarbon (HEMS) determinations from DGB-2 (TO-11106, 7 & 8) and DGB-8 (TO-11109, 10 & 11).

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Performance and agency gesture of turning the hand around the head when making an offering. I noted in chapter 2 that flatness of façades has and presumably has long had symbolic significance in this region. The smoothness of water worn pebbles brought up with considerable effort from streambeds in the vicinity and incorporated into deposits around entrances and the coarse daub used for surfacing the Northeast platform, this too requires explanation, but in the broader context of chapter 6. Then there is a passage that goes nowhere, inset staircases that allow persons suddenly to appear on platform tops, ephemeral daub structures on those same tops – all these features are consistent with the site having besides a ritual also a performative function.

Functions It is too early to attempt to infer the functions of DGB-2: for that we need the evidence of the artifacts and of other sites. At this stage we can say what the site is not. It is certainly not a fortress of any kind, nor does it appear to be all or part of a chiefly or other residence: while pottery is present in considerable quantities, it occurs primarily as a component of passage infill. There is no coherent evidence of domesticity, no hearths, no grinding stations, no kitchens. Nor does DGB-2 appear to be an aggregation of funerary monuments. While it is possible that there is a burial beneath one or more of the platforms, we have no reason to suppose this. When we penetrated deep into the Northeast platform, we found ritual associations of artifacts and ecofacts – pots, an amulet, bones and other offerings on sherds – but no bodies and, to my relief, nothing of monetary value.

One thing can be said is that whatever the functions of the site in phases I and II, access to the platform tops was substantially changed in phase III at the same time that passages were suppressed and infilled. This would indicate either a functional or a social change, or both. Access to the platform tops was made easier, one might say democratized or even demystified. DGB-2 is the only DGB site that we know of at which such a transformation occurred, a finding that may have implications for its chronology relative to other sites.

At this stage then we should note the ritual aspect of the site while remembering that montagnard domestic architecture is similarly imbued with ritual. Among Mafa who follow their religion, the spiral, access controlling, linking of the senior wife’s room to that of the head of the household’s granary and shrine room and on to the kitchen is itself a prayer, reproducing in architecture the

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Chapter 4 EXCAVATIONS AT DGB-8 The site (10º 53.5’ N.; 13º 48.8’ E.) is located in Mtskar at 730 m on the northern side of what is here a narrow ridge between the valleys of the north Guzda to the south and of the Gwodaliy to the north, on which side the ground falls away steeply from the site with a rock outcrop at the top of the slope. The presence of shrines below and on the site and the existence of two compounds built close by on flatter ground to the south and southeast were noted in chapter 2. After clearing the bush, we made a plane table survey, soon recognizing from standing remains of walling or wall lines visible on the surface that the site had begun as a South platform, egg-shaped in plan, that was later incorporated into a larger structure that we were later able to disaggregate into North and Southwest platforms built onto the South platform’s northwestern and western sides (Fig. 4.1). As excavation proceeded we discovered a variety of previously unsuspected architectural features that we were able to incorporate into a two phase DGB construction sequence (Fig. 4.2). After abandonment by the DGB people, a third phase involving only minor modifications to the site began that continues up to the present day. This can generally be attributed to past and present Mafa occupiers of the neighborhood. The South platform is bisected by an east-west passage about a meter wide that was extended between the North and Southwest platforms westwards across the site in the second phase (Dfig. 4.1). Only the east entrance of the South platform passage, which we were told had been blocked by Mafa a generation or so ago, was recognizable on the surface. Excavation began by clearing rubble from this area and by digging a trench outside a wall line representing the western façade of the South platform. Both in these areas and elsewhere in the upper deposits, we found quantities of ceramics and other trash including rags, scraps of plastic, glass from broken Vaseline and similar bottles, and in one instance fragments of flashlight batteries. Although it is possible that some of the nonexotic materials relate to post-DGB and pre-Mafa occupation of the vicinity, most derive from Mafa compounds, now no closer than 20 m from the site but in the past built next to it, whose inhabitants continue to use the site for the discard mainly of inorganic and hazardous materials, especially pottery and broken glass, that do not add to the fertility of their kitchen gardens. Mixed in with these locally made and exotic finds were DGB ceramics that, since they are attributable to the same long-lived regional Iron Age tradition, we were unable at the time to differentiate, even though some pieces fall outside what we recognize as the present Mafa typological range. Earlier materials such as quern fragments had been lying

about at the time the platforms were being built and were used as construction materials. It was only after excavating DGB-2, where we obtained large quantities of DGB pottery, that we were able to make sense of the DGB-8 series. Even then the sharing of many technical, morphological and decorative features and attributes – secondary reduction firing, appliqué flanges, strip rouletting and many others – between the Mafa and DGB periods often makes it impossible to attribute individual sherds to one or the other cultural period.

The construction sequence and subsequent formation processes Using the same approach as at DGB-2 involving the study of wall abutments supplemented by observations of modifications to existing structures, we detected two phases of construction at DGB-8, each comprising a number of episodes and construction events. This was followed by abandonment, after which the site continued to be modified by natural processes and human activities.

Phase I The South platform and its South annex Phase I, episode 1 Prior to construction, pre-existing deposits in the area of the South platform were cleared down to bedrock. Building of the South platform with its passage, silo and staircase then took place, all three features integrated into the platform structure and having been built in a single construction event. From a floor made of small granite slabs next to the northern side of the South platform, the staircase, recessed into the platform, rises over three meters to the platform surface while curving to the east (Fig. 2.10; Dfig. 4.2). Closely comparable in construction to a later staircase on the North platform, it is less well preserved. Its steps are of less regular height, and the blocks forming the top steps (7th, 8th, and a possible 9th) have been displaced by tree roots and otherwise damaged. The South platform’s existing maximum height of 2.4 m has, we believe, been little reduced since the DGB period although no surfacing comparable to that found at DGB-2 survives either here or elsewhere at this site. The present rubble strewn surface slopes from north to south, and it is possible but, on the evidence of better preserved platforms elsewhere, doubtful that this was an original

Performance and agency feature. Blocks were in the past robbed from the site for building material and likely preferentially from its southern half. In addition, numerous fallen blocks were revealed by excavation of a test trench along the South

wall of the South annex. These presumably derive from platform collapse and extend around the base of the southern platform façade.

Figure 4.1. DGB-8: plan of the site at the end of the excavation, and idealized section from north to south onto which features have been projected. Key as for figure 3.1 with the following additions: the N1-N4 walls represented in light gray are almost certainly not DGB but fragments of Mafa agricultural terraces; LwW = Lower West wall, etc.

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4. Excavations at DGB-8 freshness of the main façade where it was hidden behind the lower would suggest that the lower wall formed part of the original plan and that its building and that of the contemporary North buttress took place immediately after the main platform. One cannot always be certain that elements attributed to one episode or event were in fact built at the same time. For example it is possible that the North platform was built years before or after the Southwest platform. Nonetheless, the existence of the West passage and in particular of the opposed stairs shows they were conceived as parts of a single larger entity. It is possible, however, that the offset alcoves at the west end of the passage represent later remodeling, as is suggested by the somewhat lower quality of their walling (Dfig. 4.4). Perhaps they were added to mimic the S-shaped line, particularly marked at its western end, of the passage through the South platform. Phase II, episode 2 This problematic episode involves the partial infilling of both silos. The evidence of the North silo, from which we have a radiocarbon date, makes clear that this occurred in DGB times and that a considerable time passed before the upper part of the silo was infilled with rubble. However, although it makes intuitive sense for the silos to have been partially infilled at the moment of the site’s abandonment or deconsecration, this could have occurred earlier.

Figure 4.2. The construction sequence at DGB-8. Phase I, episode 2 In this minor episode a small sub-triangular platform, the South annex, was built up against the southwest side of the South platform (Dfig. 4.3). Before its burial under Southwest platform fill, it was damaged and may have been reduced in height. We know of no comparable features elsewhere. Its function is unknown: there are no steps in its preserved height of 1.1 m and it would have been too high to have served as a grinding table of the kind used by Mafa and some other groups today. Careful removal, while preserving its outer shell, of rocks from its interior revealed no hidden cist or hoard.

Phase III: from abandonment to the present It has been noted above that nowhere at DGB-8 did daub platform surfacing survive in situ. Granite blocks and rubble are almost everywhere present at the surface. And yet on staircase treads and along the bottom of passages considerable quantities of reddish daub-like materials exist that we interpret as having been redeposited from above by erosion during and after the DGB period. Runoff must have removed some from the site altogether. Cultivation of parts of the site, attested by what are the almost certainly Mafa agricultural terraces N1-N4, may have retarded erosion for a while but did not prevent it. Erosion proceeded fast enough after abandonment for redeposited platform surfacing to accumulate without any obvious evidence of further weathering except just below the upper rubble infilling. With the exception of the very localized layer 1c in the West passage, South block sequence (described below), there are no buried soil horizons in passage or stairwell fill. After an undetermined interval of time, deterioration of facades began to result in collapse of their upper courses, their constituent elements being redeposited as loose rubble in passages and around the bases of platforms. Falls occurred particularly where there were corners but also in places along walls. If there were ever stone-built structures on the top of the platforms at DGB-8 – in addition to ones of daub for which we have fragmentary

Phase II The North and Southwest platforms Phase II, episode 1 Phase II began with the clearing of surficial deposits, building of the North platform with its silo and staircase, and of the Southwest platform with its staircase, only traces of which have survived. The staircases, set opposite each other, led down into the West passage formed between the two new platforms. This extends across the site the passage through the South platform (Dfig. 4.1). Building of the Southwest platform required burial of the South annex, involving damage to its upper part and to its southwest corner, which had to be partially demolished in order to patch its south wall into the Southwest platform façade. Necessarily later than the construction of the North platform was the building of a lower, skirting, wall around its north and northeast quadrants. However the pronounced similarity in style of the façades and the 59

Performance and agency probably original and the maximum height of the platform only half a meter higher. The overall convexity of the existing North platform surface results in large part from post-abandonment processes, which reduced the height of the West passage walls from about 2 m to a maximum of 1.6 m. The general tilt of the South and Southwest platforms towards the south is likely due to the same processes, together with robbing of blocks for compound building, which reduced the maximum height of the South platform passage from as much as 2.4 m to 2 m.

evidence – their remains would have constituted an additional source of passage fill. The Southwest platform, now lacking any visible façade in its southwest portion, has suffered more than any other from erosion and, very probably, robbing. Dfigure 4.4 shows that above the surviving remains of the South alcove, the rubble material comprises smaller elements than most platform cores. Much of this may be the product of Mafa dumping. It is uncertain to what extent human activity complemented natural processes in the rubble infilling of passages. Given that silos were located at the highest point of their platforms, the rubble that chokes their upper parts must, it seems, have been thrown in by people … unless silos were topped by free-standing shafts for which there is no evidence archaeological or other. Analysis of the ceramics from silo infills indicates that the sherds in the top layers (1a and 1b) of silos are primarily Mafa in origin. Such evidence strongly suggests that depressions in the site’s surface, including along lines of passages, the upper part of silos and along the West wall of the South platform, were intentionally filled by Mafa living next to the site and concerned as always to fill in pits and similar features that might constitute hazards. For much of the post-DGB period fine sediments continued to be washed down onto and into passage and silo fill and the deposits accumulating around the base of walls. Pedogenesis continued, ultimately producing the brown sandy matrix occurring in but rarely filling interstices between rubble blocks.

Stratigraphy South Platform (Phase I) The South Platform Passage The passage trench was dug to investigate the blocked entrance apparent on the east side of the platform, the only architectural feature apart from fragments of walling clearly visible prior to excavation. The trench is defined by the walls of the passage that it revealed. To determine the features of the passage’s east entrance a small East entrance trench was subsequently dug across the threshold. The phase I passage transecting the South platform is 9.4 m long, generally less than a meter wide, and up to 1.9 m deep. It is shallowly S-shaped, this characteristic being most evident in its western half. Irregularities in the bedrock of the passage floor were filled by rocks, in one case a quern fragment, and coarse daub. Where the bedrock sloped downwards towards the east entrance two steps were made, the lower exterior tread formed of a single slab, the upper inner tread of three blocks set to form an inwardly concave curve with the lateral blocks built into the passage walls. The latter form of tread is repeated in the two staircases preserved at the site and appears diagnostic of DGB architecture.

Construction and reconstruction Walling and lintels Original wall facades at DGB-8 show a high proportion of rectangular blocks and, not coincidentally, the best coursing of any DGB site (Dfig. 2.1). At least one stone lintel once spanned the stair up the South platform and another crossed the West passage between the North and Southwest platforms. The latter was found at the narrow point in the West passage where opposing alcoves overlap. It is quite possible that granite lintels were supplemented by organic ones as they are today among the Mofu Diamaré (Dfig. 4.5); indeed we could detect no other way (besides stepping across the gap or scrambling up its southern façade) of accessing the southern half of the South platform.

Layer 1a “0-50/65 BS” (105-160 BD in mid-passage; ca 200-250 BD 2m inside east entrance) Here and elsewhere on the site there was a light cover of grass, succulents and other nonwoody and woody plants. A small tree was growing out of the southern passage wall near its eastern end. The surface of the passage infill sloped steeply down to the east entrance and we began by removing an average of 55 cm of deposit, although the nature of the deposits combined with the inexperience of newly hired workers to preclude the keeping of accurate levels and at one or two places where large blocks were removed this unit reached 80 BS. Granite blocks, mostly 20-30 cm in maximum dimension, littered the surface and the deposits beneath consisted of similar, randomly oriented, angular rubble blocks with brown humic matrix filling some but by no means all of the spaces between them. There was an abundance of roots of various sizes and a fair number of snail shells. At the west end of the trench, extending into the South platform West wall trench, there was a marked concentration of small rocks in a brown matrix. As is suggested by the presence within it of large sherds of Mafa typology, this

Reconstruction We can not be sure of the original heights of the platforms, nor of their original surface contours. The evidence from other sites, DGB-1 and 2 included, would suggest that they were tabular, and that in some cases they supported structures, perhaps semi-temporary, of daub and perhaps stone. We suspect that the highest points of both the North and South mounds are, save for their daub surfacing, little reduced from their original heights, estimated at 2.75 m and 2.4 m respectively. The inner top of the North platform stairwell at 45 cm BD is 60

4. Excavations at DGB-8 concentration is likely to represent intentional and relatively recent dumping of trash and field rocks surplus to terracebuilding requirements in order to fill in a depression. There is a substantial quantity (25.9 kg) of potsherds, some heavily eroded but mostly appearing fresh and of Mafa typology, and in addition one bottle glass fragment and a smooth quartz pebble.

Layer 2 “Within entrance” A slab with its top at 331 BD constitutes a threshold and is about 30 cm thick. At 0.7 m inside at 298 BD a curved step, comparable to those found on the two better preserved staircases at the site, brings the level up to that of the western passage floor. Just behind this and between it and the two fragmentary querns laid across the passage 0.7 m further west, a depression had been infilled with rocks and hard red dirt. The notes suggest that all the sherds, totaling 1.7 kg, came from the area west of the step, but this is questionable.

Layer 1b “65-100BS and 100-140 BS” (160-240 BD in mid-passage; 250-280 BD 2 m inside east entrance) Rubble with brown matrix continues down to a redder, more compact surface at ca 225 BD in the west end of the passage, somewhat lower to the east. At the east entrance, east of a granite slab that forms a step within the entrance, brown matrix with some rubble was found down to 325 BD. The small ceramic series lacks diagnostic DGB types, suggesting that these deposits are late infill rather than a lateral variant of the hard reddish materials to the west. Because they were lying much nearer to the surface, they were subject to greater weathering and biological action. Ceramics are substantially less common (5.8 kg) both absolutely and relative to volume excavated. An iron tang, likely from a projectile point or knife, was recovered together with another glass bottle fragment. Two carbon samples were collected but not run.

Layer 1 “Outside entrance” In the small area (1.5 by 0.5 m) excavated just outside the entrance, the deposit was rubbly with a brown humic matrix overlying hard reddish deposits that were not excavated. The sherds amounted to 1 kg, coming mostly from a concentration found beneath a rock just outside the threshold. Also found was a piece of green industrial bottle glass

Discussion There were two main layers in the passage: an upper layer of granite rubble and brown humic matrix and a lower layer of hard reddish material. The latter comprises a) material left in situ when the site was cleared before building together with dirt introduced to produce an even floor, and b) similar material accumulated during and shortly after the period of use of the site by the erosion of daub platform surfacing. The differentiation of layers 2a and 2b tracks this distinction but only grossly.

Layer 2a “140-160 BS” (225-260 BD in west half; 260290 BD to the east, excluding the entrance) Hard, gravelly, yellowish-red sand containing few larger rocks. The tops of two querns of medium depth were identified lying across the passage 1.7 m from the east entrance. These would appear to have been placed to fill in a depression in the floor. Two pieces of burnt daub from the west end of the passage might indicate the former presence of structures on the surface of the platform. The 3.2 kg of sherds present are often small and worn. One small bent strip of iron was recovered and a carbon sample that was not run. Remarkably, we also found a piece of bottle glass and another of foam rubber, probably from a sandal. We cannot demonstrate that these were introduced into the trench by the heavy rain that was troubling the excavation at this time. They may therefore have worked their way down through the deposits. Two further carbon samples were collected but not run.

Although Mafa living in nearby houses have been dumping trash on the southern part of the site for generations, and depositing onto it rocks cleared from surrounding fields, it is unclear to what extent layer 1 represents intentional infilling of the passage and how much it derives from erosion and disintegration of the South platform. The generally excellent preservation of the passage walls is suggestive of rapid infill, either due to natural causes or – just possibly – intentional. The materials of the infilling came primarily from the platform itself and from any structures that may have been built upon it. Mafa were later to continue this process, preferentially depositing unwanted materials in depressions.

Layer 2b “Basal” (260-270 BD in west; 290-300 BD in the central section and deeper towards the East entrance) This layer represents a scraping down of the remaining deposits to bedrock except in the area of the East entrance which was investigated separately. The deposits are similar to those above but contain a variable proportion of decayed bedrock. In the western portion of the passage the sloping floor averages 275 BD, with a step down to 300 BD in the mid-section. 4 kg of potsherds, almost all small, were recovered, more than in the level above.

Layer 1a, attributed to phase III, is distinguished from 1b only on the grounds that, being at the surface, its artifact series are more likely to include recent materials. Layer 1b contains primarily Mafa but also DGB artifacts, the latter sometimes with eroded surfaces. Layer 2a contains primarily DGB materials preferentially of phase II and layer 2b of phase I; however it is not possible to discriminate phases on the basis of the ceramics from this unit or elsewhere in the site.

The East Entrance to the Passage

The South Platform Staircase

A small excavation at and just outside the passage entrance was undertaken to study the features present and the relationship between the passage and the exterior.

A curving line of blocks provided the first clue that an inset staircase formed part of the South platform’s northern façade. The excavation unit extended from 61

Performance and agency the stair’s functions included a public or formal aspect. This has implications for the activities on the platform top to which the stair gave access.

around the top of the stair in the south to the threshold in the northern façade. It also includes a trench outside the threshold. This was 2.4 m long and 70 cm wide and extended from the lower east wall of the North platform to the stair, across its 80 cm wide entrance and along the South platform wall for a meter to the east. Except at the top where the stairs were poorly preserved, the stairwell defined the excavation unit within the platform.

The pavement at the base of the sequence is contemporary with the stair’s construction. The hard reddish deposits overlying relate therefore either to the use of the site or to a time immediately following during which platform surfacing was being eroded down the stair and off the edge of the platforms. The dated charcoal sample from layer 2b would thus have been deposited only decades after the site’s construction. Somewhat later, the upper part of the stairwell and neighboring platform façades began to collapse, producing the rubble that formed layer 1. It is conceivable that this process was hastened by active demolition of the stairwell.

Level 1a “Superficial” (85-210 BD) Loose rubble and other debris were cleared from the general area of the staircase top, delimiting in the process the abutment of the North platform’s skirting wall onto the South platform. The artifacts were bagged separately. Excavation then removed rubble and brown matrix from the five upper steps of the staircase (the top step was not preserved). It also revealed the top of an almost vertically positioned slab in the centre of the stairwell, 86 by 25 by 25 cm in size. This was identified as a fallen lintel. The potsherds recovered from the surface totaled 0.9 kg. There were 12 pieces of industrial glass and one plastic lid. A further 1.8 kg of sherds and four pieces of industrial glass came from the deposits over the steps.

Most layer 1a material collected from the surface is Mafa, some perhaps relating to the shrines in the immediate vicinity. Other layer 1a materials include 20th century exotics. Although these are absent from layer 1b, the presence of DGB types is not obvious. Sherds from lower layers show progressively more surface erosion and can be generally assigned to the DGB period.

Layer 1b “Lower brown” (210-290 BD) The area outside the entrance was now being excavated (Dfig. 4.6). Rubble, some with very little brown humic matrix, continued downwards to a reddish surface. Step 6 was uncovered. Pottery was recovered (1.5 kg), including tripod legs of Mafa type, and one piece of glass.

The Silo Construction of silos is the inverse of platform façades, which is to say that they are built up, together with the platform of which they form part, of more or less coursed blocks of granite held in position by the rubble surrounding them. The South platform silo is located on the northern half of the South platform at its highest point, a meter southwest of the staircase. Next to the Mafa shrine protecting against the return of the nndodiy, a curved line of blocks marking part of its circumference was first noticed by our foreman, Jean Korné, late in the season. It was excavated to determine its form and function and to compare it with the North platform silo. This circular feature has an opening 1.1 m in diameter at the surface, widening to 1.2 m at 50 BS, 1.3 m at 1 m BS, and retaining this diameter with minor variations to its base at 2.07 m BS (242 BD) (Dfig. 4.7) . Layer 1a “0-40 BS” (35-90 BD)

Layer 2a “Lower reddish spit 1” (290-318 BD) Hard, gravelly, reddish deposits. A single slab forms step 7, and the top of the threshold, formed by 2 blocks, was revealed. Potsherds totaled 1.6 kg. A carbon sample was collected but not run.

Layer 2b “Lower reddish spit 2” (318-358 BD) The deposits outside the threshold continue down without a break to a paving of small granite slabs, rarely more than 20 cm in maximum dimension, that overlay bedrock on which the walls of the platform are built (Dfig. 4.2). The threshold blocks are superimposed on a long slab that extends under the platform wall to the west. Potsherds totaled 1.3 kg. There is one possible slag fragment. A carbon sample (TO-11109) gave a date of 490±50 BP.

The surface was disturbed by foot traffic across it during the excavation and there was a scatter of backdirt from other excavation units. Once this had been cleaned up and discarded, excavation of rubble in a brown humic matrix revealed the sub-cylindrical form of a silo. Two of the blocks forming the top course of the silo had been displaced inward, probably by the tree growing just to the north, the roots of which penetrated deep. A few small sherds were found totaling 0.4 kg.

Discussion The South platform stair shows characteristics typical of the inset type of DGB staircase. It was built into the platform at the time of its construction and its upper part is built on a curve, in this case to the left from the perspective of the person ascending. The steps are irregular in height and some of the inwardly concave treads are constructed in a highly characteristic manner with either a larger rock or a pair of smaller ones forming the central part of the tread with smaller ones set at an angle on either side and built into the stairwell wall. These attributes are best expressed in steps 4, 5 and 6 from the top. The probable lintel found in the stairwell together with the feature’s monumentality suggest that

Layer 1b “40-80 BS” (90-130 BD) The deposit consisted of rubble blocks and smaller rocks (510 cm max. dim.) in a brown humic matrix. The rarity of potsherds totaling only 0.4 kg contrasts with the presence of a quern fragment, an upper grindstone, and the presence of scattered and highly fragmentary animal bone

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4. Excavations at DGB-8 with two small concentrations in the west and the north of the unit.

The West Wall Trench, including its North and South extensions (Phases I and II)

Layer 2 “80-135 BS” (130-185 BD)

The West wall trench was, together with the clearing of the South wall passage, the first unit excavated on the site (Fig. 4.3). The southern half of the South platform presently slopes down about 50 cm from the passage to its southern edge. The West wall trench was designed to expose a portion of its western façade, establish its base and recover artifacts contemporary with platform construction and use. It was originally 1.25 m wide and 2 m long, following the line of the façade.14 We later dug a North extension, 1.4 m long, in order to open the western entrance to the South platform passage and to expose the south wall of the North platform (Dfigs 4.8 and 4.9). This part of the trench coincides very largely with infill of the West passage between the North and Southwest platforms. Finally, a South extension, running 2.4 m to the south wall of the Southwest platform, incorporated a 50 cm step that had been left at the southern end of the original trench in order to facilitate access. South of this step we discovered a subsidiary platform, the South annex, abutting the South platform. Exposure of this feature, and the partial collapse of the trench’s west wall brought about by heavy rains, required the trench to be widened to 2 m at its southern end.

The matrix is lighter yellowish-brown sand, becoming redder with depth, containing many angular gravel-sized fragments. A few large rocks were found lying flat but without any apparent pattern. Potsherds are substantially more common and total 5.7 kg. Two upper grindstones were recovered.

Layer 3a “135-164 BS” (185-215 BD) There is a marked change in the deposits to hard red, gritty material comparable to that found elsewhere in the site beneath the rubble deposits, and requiring a pickax to dig. The 1.5 kg of potsherds are mostly very small but include a diagnostically DGB neck and mouth of a bowl-mouth jar. A carbon sample was collected at 194 BD but not run.

Layer 3b “164 BS - base” (215-242 BD) Very hard red material with small angular rock fragments continues; large blocks are absent except for two at the base. The walls of the silo rest on bedrock, which at 242 BD is higher than in the passage to the south (297 BD) and at the base of the staircase (360 BD). Over 7.3 kg of pottery were present in this layer. At the top there were some small, worn, sherds. Lower down in the western half were the fragmentary remains of a large, tall rimmed, red ware jar with twisted-strip rouletting on the shoulder. This accounts for most of the sherd weight recovered. As it was difficult to remove parts of this pot without excessive breakage, some were left in place.

