Urban Herders: an Archaeological and Isotopic Investigation Into The
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Washington University in St. Louis Washington University Open Scholarship Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations Arts & Sciences Spring 5-15-2015 Urban Herders: An Archaeological and Isotopic Investigation into the Roles of Mobility and Subsistence Specialization in an Iron Age Urban Center in Mali Abigail Chipps Stone Washington University in St. Louis Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds Part of the Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Stone, Abigail Chipps, "Urban Herders: An Archaeological and Isotopic Investigation into the Roles of Mobility and Subsistence Specialization in an Iron Age Urban Center in Mali" (2015). Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 487. https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/art_sci_etds/487 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Arts & Sciences at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Department of Anthropology Dissertation Examination Committee: Fiona Brigid Marshall, Chair Stanley Ambrose Michael Frachetti Gayle Fritz T.R. Kidder Robert Lamberton Xinyi Liu Susan Keech McIntosh Urban Herders: An Archaeological and Isotopic Investigation into the Roles of Mobility and Subsistence Specialization in an Iron Age Urban Center in Mali by Abigail Chipps Stone A dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences of Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May 2015 St. Louis, Missouri © 2015, Abigail Chipps Stone Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ vi List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... viii List of Abbreviations ..................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................x Abstract of the Dissertation ......................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1 – Introduction ..................................................................................................................1 1.1 Project Orientation and Objectives ........................................................................................4 1.1.1 Excavation within the Jenné-jeno Settlement Complex ................................................. 5 1.1.2 Isotopic analysis of enamel apatite from human and cattle, sheep, and goat teeth ........ 8 1.2 Dissertation Organization .....................................................................................................10 References ..................................................................................................................................13 Chapter 2 – Theoretical Orientation and Background ...................................................................18 2.1 Theoretical Orientation ........................................................................................................18 2.2 Background ..........................................................................................................................21 2.2.1 The Physical Geography and Human Landscape of the Inland Niger Delta ................ 21 2.2.2 History of IND Archaeology ........................................................................................ 24 2.2.3 Discussion of Terms used in this Text.......................................................................... 27 References ..................................................................................................................................29 Chapter 3 – Subsistence and Specialization in a West African Urban Context: Investigating the Jenné-jeno Urban System .......................................................................................................40 3.1 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................40 3.2 The Inland Niger Delta .........................................................................................................42 3.2.1 Jenné-jeno ..................................................................................................................... 44 3.2.2 Urbanism, Heterarchy, and Specialization in the IND ................................................. 46 3.3 The Research Sites ...............................................................................................................48 3.3.1 Research Goals ............................................................................................................. 48 3.3.2 Excavation Methods ..................................................................................................... 51 3.3.3 Tato à Sanouna ............................................................................................................. 51 ii 3.3.4 Thièl .............................................................................................................................. 76 3.4 Discussion ............................................................................................................................92 3.4.1 Culture History ............................................................................................................. 92 3.4.2 Craft and Subsistence Specialization ............................................................................ 96 3.4.3 Population Heterogeneity ........................................................................................... 101 3.5 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................103 References ................................................................................................................................105 Chapter 4 – Detecting Seasonal Herding Practices using 87Sr/86Sr, δ18O, and δ13C in Archaeological Teeth from an Urban West African Context ...............................................112 4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................112 4.2 Background of the Inland Niger Delta and Jenné-jeno ......................................................114 4.3 Samples and Methods.........................................................................................................116 4.3.1 Baseline Samples ........................................................................................................ 116 4.3.2 Archaeological Cattle, Sheep, and Goat Samples ...................................................... 117 4.3.3 Drilling, Cleaning, and Running Samples .................................................................. 118 4.4 Tooth development and mineral absorption .......................................................................120 4.5 Results ................................................................................................................................123 4.5.1 87Sr/86Sr baseline and modern mobility signatures ..................................................... 123 4.5.2 Archaeological 87Sr/86Sr signatures ............................................................................ 127 4.5.3 δ18O and seasonality of movement ............................................................................. 131 4.5.4 δ13C demonstrates dietary differences ........................................................................ 133 4.6 Discussion ..........................................................................................................................135 4.7 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................139 References ................................................................................................................................141 Chapter 5 – Feeding Jenné-jeno: How Mobility and the Livestock Economy Shaped an Emerging African Urban System .........................................................................................149 5.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................149 5.2 Background ........................................................................................................................151 5.2.1 African Pastoralism and Early Urbanism ................................................................... 151 5.2.2 Jenné-jeno and the Inland Niger Delta ....................................................................... 153 5.3 Isotopic Analysis: Methods and Results ............................................................................156 iii 5.4 Discussion: Subsistence Specialization, Mobility, and Urbanism at Jenné-jeno ...............166 5.4.1 Subsistence Specialization, Centralization, and Urbanism ........................................ 166 5.4.2 Mobility & Urbanism