Layer 1a “0-40 BS” (105-140 BD in central part of trench) Beneath a light plant cover, the deposits consisted of rubble in a brown humic matrix. Small roots and land snail shells are present here and below. In the South extension the damaged top of the South annex was recognized at about 30 BS. This feature extends from the west wall of the South platform to the south wall of the Southwest platform. At 50 cm below the surface, a piece of black plastic was recovered near the west wall of the southern extension. In the northern two thirds of the trench it was noted that potsherds were concentrated along the west wall of the South platform. The 6.6 kg of potsherds recovered were provisionally identified as Mafa, as was confirmed during ceramic analysis.

Discussion The walls of the South platform silo comprised 9-10 layers of blocks, less carefully chosen for rectangularity and flatness of exposed face than those of exterior façades, and set with little attempt at coursing. In the upper part of the silo (layers 1a and b) there are now significantly fewer wedges than in the bottom 1.1 m (layers 2 and 3). Openwork rubble can be seen behind the façade. Although our records do not allow us to determine the nature of the break or its precise stratigraphic position, available evidence suggests that prior to the deposition of layers 1a and 1b, the silo remained open long enough for some wedges to be displaced by the elements and by plant and animal action. The general sequence is similar to others on the site in that the top 95 cm of deposit consist of rubble in a brown matrix, but layer 2, 55 cm deep, is different; a gravelly deposit with a much higher proportion of matrix to rocky inclusions and a near absence of large blocks. Unlike yellower layers found elsewhere at DGB-8 and 2, this is not merely a facies of rubble infill characterized by a lesser degree of weathering. It is hard to account for layer 2 except as intentional infill. Layer 3, for convenience subdivided into 3a and 3b, is again clearly differentiated from layer 2, constituting a single stratigraphic entity with deposits that can be described as a coarse daub that filled the lower part of the silo and overlay rotten granite. Discussion of the significance of this sequence and of the age of the artifacts is postponed until after description of the North platform silo.

Layer 1b “40-120 BS” (140-218 BD) Heavy rain caused some collapse on the west side of the trench. Deposits continue to be rubble, including two deep quern fragments, either with space or yellowish-brown sandy matrix between the elements. In the northern extension a concentration of small rocks representing a single dumping episode extended into the west end of the South platform passage. In the same area some possible façade blocks were noted running east-west across the trench at 165 BD in a line possibly continuing that of the south wall of the South platform passage. However, the linear arrangement is most probably due to chance as nothing similar was noted in the next two levels excavated. In the south the annex continues downwards in this and subsequent units.

14

At the surface this trench was 1.4 m wide but the loose rubble of the western side required us to introduce a significant batter to inhibit (not always effectively) wall collapse. The width of the trench at a meter below ground surface was about 1.25 m and it is this measurement, and comparable ones in other trenches that appear on the site plan (Fig. 4.1).

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Performance and agency

Figure 4.3. DGB-8, South platform, West wall trench: north-south section reconstructed from field notes and images. Also shown is a section of the West passage in the area of the North platform South stair and the Southwest platform North stair. granite bedrock on which the South platform wall is set (though this was less clear in the case of the South annex, the base of which may be slightly higher). The 1.6 kg of potsherds are generally small and often worn.

Ceramics weighing a total of 3.7 kg decrease in frequency towards the base of these deposits and are less common than in layer 1a, even taking into consideration the diminution of excavated volume occasioned by the South annex. North of this feature, the concentration of sherds along the west wall of the South platform continued.

Discussion Along the line of the South platform West wall north of the South annex there had been some downwards slumping of the deposits partially due to the collapse of Southwest platform’s northeastern part into the West passage. The depressed area so formed was filled with rocks, artifacts and other debris deposited primarily by Mafa in post-DGB times. Precisely how Mafa and DGB components are interrelated in the artifactual series is not determinable since a) Mafa dumping was generally at too small a scale to be recognized and isolated in our excavation, and b) small artifacts, for example the piece of plastic sheeting found at 50 cm BS in layer 1a, can infiltrate openwork rubble, particularly if aided by the activities of small animals.

Layer 1c-2a “120-140 BS and Spit 3 in South extension” (218-236 BD) In the northern two-thirds of the trench it was noted that large rocks had almost disappeared by the base of this unit, but the matrix is not yet the hard reddish material of lower layers. Rain had washed material down from the surface but did not appear to have caused any significant contamination by later materials in the central part of the trench, which produced 1 kg of sherds, but the spit 3 series (3.3 kg) from the southern extension may be affected. Sherds were evenly distributed over the area of the northern two thirds of the trench, although the amount is small (1 kg).

Level 2b “140-145/160 BS and Spit 4” (236-258 BD)

Apart from dumped materials, in the south and center the layer 1b deposits consist mainly of the Southwest platform core more or less in primary position; however they contain a majority of Mafa artifacts. In the north extension these layers comprise some materials from the same source but in secondary position, fallen into this area when the south wall of the West passage collapsed into the passage. Blocks and rubble from the south side of the North platform also contributed to passage infill in this area.

At the base of the 140-145/160 BS spit, the top of a line of three blocks (including a quern) extends across the trench at ca 235 BD just south of the South platform passage entrance. It is set back from the southwest corner of the South platform passage by about 15 cm, the same distance as the south wall of the North platform is at this depth set back from the passage’s northwest corner. The nature and the positioning of these blocks indicate that they are remnants of the collapsed north wall of the Southwest platform. In layer 2b the rubble characteristic of higher layers is absent and the hard coarse sandy deposit, reddish in the northern extension and reddish-brown to the south, is significantly more compact than those above. In the central and southern parts of the trench, ceramics are rare in the upper part of this layer, considerably more common below. A similar but less marked pattern emerges in the northern extension. Sherds totaling 3.6 kg no longer include distinctly Mafa forms and some have eroded surfaces.

The layer 1c-2a materials likely represent a mixture of rubble core and earlier deposits, originally hard and reddish like those below but altered by human traffic and weathering before phase II, plus later matrix and small objects washed down through the overlying rubble. In layer 2b it was noted that the much harder deposits of this layer differed in color to the north and south of the line of rocks first noted in the 140-160 BS spit that we interpret as the base of the south wall of the West

Layer 2c “Spit 5” (258-267 BD) This layer was excavated throughout the trench. The deposits consist of hard, gritty, yellowish-red sand and decaying

64

4. Excavations at DGB-8 Layer 2 “100-135 BS” (267-285 BD)

passage. We are uncertain as to the origins of layer 2b. It is likely to comprise daub deposited in order to surface passage floors and the area around platforms, together with originally identical material redeposited from the South platform surface during its use. Layer 2c consists of the same material with the addition of a component of bedrock decaying in situ.

The matrix is redder, contains a number of rocks and lacks the hard, gritty characteristics of lower deposits within the site. It grades down to rotting bedrock on which the wall rests for most of its visible length. In the western end of the trench, the wall is built over a small boulder (Dfig. 4.10). Potsherds are somewhat more common but still not abundant (0.7 kg).

As we learned during the course of the season, the filling of DGB platforms typically contains very little artifactual material. Thus, even though the West wall trench was mainly dug into platform fill, we should not expect to find a large DGB artifact series. The materials from layers 1a and 1b that are attributed to DGB phases II and III are primarily of the latter. Layer 1a was differentiated from 1b only because, being at the surface, the artifactual series are more likely to include recent materials. Nonetheless layer 1b contains a high proportion of pieces of Mafa type (Phase III). Layer 1c-2a is believed to include a mixed phase II and III series in which phase II artifacts are present in higher proportions. The Layer 2b Phase I and II series in the south and central parts of the trench are more likely to contain phase I materials, while in the north extension phase II materials may be more common, but ceramic analysis proved unable to distinguish DGB materials by phase. The artifacts from layer 2c are more probably but by no means necessarily of phase I.

Discussion The stratigraphy in this area at the foot of the South annex and Southwest platforms is quite different to that of platform fill. Here the deposits were formed in whole or in part after the building of the South platform annex in phase I and the Southwest platform in phase II. The excavated area forms part of a Mafa agricultural terrace in the construction and use of which there may have been considerable movement and reworking of deposits. We suspect that layer 2 includes a component of daub eroded from platform surfaces but none was ever deposited here as flooring. The upper layers were formed during the post-abandonment period as the Southwest platform and South annex decayed, and we may suppose that rocks that constituted an encumbrance to agriculture would, whether temporarily or otherwise, have been disposed of on or against platform walls. We envisage a low frequency traffic in blocks and rocks to and from the site as fields were cleared and terraces and compounds built in its vicinity.

The South platform Annex South wall trench (Phases I and II)

In order for the DGB masons to make the connection between the south wall of the annex and the façade of the Southwest platform immediately adjacent, the southwestern tip of the annex was dismantled and new walling botched in. The break in continuity is evident in the contrast between the high quality walling of the annex and, to the west, the use of less rectangular rocks with bulging or irregular faces and a lesser degree of coursing.

This unit, referred to in our notes by a variety of names, was excavated in order to investigate the nature of the south wall of the annex and its connection to the walling that could be traced on the surface for about 4 m to the west. This is the south façade of the Southwest platform, although we thought at the time that it might represent a free standing wall around a Southwest courtyard. The southern extension of the West wall trench demonstrated that no such free standing wall existed and, together with the North platform South wall trench, that the Southwest courtyard was in fact a platform, but its relationship to the South platform annex, and thus its date, still required to be determined. We therefore dug a narrow trench, 65-70 cm wide and 165 cm long, covering the join between the South annex and Southwest platform walls.

The probability that the artifacts are of DGB age increases with depth but these small series should be treated with extreme caution.

The North and Southwest Platforms (Phase II) The North platform walls and buttress

Layer 1a “0-60 BS” (167-227 BD)

It was not until we had cleared the site of bush in September 2002 that we could appreciate the form of the North platform. From a high point at 8 cm above datum in the vicinity of the at that time invisible silo, the platform falls away steeply to the north and east, where fragments of walls could be seen, and more gently to the west and south where no features were visible on the surface. Indeed only the abutment of the east wall of the North platform onto the north wall of the South platform allowed us to distinguish the existence of two platforms, and the presence of a Southwest platform was at this time

A brown, humic, sandy matrix contained numerous rock inclusions. These were not necessarily touching and the deposit cannot be properly described as rubble. Pottery was very rare (33m; blade W. ~17 mm

79:1

I-Mafa

124:2

I-Mafa

SE Pl. S Entrance Interior SE Pl. S Entrance Exterior SE Pl. Stair

136

I-Mafa

W Terrace

Within collapsed walling

309

Bronzealuminum

*135:2

II-III

NE Pl. Exterior

2a

347

Iron

138

II-III

NE Pl. Exterior

2b

ca 370

Iron

36:1

IIr

SE Pl. Passage

1a-b

157

Iron

*36:2

IIr

SE Pl. Passage

1a-b

126

Iron

*53:2

IIr

1c

170

Iron

*53:3

IIr

SE Pl. N Ent. below lintel SE Pl. N Entrance below lintel

1c

170

Iron

53:4

IIr

1c

170

Iron

*53:5

IIr

1c

162

Iron

*149 *91:1

IIr II

126:1

II

SE Pl. N Entrance below lintel SE Pl. N Entrance below lintel NE Pl. Test 2 SE Pl. N Entrance Exterior SE Pl. N Entrance

*144:1

II

12:1 109:1

I I

2b 1b-c

ca 370 309

Cuprous Iron

2c

291

Iron

NE Pl. Test 1

2

125-178

Iron

W Terrace C Pl. S Wall

1 1

225-235 72-172

Iron Iron

Small knife or lanceolate arrow head Rusted tang or awl Socketed sickle with broken tip Bead Hoe-like tool, socketed Iron fragment, much rusted, probable rectangular crosssection Pouched amulet pendant with one loop and one pointed end Flow slag (2 g) Open bracelet frag. with coiled end

Small

Diam. = 23 mm

L = 415 mm v. similar to 91:1 30 * 22 mm 76 * 37 * ca 15 mm 172 * 30mm, tang 26mm 68 * 13mm L = 80 mm L = 189 mm. 8 * 6mm see OM illus. 28 * 12* 6 mm

ca 42 * 10 mm

v. small small

* = illustrated TABLE 5.16. DGB-8 METAL ARTIFACTS AND IRON SLAG BY PHASE, UNIT AND LAYER.DGB-8 Sample Phase Number Primarily Mafa phases 28:1 I-III *114: 1 I-III

Unit

Layer

Depth BD

Material

Object

Dimensions

S Pl. Passage Beneath backdirt

1b n/a

235-275cm n/a

Iron Iron

65 * 11 mm 55*56 mm

Clearing

183-242cm

Iron

Awl or tang, 13 g. Child’s open bracelet with wound ends, 37 g, cloth fibers adhering to one end Flow slag fragment

1

45-125cm

Iron

Flow slag fragment

v. small, 2 g

Slag fragment Slag fragment Slag fragments Flat strip, one end bent; L extended = ca 55 mm Slag or rusty concretion Slag fragment

v. small, 1 g v. small, 1 g small, 25 g 37 *8* sunken courtyard > lintel-covered passage arrangement in DGB-1’s Central platform. Or should this courtyard be regarded as a variation on passage alcoves? However this may be, there are sufficient grounds for the hypothesis entertained here that, while all the DGB sites may have been built, utilized and abandoned (or reconfigured for different purposes) over a period of a few decades or generations, DGB-2 is in large part anterior to DGB-1. If it was not robbed for materials to build the latter site, this is likely to have been because, even if no longer used for its original purpose, it remained a potent, spirit-charged, feature in the landscape, one that it might prove perilous to disturb. The deposition in the outer chamber of the Northeast platform’s West passage of two jars followed by the walling up of the entrance can reasonably be interpreted as a ceremony of closure. The piercing of one of the jars and the partial piercing of the other is comparable to that of vessels widely and commonly placed on tombs and graves at a ceremony that usually follows actual interment.

Flat, smooth, dry stone façades by Nicholas David and Gerhard Müller-Kosack Before leaving the topic of architecture, it is convenient to consider the cultural significance of the most characteristic feature of DGB sites: dry stone façades that are both flat and smooth. Although house platforms, more precisely rubble core terraces, are commonplace in the Mandara mountains, there is generally little concern with the creation of a flat and smooth façade on these or other structures, including agricultural terraces and walls. It is significant that Seignobos (1982b), in his magisterial treatment of the architecture of the architecture of the mountains and highlands of northern Cameroon, pays no special attention to facing characteristics.

The architecture of the phase II Northeast platform at DGB-2, with its silo and not one but two passages, one segmented into chambers, the other plunging into the depths of the platform, is the most sophisticated at that site, or indeed so far as we know at any other – always with the exception of the DGB-1 phase I North Central and Central platforms. It is not too far-fetched to think of a direct succession, of DGB-2 phase II ending at a moment in time marked by a ceremony of which, extraordinarily, we have record, and which legitimated the transfer of activity and authority to the first phase of the larger site that was about to be built on the next hill, a hundred meters to the west.

Our personal knowledge of the eastern side of the northern Mandara mountains is limited and casual. However, during visits to Mofu princely châteaux (Vincent 1991, 249-255), we noted some concern for flat facings at both the earlier, Ar-Wede-Wede, hilltop residence at Duvangar (Dfig. 6.1) and at Mokoulek, the early 20th century residence lower down the mountain (Dfig. 6.2). While flatness was more marked at the former hilltop residence of the chief of Wazang, none of these sites showed much evidence of a concern for smoothness, although one facing at Wazang represents the closest approximation to DGB façades we have yet seen in the region (Dfig. 6.3). Generally speaking wedges where present are placed to facilitate the laying of blocks rather than to achieve smoothness by filling in gaps between them (Dfig. 6.4).

While we know of no close ethnographic parallels from the region, there is a resemblance to the transfer of the chiefly residence from mountain top to a lower shoulder that occurred at the start of the 20th century at Duvangar. Motivations for this and later downhill moves by other Mofu-Diamaré chiefs were no doubt very different, but the old sites are still honored and important ceremonies are initiated there on the mountain tops (Vincent 1991:249). In this interpretation – with DGB-2 phase II as the immediate antecedent of DGB-1 phase I – phase III at DGB-2 remains problematic. It was clearly DGB in nature: the staircases are recognizably of DGB construction and so, so far as we can distinguish them, are the ceramics. Phase III may also, it was suggested in chapter 3, have been terminated by a comparable ceremony of closure (Dfig. 3.16). It is possible that it postdates DGB-1 in its entirety.

We made similar observations during brief visits to Muktele compounds in the eastern Mandara mountains, where stone benches outside compounds and small platforms over graves are constructed with considerable care. This may also be true at Oujila, where the most important Podokwo chief has his residence, though amongst neither group did we see any clear evidence of indigenous concern for coursing or smoothness of façades.

104

6. Site sequence, functions and climate south of the South platform, elevated sherd densities (>5/m2) occur around and below and to the east of the SE walls, in an area now under crops. A hastily collected sample includes numerous forms characteristic of the DGB culture: tall rimmed and short everted rim jars, flanged vessels, one pierced for suspension, bowl-mouth jars, black ware bowls, a large red ware bowl, a horn handle and a flat ended tripod leg. Rusticated, impressed and applied decoration fits within the DGB canon. This concentration, some of which is associated with a gray ashy deposit, can reasonably be characterized as a midden, probably of shallow depth, that has been considerably redistributed by cultivation.

We have better knowledge of architecture in the Gwoza hills and among the Sukur and their neighbors in Nigeria and among the Mafa and their neighbors in Cameroon, especially the Hide, Mabas, Wula, Sirak and Chuvok (Cuvok). Among the Dghwede, Guduf and Chikide of the Gwoza hills particular attention to flatness with some concern also for smoothness is given to the exterior (though not the interior) face of the wall of a room between two kitchens that constitutes the most sacred area of the compound (Dfig. 6.5). Further south in Nigeria among the Sukur the left side of the exterior wall adjacent to the compound entrance (as seen by a person entering) is noticeably more carefully constructed than the right hand side, being flatter, often with some concern for coursing, and sometimes smoother. This side, on which offerings are preferentially made, is associated with males and particularly the household head.

DGB-2 Surprisingly, given the relative abundance of ceramics from within the site, we noted few sherds around it and none of diagnostically DGB form.

Nearby among the Kamwe (Higi), compound perimeter walls tend to be very well constructed with relatively flat façades, but we are ignorant of their connotations, symbolic or other. Dry stone facings are less carefully finished on the heights of Tur, for example, among the Hide and Gvoko, and among the Mafa, Mabas, Wula, Sirak and Chuvok, although there are variations both between and in some cases within ethno-linguistic entities.

DGB-3 and DGB-4 Only small amounts of apparently modern pottery were noted on and around these sites.

Mondossa DGB-5 Sherds at a density of over 1/m2 were encountered on the slope to the northwest of the site. Material included but was not limited to distinctive DGB sherds, including a rusticated rim. On the northern and northeastern edges of the site, significant concentrations (>5/m2) occurred, including DGB and Mafa sherds. Besides rusticated pieces and horn handles, one baroque in form, there is knotted strip rouletting (KPR) on two possible bowl mouth jars and a very thick narrow (25 mm) orifice vessel that is not Mafa but which does not fit into the excavated DGB series. There is a suggestion here of a possible intermediate or at least more distantly related cultural entity.

This subject deserves more attention. Nevertheless inspection of Seignobos’s and others’ illustrations and our own observations indicate that where flat dry stone façades are found they are preferentially if variously associated with males, with chiefs and with the ritually significant. It seem reasonable, therefore, to attribute some generally similar meaning to DGB façades.

Artifactual evidence Inasmuch as we have been unable to detect either clear signs of development through time or patterned variation in space between the DGB artifact components from the two excavated sites, we should not expect our limited observations on small finds from other sites to produce much in the way of insights. Nevertheless they extend the artifactual range recognized at DGB-2 and DGB-8 and there is some indication from DGB-5 of cultural difference. The material is once again presented by village and site.

In 2002 Kelaye, the subsequently deceased head of the Mafa household nestled at the western foot of the site, showed us two iron objects (Fig. 6.1) that had been found by a forefather at or very near the site. The complete example (34.6 cm long by 9.3 cm wide and 0.2 cm thick in the center) is a flattened sheet with the sketch of a socket at one end and a rectanguloid projection at the other. The broken piece, on which the scars of the crested stone hammer used in spreading the metal are clearly seen in the illustration, is of the same type and approximate dimensions. These are almost certainly currency bars forged to demonstrate the ductility of the iron but of a type previously unknown. There is of course no guarantee that they are of DGB date.

Kuva DGB-1 There is no significant amount of surface pottery or other cultural material on or around the Northern outlier or the northern half of the site.24 While there is little material around the western edges or on the slope immediately

DGB-12 There is a significant (>5/m2) concentration of DGB and Mafa ceramics all round the site. Short everted rim jars, flanged vessels, flat ended tripod legs, bowl-mouth, bell-

24

I thank Scott MacEachern for notes on ceramics made during our visits to the sites in 2007.

105

Performance and agency

Figure 6.2. Three views of a cuprous figurine 7 cm tall, stated to have been dug up in association with a brown polished pebble on DGB-13. Illustration by Owen Murray. There can be no guarantee that the figurine is contemporary with the site and it is highly improbable that it was manufactured in the immediate vicinity, the nearest brass casters at present being Kapsiki smiths some 30 km to the southwest (van Beek 1989, 1991). At about the time of the DGB sites there was a tradition of Sao brass casting south of Lake Chad (Lebeuf and Lebeuf 1977), but the DGB-13 figurine is stylistically distinct from this and all other known schools of casting in cuprous alloys.

Figure 6.1. DGB-5: a: iron currency bars found at or near the site; b: detail of socket of complete example; c: scars of crested stone hammer on broken piece. mouth and narrow necked jars, a large red ware bowl and horn handles are all present together with a wide range of DGB decorative techniques including the use of small pellets.

Gerhard Müller-Kosack has brought to my attention a mention by MacFarlane (1932:83-84) of little brass charms bought from “Arabs” by residents of Ashigashiya district. Ashigashiya is located in the plains just north of the western horn of the Mandara mountains. The charm “is a figure of a man or woman on horseback, made of brass, … about 1 inch long and 1 inch broad”. These are buried secretly in the room of the compound head and are believed to bring health, wealth and children. Although the form of these charms is very different from the piece from DGB-13, its location in a small platform that may have supported a room suggests the possibility that it represents a similar practice, one that is probably quite common among montagnards (cf. Lyons 1989). We nonetheless allow ourselves to fantasize that we have “gazed upon the face” of Nndodiy, builder of our sites!

Mudukwa DGB-13 A small plateau on the slope below and 250 m eastsoutheast of the site has high (>5/m2) numbers of DGB sherds. Small amounts of DGB and later pottery occur on the site itself, but there is less cultural material than, for example on DGB-5. In 2007, Mbere Konere, head of the household resident on the site, showed us a figurine 7 cm tall and a highly polished brown pebble (Fig. 6.2; Dfig. 6.6) that he told us he had found while digging for daub on the platform marked x on Fig. 2.21. The figurine is of cuprous metal and has been cast using a lost wax (or latex) technique. It represents a man in a sitting position – which is perhaps why Mbere described it as seated on the brown pebble – with the hands raised as if beating a drum. The lively features, hands and feet are quite carefully modeled given the small size of the piece and the buttocks, elbows and knees are indicated by blobs of metal. A curious feature is the man’s tongue which is exaggerated in length and shown vigorously extended.

DGB-14 The site has high (>5/m2) concentrations of DGB sherds, including rusticated pieces, a bowl-mouth and a large bell-mouth jar, two narrow and one broad horn handles and a tripod leg with a flat and slightly expanded end. The density of sherds would support the inference that the boulder terrace represents a DGB house platform.

106

6. Site sequence, functions and climate ago while digging for daub. Such pieces are not, to the best of our knowledge, made in the area today, but are known from the Gwoza Hills (Gerhard Müller-Kosack pers. comm. 2004).

Bigide DGB-6 Only small amounts of apparently recent pottery were noted on and around this site.

DGB-16 Only very low densities of ceramics are present on the surface; these included a rusticated sherd and remains of one bowl-mouth jar. Little material occurred on the small plateau south of and adjacent to the site. Marginally higher sherd densities (approximately 0.5/m2) were noted in the northwest quadrant, but there is little if anything that can be characterized as distinctively DGB.

DGB-7 Despite the size of this site, only small amounts of apparently recent pottery were noted on and around it. DGB-11 Low (< 1/m2) densities of sherds across the site include pieces with rusticated decoration.

DGB-15

Mtskar

The site is overgrown and little pottery was found on and around it. We noted a large rim from a short everted rim vessel, a bowl-mouth jar fragment, sherds from large and small red ware bowls, a horn lip-top and a V-handle. Decoration included rustication, TPR, comb-grooving and comb-punctate, While not all the sherds are distinctively DGB, they are sufficient to demonstrate a DGB presence.

DGB-8 Not unexpectedly given the limited quantities of DGB ceramics recovered from the excavations, only small amounts of apparently recent pottery were noted around the site. DGB-9

In summary, neither the architecture nor the artifacts found on or in DGB sites can as yet be used to develop a cultural sequence. On the other hand they tend to confirm the association of DGB architecture and a distinctive ceramic industry. In the case of DGB-5, at which there is a suggestion that a probably later though conceivably earlier phase may be present, the pottery reinforces the attribution of the site to the DGB culture. Furthermore, the relatively high density of sherds at DGB-1, DGB-12 and DGB-14 suggests that these sites with special features – the SE walls at DGB-1 and boulder terraces at DGB-12 and DGB-14 – may as suggested in chapter 2 represent a greater functional range than the majority of others, including perhaps some domestic occupation. On the other hand sites 2, 10, 11, 15 and 16 have comparable features but low sherd densities at least on their surfaces. The small plateau beneath DGB-13 with its high DGB sherd density is worth further investigation as a possible DGB living site.

Only small amounts of comminuted and apparently recent pottery were noted on and around the site.

Upay and Nduval DGB-10 Sherds are generally sparse but examples of DGB typology exist and appear concentrated on top of the small platform. Horn handles, a flange and a bowl-mouth jug fragment are among the forms collected.

Nothing in these data, it should be noted, conflicts with our as yet inadequately documented inference that the DGB sites were built, used and abandoned over a period more likely to be measured in decades than centuries. The architectural and artifactual evidence justify analytical treatment of the monuments as a pene-contemporaneous set all presumably serving a core function to which others were variably attached. Figure 6.3. DGB-10: iron “bracelets” with tapered ends forged into the links of a chain.

DGB site functions: watch and water towers

In 2002 Zogway Manbiy, head of a household located immediately northwest of the site, showed us a number of rusty iron rods, forged into bracelet-like circles with tapered ends, some linked to form a crude chain (Fig. 6.3; Dfig. 2.34). They had been found near the site some time

It will be remembered that Jean Boutrais (1973:12 and Map 11) characterized the Kuva DGB sites as fortifications and that Boisseau and Soula (1974, vol. 1:54) referred to DGB-1 as a fortress. Christian 107

Performance and agency this interpretation the platforms would be linked to important males, some perhaps of chiefly kin groups and able to mobilize a considerable labor force. (The energetics and social correlates of DGB site construction are treated in the final chapter.)

Seignobos (1982a) described them as “oppida” – towns often developed on hill forts – and as “acropolises”. Others have employed terms such as “stronghold” and “donjon fort” that similarly imply defensive functions. Little has been published on warfare in the Mandara mountains. Otterbein (1968) describes armed combat among the Higi near Michika (Adamawa State, Nigeria) under the categories of duels, fights with wooden staffs, feuds, raids and battles, the last two classes involving more than one political community, Higi or other. None involve defensive structures; battles were customarily fought on traditional battle grounds situated approximately half way between the communities involved. The defensive response to slave and livestock raiding carried out by Wandala and Fulani, best described in the diary of Hamman Yaji, Fulbe ruler of Madagali, for the years 1912-22 (Vaughan and Kirk-Greene 1995; David and Sterner fieldnotes 1984-2004), sometimes involved the building of walls across access routes to hamper the approach of cavalry. Men are said to have stood behind these and shot arrows at the enemy, but resistance primarily depended on flight and concealment in caves and on rocky heights. Stationary defense linked to a strongpoint was not part of the montagnard cultural vocabulary in the historic period and there is no reason to suppose that it was five hundred years ago.

Our subsequent realization that the sites principally comprise a number of abutting, successively built, rubble-filled but carefully faced platforms and terraces led us to propose that they might represent groups of mausoleums relating to a society more complex than that of the historic Mafa. In the light of subsequent surveys and excavations, it must be concluded that neither the “chiefly domestic” nor the “chiefly burial” theory has much to recommend it. DGB sites apparently lack household structures, facilities, and equipment. There is a near absence of middens and little domestic waste other than a selection of pottery. The excavated sites gave us in addition only a few iron artifacts and a little bone. Non-utilitarian features such as passages that lead through platforms but not necessarily to anything, and of chambers and silos that could have held neither water nor grain, also argue against domestic function. Unless the silos were, like some Pharaonic tombs, constructed to deceive, an absence of human remains, tombs or graves refutes the view that platforms were periodically constructed to house successions of the important dead.

Impressive as DGB-1 undoubtedly is, it has no credibility as a military site. This is so even if for purposes of argument we ignore the cultural context and that this site, like the others, was built in a series of construction phases and would have appeared less imposing in the earlier parts of the sequence. In the event of a foray from a neighboring village, the advantage of height for defenders on its platforms and terraces, and perhaps the Northern outlier, all of which apparently lacked protective structures, would scarcely have made up for their greater exposure. In the unlikely event that they could briefly hold off a superior force such as a Wandala raiding party, lack of water would have forced them into submission in short order. How much more so must this be true of the remaining sites? The military hypothesis cannot be sustained.

Another possibility was suggested by the location of the sites in what had once been the contested frontier zone between the pre-colonial Wandala state and the montagnards on and with whom they preyed and traded. Might the builders of the sites have acted as middlemen between the peoples of the plains and mountains? It would seem not: the only ancient find certainly associated with the sites that seems likely to have come from beyond the region is the tiny cuprous bead from DGB-2, of a type dated elsewhere in the Mandara region to the 13th-17th centuries AD. While constituting a distinct cultural expression, DGB iron and ceramic artifacts are clearly attributable to the broad indigenous Iron Age tradition that was developing in this region since the first millennium BC. Thus, we can reject the idea that the sites were entrepôts or otherwise mediated between early plains states or their immediate forebears and montagnard communities.

Before we began fieldwork, Gerhard Müller-Kosack and I compared what little we knew of the sites with the architecture of recent Mandara montagnards. Somewhat like compounds, DGB sites grew by the addition of structures. There are, however, significant differences. Compounds grow by the addition of separate, though sometimes linked, rooms rather than by accretionary “budding”, and so far as we know excess platforms were never obliterated. It seemed to us then that the ruins might be the surviving remnants of larger domestic compounds, and as such represent an exaggerated architectural expression of the widespread association of height, seniority, and the male gender. Although the small scale of the distribution and of the majority of the sites precludes any general association even with petty chiefs – ward heads would be a better though risky analogy for the lowest social common denominator – in

Clearly rethinking is necessary. Some of the elements required have already been touched on in earlier chapters: these include the sites’ distribution and placement in the landscape, their internal arrangements, inferred allusions to water in their construction and their dates, so far as these can be known from only six determinations at two sites. These are now reconsidered in the context of themes in the regional ethnography (Sterner 2003) and the historical and environmental record (Brunk and Gronenborn 2004).

108

6. Site sequence, functions and climate sound, sight, touch, smell, commonplace activities and ritually highlighted acts, fields in which symbols and metaphors are not only crafted but ‘embodied,’ recalled, found convincing, placed in relation to each other, and put to use in ‘the science of the concrete’.

In chapter 2 it was pointed out that the sites are tightly clustered on and around the Upay massif. They are located a) in proximity to land that would have required relatively little labor input to be brought under or maintained in sustainable cultivation, and

When Edward Matenga, Conservator of Great Zimbabwe, first visited DGB-2 and DGB-8 in 2002, both sites then being in a late phase of excavation, he was struck by the potential of passages and staircases to facilitate the dramatic appearance of persons on platform tops. His insight converges with ours. The sites show an overall lack of utilitarian function. They have instead a theatrical quality: passages and staircases as voms (vomitoria) to manage exits and entrances, platforms as main stages (proscenia), attached terraces perhaps serving as the thrust stages to a platform’s proscenium or conceivably – for example in the case of the DGB-2 West terrace – as dressing rooms.

b) on highpoints or in other situations that afford fine views that, with the exception of DGB-14, extend over the majority of other sites in the set (Table 2.4). It may be inferred that DGB people lived in the vicinity of the sites and that overlapping viewscapes allowed for surveillance of the area of site distribution and its surrounds, extending east into the plain of Koza, north to the limits of the western horn of Mandara mountains, west and southwest into Nigeria, and south into the mountains. It is however improbable that surveillance was primarily directed against internal or external enemies. There is no need to build a DGB site to establish a lookout; furthermore under the forested conditions likely to have pertained in parts of the mountains and generally on the plain (and which there persisted well into the 20th century), lookouts would have been of dubious value. No, it is much more likely that the sites were built both to see and to be seen. In this way they would have facilitated coordination of activities within and beyond individual settlements. As Judy Sterner (2003: chapter 5) shows in The Ways of the Mandara Mountains, this region is characterized by ceremonies that both define and link communities. The purification and bull festivals are two of these, celebrated in sequences that cascade across the landscape from ward to ward, village to village and from one ethnic group to another. Thus for example the ritual paramount of Gudur (David and Sterner in press and 2004-05 fieldnotes) has the privilege and duty of initiating the new fire rite that begins an annual cycle of purification ceremonies. The chiefs of nearby villages see to the manning of lookouts for observation of the rekindling of fires in the paramount’s village of Gudal and begin their own rituals. Over the next hours, days and months new fires are lit throughout the Mofu-Gudur confederacy and beyond.

Figure 6.4. A priestly title holder (Mbəsefwoy) on his rock, which has been built into a small platform, in the Sukur Patla during the Yama pə Patla ceremony in February 1993. Montagnard ceremonies have a strong performative element. They frequently involve movements through a landscape with some combination of offerings, prayers, music and dance at highly charged places. This is particularly true of community-wide ceremonies such as Sukur purification (Zoku) and male initiation (бer) (Sterner 2003: 93-97, 145-54), but it also applies to smaller scale occasions such as burial and the wakes held some weeks or months thereafter, besides many others. All such ritual occasions are suffused with drama and there is frequently a strong element of individual or group performance, often on a natural platform or stage of rock. Around the Patla, the ceremonial area outside the chief’s residence at Sukur, there are rocks, one of which has a platform built around it (Fig. 6.4), associated with specific title holders and on which they dance on specified occasions. The chief himself dances on a terrace above the main dance floor and wives and widows of chiefs on another near the gateway into the chiefly

We do not suggest that the DGB sites were necessarily associated with purificatory ceremonies nor that their conspicuous placement in the landscape is fully explained by a desire to coordinate community festivals. Word of mouth, passed between friends or relatives, would then as today have been largely sufficient for scheduling. Here we should look beyond organizational requirements and towards the performative aspects of Mandara montagnard ceremonialism. This involves a response to Susan Kus’s (in Smith and David 1995:460) challenge to Adam Smith and myself: to adopt a more encompassing notion of sensuous human practice that goes beyond relative spatial positioning and ease or difficulty of movement around space and architectural features to include a robust appreciation of such things as gesture, 109

Performance and agency roundabout forms of entrance, and perhaps particularly the low passage at Duvangar, which forces visitors to bend their heads, are intended to reinforce the montagnards’ respect for their chief (Vincent 1991:251). Although initiands and others on occasion process through them, they have no explicit performative function and no necessarily close relationship to DGB passages, even though a desire to impress and instill respect is clearly evident in the rebuilding of the North entrance to the Southeast platform at DGB-2 and the East Central addition to the entry passage at DGB-1.

residence. At the feast that marks the coming out of twins, Sukur parents dance on their granaries or verandahs (Dfig. 6.7). It is hard to convey in words or still images the impact on the senses of the drums, the rhythmic rasp of calabashes on iron chains hung as pubic aprons, the costumes, the dust raised by the dance, the chanting of dirges or other songs, the smells and the press of the throng. At one wake, the over-ninety-year-old widower climbed into the tree that shaded his entrance courtyard and danced. In 2003 Márta Galántha and James H. Wade filmed the Fimbidi festival among the Fali of Jilvu in the Nigerian Mandara mountains. Fimbidi, combining aspects of initiation and fecundity, invokes for us the sensuous human practice that we contend once characterized the DGB sites. While male initiands dance, more or less hidden from the spectators (and the camera), in a grove, young wives dance on a huge boulder in the foreground, their feet at the level of the spectators’ heads (Dfig. 6.8). Above, on boulders strewn over the mountain side and skyline, the initiands’ and the young wives’ male and female kin dance formally “in celebration of accession to both manhood and potential/forthcoming motherhood, in other words the continuity of the community” (Márta Galántha and James H. Wade, pers. comm. 2007) . The spectators are mainly from neighboring villages and include many affines. The ceremony has transcended its focus on the new harvest of adults, extending across the landscape to incorporate the society as a whole. Performance and landscape are become one.

In the previous paragraphs I have argued that: a) the placing of DGB sites is consistent with the function of surveillance for purposes of ceremonial coordination, and that b) their structural features are compatible with the staging of ritual performances comparable to some associated with major ceremonies in the ethnographic present. Specification of the nature of the ceremony or ceremonies performed at DGB sites is the obvious next interpretative step but is more difficult. Different rituals may be carried out in the same space but are unlikely to be archaeologically distinguishable. Thus even if the questionable evidence for feasting is accepted, it need not necessarily be associated with any particular ceremony that we may be able to identify. Public feasting, it must be said, is not part of the present montagnard cultural repertoire. The nearest approximation is the drinking and eating that bring to an end a day’s work party.

While DGB platform and terrace sites have no architectural parallels in the Mandara mountains and certain of their features – inset staircases, silos, passages modified to form chambers – are otherwise entirely unknown, these structures appear to materialize aspects of a conceptual reservoir, cultural themes common to the region and to which can be ascribed a considerable antiquity. We cannot tell whether the location of DGB sites on high points served merely to coordinate a ritual sequence or whether it allowed the geographical range of a single ceremony to extend throughout the community or congregation associated with the sites. Both alternatives are consistent with the ethnography. However this may be, such an ethnoarchaeologically informed and regionally based approach to interpretation is more productive and richer in insights than one that depends on piecemeal comparisons of particular features.

In chapters 3 and 4 allusions to water were noted in the deposits of DGB-2 and DGB-8. At DGB-2 these include rounded water-worn pebbles concentrated around the foot to the West staircase onto the West terrace, at the North entrance to the Southeast platform extending across to the Northeast platform, and included in the platform surfacing overlying the western passage in the latter platform. At DGB-8 the association with water is more limited but the evidence clearer: the pile of riverine sands and gravel used to bury the boulder at the base of the North platform silo. All these materials had to be laboriously head-carried up to the site from streambeds at least 75 m below the sites before being more or less invisibly incorporated into flooring or at DGB-8 dumped into the mouth of a silo. There is no utilitarian reason for such behavior which I have no hesitation in labeling symbolic.

For example, roofed passages exist in certain of the Mofu-Diamaré “princely châteaux” (Vincent 1991:24955). These are walled chiefly residences, almost all now abandoned, built on the summits of steep hills on the eastern flanks of the Mandara range. At Wazang and Duvangar the main compound is entered through a passage, which like those of the DGB is incorporated into a structure (there of earth and rocks) built above ground and then roofed with branches at Wazang and granite lintels at Duvangar (Dfigs 6.9 and 6.10; Seignobos 1982b:70-71). At Durum a comparable feature takes the form of a long, turning corridor. Such special or

In a preliminary report, I suggested that the architecture of the sites was designed to control water: Imagine, for a moment, the DGB sites in the bucketing rains of July and August with sheets of water running over platform surfaces, cascading down stairways or directly into passages, gushing out as reddish torrents. In this sense the sites may have performed as symbolic water towers … (David 2004:34).

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6. Site sequence, functions and climate the 13th in the line of rain chiefs although the first three in his listing are definitely and the fourth quite possibly mythical. Table 6.1 compares the list of chiefs obtained in 2002 with that recorded by Schönmaier when he visited Mudukwa in 1964, some six months after the death of biy yam Godegay. Although the succession is described as always being from father to son, this is highly unlikely. During Schönmaier’s visit three candidates, all of the Gozla clan but of three different fathers all of whom had been biy yam, were being considered for the office (Hinderling 1984:359). The succession of chiefs is almost certainly not a succession of generations. It would nonetheless be reasonable to place Bassara in the early 18th century, although the association with Gudur may have come later. In contrast to biy yam Midime’s account, Schönmaier was told that Bassara arrived alone from Gudur where he had learned to make rain (Hinderling 1984:355). Such traditions are best read as constituting claims to authority rather than as historical accounts (David and Sterner in press) Control over rain constitutes a source of power sought after and manipulated by chiefs and “masters of the rain” (Sterner 2003: chapter 9). The settling of a line of rain priests within the small area of DGB distribution and their association with DGB stairways reinforces the connection between DGB sites and water or rain argued above on the basis of archaeological evidence.

Figure 6.5. DGB-12: the lintel-roofed fissure. This may indeed be too imaginative, but it is “conceivable that [curved and] S-shaped passage layouts represented water courses, and that staircases evoked the waterfalls that tumble down the mountains after heavy downpours.” Müller-Kosack and I are now dissatisfied with this explanation which lacks in his words any “mirroring ethnographic representation”. Nonetheless some such resemblances were apparently not lost on the DGB people themselves. At DGB-12, the roofing with massive lintels of the fissure that holds water longest into the dry season must be read as a reference to a passage, constituting an inscription of DGB architecture on the landscape (Fig. 6.5).

TABLE 6.1. THE RAIN CHIEFS OF MUDUKWA AS REPORTED BY SCHÖNMAIER (1964) AND ACCORDING TO BIY YAM MIDIME NZAKURA

H. Schönmaier in July 1964 as reported by Hinderling (1984:355)

There is one further piece of evidence that associates ethnography with archaeology and the sites with water and more particularly with rain. During the May-October season, rain falls irregularly and unpredictably in both the short and the long terms, putting crops and livelihoods at risk. Rainmaking, involving both prayer and magic, attempts to counteract this climatic uncertainty and the resulting anxieties. The most powerful rain priest or rain chief or rainmaker – for they combine all these roles in different proportions and contexts – in the region, biy yam Mudukwa, lives in Mudukwa beneath DGB-13.

Bassara (from Gudur) Džegmé Kabaly Bruha Vagana Godegay (d. 1963-64) not yet appointed

Biy yam Midime Nzakura 25 Nov. 2002 Pideokw (Razor) Madzaf (Medicine) Slerats ([out of a] fissure in the rock) Ngode Bassara Jekane Brohwa Kabali Vagana (early 1900s)1 Baldena (1930s-40s)2 Gwozhke3 Mbizhive Midime Nzakura

Notes. 1. In the time of Hamman Yaji according to Midime. 2. Omitted in Schönmaier’s listing, Baldena was named as one of the most influential rain chiefs by Lavergne (1944:59). 3. It seems likely but not certain that Godegay and Gwozhke are the same person.

Interviewed on November 25th, 2002, he informed Judy Sterner and myself that when he moves about the area he makes a point of using the stairways associated with DGB sites. He referred to them as “civeδ zhigile”, the ways of god. According to the biy yam the DGB sites were already abandoned when his ancestors arrived in the region from Muktele territory 25 km to the east some generations ago, settling first at Kuva. He claimed to be

We cannot know whether the Gozla rain priests settled where they did because of folk memories of rainmaking functions of DGB sites. It may be that other characteristics of this particular area stimulated both the building of DGB sites and Gozla settlement. One aspect

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Performance and agency area lies within the Chad basin, an endorheic region from which water is mainly lost by evaporation (currently ca 230 cm/year) and in which lake level responds rapidly to changes in precipitation (more so in the past before the construction of numerous dams). Lake Chad receives between 80 and 90 percent of its waters from the Chari watershed that comprises much of southern Chad and the northern Central African Republic. Nigerian rivers make a much smaller contribution (8-10%) and local rainfall the rest. The southwest monsoon brings rainfall throughout this whole area. Thus, despite possible imbalances between rainfall in the Sudano-Guinean parts of the upper Chari basin and the Sudanic zone in which the DGB sites are located, the rises and falls of Lake Chad constitute a good proxy for variations in rainfall in the DGB area.

of the distribution of the DGB sites that has not been previously discussed is of relevance in this context. At this latitude rainfall begins to fall off steeply from the somewhat over 1000 mm per annum characteristic of the mountains and plateaus to the south. Mean annual rainfall in the DGB area over the period 1944-95 is around 950 mm but falls to only 660 mm at Kolofata on the plain 36 km to the northeast (L’Hôte 2000). In this region, storms associated with the southwest monsoon frequently arrive from the northeast. On and to the north and east of Upay, the Mandaras’ highest peak, DGB sites are in a position to attract relief (orographic) rainfall. Under the rainfall regime of the present day therefore, the DGB sites are located at the northern limit of an area of higher rainfall. We suspect that under other regimes, wetter or dryer, there would still be a marked inflection in the precipitation curve in this vicinity and that that in itself might prove attractive to rainmakers.

For most of the 12th century AD Lake Chad was at ca 286 m above sea level, well below the maximal mid-Holocene Mega-Chad lake linked to the Bama ridge at ca 325±5 m (Leblanc et al., 2006). However this level, some 5 m above the mean for the 20th century, corresponds to a rather humid period which Maley (1981, 1982) has linked to a warm phase culminating between ca AD 700 to 1200 that exhibits its own climatic characteristics (Maley 2004:206-208). It has been named the Medieval Warm Period (Keigwin 1996; de Menocal et al. 2000). This rather high level implies a lake extending over about 115,000 km2 which overflowed into the now fossil Bahr el Ghazal. The presently dry deltaic area just south of the mouth of the fossil river was probably active at this time (Maley 2004:190, Fig. 6 “recent delta”).

However this may be, we conclude that a principal but not necessarily the only function of the monuments was the performance of rituals linked to water. Unfortunately this is not saying very much since water and the fertility that it brings are widely referenced in ceremonies. The possibility that the performances and rites were directed specifically to ensuring adequate rainfall and availability of water for crops, livestock and people is further discussed in chapter 8. It is certainly true that in precolonial times there were few authorities in this impoverished region capable of mobilizing even small workforces to undertake the construction of nonutilitarian structures. A motivation would certainly have been and still remains anxiety over water in all its forms. Before proceeding to set our inference regarding the functions of the sites in the environmental context of their time, it should be noted that we have not as yet attempted an explanation either of the growth of DGB sites by the accretion of platforms and terraces, or of the size differences characterizing the members of the set. The repeated, astronomically patterned, rebuilding of temples so common in the New World is foreign to the Mandaras. Shrines are here associated with particular places or social roles and are either not associated with built structures (beyond a small pile of rocks) or incorporated within them. Domestic compounds, on the other hand, grow by the addition of rooms as the household increases – and similarly decline as the domestic cycle winds down. Compound area is correlated with the size of the household, though not closely as it is affected by other factors including wealth (David 1971). We shall return to these questions when considering the matter of agency in chapter 8.

Fig. 6.6. Variation in the levels of Lake Chad over the past millennium, modified from Maley 2004: Fig. 9 to show the drying of the southern basin in the mid-15th century AD. Roman numerals represent 14C dates and letters the position of pollen samples. During the 13th century the lake fell progressively to ca 284 m before rising again to ca 285 m during the second part of the 14th century. There then began a rapid fall culminating around AD 1450 in the complete drying of the southern, Chari-fed, portion of the basin (below 279280 m). Following this phase, likely to have lasted a generation, the lake rose again to an intermediate level at ca 283 m asl around AD 1500. It then declined to about 280 m, with a marshy phase around AD 1540-60. This was followed by a rise to a very high level around 286 m near the beginning of the 17th century, leading to a new overflow into the Bahr el Ghazal that persisted into the beginning of the 18th century. The climate during this period was very unusual. In the southern part of the Chad

Climate in DGB times by Jean Maley and Nicholas David Since we have no data on climate from the DGB area we must rely on the sequence from Lake Chad, studied by Maley (1981, 1993, 2000, 2004) and others, and recently summarized by Brunk and Gronenborn (2004). The DGB 112

6. Site sequence, functions and climate basin the headwaters of the Chari and Logone were receiving substantial rains while an arid climate prevailed in the Sahel and the southern Sahara (Maley, 1981, 2004).

Sea islands, the Crimea and the south of France. Ecologists have described great “fountain trees” whose foliage effectively captures atmospheric humidity. Such are the redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) of the California coast that can run with water when bathed in fog. The same process occurs in mountains and is the diagnostic feature of “cloud forests” (Gioda et al. 1993). A relict of such a forest, the only one in the Mandara mountains, survives on the top of Mt Upay where it is characterized by Olea capensis, the wild olive or ironwood (Letouzey 1985).

The fall in lake level between the beginning of the 15th century to ca AD 1450 that led to complete drying of the southern lake basin must have been correlated with a major period of aridity in the DGB area, the like of which had probably not been seen since the beginning of our era.25 That this was precisely the time at which the radiocarbon dates suggest it is most likely that DGB sites were being used constitutes welcome supporting evidence for our hypothesis that the shrines are intimately associated with water. For although we cannot use the climatic data to reconstruct the precise environmental conditions obtaining around Mt Upay, such a drought must necessarily have radically increased anxieties regarding rainfall and stimulated both practical and magico-religious and ritual responses. If during the rapid amelioration of the second half of the 15th century such rituals were abandoned or took forms that did not involve the DGB sites, it would appear likely that the succeeding mid-16th century drought would have seen a reactivation of the rituals and performances that had proved successful a century before.

Much as we would like the DGB sites to have functioned not only as symbolic but also as actual water towers, the evidence is as yet lacking. No collection basins were found and, although the silos might have been used for this function, it was only in the DGB-8 South platform silo that we found most of a large jar suitable for water capture and storage. Sherds of very large and large tall rim jars, the most likely to have been used for such purposes, are not common at either site and those that do exist could well have been used for brewing beer or storing water collected in other ways. It is of course possible that the East passage in the DGB-2 Northeast platform descends to a basin, but if so why would this feature be destroyed? Possibly, one might suggest, because with the return of regular rains certain types of structures were deemed unnecessary.

These climatic data have a further implication: the sites might have played a direct role in accumulating water by condensation of fog. The fact that there was very little precipitation towards the middle of the 15th century does not imply that there was no annual movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and accompanying monsoon. Rather it was the upper and lower level jet streams, eastern waves and other mechanisms internal to the monsoon that most probably were inadequate to trigger rains. Nonetheless the ITCZ would have continued to make its annual back and forth movement across the equator, from which one may conclude that humidityladen, mainly low stratiform, clouds would have been seasonally present in the DGB area. These would have generated thick and persistent fog especially on heights. Closely comparable phenomena occur in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands. In both archipelagos water is obtained from this source by condensation of fog on palm and other trees and on rectangular piles of rocks that resemble the rubble cores of DGB platforms (Cunha, 1964: Figs 3 and 4). The condensed water drips down and is collected in basins below. Similar structures are known in various other parts of the world including Yemen, certain Red

One might also ask why, if condensation was practiced as a technique for the accumulation of water, would it have been necessary to build special sites when minor modifications to omnipresent rocky outcrops would presumably have served the same purpose at lower cost? Natural rocky outcrops are in fact not well adapted to this purpose. In order efficiently to capture and condense the moisture in fogs and stratiform clouds it is necessary that stone structures possess numerous holes through which the moist air can penetrate and subsequently condense in contact with the cold surfaces of interior cavities. The openwork rubble interiors of DGB platforms conform to these specifications, although the care taken to fill spaces between façade blocks with wedges would appear counterproductive. Gerhard Müller-Kosack (pers. comm. 2007) informs us that the Mafa associate fertility with fog, which is much appreciated following communal purification and reproduction rituals. For example, foggy weather on the days after the bull festival (maray) is seen as very auspicious. Similarly at Sukur mists and rain that occur during the initiation of young men are welcomed as a good omen. It is probable that there is much more ethnographic data to be obtained on the auspiciousness of fog in the context of rituals of reproduction. Further research, including detailed study of silos and of the conformation of platform bases, is clearly required to investigate the possibility of water collection through condensation in DGB times.

25

Jean Maley (2000:27; and see 2004:209-10) describes the mid-15th century aridity noting that the fine-grained geological data can be correlated with the following folk memory: Christian Seignobos (1993) a collecté, dans une tribu Fellata [Fulbe] vivant actuellement au sud du lac Tchad, des traditions très précises sur cet assèchement du lac que, par recoupement, il a pu dater du milieu ou de la seconde partie du XVème siècle. Cette tradition rapporte qu'à cette époque une très forte sécheresse régionale avait obligé ces Fellata à déplacer leurs villages dans la partie asséchée du sud du lac Tchad, où il y avait encore des pâturages et de l'eau dans des puits creusés dans le fond asséché du lac ! Cet événement dura une génération, soit environ 20 à 25 ans. Le retour brutal de la crue du fleuve noya tous ces villages, ce qui explique pourquoi les Fellata mémorisèrent cet événement catastrophique. »

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Chapter 7 CONCEPTS, MIGRATIONS, REPRESENTATIONS In this chapter Gerhard Müller-Kosack, whose studies of Mafa settlement and culture go back to the 1980s, first presents Mafa concepts associated with the DGB sites and their builders before offering a synthesis of the postDGB settlement history of the region. Judy Sterner’s section is a smaller scale case study of Mafa representations of the builders and occupiers of the DGB sites set in the context of the historical evidence of interactions between montagnards and Sudanic states on the one hand and agents of European powers on the other.

Concepts and migrations by Gerhard Müller-Kosack

Concepts In the first part of this section I explore Mafa ethnographic and linguistic data relating to the DGB sites and suggest interpretations of the traditions held by the Mafa regarding the builders of the sites and the history of settlement in the region. The Mafa refer to the DGB sites as díy-gé -báy, meaning “ancient chiefly residence on high”.26 The Mafa word díy here means ancient or ruinous, as in díygáy = “ancient residence/house/habitation” or the compound term ngwáz díygáy = “widow”, derived from “woman/wife (ngwaz) of ancient house”. While díy refers to an “ancient place/ruin”, the word gé is a reference to “summit” or “head” and must be translated as “on top of a hill/on high”, which is where DGB sites are mostly located. Finally the word báy, meaning “great” as in “large” but also “big” as in “big man” or “chief”, refers to the high status of the sites. However, the gloss “chief” for bay too easily evokes an overly hierarchical idea of status allocation. Despite some evidence of political centralization under the pressure of population increase, the culture of the Mafa has a strong egalitarian flavor (Müller-Kosack 2003:56-57). There are many báy – or bíy in compound forms – in Mafa society and the term often carries the connotation “first among …”. In 1964 H. Schönmaier (reported by Hinderling 1984:119) listed ten categories of báy for Mudukwa alone, including of course bíy yam but omitting bíy gwala. The Mafa báy concept is closely linked to rituals of reproduction evoking fertility 26

The semantic and etymological interpretations of Mafa terms quoted in this section sometimes differ from those of the Lexique Mafa (Barreteau and Le Bléis 1990) on account of dialectal and socio-cultural variation the description of which goes beyond the scope of this contribution. Our own views have also changed as a result of intensive consultation with Mafa elders. Thus for example the earlier “eye-headchief” reading of díy-gé -báy (as in David 2004:31) can now be abandoned.

for land, domestic animals and local kin groups. The Mafa báy whose powers are most widely recognized control rain and other natural forces such as locusts and epidemics. However, it seems that the more centralized the institution of regional chieftaincy controlling such mysterious powers, the more recent its historical development. The bíy vréke of Moskota is a good example of this. He is still believed to control a variety of plagues over a large zone, including the DGB area, and until very recently played, in conjunction with bíy yam Mudukwa, a major role in opening a regional cycle of rituals of reproduction.27 He derived his chiefly authority from the chief of Gudur to whom his predecessors on occasion paid formal visits in order to receive the kúlé, a magical substance (probably dregs of the beer brewed for ceremonies) which, mixed with water or beer, he sprinkled on his land and people for local blessings. Recent research by Nicholas David and Judy Sterner (in press) tends to indicate that the rise of Gudur or rather of its reputation as a legitimizing authority is a quite recent, 19th century, development. This is somewhat confusing, since the DGB sites, especially the two large ones in Kuva, may easily be taken as an architectural statement of political power. The MAP project has dated DGB-2 in Kuva and DGB-8 in Mtskar to the 15th century AD, perhaps 400 years earlier than the Gudur ritual paramountcy. The Mafa deal with this apparent anomaly by saying that they were not the builders of the sites but respect them as evidences of power associated with predecessors in the region, whence the term díy-gé -báy. It should be stressed that there is no oral testimony that links the Mafa of today and the DGB sites in a chiefly tradition. There is only a negative tradition, one which doesn’t appear chiefly at all but is rather a collective representation of fear of the evil intentions of the original owners of the sites. Mafa call the builders of the sites ńndódáy or ńndódíy.

Ńndódáy (singular and plural) comprises the word ndó

for “man/person” and dáy (derived from aa dáy, lit. “with eye” and thus “alive”), meaning here: “man who eats things raw/uncooked”.28 The ńndódáy are problematic to the Mafa in that they are fundamentally dissimilar from them. There is for example no tradition of ńndódáy practicing agriculture. It is widely believed that their main occupation was to catch people in order to consume 27

The bíy vréke I first met in 1988 and twice in 2002 died probably in 2004 and had not been replaced by September 2005. 28 The Lexique Mafa (1990:269) gives ńnduzládáy (“take with force” plus “face/eye”) as the word for cannibalism.

Performance and agency Mafa area, a mádzágáy is usually a shrine associated with a family or a lineage protecting a member who killed someone in tribal warfare. The function of the offerings made at the shrine is to prevent the killer from being haunted by the spirit of the killed person and going mad as a result. Many killer shrines continue to be served through the generations. There are also other killer shrines, for example ones installed by someone who killed a leopard or someone who in his lifetime sacrificed ten bulls during the Mafa bull festival, maray. Leopards, by now very rare in the region, are dangerous especially in that they are liable to haunt the person who kills them. The ritual sacrifice of a bull is like killing a family member. Although the Mafa do not claim to have killed the ńndódáy, their takeover of their sites is a comparable act that similarly requires placation and appeasement of the former owners. Besides the mádzágáy shrines at Kuva, there is a black rock on DGB-8 which receives offerings that we were informed were to keep the ńndódáy from returning.

them alive. Feeding on human flesh represents a threat to the Mafa mode of reproduction. Mafa are familiar with the consumption of fellow humans only in the context of witchcraft and sorcery, practices that are evil and which occur in secrecy and in the night. In contrast, ńndódáy supposedly consumed humans in plain daylight and in public. This, their main mode of “subsistence”, renders them a spiritual threat. The sites are not merely an architectural statement of the powers of the ńndódáy, they are themselves repositories of ńndódáy power that threaten the Mafa who farm on and around them. To avoid becoming victims, Mafa carry out specific rituals. This is something the Mafa are very good at. During the history of their formation they were confronted with problems of increasingly high settlement density and developed a sophisticated ritual culture to regulate access to agricultural land. This has lead them to attribute unwanted natural events, like strong winds, to various spirits which require placation by appropriate rituals. The ńndódáy have become part of this spirit world.

The link between DGB sites and the ńndódáy is not everywhere as well established as in Kuva or Mtskar. Some Mafa living only a short distance away have no knowledge of the sites and, if they have ńndódáy stories at all, construct them quite differently. In Upay for example the ńndódáy are said to have been defeated by a former blacksmith (ngwazla) of the cé e  clan who, through his previous caste affiliation, possessed special powers that took the material form of fetishes. He had originally used these fetishes to change his social status from ngwazla to vávay (farmer).29 The former blacksmith now used the same fetishes to kill many ńndódáy, who had come to Upay to hunt down and consume the local inhabitants on a rock slab. The power of the fetish caused the rock to turn over, burying the ńndódáy beneath it. Only one ńndódáy escaped and fled towards Kuva but the rock caught up with him at Mtskar, rolling over and killing him.30 Although a connection with DGB sites seems implied by the mention of Kuva, this narrative does not portray the ńndódáy as evil spirits but emphasizes the power of a former smith who, by virtue of superior fetishes, was able to defeat man eating raiders.31

At the two large sites in Kuva we find altogether three shrines. One is a wind shrine on top of DGB-2, the other two are killer shrines, one beneath DGB-1 (see Fig. 2.14a and Dfig. 7.1) and the other between it and DGB-2. At the wind shrine on top of DGB-2 offerings are made to the ńndódáy in order to appease them. The Mafa of Kuva believe that the ńndódáy command very strong winds which can cause significant damage. These winds are believed to originate from a small hole nearby and are most threatening during the end of the dry season, in April and May, when people get their fields ready for the new planting season. The man responsible for the ritual is an elder living close to the site who inherited this duty from his father. One of his predecessors reportedly died as a result of the mysterious powers unleashed by the sites, proof enough of the dangerous nature of the ńndódáy. Towards the end of the dry season the elder responsible for the shrines at DGB-1 and DGB-2 goes, together with other Kuva elders, and examines the small hole which is described as looking like the hole of a black scorpion. Once the elders have identified the evil source of the wind they gather Capparis fascicularis thorns and close the hole with them. A little later a ceremony is held at the wind shrine with offerings of chicken and sorghum beer and a goat is sacrificed. This is to appease the ńndódáy and to stop the wind coming out to create evil. During this ritual the two killer shrines are also served with portions of the same offerings.

29

The vast majority of the Mafa (over 95%) are of the farmer caste (vávay) and oral tradition occasionally reports that a blacksmith managed to change his status from ngwazla to vávay, allowing him to intermarry with vávay, something normally not possible for a blacksmith. 30 The theme of rock slabs turning over and killing enemies is a regional cliché recorded by N. David and J. Sterner (pers. comm. 2007) at Gudur. 31 In Upay I also learned that ńndódáy are also known as yemeri. This term may be a variation of the Hausa yamiri meaning “Igbo”, said to derive from the Igbo expression nye-m mmiri, meaning “give me water”. The term is derogatory and has its root in the 1960s Igbo diaspora and subsequent Biafran War. Outside Nigeria, for example in Cameroon and Chad, apparent variants of yamiri are often associated with cannibalism, though the phonological similarity with the Fulfulde term niam-niam (root ñaam- “to eat”) which attributes cannibalism to enemies could be accidental. That Mafa of Upay use the words ńndódáy and yemeri synonymously is an indication of the unreliability of local

Killer shrines are found at certain DGB sites because the local people believe that death through misfortune is more likely to be caused on and around the sites. The general Mafa word for killer shrine is mádzágáy a term deriving from madz, to “blacken” – which in Mafa as in English may carry the metaphorical sense of something sinister or evil – and gáy, “house or family”. In the wider 116

7. Concepts, migrations, representations While most of those who live in the vicinity of the sites attribute power to them and their builders, there is, as Judy Sterner shows later in this chapter, considerable variation in their stories and no common, generally received, view. Another and quite different Mafa theory regarding the DGB sites that I have collected in Upay, Kuva and Mondossa, where it exists alongside the ńndódáy tradition, is that they were built by a people known as Godaliy who subsequently left for the Gwoza hills. Gwodaliy or Godaliy is, it will be remembered, the name of the hill 800 m southwest of DGB-1. The Gwoza hills constitute the western horn of the Mandara mountains, in Nigeria but to the immediate northwest of the DGB sites. The Mafa of Moskota and those of the DGB area usually mean the Dghwede when they refer to the Godaliy, presumably because they have most contacts with them. In ethnic terms, the Dghwede are the largest of three ethnic groups in the Gwoza hills (the Dghwede, Guduf and Chikide-Chinene). Their beer jars with very narrow apertures and carefully built and smooth faced dry stone walling have analogies in the DGB culture (see chapters 5 and 6). The iron bracelets/chain links found near DGB-10 are also similar to pieces I have observed in the Gwoza hills (Fig. 6.3). These similarities are presented in detail elsewhere.32 They are more likely to result from shared participation in a broad montagnard cultural tradition than from a narrow relationship of descent. The carefully faced walls are not used in the manufacture of rubble platforms; the narrow apertures of the beer jars are made by using a pierced disk technique that has not been found in DGB series. I return to this point in the next section in which I turn to a broader consideration of regional migrations and their influence on group and settlement formation.

Figure 7.1. Phase 1 and 2 migrations into the DGB area and the time-transgressive Godaliy migration. It is difficult to set the relative chronologies of Mafa and other migrations in an absolute time frame and to establish their connections to sets of archaeological and ethnographic data. We know that the Mafa were already established and widely distributed in the region at the start of the 20th century, and from radiocarbon dates that the DGB culture was present in the 15thd. There is a potential gap of three to four hundred years between the two phenomena. Another methodological point is that oral traditions often represent the movements of individuals, families and small groups as the migrations of whole clans or larger entities (Vansina 1967:59-60). This seems often to have been the case in Mafa history. Rather than being replaced by Mafa, earlier settlers were frequently incorporated into a vigorously expanding Mafa society and now perceive themselves as fully Mafa while maintaining their traditions of origin from other ethnic communities.

Migratory traditions This examination of regional migratory traditions in relation to the DGB area concentrates on major descent groups (clans), neglecting smaller groups unless they are of special historical significance. Migratory traditions are important to the Mafa and are recapitulated in ritual behavior. In The way of the beer (Müller-Kosack 2003) I describe how Mafa re-enact their respective local histories by exchanging sorghum beer in the context of annual rituals of reproduction. Later comers, even if by virtue of greater reproductive success they have succeeded in taking over the chieftaincy, acknowledge first comers’ special relationship to the land by sending them beer. The chronological sequence in which beer is exchanged and offered at family and community shrines thus constitutes an encoding of settlement history that complements and reinforces traditions of clan origins.

Within the wider DGB area we have data on continuity and replacement of chiefly clans in 14 village communities (Table 7.1). As a rule of thumb, in each of the Mafa settlements listed above the current chiefly clan, kə́rbáy  or  kə́rbíy,  literally “son of great” with “great” here referring to reproductive capacity, occupies more than half of its territory. The traditions mapped in figure 7.1 have been assigned to phases in the light of local seniorities inferred from traditions of origin and data on ritual beer exchange between clan groups. We distinguish two main migratory phases into the wider DGB area: an earlier phase 1, consisting of the sákón, the ndúrsálá, and the wúla-sákón, and a later phase 2, consisting of the və́zay, the zhélé, the zlágám, the gózlá, and the zarúwá clan groups.

historical theories regarding the builders of DGB sites. Judy Sterner comments on the yemeri question in her section of this chapter. 32 URL: http://www.mandaras.info/DGB-Godaliy_Research/index.htm. See also the forthcoming article on “Godaliy and DGB” (MüllerKosack, in press).

All clan groups of phase 1 claim to have come from the western edge of the Mandara mountains, the area now occupied by Wula, Sukur, Kapsiki and Higi (Kamwe) to 117

Performance and agency TABLE 7.1. MAJOR MIGRATORY PHASES SUGGESTED BY CONTINUITY OR REPLACEMENT OF CHIEFLY CLAN GROUPS

the southwest of the Ziver-Upay massif. They moved into the DGB area by two different routes. While the sákón (whose name links them to Sukur) and the ndúrsálá (of Kapsiki origin) migrated northwards towards the heights of Turu and across the Ziver-Upay massif, the wúlasákón moved around the southern end of Mount Ziver, towards Bao, from where they migrated northwest into the DGB area, penetrating into the highlands as far as Mtskar and Bigide.

Village

In the past zhélé clansmen brought beer to the descendants of the former wúla-sákón chiefly clan of Wulad (who are now resident in Mtskar). The same is the case in Mazay: only there the zhélé bring beer to the rúwá, a very small clan group with special functions but who can not be associated with either of the main migratory phases. They pass the beer of Mazay on to the wúla-sákón of Mtskar. There is another pre-phase 2 clan in Mazay, the hízhé, who came from Muhur, 12 km southeast of Mokolo, and became the chiefly clan after the Wula-Sakon had moved on but then lost their chiefly status to the zhélé after the latter had increased in number and were able with the help of their “brothers” in Wulad to seize the chieftaincy. I mention this for several reasons. First it illustrates the dangers inherent in periodization in terms of phases. Second, it shows how expansive the phase 2 Mafa clan groups were in the area, even in the face of opposition from the hízhé, who have the reputation of having been great warriors. The third reason is that an important hízhé ancestor, a man by the name Gozhe, left Mazay and moved to “Gódalíy” in the Gwoza hills, a point to which I return below. The hízhé too bring beer to the rúwá of Mazay before the latter carry it to the wúla-sákón in Mtskar.

Original chiefly clan

Current chiefly clan

Area of origin of current chiefly clan

Phase 1 Ziver Upay Nduval Mudukwa

sákón sákón sákón ndúrsálá

sákón sákón sákón ndúrsálá

Wula/Sukur Wula/Sukur Wula/Sukur Kapsiki

Mtskar

wúla-

wúla-

sákón

sákón

Wula/Sukur

Phase 2 Bigide Mazay Wulad Mafmay GuzdaKrbay Zlama Mondossa Kuva Muzua

wúlasákón

wúlasákón

wúlasákón zlágám

wúlasákón və́zay zarúwá gózlá

wúlasákón

gózlá

Muktele

zhélé

Ruwa/Sulede

zhélé

Ruwa/Sulede

zlágám

Sulede

və́zay

Ruwa/Sulede

və́zay və́zay gózlá

Ruwa/Sulede Podokwo Muktele

gózlá

Muktele

the wúla-sákón of Mtskar. Despite their relative lack of numbers, the gózlá fulfill an important ritual function. As already mentioned, the bíy yam of Mudukwa, the main rainmaker in the region, is of a gózlá lineage.

To recapitulate, the clan groups of phase 1 represent an early, though post-DGB, population element within the wider DGB area. Those who settled the higher ground from Ziver to Mudukwa were able to resist replacement by later comers, as were the wúla-sákón of Mtskar though not those of neighboring Bigide. Assimilation of these early settlers into what we now know as Mafa culture presumably began in the və́zay and zhélé-dominated lowlands soon after the start of phase 2.

Unfortunately there are no instances where gózlá have replaced və́zay or zhélé as the chiefly clan or vice-versa, nor are there other data that make clear which, if either, wave preceded the other. In one instance, at Mondossa, the zarúwá, a clan of Podokwo origin, replaced the və́zay as the chiefly clan. The Podokwo are northern neighbors of the Muktele, and if the zarúwá migration is linked to that of the gózlá, then this would suggest that the Mafa group preceded the Muktele. However this can not be established. Migrations in this region as in many other parts of Africa are frequently complex mosaics of minor movements that take place over considerable periods.

A second major phase of migration into the area includes the group of Mafa clans, primarily the və́zay and zhélé but also the zlágám, coming from the Mafa heartland around Sulede and Ruwa along a route similar to the latter part of the wúla-sákón migration. Genealogical evidence suggests that this process started some two to three hundred years ago. A second important component enters the area from the northeast and is represented by the gózlá, who originated in Muktele territory. Relative dating and reconstruction of detailed movements within phase 2 is problematic. Clans originally of Muktele origin are the second largest grouping represented in phase 2. They crossed the plain of Koza and spread widely, though rarely becoming numerous enough to become the chiefly clan. Only in Kuva are the gózlá both the original and current chiefly clan. In Muzua and Bigide they replaced the wúla-sákón and now both bring ritual beer to

In summary, oral traditions and data on ritual beer exchange strongly suggest that phase 1 immigration originating from southwest of the Ziver massif predates Mafa immigration and the subsequent Mafa-ization of earlier inhabitants of the DGB area. The possibility of a phase 1 connection to the DGB culture is denied by their contrasting distributions and the lack of a DGB association in oral traditions. With minor, localized and possibly idiosyncratic exceptions, the traditions of the phase 2 migrants explicitly place the DGB sites in a period prior to their arrival. The gózlá migration of Muktele origin can be firmly linked to the second phase of immigration into the DGB area. It is possible that some gózlá, notably the descent group of the Mudukwa 118

7. Concepts, migrations, representations rainmaker, might have been attracted to the region by its association with the DGB sites, but this cannot be demonstrated and there are indications that the rainmaker’s line are relative late comers. Certainly there are today no oral traditions that relate DGB sites to rainmaking. It would seem that a gap of up to two hundred years intervenes between the DGB culture and the first surviving, pre-Mafa, tradition of immigration into the region. Despite artifactual evidence indicating that the DGB culture shared in a montagnard tradition that persists to the present day, there is a marked break between the DGB culture and the present inhabitants of the region.

Before such an interpretation can be finally accepted, much more research, especially on the Nigerian side of the border, remains to be done on this and other major migratory themes relating to the northern Mandara region, for example the movement from Nigeria into Cameroon of the Podokwo and the “people of Ngolélé” (McEachern 2003 [1991]) or the northeast to southwest flows of migration from Chad into Cameroon studied by Seignobos (1991, 2000).34 Also deserving further investigation is a narrative of immigration from the Gwoza hills to Mudukwa where there exists a ńhwongama descent group numbering about 200 families which claims to have originated from Godaliy a long time ago.

The hízhé together with some Mafa of Kuva and Upay have reported another early tradition of migration, one that, exceptionally, is of emigration from the DGB area. I refer to this as the Godaliy tradition. The northwestern Mafa refer to the Dghwede and other groups of the Gwoza hills and foothills as Godaliy. When in 1988 I visited the chief of Vreke and interviewed him on the history of the area, he told me that Glavda had once occupied the Vreke massif in the Moskota hills and were driven out by the Vreke Mafa. The Vreke refer to the Glavda, as they do to the Dghwede, as Godaliy. In 1994, while researching on migration traditions in the Gwoza hills I found that the origin tradition of the Glavda is connected with the Tur tradition. They claim to have originally come from Turu to the village of Ngoshe Kasa (Gvoko) at the eastern foot of the Gwoza hills. In the DGB area the story told by some Mafa goes that the Godaliy were the builders of the sites and left before the Mafa arrived. The Dghwede themselves do not seem to know of this tradition but, like the Glavda, link themselves to the heights of Turu and even further south to the Kapsiki area. This Tur tradition (Müller-Kosack 1996) may be related to the sákón tradition associated with the first phase of immigration into the DGB area.

The materials presented in this section show that historical links of some antiquity exist between the Gwoza hills and the DGB area and that, although we cannot be precise about the origins of the builders of the DGB sites, present evidence favors a Wandala linguistic group affiliation.

Representations: indigenous constructions of the past by Judy Sterner While participating in the excavations at DGB-8 and DGB-2, I was also engaged with Baldena Mbozoum, our Mafa assistant from Guzda, in recording traditions about the DGB sites. I interviewed people living near the sites as well as others in the region. In the course of this research I came to realize that the interviews revealed more of the turbulent and complex events that took place in the late pre-colonial and early colonial periods than they informed on the history of the sites themselves. For those who live around them, the DGB sites have become focal points for narratives that attempt to make sense of a tumultuous period in the history of the region.

Given the wide, though by no means universal, distribution of the Godaliy story among northwestern Mafa, it is at least possible that this relates to the retreat towards the northwest of speakers of languages of the Wandala group, today represented by the Hide, Dghwede, Glavda and others, in the face of peoples from the east and perhaps south.33 The two phases of migration recognized in the DGB area may represent a late part of such movements. If this is the case, then we should clearly differentiate between those whose traditions take them to Tur, and those whose stories begin with a departure from Tur. Further, we can suggest that the builders of the DGB sites are most likely to been speakers of a language affiliated with the Wandala group. This would be consistent with the similarities noted between DGB material culture and that of the present peoples of the Gwoza hills.

I begin with a discussion of the indigenous constructions of the pre-colonial and colonial periods revealed in interviews and discussions about the sites. The resulting narrative is then analyzed in the light of the available historical sources. Finally I ask what postcolonialism means to people who continue to live with their precolonial and colonial pasts. Seignobos (1982a:41-44), was informed by Kuva residents that the sites were built by men with red or coppery skin, though how they knew this is unclear since he was also told that when their ancestors “took possession of the massif, there was no war or expulsion … the populations of the ‘diy ger bay’ had already left …” (my translation), moreover the terrace system did not 34

The Podokwo tradition of migration into the hills south of Mora is well known in the Gwoza hills (see R. Lukas 1973:25 and MüllerKosack 1994) where it is linked to the Tur tradition. McEachern wrote extensively about the “people of Ngolélé”, a migratory tradition among the Plata, Dumwa, Urza and others who claim that they came from Ngololo, which is in fact the highest settlement (about 1300 m) in the northern, Zelidva, part of the Gwoza hills.

33

By Wandala language group we mean the languages characterized in Ethnologue (Gordon 2005) as Afro-Asiatic, Chadic, Biu-Mandara, A, A.4, Mandara Proper and by Barreteau and Jungraithmayr (1993) as Chadic, Central Branch, Sub-branch Tera-Dzəpaw, Division BuraPəlasla, Subdivision Xədi-Mofu, Group Xədi-Wandala.

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Performance and agency exist but there were many Acacia albida, suggesting to this distinguished human geographer that the previous occupants had been cattle-raising agro-pastoralists. These, he hypothesized mainly on the basis of stone architecture in Podokwo/Muktele territory and its placement in the landscape, might have been “paléogelebda” (i.e., a group ancestral to the Glavda, speakers of a Wandala group language) who, he states, had previously occupied that area and been chased from the eastern branch of mountains. This view converges with Müller-Kosack’s suggestion in the previous section that the builders of the DGB sites may have spoken languages of the Wandala group.

and his soldiers, others state that they were dangerous “blacks” who came from the nearby plains, in which case they are most likely to have been Wandala. More rarely they are characterized as “whites” who had come to collect taxes.35 One of Kosack’s (1992:185) informants spoke of a Mandara (sic) named Hamajé who was the infamous head of a gang of slave raiders. His people moved slaves between Madagali and Mokolo. This supplementary evidence makes it quite clear that this man’s Hamajé was in fact Hamman Yaji and that the informant had mistaken his ethnicity. Nyemri/nyamri and variants is more problematic; a possible recent and to my mind unlikely origin of the term is discussed by MüllerKosack in an earlier footnote. It may ultimately be derived from the root nam or nyam meaning meat or animal which is widespread in Niger-Congo languages and beyond (Greenberg 1983:16-17). It appears in (Chadic) Hausa as nama (meat) and in the compound forms nyam-nyam and yam-yam (cannibal) (Abraham 1962) and in (West Atlantic) Fulfulde as nyama (to eat, consume, capture), nyamnyamre (kidnapping; selling in slavery) and nyamnyamjo, nyam-nyam’en (cannibal[s]) (Taylor 1932:226-227). The meaning of nyemri is further discussed below under “Conflation and synthesis”.

Claims that the DGB sites were long abandoned when the ancestors of the Mafa arrived perhaps some 300 years ago (Müller-Kosack 2003 and pers. comm. 2002) are indeed commonplace in the region, however they are not universal. My discussions in 2002 with people living in the vicinity of DGB sites revealed a relatively consistent set of themes regarding their history. The former occupants of the sites were strangers, variously described as nndodiy, hamaji and nyemri, to whom respondents attributed various combinations of the following attributes: white skin, the colour red, horses, slavery, music and cannibalism. While there is some variation in detail, nndodiy are most often associated with the color red referring to their eyes, headdress or skin color. Hamaji are usually described as “blacks” who came from the plains to the east and northeast on horseback; they built the sites in order to have “good views”. The nyemri, a more rarely used term, were said by some to have come from the west (nearby Nigeria) and to have settled at Mozogo, a Mafa and Wandala settlement on the plain that in precolonial times was located beneath Galdala inselberg some 8.5 km northeast of DGB-12 (see Fig. 1.1).

Hamaji, nyemri and nndoday are not the only beings associated with the sites. Two categories of whites are sometimes referred to in relation to the sites themselves, sometimes as their builders. The first whites are known as “blanc-blancs” (lit. white-whites) or nasara kwarakakwarka. In the second formation Nasara, “Nazarene” via Arabic, a term for Caucasians/whites/Christians in Hausa and Fulfulde, is combined with kwar, to command/order in Mafa. The whites who came later are referred to as “blanc-rouges” (lit. white-reds) or nasara nduz-nduzza’a (lit. white person + nduz-nduzza’a “red” in Mafa). The blanc-blancs, according to one informant, had hair down over their necks and eyes, while the latter were red. The blanc-blancs came on horseback with blacks who built the sites under their orders. Some say they lived there with the blacks who played wind instruments described as “flutes”. Others claim that they demanded taxes, burned houses and took people. One informant stated that blanc-blancs resettled the Wandala of Galdala at Mozogo. Some identify these whites as Germans though it was in fact the French who moved Wandala Mozogo from the base of Galdala to its present location in the early 1930s. The blanc-rouges came later and stopped the Wandala from taking slaves; another source stated that they stopped the hamaji from mistreating them. They came with guns and chased the blanc-blancs away, thus ending slavery. One person noted that these red-whites were the French (sic) who kicked Hamman Yaji out. Gerhard Müller-Kosack and I were told in 2002 by the chief of Vreke that the blanc-blancs were Germans, had very white skin and were mean, while the blanc-rouges were French and looked like Gerhard (who is German!) and myself. My respondents are, not surprisingly, confused

Whether referred to as hamaji or nyemri, the builders of the sites became nndodiy. Zinahad Wandala, a Mafa elder living next to DGB-8 who worked with us on the excavation, described the history of DGB-8 as follows: When his ancestor arrived the sites were not yet built, all was bush and there were very few people. Later people came from the plains and asked permission to settle there. They wanted good views. At first they were few in number, but others came from the plains. They forced the Mafa to collect rocks to build [DGB-8]. After some time the Mafa noticed that their own people were disappearing while the newcomers grew in number. They were taking the Mafa and eating them. When they realized what was happening they fled into the mountains. They called the cannibals nndodiy or nyemri. They returned home after the nndodiy had left (JS fieldnotes 1:26-29; 02/10/11). What do these terms mean? Hamaji is suspiciously close to the name of the early 20th century Fulbe ruler of Madagali, Hamman Yaji, discussed in some detail below. While some informants equate hamaji with Hamman Yaji

35

Kosack (1992:185, fn.15) made a similar observation regarding Hamman Yaji and hamaji, stating that this term conflates Fulbe and Wandala slave raiders.

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7. Concepts, migrations, representations regarding the complex events and political maneuverings of the early 20th century (Vaughan and Kirk-Greene 1995).

northern Nigeria in 1900 (Kirk-Greene 1958:44, 55-64). While details of Bakari’s demise are disputed, he was killed in 1902 by the Germans who then installed his son as his successor.

Hamman Yaji was not the only individual to have left an indelible impression on the Mafa and other groups of the region: there is also “Caftan Valla”. According to one elderly Mtskar man, Valla came to collect taxes accompanied by another white man, some Wandala, and Mafa porters. If they didn’t pay up, their houses were burned (JS fieldnotes 1:9-32, 02/09/23). In another account Valla came to collect taxes. He was carried on a wooden litter to Mtskar. He asked for land and had a house built made of stone (presumably DGB-8). He lived on top of this house from which he could “talk” to other sites with a flute (a bugle?). He sent people up the mountain to find slaves. He was a blanc-blanc, the only one, but was accompanied by blacks, hamaji, in army uniforms who played flutes. Later, this informant stated, the blanc-rouges came to stop the slaving (JS1:22a-b, 02/10/16).

Probably soon after his accession and certainly before March 1911 (see Weiss 2000:192-3), Hamman Yaji had embarked on a long term program of raids on the montagnards for slaves and livestock partially recorded in a diary for the years 1912-27 that miraculously survived (Vaughan and Kirk-Greene 1995:35).36 These raids, carried out by his small, private army, khaki uniformed and with red fezzes, became increasingly frequent as inter-European conflicts played out in Africa improved his access to rifles and cartridges that, together with successive European powers’ policy of indirect rule through Muslim chiefs, vastly facilitated his depredations (Kirk-Greene 1995:35). Vaughan (1964:1087) states that Hamman Yaji received guns from the Germans in 1914 “ostensibly to fight the British but instead used them to more efficiently enslave and kill the pagans.” There is no evidence of this in the diary and in fact Resident Schwarz visited Madagali in the course of an anti-slavery action in September 1913, confiscated all Hamman Yaji’s rifles and destroyed them, “and only the muzzle-loaders were returned to him.” (Weiss 2000: 195). Hamman Yaji was always keen to obtain rifles and cartridges and did so from a variety of sources. His private army continued to raid with mounting intensity into 1920. Hamman Yaji recorded that his men raided the settlement of “Gusdo” in May 1920 and “captured 69 slaves, 50 cattle and 160 goats” (Vaughan and Kirk-Greene 1995:72). It is not specified whether this was upper Guzda (G. Makanday) above Djingliya or Guzda-Krbay on the edge of the Koza plain, however both are in the vicinity of DGB sites. This was one of the last of his raids for on 2 August 1920 he noted that:

This somewhat incoherent and variable rendering of history can, at least in its last stages, be compared with historical reports, both African and European. But before proceeding to explore the early colonial history of the region through the actions of two outstanding and historically identifiable actors, Hamman Yaji and Charles Vallin, it is essential to set out the briefest outline of that history. In 1902 the Mandara region, including a thin strip of what is now Nigeria, was incorporated into German Kamerun. World War I saw the defeat of the Germans by the allies, France and Great Britain, first at Garoua and finally in 1916 in the mountains above Mora, where von Raben had conducted a gallant and determined defense (Ferrandi 1928). Over the next five years the French and the British divided up the territory and responsibilities for its inhabitants, this being formalized in 1922 by the League of Nations’ establishment in our area of British and French Mandated Territories. In 1961, the British-administered strip – which had by then become the United Nations Trust Territory of British Northern Cameroons – voted to join Nigeria (Vaughan 1964).

A letter arrived from the [French] Captain saying that the English were coming … Then on Wednesday another letter arrived saying that my land has been transferred from the French to the English. Let us hope that the French are telling lies (Vaughan and Kirk-Greene 1995:73). They were not, and it was the British who forced Hamman Yaji to cease slave raiding in December of the same year (though an associate carried out a further raid in 1921) (Vaughan 1995:15). They arrested and deposed him in 1927 on the grounds of corruption and suspected Mahdism, forcing him into exile ultimately in Kaduna where he died two years later (Kirk-Greene 1995:32-41).

The Colonial Period The Fulbe warlord Madagali, founded in the 19th century during the jihad of Usman Dan Fodio, was the most northeasterly outpost of the Sokoto Caliphate west of the Mandara mountains, established on the contested frontier with the Mandara state which for most of the time was a vassal of Borno. Hamman Yaji was the son of Bakari, the Fulbe laamiδo (chief) of Madagali, who was caught up in the German pursuit of the fugitive Emir of Adamawa, Zubeiru, whose situation was itself a result of European encroachment. This brought with it the Anglo-German settlement of spheres of influence 1893, the presence of the French in the Lake Chad region, and the Royal Niger Company ceding its responsibilities to the British for what is now

Kirk-Greene (1954:4, Yolaprof ACC 83), an Assistant District Officer in the British Cameroons in the 1950s, describes montagnard memories of Hamman Yaji’s reign as:

36

In 1912 the Germans took jurisdiction of the montagnards living on the massifs of Ziver, Vuzod, Batuwey, Magumaz, Chugule and Udahay from Hamman Yaji and gave them to the Wandala (Martin 1970:43; Boutrais 1973:60).

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Performance and agency falls and slides. It was also during this period that slave trading was finally stopped. This enabled the montagnards to descend to the plains to cultivate or resettle in Mokolo or the surrounding plateau.

A quarter-century of unbelievable tyranny and cruelty, of slave-raiding and oppression, that continued untrammeled throughout the tenuous German control and the shadowy French administration of the Great War, right down [to] and after the arrival of the British in 1922 (sic).

Beauvilain (Ibid.:135) remarks that Vallin, remembered in 2002 as a tax collector, destroyer of homes, and friend of “cannibals”, has become part of the “Panthéon Mafa”. Whether this is due to his aid during a time of famine or his enforcement of a strict policy that punished those who resisted French authority, it is not altogether surprising that he has been associated by Mafa with the monuments that are the most remarkable features of the cultural landscape.

The French military administrator Like Hamman Yaji, Caftan Valla’s or more properly Capitaine Charles Vallin’s presence in local history is well documented. Beauvilain’s Nord-Cameroun: crises et peuplement (1989) assembles fragmented materials from Cameroonian and French colonial archives that enable us to gain a better picture of life in the Mandara mountains during the colonial period. Vallin (1895-1984) was a military administrator stationed in Mokolo between 1926 and 1934 (Beauvilain 1989:585). According to this author, Vallin was one of the few administrators whose actions in the field embodied Governor Marchand’s policy of “pacification” followed by “education”. Vallin insisted that those engaged in “tours of inspection” not leave a village without material evidence of the inhabitants’ submission to the touring officer’s authority. Tax must be collected, fugitives apprehended, and so on (Ibid.:354-355). If this required that the homes of those who resisted be burned or animals confiscated, so be it.

Conflation and synthesis It is clear that the Mafa have conflated in these two figures a variety of actors and events, precolonial and colonial. Hamman Yaji stands as the origin of the hamaji concept in Mafa and others’ oral traditions, and it is very likely that many of the evil actions attributed to the hamaji can be laid at the door of him and his soldiery – but not necessarily or even probably all. Hamaji have come, I suggest, to stand for all or most of the African – Wandala, Bornoan and Fulani – representatives of Sudanic states that preyed on the region from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. They are not – or no longer – clearly differentiated from the nyemri. Just who were the nyemri remains problematic. According to Seignobos (1987:122):

On 18 July 1928 the Wandala chief of Mozogo, Tigréa Hiassa, arrived at Guzda. He was accompanied by 114 men, three mounted troopers, six women and eight donkeys. He was to have awaited the arrival of Capitaine Deparis, chief of the Mokolo district, on the nearly plain the following day. From there they were to proceed to Guzda together to collect taxes. Unfortunately Tigréa and his entourage went directly to Guzda where they were attacked by montagnards. The following day Deparis arrived to find 24 bodies and another ten Wandala missing. Deparis and his men burned a number of huts and cut the sorghum in the surrounding fields. They threatened to cut all the fields if the six Wandala women, other goods, and livestock were not surrendered (Ibid. 1989:341). Guzda chief Bogola responded by saying that they were willing to pay their taxes but not under orders from the Wandala. Two previous Wandala chiefs had been deposed by the French, one for engaging in slave raiding. All this occurred while Vallin was on vacation in France. Upon his return he punished Bogala and his brothers by destroying their homes and burning another 80 compounds. Returning a few days later and finding that the montagnards had already begun to rebuild he destroyed them all over again (Ibid.:342).

On the Madagali road … was a Nyemri center, a generic term for cavalry groups before the Fulbe, who also occupied it. The Nyemri were Zagi, that is to say Margi (or Gamergu) mounted on ponies … and placed under the orders of Amadje, of Bornoans. It would seem that during the 16th and 17th centuries, bands of Margi had established themselves in entrenched camps if not to conquer certain massifs then at least to practice intensive slaving. …. Fiefs of Borno, they were required to receive Bornoan columns and to operate with them. Locals served as their guides, generally Mbuzom (Wula), a group transitional between Mafa and Kapsiki (my translation). Although I collected the term in the vicinity of DGB sites, it would appear to be widely distributed and very possibly older than hamaji. Seignobos may very well be correct in identifying them as pre-Fulbe raiders affecting primarily the western side of the Mandara mountains, but his association of the name Amadje with them suggests that his informants were themselves engaged in some degree of conflation.

There was however another side to Vallin; Beauvilain comments on the exceptional role he played during the locust-induced famines of the early 1930s. Vallin took it upon himself to find sufficient sorghum to feed the montagnards of the region (Ibid.:135). He also distributed salt to be used in the detoxification of wild yams which locals were forced into eating. However in return for aid, the men were required to work as laborers on the construction of the Mokolo-Koza road. Many died in rock

Vallin on the other hand stands very largely for himself, a dominant figure at a time of great trauma in the mountains. He is not clearly integrated with either the blanc-blancs or the blanc-rouges, though these terms can be generally equated with the Germans and French – without implying that there is a one to one 122

7. Concepts, migrations, representations correspondence of blanc-blanc to Germans and blancrouge to French or vice versa. (The British were not players in this part of the region.) It is possible that the “flutes” associated with Vallin are in fact bugles, and I have investigated but without result the possibility that the blanc:rouge dichotomy is in some way related to uniforms or other colonial regalia. However some “flutes” might be Wandala oboes (algeita). It is not unlikely that the train of a chief of Tigréa’s status would have included musicians.

history of the region? The description of the builders of the DGB sites as having long hair is one such element. At first sight Denham’s Mozogo savages would seem to fit the bill – but they are four centuries too late to be the builders of the DGB sites! I suggest that recent Mafa characterizations of the DGB builders draw on memories of the costumes worn by allies of the Wandala in the early 19th century, Wandala of Mozogo during the colonial period and German and French military administrators accompanied by local and other African troops. People still anoint themselves with ochreous oil, partly for health and warmth but mainly for magical protection against spirit attacks. It is thus entirely appropriate that liminal male initiates at Sukur color their whole bodies in this manner. Long hair is, in this region, commonly associated with the wandering mad, another class of persons outside normal society. The red eyes hidden, according to one informant, behind the builders’ long hair are associated with sorcerers. Thus the identifying features commonly attributed to the DGB builders are ones associated with persons temporarily or permanently outside normal society. Such would have been the status of the either Mafa or Mafa-related allies of the Wandala described by Denham. The characterization of nndoday is by no means precise. Even whites can be mistaken for them. When Nic David and I with the much younger Andrea Richardson and Owen Murray visited DGB-8 prior to its excavation, there was a rumor, quickly countered, that nndoday had returned and were about to reclaim the land for their children.

Further back in time others who might qualify as nndodiy/nyemri were the allies (or tributaries) of the Wandala state coming from Mozogo (which became a Wandala outpost some 80 years later)37 who were observed in Mora in 1823 by Major Dixon Denham (in Bovill 1965:333).38 They brought “two hundred head of their fellow-creatures … to the sultan.” He wrote that their heads “were covered with long woolly, or rather bristly, hair, coming quite over their eyes” and that “their bodies with the red patches with which their body was marked in different places, and of which color also their own teeth were stained, they really had a most strikingly wild, and truly savage appearance.” Denham’s description of the “wild and savage” Mozogo arriving in Mora with slaves causes us to consider an uncomfortable truth, that the montagnards were not merely passive victims of Wandala or Fulbe slave raiders nor of colonial tax collectors. Müller-Kosack (2003:41; see also Kosack 1992:183) has recorded an informant’s account of a raid at Guzda by Hamman Yaji which suggests that the most important rain chief in the region, the bi yam Mudukwa, was “involved in the control of the slave trade.” According to this account, after the raid local chiefs complained to the bi yam that they had not been consulted about it. The rain chief went to Madagali and requested that Hamman Yaji return the captured Mafa. When the latter refused the rain chief caused the rain to fall so heavily that Hamman Yaji’s house was flooded and he returned the captives. While this story incorporates cliché elements,39 it also implies, as does Seignobos’s mention of local guides above, that some montagnards were politically aligned – for a variety of reasons ranging from greed to fear – with Hamman Yaji and other agents of the Sudanic states of the plains. I have abundant evidence of such arrangements in the Sukur region.

In conclusion, my attempt to discover something of the history of DGB sites from local accounts exemplifies, as does Müller-Kosack’s much more detailed and extensive research, both the perils and potentials of oral traditions as history. In this region the subaltern version of history can be shown to draw imaginatively both on a variety of historical personages and events and on themes from the regional symbolic (or conceptual) reservoir, conflating – or to misappropriate a postcolonial concept – hybridizing these varied sources to create multiple, variable but thematically-related, explications of anomalous features of the cultural landscape. Talking about the DGB sites has in Patrick Chabal’s (1996:51) words reconnected ‘the present with the precolonial and colonial past’, and, I would add, helped to connect the people who live with these sites to a future in which they will learn to maintain the monuments and will in turn be maintained by them.

What then can we not explain in terms of progressive conflation of pre-colonial and colonial agents in the

Conclusion While fascinating in themselves, the constructions of the past developed in the previous sections contribute to the history of the DGB sites and culture only in a roundabout manner. In that it indicates the anteriority of the DGB sites to the present peopling of the region, MüllerKosack’s synthesis of regional traditions of migration is consistent with the antiquity of the sites revealed by radiocarbon dating. The Mafa tradition of an early Godaliy migration from the DGB area to the Gwoza hills is problematic. In this region it is far more common for

37

Boutrais (1973:152) places the founding of Mozogo around 1890 while Lavergne (1941, cited in Vincent 1978:584, fn.70) and Forkl (1983:472) suggests around 1900. 38 The identification of Denham’s Mosgo with Mozogo is disputed but modern opinion favors this reading (Vincent 1978; Müller-Kosack 2003:41) 39 At Sukur in present-day Nigeria it is related that Hamman Yaji had another encounter with a montagnard rain chief. There was a drought in Yola and Hamman Yaji sent the rain chief of Wula there under duress. The soldiers fired guns to show him they wanted thunder, lightning and rain; and this was immediately followed by a powerful thunderstorm that ‘cracked’ the walls of a building (Sterner 2003:202-03).

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Performance and agency Glavda by the Mafa of Vreke, for example – and at times, perhaps, for other reasons. Thus while it would be wrong to state that the Godaliy were the builders of the DGB sites, it is likely that the builders are to be found among the ancestors of some who are assigned by Mafa to that ethnic category and by linguists to the Wandala group of languages. As Sterner shows, the frequent traumas of the past, and particularly the first half of the 20th century, resulted in conflation of several kinds of Mafa enemies, of which the last were representatives of European powers. In this fraught context, the claim by certain Mafa that they contributed to the building of at least one DGB site does not carry historical weight. Sterner’s research raises important questions about the agency responsible for the building of the sites and about what knowledge of the sites may have circulated amongst some at least of the societies responsible over the centuries for raiding and trading into the Mandara mountains. These questions are among those taken up in the next and final chapter.

migrations to be remembered (or claimed) by descendants of migrants, whose forebears were in many cases forced to move as the result of conflict, than by those whose ancestors remained behind. Migrants’ descendants are commonly concerned to attach themselves to a prestigious forebear or society, whereas the offspring of those who remained in residence have minimal incentive to remember those who left or were driven off. In this case, the tradition finds little support in the oral traditions of the ethnic groups of the Gwoza hills and only limited evidence of relationships in the form of material culture traits, flat-faced walling and narrow aperture beer jugs being the most suggestive. Nonetheless the Godaliy tradition is too widely distributed among northwestern Mafa to be dismissed. It can plausibly be associated with a western and northwestern movement of speakers of Wandala group languages that could have taken place over centuries, at times under pressure from other montagnards – the probably quite recent replacement of

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Chapter 8 ENERGETICS AND AGENCY Introduction In previous chapters we have described the history of the discovery of DGB sites, the nature of their architecture, the characteristics of sites presently known, the excavations of DGB-2 and DGB-8 and the cultural sequences that can be inferred from those excavations and the artifacts recovered. These and other data and inferences, notably some relating to the major droughts of the 15th and 16th centuries AD on the one hand and others relating to social and symbolic commonalities of Mandara montagnard society, were then mobilized to argue that DGB sites were constructed over a short time span as sites at which members of local groups performed ceremonies intended to counteract these droughts and their effects. Parenthetically, in chapter 7, it was shown that the Mafa of the ethnographic present misrepresent the DGB sites, projecting onto these anomalous structures representations of their turbulent precolonial, colonial and subsequent history. It will soon be time to put faces on the “faceless blobs” of DGB society using the lens of agency, a concept introduced in chapter 1 and discussed in a later section of this chapter. But first, to link mind and material things, we turn to the French technologie culturelle school (Lemonnier 1992). In this theoretical perspective, objects – primarily artifacts but also any material thing that impinges on social life – exist in dialectic couplings with mental objects that are their counterparts or “social representations.” These pertain both to discursive and non-discursive knowledge. Both elements in these couplings change through time in interaction, mediated by mind and practice, with each other and with the natural and social environment. Sociocultural anthropologists have relatively easy – though still indirect – access to social representations, but archaeologists are much further distanced. However, the school offers a methodology, that of the chaîne opératoire, that exploits the incorporation into artifact manufacture of a series of technical decisions that are embedded in social relations and cultural practice, and that can to an extent be reconstructed from the items themselves. Thus archaeologists have potential, if limited and difficult, access to social representations. In the present instance, rather than strictly applying a chaîne opératoire methodology we first estimate the work and skills involved in building DGB sites – their architectural energetics – and then consider how these requirements were most likely satisfied in a society of a montagnard cultural tradition that our evidence indicates is broadly ancestral to that of the ethnographic present.

Modeling architectural energetics by Nicholas David and Andrea Richardson40 “Architectural energetics involves the quantification of the cost of construction of architecture into a common unit of comparison – energy in the form of labor-time expenditure” (Abrams 1994:1-2). Energetics is not new in central African archaeology. For instance, David (1982) estimated the labor-time expenditure involved in the construction of megalithic monuments in the Central African Republic. However, the methodology proposed by Abrams (1989, 1994) is more detailed and provides estimates of the level of social organization required for buildings with different labor-time expenditures. Architectural energetics incorporates the volume of architecture and time and labor required for construction (Abrams 1989: 64). Measurement of the dimensions of the architectural remains provides the volume estimate while replicative experiments of each of the tasks of construction provides the basis for labor-time expenditure. Abrams (1994:43) divides the building costs for a structure into four major steps or operations: “(1) procurement of raw materials, (2) transport, (3) manufacture, and (4) actual construction or assembly.” Emphasizing site specificity, he stresses the difference in energy expenditure for the transport of raw materials and the impact of environmental features, such as slope and material availability. Abrams’ four operations require some reinterpretation in the context of DGB platform and terrace sites, and we need to consider the nature and availability of the workforce required to build a DGB platform or terrace in the context of regional practice. Procurement and transport are best treated together. Manufacture can be excluded since the stone blocks used in wall construction and fill were naturally rather than culturally shaped although inconvenient corners and projections were removed on occasion by block on block percussion. The granite building material naturally breaks in the shapes we identified in the walls and those blocks least subject to erosion, for example in the chambers of DGB-2, showed no evidence of dressing. Abram’s fourth category, actual construction or assembly, is retained. Regionally based ethnographic analogy combines with inferences from excavations and surveys to suggest that 40

Andrea Richardson undertook an assessment of DGB architectural energetics in her 2003 Master’s thesis and in a poster presented to the Society of Africanist Archaeologists meeting held in Calgary in June 2006. The present study builds on her contribution. However the estimation procedures developed here differ from her earlier ones in many respects and figures were arrived at independently and, in some cases, on the basis of new information.

Performance and agency TABLE 8.1. TASKS , WORKFORCES AND LABOR INVOLVED IN DGB PLATFORM CONSTRUCTION

Figure 8.1. Mason Ngaïbi Fidi explains how he would use log ramps to raise blocks at the entrance to DGB-1. DGB platform and terrace sites were community structures built by community members. Today, although adult men provide the bulk of the labor on such projects, women and youths of both sexes may be involved, as for example in the case of the communal building of a dam by the Hide of Turu (Dfig. 8.1). However, while women may contribute materials and often construct internal furnishings such as grinding stands, men are today almost entirely responsible for building and roofing structures. Informal part-time specialization is everywhere present. For example, certain men particularly skilled in the building of mud domes will be called on by neighbors to perform such tasks. The rest of the workforce quickly organizes itself behind them. At least one master mason of this kind would certainly have been required to achieve the quality of façade characteristic of DGB sites, and perhaps also gang masters to supervise the efficient procurement, temporary storage and delivery of materials to the parts of the site where they were needed. A part-time mason, Ngaïbi Fidi, resident at Guzda, has a well deserved reputation in the region and is frequently called upon to build small dams, roads and other structures. In his youth he received some training from the Projet de Développement de la Région Mandara, but has since added to his expertise particularly in the moving and raising of large rocks by the use of log or earth ramps and levers (Fig. 8.1; Dfig. 8.2). Most of the time he works by himself, shifting large blocks by the simplest of means. He is the modern equivalent of the DGB master masons. Task sequence in DGB site construction Table 8.1 sets out what we infer to have been the most likely sequence of tasks and workforces for the construction of a DGB platform. Following the choice of site a few worker days would be spent clearing the area of the future platform and a workspace around it of vegetation. The workers would then have removed surficial deposits, if not over the whole platform area then at least along the line of exterior and passage façades, down to a solid surface on or near bedrock on which the basal line of blocks could be laid, positioned by the use of

Task

Likely Workforce

Labor involved

Choice of site

Elders and master mason

Insignificant

Clearance of vegetation and removal of superficial deposits to bedrock over platform area

A few men

2-6 worker days

Procurement and transport to site of construction materials

Able, mostly male, community members

Considerable: see text

Rubble piling of platform core

Men led by gangmaster

Considerable: see text

Façade, passage, silo, staircase construction

Men directed by master mason

Considerable: see text

Excavation, loading and transport of platform surfacing materials to site

Able, mostly male community members

Considerable: see text

Placement of platform surfacing materials

Men led by gangmaster

Relatively minor: see text

Clean up

1-2 workers

1-2 worker days

Possible erection of structures on platform

Up to four workers

Variable and not included in estimates

wedges. With iron tools this whole process is unlikely to have taken more than six five-hour worker days even for a large platform. Choice, procurement and transport of platform construction materials (rubble, facing blocks, lintels, wedges) represents a substantial labor investment, estimated below, in which males, including youths, are likely to have been the main participants. Since DGB sites were built as a sequence of platforms and terraces, we may assume that construction materials were delivered directly to that portion of the site that was about to be built or in course of construction. We do not in other words have to allow workdays for the supply of materials from temporary on site storage locations to the point of use. While it is likely but indemonstrable that procurement of materials was continuing during the building of the platform, rubble piling of the platform core and façade construction must have proceeded in concert. Observation of partial collapses shows that while no bondstones tied together rubble and façade, the creation of a flat façade

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8. Energetics and agency what appear to be footings of small round structures on the North Central and South Central 1 platforms. Such features appear to have been generally rare and would not have been expensive. Their labor costs are not included in our energetics estimates.

Estimates from observation and experiments

Figure 8.2. DGB-1, Northern outlier: wall collapse revealing use of small rocks to adjust the angle of blocks and achieve flatness of façade. The scale is 20 cm long. would not have been possible without both the placement of rocks between façade blocks to achieve the vertical face desired and the packing of rubble against the interior face of the façade to achieve stability. It would have been impossible to build a silo without simultaneously piling rubble around to hold it together. Once the main body of the platform – rubble core and exterior, platform and other façades – had been constructed, it remained to surface the platforms. Procurement and transport to the platform of the gritty earth used for daub (and on occasion a complement of river pebbles) is likely to have been a community effort. Placement of these materials on the platform surface is shown below to require relatively little work. It is possible that the final surface was wetted down and beaten to produce a smooth surface. This is unlikely given that, to the best of our knowledge, the platforms were unroofed and their surfaces therefore subject to the direct impact of rain. Our calculations (see below) therefore do not take account of the possible beating of platform surfacing. This would, in any case, have involved only one or two (probably women) worker days per platform per year. Final cleanup of the construction site is unlikely to have required more than a day or two of labor. In chapters 3 and 4 we adduced evidence in the form of burnt construction daub found in passage fills and of rocks on platform surfaces at DGB-2 and DGB-8 that might indicate that structures, semi-ephemeral perhaps, were built on some platform surfaces. At DGB-1 we found

The observations and experiments described below allow estimation of the labor costs of various tasks involved in the construction of DGB sites. It is likely that much of the work was undertaken in the context of work parties, the members of which would have been rewarded with beer and perhaps food, provided either by a village or ward head, a group of elders or the workers’ own families. Such work parties, often but not always limited to males, are conducted in an atmosphere of friendly competition. Hard workers are praised and shirkers ridiculed. A lot gets done in a short time. Although construction would have been carried out in the dry season after the harvest and threshing have been completed, a period of relative unemployment in this region (which is why today young men commonly migrate to seek work elsewhere at this time), the demands of a variety of tasks, including gathering fodder for livestock and building houses, would suggest an average male working day of about five hours. Women’s participation in construction would have been limited by their responsibilities as mothers and housewives. This is not to deny that they and their children may have contributed in various ways, including bringing construction materials to the site. But such work would have either been relatively casual or restricted to special occasions that involved the community as a whole. The worker day that constitutes the currency of our estimates is thus, by ampliative analogical inference from a universal montagnard pattern of division of labor in the present day, an inevitably gendered concept. Procurement and transport of raw materials Platform construction integrated facing blocks, rubble blocks and wedges as raw materials. The mountain landscape is a liberal supplier of these elements. Centuries of domestication have reordered their distribution, incorporating much of what would once have been a general scatter focused on rock outcrops into terraces and other structures. For example, at Sukur the litter of granite blocks is abnormally sparse within and immediately surrounding the chief’s residence as a result of incorporation of the missing elements into walling and terraces (Smith and David 1995:447). This is evident in Dfigure 8.3 in which, however, the abundance of rocks only a few meters away from the lower, east, wall of the complex is very evident. Suitable building materials are still available at DGB-8 in the form of blocky granite outcrops on the slope immediately north of the site and at DGB-2 at the east end of the retaining wall 50 m southwest of the site as also on its eastern side (Dfig. 8.4). Neither do we get the impression that building materials are lacking around other sites. Such considerations lead us to the conclusion

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Performance and agency that that most rocks were gathered in the immediate vicinity of the sites at a mean transport distance of 75 m. This estimate is intended to take into consideration: the extra work involved in moving large blocks such as those at the base of DGB-2 West terrace or the lintels over the Northeast platform passages at the same site, and that on sloping, rocky ground it is often necessary to take an indirect route to one’s destination. It could be also argued that as the building of a site progressed from phase to phase and suitable rocks in the immediate vicinity of the site were progressively incorporated into it, workers would have had to seek them, and especially façade blocks, at greater distances. The abundance of rocks existing today within a few meters of DGB-2 does not suggest that this effect would have greatly increased construction times (Dfig. 8.4). Alternatively, it could be that masons’ standards for acceptance would have fallen through time. The contrast in masonry quality seen in figure 8.1 between the original North Central platform at DGB-1 and the late East Central entrance is consistent with such a view. It could, however, be explained in other ways: inferior master masons, less overall concern for quality, and so on. Rather than pursue such questions further, perhaps we should regard the construction times estimated for early elements in the history of the largest sites to tend to be underestimates and vice-versa for ones late in the sequence. DGB-2 might therefore have been affected by this factor, especially if it was being built at the same time as DGB-1, but it seems improbable that this was the case for the much smaller DGB-8. It is unlikely that ponies, horses, donkeys or cattle would have been used as beasts of burden. Ponies, horses and donkeys are beasts of the plains. Where ponies and horses are known or believed to have been present in the mountains, they appear to have been used as mounts for men rather than for the transport of goods (Seignobos 1987). The donkey, unable when laden to negotiate mountain paths over terraces, is little used in the mountains. Cattle are sometimes used as draft animals on roads but as beasts of burden only by pastoral Fulbe. Where in the mountains there are no modern roads or motorable tracks, the vast majority of loads are carried on human heads, supplemented where necessary by stretchers on which or by poles beneath which loads are hung carried by two or more persons, almost always males. Baskets and cushioning head rings facilitate head carrying. Some very large blocks might have been rolled, moved (and subsequently maneuvered into position) using levers or perhaps dragged on forked branches, but if so probably over very short distances. These are the techniques that we ascribe to the DGB culture. Although adult men were capable of carrying substantially more, an average load of 15 kg (33 lb) appears a reasonable estimate for a procurement work force that may well have included male youths and, on some occasions, women. Children’s contributions are likely but can be ignored for the purposes of our estimates.

Similar loads of other raw materials brought to the sites include platform, terrace and entrance surfacing of the kind used for daub in house construction, stream sand and gravel found near the base of the DGB-8 North platform Silo and water worn gravel found in the area between the Southeast and Northeast platforms and elsewhere at DGB2. There are at least five daub pits in use between 115 m and 350 m of DGB-2 and, although we omitted to inquire at DGB-8, platform surfacing materials are likely available at similar distances. A mean distance of 150 m would seem reasonable. The riverine deposits would have been brought to DGB-2 from the upper Gwodaliy stream 300 m to the south and to DGB-8 from the upper Guzda stream 200 m to the south of the site. As the quantities of these alluvial materials are small their volumes can be rolled in with platform surfacing materials. We will use a global mean round trip distance estimate of 150 m for all such materials. Our estimate of speed over rocky and sometimes terraced ground is based upon experience hiking and back-packing both in the Canadian Rockies and in the Mandara mountains, where we have frequently observed and walked along with men and women montagnards carrying heavy burdens.41 A mean round trip speed of 3.5 kph plus 5 minutes per trip for breaks, choice and collection of rocks, with 10 minutes to account for the digging of surfacing materials, would seem a reasonable estimate. These considerations suggest the statistics for the procurement and transport to the site of basic raw materials shown in table 8.2. Estimates of density (kg/m3) are derived from the Simetrics website (http://www.simetric.co.uk/si_materials.htm), with allowances made for empty space between rocks within the structure. Experiment 1: Façade construction J.-M. Datouang Djoussou recorded an experiment involving the construction of a low façade around part of a pre-existing pile of rocks on the surface of the Central platform at DGB-2. Four of our workers, one with a reputation as a mason, took on the work of construction. After briefly flattening the surface where necessary and having gathered approximately three quarters of the raw materials in the immediate vicinity, many from the rock pile already present, they began construction. They preferentially selected wall blocks with at least one flat side and a relatively rectilinear shape for the façade. The mason directed the three assistants who kept him supplied with rubble and other materials. They were responsible for initial placement of blocks. One collected wedges as needed and the mason placed them in spaces between the 41

On a typical hike in the Canadian Rockies ND and JS walked 17.4 km, involving an elevation gain of 1050 m in 5¼ hours, excluding a lunch period but including two short breaks and occasional stops to enjoy the views. This represents a mean speed of 3.3 kph for two fit adults loaded with approximately 10 kg packs. Although we have on occasion walked the 4.8 km from the elementary school on the plain below Sukur up to the chief’s house 490 m above in a little over an hour, we generally walk slower than Mandara montagnards, even when they are carrying loads.

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8. Energetics and agency of blocks rarely approaching the horizontal. The experimental façade has the look of a jigsaw puzzle.

TABLE 8. 2. ESTIMATES OF CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS PROCURED PER WORKER DAY a) Rubble (Broken granite) Kg per m3 Kg load per trip M3/load per trip Hours worked per day Distance per round trip (m) Speed over ground (m per hour) Additional hours per trip (choice and collection of materials, rest) Hours/trip Trips/diem M3 procured per worker day b) Façades (Granite blocks) Kg per m3 M3/load per trip Other data as in (a) above M3 procured per worker day

The completed façade was 5.75 m long, with rubble behind. It had a mean height of 0.67 m with a surface area of 3.85 m2. Construction took place over 4.67 hours. This suggests an estimate of façade construction from ground surface to a height of 2.5 m. Up to this height the mason could work either standing on the ground or on a block. Above 2.5 m some form of staging, ramps or, minimally, Y-shaped tree branch ladders would be needed, and extra workers to pass or carry up building materials.

1650 15 0.0091 5 150 3500 0.083

Experiment 2: Platform construction and surfacing

0.1258 39.7456 0.3577

Andrea Richardson recorded the second energetics experiment at DGB-2. This informal experiment mimicked construction of the rubble core of a platform and its subsequent surfacing. In this instance, the object was to fill a part of the Northeast platform Test 1 excavation. This was irregular in shape but represented a volume to be filled with rocks of approximately 2.25 m3 and a larger area of about 3.5 m2 that was surfaced to a depth of 20-25 cm with gritty earth and fine gravel containing some rounded riverine pebbles (Dfig. 8.5). The volume of surfacing material deposited is estimated at 0.78 m3.

2170 0.0069 0.2742

c) Platform surfacing and similar Kg per m3 M3/load per trip Additional hours per trip (excavation and collection of materials, rest) Distance per round trip (m) Hours/trip Trips/diem Other data as in (a) above M3 procured per worker day

1480 0.0101 0.167

Work involved three tasks: replacing the larger rocks that make up most of the core of the platforms, then placing small rocks in the interstices in the top layer of large rocks, and finally layering and compacting earth on top. Ten men worked on the project with some initial direction by the excavation foreman.

300 0.2527 19.7863 0.1998

For the first two tasks, which graded into each other, the men were responsible for placing first the larger and then the overlying smaller rocks in the pit. There was some specialization within this group with two men taking more responsibility for positioning of the rocks in such a way as to maximize their stability and minimize space between them. The others removed rocks from the pile on the adjacent North Central platform about 3 m away, carried rocks over to the pit and either handed them to the workers in the pit or set them down provisionally. Large rubble blocks were carried one by one, smaller ones in buckets. These aspects of the construction required about a half hour. Figure 8.3. Experimental façade built on the DGB-2 Central platform. larger and especially the irregularly shaped façade blocks, hammering them in with a small rock. He was responsible for final positioning of blocks in such a way as to maintain a flat façade. As is obvious from figure 8.3, the resulting construction differs from DGB façades in many respects, not least in that there was no attempt to connect it to the pile of rocks behind. Neither is there any attempt at coursing, long axes

When the earth filling began, the workers, now only eight, were at first somewhat disorganized: each man tried to do all of the activities involved in moving and packing the earth. After a few minutes, the job became more organized and efficient. One man used a pick to loosen the hard, reddish earth that had compacted in a backdirt pile on the North Central platform. Two men filled buckets with shovels. Three carried the buckets to the trench, emptied their loads, and returned to have their buckets refilled. An additional two men stayed in the pit. They directed placement of the earth and stamped it down to compact it.

129

Performance and agency TABLE 8.3. ESTIMATES OF AREAS, VOLUMES AND WORKER DAYS REQUIRED FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE MAIN ELEMENTS OF DGB-2

130

8. Energetics and agency One of these men was the mason who had directed the construction of the façade in the first energetics experiment. The workers in the trench directed the deposition of materials, but no one person organized the entire group’s activities.

6. The volume of the façade is calculated as the vertical surface area multiplied by the façade depth constant. 7. In a platform with no internal structures, the area of the rubble core of the structure is the area measured in step 1 above less the volume of the façade. 8. The height of the rubble core is estimated as being that of the platform less 0.2 m surfacing material of gritty earth (in the case of this platform also containing some river pebbles). Core volume is thus its area (step 7) times platform height less 0.2 m. 9. The volume of the surfacing materials is calculated as their thickness (0.2 m) times the area of the rubble core.

Filling of the trench was completed within an hour. The division of time and labor was as follows. 1. Platform core accumulation (including placement of small stones above openwork rubble): a total of 2.25 m3 was laid in 5 worker hours, the equivalent of 0.45 m3 per worker hour or 2.25 m3 per worker day. 2. Platform surfacing: our figures give 0.78 m3 surfacing laid in something under 4 worker hours, the equivalent of about 0.2 m3 per hour per person or 1 m3 per worker day.

With these data the labor costs involved in constructing a simple platform can be calculated using the estimates for task performance developed in the preceding section. However, in the case of the Northeast platform adjustments had to be made to take account of internal structures (Table 8.5).

Our workmen had better equipment than the DGB people. Picks, expensive in iron, are unlikely to have existed in antiquity. DGB workers would have used iron-shod digging sticks, hoes and baskets. On the other hand it is quite possible that surfacing materials were being brought to the site and used immediately without intermediate dumping. This would have compensated for lower productivity due to inferior tools. We will let the figure of 1 m3 per worker day stand for laying surface materials.

10. Measurements taken in the field were used to calculate façade length and area and empty space in the West passage. To calculate façade volume the 0.30 m façade depth constant was used. The resulting figures were used to adjust the figures for volume of façades and of rubble core developed in steps 1 through 9. 11. Similar calculations were worked out for the much damaged and not fully explored East passage on the basis of estimates of its original length (ca 5 m), width (0.75 m) and height (1.5 m). 12. Estimates for the silo were calculated on the assumption that it was 1.25 m in diameter and 2.5 m, the height of the platform, deep. 13. The figures arrived at in steps 10 through 12 were then used to adjust the estimates for volume of façades and of rubble core developed in steps 1 through 9.

Application of estimates Estimation procedures The estimates developed in the previous section were then applied to DGB-2 (Table 8.3). The process is explained below in some detail in relation to the Northeast platform, the most complicated to assess on account of its interior structures. The aim was to estimate the labor cost in worker days of the initial building of the platform in Phase II. First, the site plan (Fig. 3.1) was imported into QuickCad enabling distances between points, areas and their perimeters to be measured. We proceeded as follows. 1. The platform area and its perimeter was measured. 2. The length of the abutment of the Northeast on the North Central platform was subtracted from the perimeter to give the length of the exterior façade. 3. The mean height of the platform was estimated from our field measurements to be 2.5 m. 4. This enabled calculation of the vertical surface area of the façade. 5. The façade is composed of blocks, fillers and wedges extending horizontally into the platform an estimated average of 0.35 m. This “façade depth” is taken as a constant for external façades. Since internal façades (e.g., NE platform passages, silos) tend to have smaller 42 blocks, 0.3 m is used as the constant. 42

Inasmuch as façades are closed curves rather than straight lines, our estimate of façade area is exaggerated, but by only 1.03% in the case of a circular platform of radius 6 m. Silo façade area is calculated directly by subtracting the area of the silo from that of a circle with a 0.3 m greater radius.

Data and labor cost estimates for the various platforms and the West terrace of DGB-2 are set out in table 8.3. Particular platforms and features were treated as set out below and in table 8.5. The Central platform East stair is incorporated into the estimates by treating it as if were an alcove of the same width as the top of the stairwell but half its horizontal extent. Stairs at DGB-8 are treated in the same manner. However the Central platform West stair, being a later modification, is not taken account of in these estimates. Uncertainties regarding the surfacing of the Central and Southern platforms have been recognized by treating the former as if it was surfaced all over to a depth of 0.2 m and the latter as if no surface materials were applied. The thick wall was also regarded as unsurfaced. The West terrace figures are problematic in that this feature covers a large area and is in parts very poorly preserved. Our limited excavations constitute a poor basis for extrapolation to the body of the terrace and the free-

131

Performance and agency

TABLE 8.4. ESTIMATES OF AREAS, VOLUMES AND WORKER DAYS REQUIRED FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE MAIN ELEMENTS OF DGB-8.

132

8. Energetics and agency TABLE 8.5. ESTIMATES OF AREAS AND VOLUMES OF SPECIAL ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES (FREE-STANDING WALL, SILOS, INTERNAL PASSAGES) AT DGB-2. Silos Radius (m) Depth (m) Façade length (2 pi r) Vertical Area of façade (m2) Horizontal area of façade (m2) Volume of façade materials (m3) Void Volume (m3) (pi r2 * 2 pir*h) NE. platform passages Area (m2) Façade length (m) Façade height (m) Vertical area of façade (m2) Façade volume (m3) Void Volume (m3) West terrace wall Wall length (m) Façade length (m) Wall height (m) Wall thickness (m) Wall façade area (m2) Wall volume (m3) Time to procure (WD) Time to lay (WD)

NE. pl. Silo SE. pl. Silo 0.75 0.75 2.50 2.00 4.71 4.71 11.78 9.42 1.70 1.70 4.24 3.39 4.41 3.54 NE. pl. West passage Inner chamber Outer chamber 3.13 1.04 10.63 1.82 1.85 19.51 5.85 3.80 1.90 42.09 84.18 1.50 0.50 126.27 63.14 230.25 126.27

NE. pl. East passage 3.84 10.61 1.50 15.92 4.78 5.37

TABLE 8.6. DGB-8: ESTIMATES OF AREAS AND VOLUMES OF SILOS

Radius (m) Depth (m) Façade length (m) Vertical area of façade (m2) Horizontal area of façade (m2) Volume of façade materials (m3) Void Volume (m3)

South platform Silo 0.63 1.72 3.93 7.85 1.75 3.02 2.15

North platform Silo 0.78 2.70 4.87 9.74 1.75 4.73 5.16

TABLE 8.7. COMPARISON OF WORKER DAYS ESTIMATES FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF DGB-2 AND DGB-8 AS CALCULATED ABOVE AND BY ANDREA RICHARDSON (2006)

Worker days estimates DGB-2 DGB-8

This volume 5925 2090

AR 7161* 2219

Difference 1236 129

* Note that in order to preserve comparability Richardson’s calculations of worker days for modifications, e.g., the Central platform West stair, are not included in the DGB-2 total shown here. Nor are the days included in tables 8.3 and 8.4 for site preparation and cleanup. standing wall is a particular problem. We have treated it as if it once ran all along the periphery of the terrace at a height of 1.5 m. We have no experimental knowledge of the time required for the actual building of such a wall and the figure used – 1 m2 of façade per worker day – is retained from platform façade construction. This has the

virtue of consistency, although we suspect it is an underestimate of actual output. The Southeast platform figures take into account the small block at the entrance built against the Central platform and also the silo believed to have existed in the eastern part of the platform. 133

Performance and agency selection to final cleanup is off by 50% in either direction.

Four categories of features at DGB-2 have not been included in the estimates. The first includes skirting walls round the Southeast and Northeast platforms and beneath the North terrace. They are too fragmentary and, with the exception of the one next to the external stair on the south side of the Northeast platform, are unlikely to have involved more than a few days work each for a small team of workers. The second category is represented by the deposits laid down in the entrance area between the Southeast and Northeast platforms. Both its original depth and extent are uncertain. If it covered an area of 35 m2 and was 0.25 m thick, that would represent 44 worker days for procurement and a further 44 to lay it in place.

Some credence is given to this claim by comparison of my statistics with those independently developed in 2006 by Richardson (Table 8.7). At both sites she reckons more worker days, 21% more at DGB-2 and 6% more at DGB-8. There are a number of differences in approach: for example she treats façades as flat surfaces and incorporates their rocks into the figures for general rubble. However neither these differences nor others in the estimation of original dimensions are very substantial. Where there are important differences is in estimates of procurement. We now consider that she underestimated rates of procurement of rocks. This is not counterbalanced by an overestimation of rates of procurement and laying of much smaller quantities of surface materials.

The third excluded category covers all modifications to preceding structures. The Central platform West stair has already been mentioned but the greater part of such modifications occurred at the start of phase III when the passage between the Central platform and the thick wall was filled in and staircases built on the outside of the Southeast and Northeast platforms. Passage infilling with rubble would have taken very little time. Staircase building on and into existing platforms involves tricky renovation work but should not have taken a team of a dozen workers more than a few days in each case.

Implications for social organization The dry season is a time of relative unemployment but there is still work to do. Today the millet harvest usually begins in November and continues into December. The laborious task of threshing continues into January and the grain must be stored in granaries that require repair. It is unlikely therefore that work would have begun on building DGB sites before the second half of January. In April the next farming season begins with the preparation of plots (Zuiderwijk 1998). The main building of DGB sites is thus unlikely to have extended over more than two and a half months. However, the dry season is also a time for ceremonies and for house building and renovations. All in all it would seem improbable that in any one year more than 50 days would have been devoted to the construction of DGB platform and terrace sites. It is in this context of five hour worker days and a 50-day maximum period over which DGB construction would have taken place that the implications for social organization should be considered.

The fourth category excluded relates to the big retaining wall south of DGB-2. It is not possible to provide an estimate of worker days involved its construction since we have no knowledge of the deposits behind the façade. A minimum estimate for the façade (about 30 m long by a mean height of 2.25 m) is 86 worker days, not including the rebuilt terrace of likely DGB origin that extends the length of the wall at its northwestern end. Similar calculations produced the estimates for DGB-8 seen in tables 8.4 and 8.6. At this smaller site– about one third the size in terms of worker days – our inferences regarding worker days required for the construction of skirting walls and buttresses receive support. A crew of 40 could have amassed and laid the materials required to build the Lower (skirting) wall around the north side of the DGB-8 North platform in only two days. The same team would have been sufficient to build the North platform’s buttress in a single long day.

Further critical assumptions are that: the building of a platform or terrace is unlikely to have extended over more than one year, and that at any one site no more than one such major element was necessarily built in a year. There are possible exceptions to the second assumption. It could well be that the Central and South platforms at DGB-2 were built in the same year. It is likely also that the thick wall and the Central platform that together form the Southeast passage were built in the same year.

The results Obviously these estimates are problematic; the “experiments” are of very small scale and were less designed than grabbed on the fly. Similarly our observations are anecdotal even though they embody over two decades of research in the region. However, to paraphrase David (1998:56), estimates based on stated premises that make intuitive and experiential sense and that can be used as tools to explore the implications of built structures are a great deal better than no estimates at all. While welcoming further experimentation, including the building of a DGB-17, we would doubt very much that the labor cost estimate of 5925 worker days for all estimated aspects of construction of DGB-2 from site

With these factors in mind, the data in tables 8.3 and 8.4 can be reassessed. At DGB-2 there is not a single structure that could not have been built within 51 days or less by a crew of 30 workers. Sixty-seven workers could have built all the Phase I elements at the site in 50 days while only 43 workers would have been required to complete Phase II construction, less skirting walls, in the same period. At DGB-8 a crew of 20 could have built the North platform, the site’s largest element, in 45 days. In 134

8. Energetics and agency 50 days all Phase I construction could have been completed by a crew of 16, and Phase II in the same period by a crew of 26. The largest known DGB structure, the North Central platform at DGB-1, with an area of 148 m2, a façade estimated at 44 m in length and a mean height of about 6.5 m would have required 3433 worker days for construction using the same formulae. If, in order to take crude account of the increased work involved in building above a height of 2.5 m, we double the time taken to deposit rubble and lay the façade above that height, the total rises to 3997 worker days. Eighty workers could have completed the job in 50 days.

What kind of socio-political organization might have supported such architectural energetics and demography? This is not a difficult question given the limited range of structures characteristic of montagnard societies in what is known of the past and in the ethnographic present (David and Sterner 1999). There is no reason to invoke anything more complex than one or two petty chiefdoms comparable to Sirak, a settlement of about 2000 living at a relatively low population density a few kilometers south of Mokolo. In the paper cited above, we described the traditional patterns that underlie recent impositions in the following terms (ibid.: 101-03).

These inferences have little meaning unless situated in a demographic context. How many workers is it likely were living in the area of the DGB sites? We can approach this question through a study made by Podlewski (1966:98109) of fourteen villages of Mafa and neighboring groups (collectively and improperly referred to as Matakam) numbering 3591 persons. The period covered is the late 1950s and early 1960s, a time when montagnards had little access to western health and welfare facilities. The age-sex pyramid shows the typically broad-based concave-sided form characteristic of the populations of developing countries. Those most likely to be active workers, males between their 15th and 50th birthdays, constitute 17.87% of the population.

In this little hierarchized society economic, societal and coercive powers are minimal and widely dispersed, usually being regarded as held by household heads and clan elders. Whence perhaps the need for mystification and the ideological power that legitimates the authority held by these same senior men, six of whom are dignified by titles that gain them no special privileges, and in particular by the traditional chief, the buway. The latter’s primary role is to oversee the ceremonial cycle, offerings and sacrifices on behalf of the community to a distant God, and to the main spirit of the place, that of the mountain around which the settlement clusters. Unlike God, this spirit plays an immanent role in human affairs, in particular regarding the land, and must be honored and placated by humans. Privileged access to the spirit constitutes the basis of the chief’s authority. While he has sacred responsibility for the land, he does not own or control it. He could not himself divest another of farmland, although he might be called upon to pronounce a sentence of banishment. In such matters he acts not on his own initiative but rather as spokesman for the ill-defined grouping of clan elders that act as his counselors—though it must be realized that he and they listen also to younger men and to women. Rather than exercising power, the elders articulate the views of the community, and the primary task of title-holders is to undertake ritual responsibilities on its behalf.

The population density in the Mafa/Matakam area at the time Podlewski did his work was between 100 and 120 per km2. It would have been substantially lower in DGB times before the pressure of Sudanic states forced people into the mountains where the combined needs of defense and intensive agriculture stimulated population growth. Let us assume for purposes of argument that in inhabited areas 15th century population density was between 25 and 50 per km2, and that the area in which the DGB population lived (see Fig. 1.3) was limited to the north and west by the Mondossa and Moskota streams, to the south by the southern boundary of Upay village and to the east by the westernmost point of Mafmay village, the larger hill in Muzua and the northeast corner of Mondossa village. This area is 42 km2. At a population density of 50 per km2 this gives a population of 2100 and 375 males of worker age. Under such conditions a crew of 28 could be drawn from a population of 157 living within a kilometer of a DGB site. At a density of 25 per km2, a crew of 30 could be drawn from a circular area round a site of 1.462 km radius. Since these calculations assume an even density of population and we know that DGB sites are favorably located either on or in proximity to relatively flat and easily cultivated land, we may infer that, even at the lower population density, obtaining sufficient workers to build during a dry season a large element such as the DGB-2 Central platform is unlikely to have been a problem – especially if the crew was motivated by the belief that the structure would be instrumental in improving the quantity of water available for themselves, their livestock and their crops.

If land is a primary force of production, rain is another, and far less predictable. In the company of clan elders and the chief of the smiths, the Sirak chief makes offerings for rain but does not control it. In order to pay for a rainmaker’s services he therefore has to solicit contributions from the community…. The chief of Sirak has and had no authority to raise taxes and might indeed be poor – we have known a widower Mafa chief who lacked even a decent mat to sit on. His jural authority is limited and depends upon the articulation of consent, perhaps also on others’ fear of his sorcery. Neither does he monopolize the use of force, whether against outsiders or within the community. In case of serious disputes, he has two types of recourse. 135

Performance and agency He can refuse to carry out his ritual duties, thus mobilizing the community’s moral pressure against those responsible for the rift, or – at least in theory – he can call on the members of his own clan, affines and others to provide physical force. But his clan has no numerical preponderance [which is exceptional], and on one occasion a former chief and his clan members are said to have been driven out, though they were later recalled.

Montagnards are typically regarded as classically patriarchal and egalitarian. This characterization is misleading. Even the smallest social formation, a single settlement of subsistence farmers perched on a rocky massif, is a hierarchy in waiting… In the next section I argue that DGB-1 is what happened when a hierarchy in waiting began to realize itself and to attain a new, if temporary, level of complexity.

Performance and agency

It is apparent that we are here dealing with a priest-chief, of the kind described by Netting (1972:221) as an ‘essentially powerless figure ... his authority is circumscribed; he is something, but he does very little.’ His main task is to represent the community to itself. For this he receives respect, materialized in his position at the apex of community rites and in minor gifts, especially of beer, which he can neither bank nor consume on his own. His primarily sacral authority is modeled on that of household heads, and is expressed in similar rites that differ essentially in their inclusiveness, his extending over the community as a whole. There is little competition for the chieftaincy, and its inheritance within one clan conforms to jural norms.

In the absence of excavations that could determine the original ground surface upon which the platforms and terraces of DGB-1 were constructed, it would be futile to attempt that site’s architectural energetics. Nevertheless a crude calculation of the likely labor costs of the North Central platform has indicated that this structure – and the site as a whole, some 60 by 50 m in area, with a platform over 6 m high and terrace façades up to 4.8 m – was something new within the DGB culture, representing a capacity to mobilize labor on a significantly larger scale. By combining knowledge of montagnard ethnology gained over the past two decades (see Sterner 2003) with the insights of performance and agency theory, and while always remaining sensible of the evidential constraints of our field data, I construct a story that can be reworked into testable hypotheses by future researchers.

We are aware of the impropriety of imposing modern analogies on archaeological data and we accept that there would have been numerous differences of detail. Nevertheless the petty chiefdom model is consistent with the commonalities of montagnard socio-political organization revealed by ethnology, archaeological evidence that the DGB culture partakes of a broad montagnard tradition that persists into the present, combined with our inferences from architectural energetics and demography.

Performance is variously defined according as to whether the researcher wishes to focus on formal, highly structured, emotion and meaning charged events affecting “the reproduction of power relations, the negotiation of ideologies, and the constitution of a community” in complex societies (Inomata and Coben 2006:16), or, like Ian Hodder (2006:83), on the way that at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, “Docile bodies were produced by the mechanisms of power working within the daily practices of life.” Inomata and Coben (2006:14) cite with approval Hymes’s (1975:13-19) description of performance as “something creative, realized, achieved, even transcendent of the ordinary course of events” and this can serve for present purposes. In chapter 6 it was argued that DGB sites were theaters for the performance of rituals, involving prayer, music and dance, that were related to the desire for and anxieties over water. Such performances, like those of the Fali Fimbidi festival, would have been conducted on special occasions, in the context of performative norms, by performers and before spectators. On both of these categories of participants the theater and the performance would have worked its effects. Similarly, performance and audience would have modified the theater, perhaps by the erection of “scenery”, certainly by wear and tear and the deposition of trash and in the longer term by providing a stimulus for the building of additional platforms and terraces. Performance is a potent element in the play of agency.

The site hierarchy based upon size and site distribution described in chapter 2 are consistent with the existence of at least two such chiefdoms, one based at Kuva and the other at Bigide and associated with DGB-7. In this reading other sites would represent wards or comparable entities, based on some combination of descent group affiliation and residence. Whether the upper Upay, Nduval and upper Mudukwa sites were affiliated to these chiefdoms or whether they represent one or more independent smaller entities must remain unknown pending further research.43 We conclude this section with another quote from David and Sterner (1999:101): 43

Andrea Richardson’s (2003:69-74) comparative studies, drawing on Abrams’ (1994) Maya research, Parker Pearson and Ramilisonina’s (1998) work in Madagascar, McGregor (2001) and Musa-Mohammed (1986) on Darfur, and several Mandara mountain studies, both support and amplify these conclusions.

Marcia-Anne Dobres (2000:7) defines social agency as, “the unfolding intersubjective experiences of ‘being’ in a socially mediated and materially grounded world”. This 136

8. Energetics and agency many spectators – amongst whom are now the new initiates – observe them from higher terraces, on one of which the chief occasionally dances as on another, somewhat lower and nearer the chief’s residence, do the wives of the chief and the widows of his predecessors. Other spectators line the edges of the Patla. In both the Fali and Sukur ceremonies, variations are being played on the up : down :: senior : junior theme that is more obviously and emphatically expressed in architecture and daily life. The requirements of the plot – the “harvest”, as van Beek (1978:334; 1987:102) calls it, of a new generation – demand that the matinee idols and ingénues be “downstage”, where they can dominate the action but not necessarily the scene. Metaphors are indeed mixed and it would be foolish for me to proffer stage directions.

is less than a road map for the anthropologist who must infer agency from actions and their consequences, or, in the case of the archaeologist, from their material traces. In chapter 1, I said that the anthropologist is an observer and interpreter of the play of agency, the process of interaction between actors and the simultaneously constraining and enabling environmental, material and social structures that they inhabit, and which leads inevitably to changes both in the actors and the material and other structures. Now I would emphasize that the consequences of actions often have little to do with intentionality, especially in matters of ritual. For example, unless one believes in the power of prayer to produce physical effects in the natural world, one must accept that in non-industrial rainmaking the primary intention of the participants to make rain fall is as irrelevant to the social effects of their actions as it is to Mother Nature. Although humans are, alas, only too capable of unintentionally modifying world climate, no amount of prayer or dancing will change by the minutest fraction of a millimeter the amount of rain that falls on the Upay massif. Nonetheless rainmaking and similar activities have effects on not only on performers and spectators but also on their societies, and it is these “byproducts” that are here of concern.

Let us bring on the cast. They are, as argued in the previous section and in earlier chapters, families of subsistence farmers most probably organized into two or more petty chiefdoms. They know only too well that their well-being is predicated upon adequate and welldistributed water and they are willing to do a great deal to benefit from whatever is available to them in the form of rainfall, seasonal streams, springs and groundwater accessed by wells. In the ethnographic present obtaining rain is something done by communities in one of three ways (Sterner 2003:198-213): 1. A community requests a rainmaker, better termed a rainpriest, to pray to god asking for rain on their behalf. The rainpriest is a not a “chief of men” and in most cases his secular powers are extremely limited. He receives compensation for his efforts which is why the Kapsiki describe this practice as “buying rain”. This is the most common pattern. The rainpriest may serve a single village or have a larger, sometimes much larger, clientele. His influence, power and sometimes wealth are highly variable: the larger his ‘congregation” the greater his potential for accumulating power and wealth. However, this potential may not be realized, the rainmaker remaining a modest servant of the people who rely on him. Such a man is the Tluwala of Wula. 2. Among some Mofu-Diamaré the roles of chief of men and rainpriest are combined in a single individual, whence his extraordinary power. “The prince is the rain, just as the rain is the sign of a prince” (Vincent 1997:343, my translation). He exerts magico-religious powers over nature in rites that involve the manipulation of stones, “rain children” that have the power to bring rain and another, the much feared “rainbow stone”, that can stop it. The relationship of these stones to god is unclear; the stones have a certain independence and are, like the Stone of Scone, objects of political maneuvering (Vincent 1991:615-54). 3. The Kapsiki of Mogode “hunt” the rain following a route that takes them to places associated with former rainmakers and rainmaking where they perform rituals before coming to the tomb of their “culture hero”. Here, in a ceremony that involves singing and dancing, they request that he intercede with the high god, asking for rain on their behalf (van Beek 1997).

Plays are performed in theaters, and in this case the theater in a narrow sense, for the action plays out over a broader physical and social scene, is a DGB site set in its landscape. The theater is itself space produced, the material inscription of culture and social relations (Smith and David 1995:441) expressed in a particular cultural vocabulary and metaphor. It is also a “secondary agent”, sensu Alfred Gell, that exerts an influence on the behavior of the human actors and not only during performances. An artifactual secondary agent is a temporally and spatially distributed extension of the human agents that made or commissioned it, and from it we may infer agency at multiple levels simultaneously. Thus Gell writes (1998:16) that “Agency is attributable to those persons (and things …) who/which are seen as initiating causal sequences of a particular type, that is, events caused by acts of mind or will or intention, rather than the mere concatenation of physical events.” Put another way, a secondary agent exerts its effects both through its physical affordances (Knappett 2005:45-57) and through its representations in the minds of those who interact with it. Platforms, passages, staircases and other features channel the movements of persons in and around DGB sites; behavior in its vicinity is conditioned by both its physical and social presence. But how precisely the theater was used is problematic. In the Fali Fimbidi ceremony discussed in chapter 6, the male initiands dance semi-secluded in a grove, newly-wed women on a gigantic boulder located in the open a little distance away, while spectators remain on the ground below. Above them all the kin of both initiands and newly-wed women dance on the mountainside. At various times during the male initiation ceremony at Sukur, the initiands dance on the ground with spectators around and above them. During the final dances, relatives and friends dance on the Patla ceremonial area while the chief and 137

Performance and agency

TABLE 8.8. SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF MANDARA MONTAGNARD INITIATION CEREMONIES

ETHNIC GROUP

TRANSFORMATION

SEASON

NAME: NOTES

MAIN SOURCES

South and west Fali of Jilvu

Boys > men

Early to late rains (April to October)

Biennial sequence of five rites of which Fimbidi is one in which newly-wed women participate

James Wade and Martá Galántha pers. comm. 2007.

Fali of Bahuli

Boys > men

Early to late rains (April to October)

Biennial sequence of four rites

James Wade and Martá Galántha pers. comm. 2007

Kapsiki

Boys > men

Late dry season (Mar.) ending in early dry (Nov./Dec.)

Gewela (=initiands): companion ceremony for newly-wed women. Seclusion with labor. Assistants. Race

van Beek 1978:31434, 1987:76-8, 97105, 2002; Schaller 1973

Wula (Mango and Hanko)

Boys > men

Rains followed by dry season phase

Midungur and Zenusa

N. David fieldnotes 1993

Wula smiths (Mango, Hanko and Karantchi)

Boys > men

Damay

Sterner 2003:165 and fieldnotes

Muduvu

Boys > men

Rains followed by dry season phase

Medungur followed by Zenusa. Assistants

Sterner 2003:156-8

Sukur

Boys > men

Rains (August) followed by dry season component

бər followed by Dzava da Fa: Seclusion. Assistants. Race. Minor labor service for chief. Girls initiated individually as part of first wedding

Sterner 2003:147-54

Damay

Boys > men

Dry season (preharvest)

Lulu (broader purification ceremony with biennial initiation component).

J. Sterner 1992 fieldnotes

Boys >men

Dry season

Kurang

Boys >men

Rains

бər: modeled on Sukur

Sterner 2003:165

Margi of Gulak and Duhu

Boys > men

Rains followed by dry season betrothal component

Dukwa + Mba: many similarities to Sukur, while betrothal is widespread Margi element. Seclusion. Race.

Kirk-Greene 1959; Vaughan 1962

Mabas/Vemgo

Boys > men

Rains (August)

Mambughta/Mbeduxta: probably similar to Sukur

N. David 1992 & 1996 fieldnotes

Ka-Mariya Damay

(smiths)

of

Sterner 2003:164

Northwest Dughwede

Man > elder

Nzum-zugune: individuals pass through 7 cycles

Gerhard MüllerKosack pers. comm.. 2007

Chikide-Chinene, Guduf, Gvoko and ?Lamang

Man > elder

Comparable to Dghwede

Gerhard MüllerKosack pers. comm. 2007

Center and east Sirak

Man >elder

Rains, with dry season phase

Gawula (=initiands)

Sterner 2003:154-6

Mafa (and most other speakers of mafa-mofu group languages)

None

n/a

Elements (incl. use of term gawula) incorporated into bull festival (maray) and marriage)

Boisseau and Soula 1974:400-06; MüllerKosack 2003:210-81

Mofu-Diamaré (Gayam,

Boys > men

Dry season (Feb.Mar.) ending in rains (Aug.-Sept.)

Mazgla (=initiands): associated with age classes and substantial service for chief. Race. Initiates are gaola.

Vincent 1991:301-29

Dugur, Tsakidzebe, Duvangar, Gwoley, DurumMangerdla, Wazang)

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8. Energetics and agency It would be mistake to underestimate the commonalities between these rainmaking methods: the high or chief god is always involved; rainstones are not limited to MofuDiamaré princedoms; chiefs of men interact with rainpriests on behalf of their communities; the Mogode culture hero acts as rainpriest. There is often a degree of hierarchy amongst rainpriests. Biy yam Mudukwa, for example, claims to have subordinate rainpriests in Tur, Kuva and Moskota, some if not all of whom have lesser rainpriests under them. Meanwhile other villages deal directly with the biy yam.

element in any initiation ceremonies and that the forms of initiation practiced by speakers of Wandala-group languages are either borrowed from the Kapsiki or Sukur (Mabas) or focus on a man’s achievements over a lengthy period (Dghwede), it would appear extremely unlikely that the DGB sites were specifically associated with initiation or that they were built by initiand or initiate work parties. The comparative ethnography of ceremonialism is poorly developed in the Mandara mountains but similar objections could be made to any attempt to attribute DGB sites to purification ceremonies or any other particular class of ceremonial event. It does, however, seem reasonable to associate them with ceremonies referencing water and related in some important way or ways to reproduction.

However, it is almost certainly not rainmaking that took place at DGB sites since this is almost always carried out in semi-seclusion if not in private. The Kapsiki example cited above is the only one that we know of in which public performance, in this case singing and dancing, forms part of the ritual. But again it would be a mistake to attempt to associate DGB sites with any one kind of ceremony known in the ethnographic present. Not only will have ceremonies developed, coalesced and diverged over the intervening centuries, but the published ethnography of Mandara montagnards is inadequate for well-grounded reconstructive analysis. Let us take male initiation as an example. While we have very variable knowledge of initiation ceremonies in the Mandara mountains, some broad similarities and differences are apparent (Table 8.8). In the south and west the main initiation of boys into men generally takes place during the rains, often with a dry season element that formalizes the initiate’s right to marry. There is frequently a period of seclusion spent at least partly in the bush. Initiands often have a mentor and assistants. A race is sometimes run. Kapsiki and Sukur patterns appear to have been copied to a greater or lesser extent by their neighbors. In the northwest a quite different form of individual initiation of men into eldership characterizes the Dghwede and some of their neighbors. In the central part of the area and to the east, initiation is a rarity, though at Sirak groups of men are initiated into eldership. Despite the difference in the age of the initiands, the relationship here is clearly to the Kapsiki pattern as is indicated by the term gawula. Gwala or gaola is a Mafa term for young men but neither they nor the vast majority of other speakers of the mafa-mofu group of languages practice male initiation. Only amongst some Mofu-Diamaré is there a developed form of initiation, here associated with age classes and a period of sustained service to the chief. Amongst all the groups that initiate boys into manhood the ceremony includes, besides public or semi-public prayers and rites, music and dancing either by the initiands and/or by their relatives and friends if not necessarily the general public. In the northwest the Dghwede initiation of men into elders does not appear to include public dances.

The play of agency Having, on the basis of the archaeological, ethnographic, dating and climatic evidence reconstructed to the best of my ability the theater, its use, the performers and the overall plot, I intend now to go beyond the data and tell the story of the DGB sites as I see it. Processualists beware. This is a work of historical fiction about the DGB culture and its people whom I will call the Ndohay, subsistence farmers speaking one language but organized into two petty chiefdoms, Kuva and Bigide. *** As the drought took hold the Ndohay prayed for rains that would allow them to plant their scanty stock of seed and that would not then cease causing the seedlings to wilt and die. Alas, although there was more rain in the mountain than on the plain, too often the crops withered. The Ndohay found they could rely less and less upon their crops and livestock. Pearl millet did better than sorghum which could only be grown in a few favored spots. Goats ate leaves and shoots. They survived while sheep soon disappeared for lack of good grass. Only the most vigorous men could supply cattle with water through the dry season and into the early rains before the sinking water table made its annual minor recovery. Men and women sought out and protected wild yams and other plants that they had earlier despised or ignored; grownups hunted fieldmice and ground squirrels. Children foraged for anything edible, some dying when they ate poisonous fruit while others, malnourished, were too weak to endure the hot months of April and May. The Ndohay had known droughts before and suffered through them, but they had never experienced such an unrelenting sequence of dry years. The chiefs went up into the high places and sacrificed goats and chickens to the gods and the spirit of the mountain, but this had no effect. They called on diviners who diagnosed

Given that, while some accounts mention that rain is welcomed during initiation,44 water is not a dominant

of equal importance to that of the boys, as Fimbidi focuses on fecundity. The notion of fecundity always encompasses guinea corn as-well-as children. At Fimbidi the ritual beer that literally rains down upon the young wives parallels, echoes the rain upon the crops.”

44

According to Márta Galanthá and James H. Wade (message of 22 November 2007), “Rain during Fimbidi is regarded as essential. The participation of newly-wed women in this particular rite is also central,

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Performance and agency Let nothing enter our houses by stealth. Let snakes be as earthworms on the paths before our children’s feet. Take your food! Give us water and health. May the people be as grains of sand. Drive things-that-cause-death over the ridge. Drive anger over the mountain. Let the village heal. So be it. So be it.

adulteries and a failure to placate the ancestors, prescribing rites to be performed naked at night where paths crossed and for all bad things to be thrown out of the houses before the ancestors were fed. The villagers complied but again to no effect. Relationships within and between families deteriorated. The Ndohay of Kuva accused their old chief of sorcery; he was badly beaten as were some of his wives and children. A younger man, an elder of a different lineage but the same clan and with several brothers and sons, took over his responsibilities. After the meager harvest had been threshed, the new chief called the diviners to his house and told them that the village was spoiled. They consulted the stones together and when they emerged he had a plan. He sent word for the elders to assemble and they took counsel. That evening he climbed up on the rock beside his house and cried out, Hear this, Duwatha! Tomorrow men and boys come to my house early. We prepare a festival to heal the village. We will build a shrine. Don’t keep the news to yourself. Pass the word along. You too, Ngwiva! Are you listening? I’m calling on you to tell all who are in the mountain.

Then the drummers drummed and the flautists played their flutes. Their bodies shining with oil and ocher, the young men and their wives assembled in the passage and were blessed with beer blown from the chief’s mouth. Then they climbed up and danced on the platform, admired from below by their relatives who sang as children dashed about, pausing only to practice the steps. In mid-afternoon a squall moved in from the east and sprinkled them with rain. All was fresh. The people were happy and beer flowed. At dusk they lit a fire on the platform, danced and sang around it and drank more beer until the new moon was first seen. As they walked home all said that it was a fine ceremony and that it would be a good year. In fact it was no better and no worse than the ones before, but the chief of Bigide decided that his village should bring in the next year in the same way and some ambitious clan elders living in outlying Kuva wards decided that they too would have their own platforms and festivals. Nonetheless they followed the custom of Kuva and did not make their sacrifice until they had seen Kuva’s fire. In a few years there were platforms in many wards, even those high in the mountains. People attended each others’ festivals, visiting from ward to ward and village to village.

Over forty men and youths gathered the next morning soon after sunrise. The chief explained that they would build a platform on the hill in the middle of his ward where there was a shrine at which he made offerings. The platform would be beautiful and the best mason in the village would lay the façade. All of it would be flat and smooth like the shrine walls in their houses. During the next weeks they toiled to build the platform. Young men competed as to who could carry the heaviest block on his head. Boys and girls fetched water for the builders and wives and daughters brought food. Old men came to watch and gossip and stayed to collect rubble. Masons and gang masters organized their teams. Working together was hard work but also fun. They added a thick wall to make a passage and extended the platform so there would be enough room to dance. In the process of building the village began to heal. After six weeks the chief cried out that the women should sprout the grain to make beer for the new festival.

Perhaps there was more rain in the following seasons, perhaps not. Rainfall had always been fickle. The ceremony for reproduction and healing, now universal amongst the Ndohay, became valued for itself. Villages and wards vied between themselves to have the best festivals – elaborated with races here, song competitions or costumes there – and drew prestige from the beauty of their sites. Some smaller wards joined forces with bigger neighbors, abandoning their platforms. Others, disaffected for whatever reason with whoever was their chief, decided to go it alone. Competition between wards and villages led to a plethora of platforms and additions to platforms. At Mtskar the ward head built a platform divided into two by a curvilinear passage that called on the powers of the great water snake and invoked the reproductive power of twins. One half of the twin platform contained a silo. His neighbors were impressed and decided to celebrate at his platform which a generation later they helped to rebuild on a larger scale. Sites became not only larger but more complex with silos and passages, some of which led down to secrets to which only certain elders had access. Chiefs and one or two powerful ward heads added monumental stairways leading to their festival sites. And so it went.

The new festival was the same but different. People came from all around. They admired the platform which was flat and smooth like a shrine should be. To the beating of drums, the chief and the elders climbed the stair onto the platform where they sacrificed a billy goat and the chief prayed: This is for you god! Bring health to the village. Let raindrops be as grains of sand. Hold back the rainbow! Take your food! This is my task, that of my lineage, and done for the people. 140

8. Energetics and agency prayers and was assisted by the chiefs of Kuva and Bigide in blessing the young people. It was the most splendid festival ever. Some say that there were good rains that year, others that they were no better but no worse. In any case when Vagana called again for the people to come to Kuva for the blessing, no able Ndohay stayed away, and that year and in years after delegations came from other mountain villages with cattle, sheep and goats and jugs of beer to ask that Vagana divine for them and give them the blessing also. Vagana was wise and distributed their gifts among the people and especially to the chiefs for whom he showed always great respect. Vagana even supported the old chief’s son for the chieftaincy after his father died, telling him that each should do his own work. By that time he had already added more platforms and terraces to the new festival site and his fame had spread far and wide among people who called him “Master of the Waters” in their many different languages. Enough, my story is finished.

Until the rains came again, year after year, not regular but often generous enough, so that a good farmer could plant more sorghum and tide his family over a bad year with what was left in his granaries. The fame of the Ndohay reproduction festival spread beyond their territory and began to attract visitors from other parts of the mountains. They came bearing gifts of livestock, brass and beads and were well received. A generation grew up never knowing the worst sufferings that their parents, those few who still lived, remembered only too well. And then the bad years returned, not one or two but year after year, bringing suffering, hunger and many deaths. There was no freshness to lighten their hearts. At that time a certain diviner, Vagana by name and a kinsman of the chief of Kuva, began to claim that because he was a twin he had a special relationship with the chief god. Vagana knew the Ndohay and their problems; he had been diagnosing their troubles and prescribing remedies for years. People came from Bigide and the mountain wards to consult him. He told the people that their old ceremonies were not enough to prevent the land being spoiled. The chief of Kuva, a great nephew of the one who had built the first platform, was now too old and feeble to pray on their behalf. He, Vagana, had learned through his stones what was needed to cleanse the land and how best to pray for the fecundity that water brings and with which twins are specially associated. But, Vagana said, for this we need a new site with a tall platform that the Ndohay of Kuva, of Bigide and the mountains should build together and at which they could all celebrate.

*** Of course that is not the end of the story but the rest is for others to tell once DGB-1 and a sample of occupation sites have been excavated and the chronology of the DGB culture firmly established. My tale has dramatic changes in rainfall as its prime mover. The cultural responses to natural and other challenges such as catastrophic drought – economic adaptation, social disharmony countered by a new form of ceremonialism – are historically known montagnard behaviors, as are the touches of local color. That the spread of the cult should be influenced by village politics is no surprise, nor that its focus should shift through time, nor that the experience of communal labor undertaken voluntarily on a project perceived to be of general benefit should, on the whole, reinforce solidarity and community ties. Some would regard the achievement of platform building as itself a performance, but we do not need to squander the potential of the term on a phenomenon for which there is already an adequate analytical apparatus. The performance of the ceremonies, the sacrifices, prayers, blessings, special costumes, music and dance, not to mention the beer, sweep performers and spectators into an intense experience from which few emerge unchanged. To doubt the value of the festival is to question one’s own deeply felt and heightened sensations. That way lies the anomie and alienation that such rituals work, and are perhaps designed, to counter. An important element in the sensuous experience is the architecture, the massy bulk of platforms and the smoothness and flatness of façades, which would have impressed a Ndohay (and I believe any DGB person over the age of six) in much the same way as a European is overwhelmed by the sacred on first entering Chartres cathedral. Of course there are degrees of sensitivity and much would have gone on during festivals that was not highly charged performance. The DGB sites and the ceremonies associated with them offered hope in a time of despair. The festival was not, at least initially, used to represent the interests of dominant sections of society (male elders) as universal, nor to deny or transmute contradictions, although in its reinforcement

Because he spoke well and was respected and, like all twins, a little feared, and because they had already suffered much, the leaders of the Ndohay, even the chief of Bigide, agreed to Vagana’s proposal. He chose a rocky hill next to the first Kuva platform complex for the new festival site. It could be seen from almost all the others. Out of respect for the old chief, his kinsman, he arranged for beer to be brewed and offered during a ceremony that closed the old site. Messages had been sent and the next day over 200 men and youths arrived including several of the Ndohays’ best masons. After sacrifice of a black goat and a black cock construction began. All were eager to work but they were too many; men were falling over each other. After a day or two Vagana and his master masons agreed to build a second platform, one containing an entrance passage, at the same time as the tower, but even so they had to arrange it so that each day there were enough workers but not so many that they were falling over themselves and failing to supply the masons with the rocks they needed for façades and the gang masters with rubble for the core. Under the new arrangements construction proceeded apace and was completed in less than two months. The Ndohay were proud of what they had achieved together; all agreed that the tower and the adjoining platform were the most beautiful that the Ndohay had ever built. The ceremony they held that year was attended by all who were capable of walking to Kuva. Vagana led the 141

Performance and agency of performance and agency theory to develop an explanation of the archaeological record that is also an exploration of sensuous human practice.

of social statuses there was certainly some naturalization of the present (see Giddens 1979:193-97). Elegance of plot demanded the building of DGB-1 around 1530 and the emergence of a new institution, the Master of the Waters, the maître des pluies, a personage of great moral authority but, like the priest-chief, with very limited secular power. Vagana gained status and some wealth but, so far as we know, neither he nor his successors attempted to arrogate to themselves other forms of power. On the other hand, DGB-1, a building quite outside the experience of montagnards at any time before the 20th century, may well have acted as a potent secondary agent, thrusting power upon him. If so, his biy yam successors subsequently lost most of their power over people. In the historic past the combination of power over men and over natural forces only occurred amongst a few montagnard groups, most notably the MofuDiamaré “princedoms” (Vincent 1991), who were in the front line of the endemic defensive war against the Sudanic states of the plains.

Conclusion: the broader context

DGB

culture

in

by Scott MacEachern and Nicholas David In conclusion, while DGB sites are not directly linked to the Kanem-Borno state and contemporary political developments occurring around and south of Lake Chad, it is possible but not yet demonstrated that some part of the stimulus leading to their construction was a broader, though as yet inadequately documented, areal trend towards increasing levels of political complexity and an integration of economies. Environmental factors are very definitely implicated. The invention of our watch and (not necessarily only symbolic) water towers are associated with changes in both political economy and precipitation in the Mandara mountains and beyond.

Vagana may have had a rough time between 1530 and 1550, when Lake Chad was being reduced to marsh, but perhaps his people feared that things would have been worse without him, or perhaps by then the byproducts of the reproduction festival – interaction throughout Ndohay society and with others beyond, the finding of mates, opportunities for trading things, services and information – were enough to ensure a continuance that would almost certainly have been reinforced by the better times that were to come. As to the ultimate abandonment, its whys and wherefores, I must leave that part of the tale to my successors.

Agricultural communities (AD 400–1400) Between AD 400 and AD 1400, regional communities assume forms that we also recognize from historical documentation. We meet peoples known – albeit in a mythologized form – in local oral histories as ‘Sao’ and ‘Maya’, and recognizably akin to modern populations. It is hard to escape the conclusion that regional populations increased, became more sedentary and experienced significant economic and social elaboration from the midfirst millennium AD onward. This corresponds to a wider increase in site visibility, and particularly the accumulation of large mound sites, through much of the Sudanic zone of West Africa (MacEachern 2005). A number of these settlements are placed at some distance away from the Mandara mountains, although frequently still in proximity to inselbergs (Fig. 8.4). These mound sites, now characterized as garbage dumps by local populations, were much more than that to their original inhabitants.

In the preceding paragraphs I have sketched the factors responsible for the generation of practice. These include natural environmental possibilities and constraints that limit the range of possible interactions, and social factors – institutions, cosmology, habitus, conceptions of technology and so on – the schemata that underdetermine their nature, frequency, and range. Archaeological cultures are material palimpsests of human communities with interwoven historical trajectories, transformed by their passage into the archaeological record (Shott 1998). They constitute expressions of Complex Adaptive Systems unobservable by other social scientists. In order to comprehend them it is best that archaeology meet ethnography on the contested terrain of the relations between space and time in a region of determinate character (Blaisel and Muller 1997), in this case the northern Mandaras. The CAS model is an improvement over earlier systems models in that it emphasizes human information processing, but, though it provides a set of valuable and interrelated concepts, it offers no simple formula for truth. I hope to have shown how, in this instance at least, it may be complemented by the insights

Ceramic traditions over the period AD 40-1400 around the northern Mandara mountains seem to be relatively homogeneous, with little evidence of patterned directional changes in decoration or morphology. It is not clear whether the differences observed simply indicate functional differentiation within and between sites, or whether differences in ethnic and/or other affiliations were being expressed. It is quite possible that both effects were in play. Modern ceramic variability in and around the northern Mandara mountains only weakly correlates with ethnicity as usually defined in the area. Ceramic production traditions are often shared by a number of contiguous ethnolinguistic groups, while other groups

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8. Energetics and agency

Figure 8.4. Named sites in and around the northern Mandara mountains. most of the last thousand years, the ponies still found most often in non-Islamic communities. They are closely associated with elite social status and political power. Their appearance at Aissa Dugjé may indicate the emergence of social and political hierarchies in the Lake Chad Basin by the middle of the first millennium AD. It is unlikely that such hierarchies were well developed at that point (MacEachern et al. 2001), but they certainly became more elaborate over the next millennium. The question remains, of course: why are pony remains found only at Aissa Dugjé, and not at neighbouring sites of generally similar size?

do not produce pottery but buy it in local markets (MacEachern 1998; Sterner and David 2003). Similar systems of production and distribution in the past might well lead to the kind of archaeological patterning seen on sites from this period. It is likely that farming systems were generally similar to those found in the area today. Sorghum stalk impressions on daub from the Bibalé Tchuin site in the Diamaré (Langlois 1995:503, 608), suggest that this high-yield domesticate may well have been available to Mandara farmers. Faunal remains indicate that cattle and ovicaprids were kept, and there is some evidence for hunting and fishing. (Figurine fragments representing quadrupeds are found on a number of Mandara sites from this period; most are probably horses or cattle.) The discovery of pony remains from at least eight animals at Aissa Dugjé (PMW 642), and the direct dating of some of this skeletal material to between AD 600 and AD 1400 has a number of implications. These are some of the earliest such remains known from sub-Saharan Africa, and their presence in large part invalidates the view that they are indices of state formation (MacEachern 2003). From historical accounts, we know that horses and ponies have been important possessions in this area through

Over more than a thousand years, between AD 400 and AD 1400, agricultural communities became firmly established on the plains around the Mandara mountains, in some cases at least through long-term occupation of large and complex sites. These occupations show patterned similarities with sites both to the north, on the plains stretching toward Lake Chad, and to the southeast, along the eastern edge of the highlands and in the Diamaré. Ceramics and other artifacts from these sites indicate cultural relations to some modern Mandara populations, especially some of the groups that occupied the heights of the Mandaras in the middle of the twentieth 143

Performance and agency to the west of the Mandara highlands remained nonMuslim and in the same region over the same period.

century. At the same time, significant differences exist. There is little evidence for inter-communal conflict around the Mandara mountains during this period. Some habitation sites were already situated in the defensible positions at the edges of inselbergs that continue to be characteristic of plains communities today, but others were on open plains. Inselberg-edge sites provide access to a variety of resources beyond their military potential, and we cannot assume that initial occupation was for defensive purposes. During the last thousand years, a number of these habitation sites were equipped with surrounding walls and/or ditches. We do not know when this practice originated, although the possibility of walling at Zilum, just after the middle of the first millennium BC (Magnavita and Schleifer 2004), may imply considerable antiquity for this practice in the region. In many cases, it is difficult to date walls and associate them with other remains on a site. Thus it is possible that the circular stone wall feature and outer stone alignment/wall at Manaouatchi-Gréa (PMW 602) was constructed before AD 1500. A rather formulaic story collected by Bourges (1996:68-69) asserts that the wall is pre-Wandala. It is unlikely that the wall systems at Manaouatchi-Gréa were primarily defensive in nature. There is no evidence for walls at Aissa Dugjé, the largest site known from the period, and the small size of that inselberg renders the site only minimally defensible.

This was also a time of dramatic changes in regional climates, with periods of pronounced aridity culminating in catastrophic droughts in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries AD, which contributed to economic disruptions within the wider region of the Lake Chad Basin and, as argued in chapter 6, in the Mandara mountains. It would seem therefore that construction of the DGB sites coincided with a broader process of political centralization and elaboration south of Lake Chad over the period AD 1000-1500. The impulses behind this process were various, and include climatic instability and the increasing impingement of the Kanuri state upon the region. At the same time, the DGB sites are very much cultural features of the area itself, with no evidence of external influence either in their construction or in the artifacts associated with them. Like the mound sites on the plains around the massif, the DGB sites demonstrate the local origins of political and cultural institutions in the Mandara region.

States and others (AD 1400 to the present) From AD 1400 onwards, human landscapes in and around the northern Mandara mountains have been transformed through the effects of two separate, but almost certainly interlinked, processes. In the first place, the northern Mandara mountains themselves came to be occupied at high population densities by populations practicing intensive agriculture. These are ancestral to modern montagnard populations but are related in material terms to earlier plains groups. Available linguistic evidence indicates that the Chadic languages spoken by these montagnard populations have been separated for significantly longer than five centuries (Barreteau and Jungraithmayr 1993:111, 124-5). This implies a situation in which groups living along the edges of the Mandara highlands and in the massif itself began expanding their occupation, greatly accelerating the transformation through clearance, terracing and construction of highland environments into the domesticated landscapes of the ethnographic present. Local oral histories and similarities in material culture indicate that there was a significant contribution from migrants deriving from plains communities as well, populations who adopted the languages of autochthonous occupants of the mountains and their peripheries (MacEachern 2003: 251-276). The traces of this process are now visible throughout the Mandara Mountains, in the ruin and refurbishment of houses, terraces, tombs and other structures. While the remains of household occupations are redistributed over short time periods, rendering difficult the job of the archaeologist, the entire landscape is an artifact of this period.

Data on the question of the occupation of the highlands by food producers is, as discussed in chapter 1, sparse, but some can be derived from David’s (1998) study of bedrock and boulder querns and mortars on the Sukur plateau. In that area, it is clear that the earliest grindstone forms are of a very considerable antiquity, as is indicated by often substantial modifications of the local topography subsequent to their use. The rubble fillings of DGB platforms contain broken querns, the deep forms of which are discordant with the slightly curved or flat faces of the upper grindstones found. The implication is that there was a relatively substantial and/or long-term occupation of the area by food producers prior to the DGB occupation. The querns found at DGB-8 are not of the earliest type in David’s developmental sequence (though such querns are present in the vicinity). Thus the quernusing culture sampled by the builders of the DGB sites may well date to the first millennium AD. The DGB period, likely to extend from the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries AD, appears to have been a pivotal time in the development of state-level societies around the Mandara mountains. The Kanuri state was becoming steadily more involved in social and political relations southwest of Lake Chad at the end of the fourteenth and during the fifteenth centuries (Lange 1984:255-260), culminating in the settlement of Birni Ngazargamo during the period AD 1460-1490 (see below). The first historical mention of political units in the Mandara region occurred in AD 1459, when Fra Mauro placed ‘Mandera’ and ‘Mergi’ on his mappamondo (Garparrini Leporace 1956). ‘Mandera’ is of course the Wandala state, which would play a vital role on the plains around the Mandara mountains over the next four centuries, while the Marghi

The second process evident in Mandara archaeology, from very approximately five hundred years ago onward, is the reorganization of communities on the surrounding plains. In particular, this involved abandonment of a large

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8. Energetics and agency imply, were not characteristic of the area during earlier periods. The archaeological evidence coincides with ethnohistorical and historical evidence for the transition at Doulo between ‘Maya’ (non-state-level, indigenous) occupation and the rise of the Wandala state, with far more significant external relationships, after AD 1600 (Forkl 1983). Furthermore, the patterning of occupation, with different wards occupied simultaneously around the inselberg, possibly by different ethnic groups, is recognizably akin to the modern situation (Lyons 1990, 1996).

number of the mound sites that served as foci of settlement for the previous thousand years or more. The estimation of time of final site abandonment is always difficult, especially on mound sites that are subject to erosion and weathering of their upper levels. The youngest radiocarbon determination from Aissa Dugjé, of AD 1260-1410 (TO-7517), is from horse remains buried in a pit (MacEachern et al. 2001). Thus dates of ca AD 800-1000 from the upper levels on two of the units excavated on the site (and at Ghwa Kiva) do not refer to the period of final abandonment. Mehé Djiddere (David and MacEachern 1988; Wahome 1989) was probably abandoned at about the same time as Aissa Dugjé, as were a number of other mound sites in the Chad Plains and Diamaré (Gronenborn 1998; Lebeuf 1969; Marliac et al. 2000:75).

Similar processes seem to have taken place around other inselbergs as well. At both Kirawa and Gréa, a number of mound sites that from surface collections date from before AD 1400 are abandoned, although other small sites persist into the historical period. At the same time, historical evidence indicates that areas associated with elite occupation existed at both inselbergs. (As noted above, we do not know the date of construction of the walls at Manaouatchi-Gréa.) All three of these inselbergs are associated in different ways with the rise and expansion of the Wandala state from the sixteenth century onward, and it is likely that these processes of amalgamation and differentiation were related to the increases in social hierarchy that accompanied state formation. The contemporaneity of these processes with the known dates for the DGB sites has already been noted.

Not all such areas were deserted. At Doulo, Gréa and Kirawa, settlement around the inselbergs persisted until the present, albeit taking rather different forms through time. Our best archaeological evidence for such developments comes from the constellation of sites around Doulo (Jones 2001). At the Doulo Chefferie site (PMW 635), in an area of the modern settlement of Doulo historically associated with elite occupation, a sequence of three radiocarbon dates indicates extremely rapid accumulation of cultural deposits over a period commencing only within the last few centuries. Excavations in this area uncovered abundant evidence of domestic construction similar to that seen in the village today, with evidence for floors, mud-brick walls, pits and burials. Ceramic assemblages continue to be dominated by twisted string rouletting (TGR), burnishing and slipping, but with a significant addition of twisted strip roulette (TPR) decoration through the units, and especially in the most recent levels. Much more rare examples of sgrafitto decoration are also found in this site. In broad terms, similar assemblages are found at other sites around Doulo as well (PMW 631, 675 and 678), in contexts not associated with elite status. The Doulo Chefferie site is also within the earliest defensive walls at Doulo, built according to historical sources about 400 years ago.

It is tempting to resolve the conundrum of disappearing mound sites on the plains and emerging populations in the mountains with a straightforward claim: populations abandoned plains sites and moved up into the Mandara mountains (MacEachern 2003:320-31). The resemblances between modern montagnard ceramics and prehistoric ceramics from the plains strengthen such a claim. At the same time, the process should not be thought of simplistically. There is no proof that a massive transfer of populations took place, and the existence of massif and massif-edge sites indicates that communities already existed in the highlands. As noted, ethnohistorical data suggest that people moved into the highlands in a multitude of small-scale migrations, from different places and often as individuals or family groups (ibid.:202-42). They were incorporated into the communities of people already occupying the highlands, linguistically, culturally and (eventually) as members of their ethnic groups. The requirements of land clearance, terrace agriculture, intergroup conflicts, and defense against outsiders would have encouraged high population growth rates. Instead of a unitary population turnover, from plains to mountains, we thus see the recent occupation of the highlands as the result of demographic processes that took place over centuries. Although the characteristics of prehistoric plains settlement at first glance contrast strongly with that of recent montagnard groups, MacEachern (2002) has argued elsewhere that the former may in fact map on to the latter in interesting ways.

Both TPR and sgrafitto are characteristic of Kanuri ceramics historically produced on the plains further to the north and especially the northwest (Gronenborn and Magnavita 2000:51). Their appearance almost certainly indicates contacts with the state-level societies that were by 500 years ago expanding their control over the land between the Mandara mountains and Lake Chad. It may also reflect a process of ‘Kanurization’, much more marked among populations closer to Lake Chad. Such contacts are also indicated by the marked increase in the numbers of artifacts indicative of foreign contacts recovered in the course of excavations at Doulo dating to this period. These include glass, quartz and carnelian beads, cowry shells and tobacco pipes, which are not restricted to the elite contexts of the Doulo Chefferie site but are found at the other Doulo sites as well (Jones 2001: 88-89, 84-96). Such artifacts, and the contacts they

A significant impetus for these demographic processes would have been impingement by predatory state-level 145

Performance and agency inhabiting the plains below. They could apparently involve decreases as well as increases in degree of social hierarchy and centralization. In some cases, as at Sukur (Smith and David 1995) these political developments resulted in the construction of remarkable stone architectural features. But such factors do not appear to have stimulated the building of the DGB sites, which seem in material terms almost hermetically sealed from influences emanating from the plains.

societies – the ‘cavalry states’ of this part of the Central Sudan – that are first historically attested northeast of the Lake Chad Basin over a thousand years ago. The initial evidence of contacts dates from the thirteenth century AD (Lange 1980). Between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, those contacts became far more intensive and more damaging – first through slave raids and eventually through the absorption of the southern Lake Chad Basin into the ambit of such predatory states (Gronenborn and Magnavita 2000; MacEachern 1993). These included both foreign units, such as the Kanuri state centered at Birni Ngazargamo and the Baghirmi of southern Chad, and indigenous polities like that of the Wandala, which appears to have developed out of pre-existing plains groups that took advantage of contact with these foreign states. Only a part of the plains population moved into the highlands and became du kunde, ‘people of the rocks’ in order to escape slave-raids and the imposition of elite control associated with the Wandala and other states; others became subject peoples of those states, and in some cases members of their elites.

Further investigation of the chronologies and utilization of these sites will no doubt teach us a great deal about political and cultural developments in the highlands through the last five centuries. We must anticipate that historic trajectories of political change on the plains around the Mandara massif would have been equally complicated, and not well captured by unilinear, upwardand-onward models of centralization and state formation. The DGB sites certainly indicate that there is far more to the history of the Mandara mountains than simple settlement by refugees from the plains half a millennium ago.

Local responses to these processes appear to have gone considerably beyond movement to the mountains as refugees. David and Sterner (1999) have documented different levels and forms of social and political centralization among a variety of Mandara communities. The transitions between those forms are complex and appear to relate to variable historical relations, both between mountain populations and with the polities

Finally, it is a pleasure to report that, as of January 2008, Scott MacEachern has received NSF support to continue research on the DGB phenomenon and its broader context. Hopefully this will proceed in conjunction with an ICCROM-Cameroon program of conservation and development of DGB-1 and DGB-2.

146

Appendix Analysis of Sediment Samples by Judy Klassen, Mount Royal College, Calgary Method De-aggregate air-dried samples using mortar and pestle. Record total weight of sample. Sieve through 2 mm and 1 mm screen. Record weights of portion above 2 mm and portion between 1 and 2 mm. The fines (portion less than 1 mm) are run through sample splitter to reduce sample size to appropriate amount. Appropriate amount is dependent on texture of sample. Sands require up to 1 gram. Clays and silts require 0.15 to 0.20 grams. All samples are tested with 10% HCl to test for the presence of carbonates. Sample is treated with 2 ml of 30% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to digest organics. If reaction is violent, additional 2 ml of peroxide are added until reaction goes to completion. Allow sample to dry. Add 5 ml of 50g/L Calgon (sodium hexametaphosphate) and 5 ml DW to each sample to deflocculate clays. Let sample sit overnight. Run through laser diffraction particle size analyzer (Malvern Mastersizer 2000 with Hydro G sample dispersion unit). Results are recorded in “volume under size (in microns)”. Colour of the dry sample was recorded using the Munsell notation under full spectrum fluorescent lighting and in natural daylight. Mineralogy of the coarse to gravel size fraction of each sample was briefly examined.

Results Reaction to HCl – no reaction for any sample.

Reaction to H2O2 – moderate reaction for all samples except WP 114 which comes from a streambed. Minor amounts of organics are present in all samples except WP 114. PSA - Results are recorded in “volume under size (in microns)”. Results are reported in % clay (less than 0.002 mm), silt, very fine and fine sand, medium sand and coarse sand (0.5 to 1 mm). This data is integrated with the weights of the very coarse portions obtained by sieving. The portion in the 1 mm to 2 mm size is coarse sand, and sizes above 2 mm are gravels. Textural classes could not be assigned using the soil textural system because that system requires the presence of significant amounts of clay. The textural names were assigned using a standard system for sediments, the Folk classification for clastic sediments (Folk 1974). Mineralogy of the coarse and gravel fraction is very similar and consists of feldspar, quartz and mica. The individual grains in most of the samples are angular to subangular and sorting is poor. The lithology is typical of weathered granite. The poor sorting and angularity of most of the samples suggests little transportation by water and in situ degradation of bedrock. The one exception, WP 114, consists of well-sorted medium to coarse sand consistent with transportation by water. However, the individual grains are angular to subangular suggesting that transportation distance is limited. The results are given in the table on the following page and in Dtable Appendix, the latter consisting of Excel spreadsheets. In these summary results are given in “results”; details of the calculations are given in “calculations” and particle size data for each sample are given in spreadsheets labeled with each sample name. 22 April, 2003

Performance and agency TABLE. RESULTS OF SEDIMENT SAMPLE ANALYSES

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