Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: The Socio-Political Organization of a Prehistoric West African Village, Kirikongo, Burkina Faso

在Augustin Holl博士的指导下，Stephen Dueppen将研究考古发掘的材料，重建布基纳法索西北部史前晚期西非村庄Kirikongo的社会政治组织。Kirikongo位于Mouhoun Bend，靠近Mouhoun River （Black Volta）排水系统的最北端。这是一个由一组不同大小的土墩或“故事”组成的集群村庄遗址，可以被认为是一个单一的社区。Kirikongo建于公元5世纪至15世纪之间，其特点是保存完好的房屋叠加在一起，有泥砖建筑、抹灰地板、壁炉、现场材料遗迹和垃圾沉积物，适合进行高分辨率的考古研究。Dueppen将通过挖掘整个古村庄的单位来检查Kirikongo的布局，并比较居住在社区不同组成土丘的群体的活动。村庄是实践和制度的具体体现，这些实践和制度允许人们共同生活，而不是为了解决社会问题而迁移。这种定居类型的起源很重要，因为村庄是世界各地复杂社会发展轨迹的基本组成部分。然而，人们对早期的西非村庄知之甚少，也不知道在那里发展起来的社会和政治制度是如何促进城镇等更大定居点的兴起的。Dueppen将评估三种村庄发展模式，每种模式都有不同的社会政治机制：(1)血统模式-亲属关系是组织原则。集群中的每个土丘都居住着一个独立的谱系或亚谱系，因为它们从创始种群中萌芽出来。(2)专家职业模型——每个土丘都由不同的经济专家群体占据，如渔民、农民、猎人和铁匠，在一个互补的系统中。(3)融合模型-奠基人效应模型，即奠基人先定居，然后不同的新群体从其他地方来到村庄并定居其他土堆。为了评估Kirikongo的模型，将研究几个土墩的考古遗迹（陶器、铁器、建筑、坑、植物和动物遗迹），以确定和比较每个土墩的建立时间、居民的行为以及一个土墩上的居民与其他土墩上的居民之间的关系。结果将是一个史前西非村庄组织的详细图片。这个项目将对布基纳法索考古学产生重大影响。由于普遍缺乏资金，布基纳法索的考古工作很少。这个项目对于新兴的布基纳法索研究界来说意义重大，因为村庄遗址是在这个国家发现的最常见的考古定居形式。考古实地培训也很少见，这个项目将培训瓦加杜古大学的一名学生。研究结果将广泛传播给讲法语和英语的研究人员以及Mouhoun Bend的当地居民。最后，Kirikongo的工作尤其紧迫，因为布基纳法索10号公路直接穿过该地区的中部，每年都有几个土丘的沉积物因道路维修而流失。

Under the supervision of Dr. Augustin Holl, Stephen Dueppen will study material remains from his archaeological excavations to reconstruct the socio-political organization of the Late Prehistoric West African village of Kirikongo in NW Burkina Faso. Kirikongo is located in the Mouhoun Bend, situated near the northernmost point of the Mouhoun River (Black Volta) drainage. It is a clustered village site composed of a group of mounds, or "tells" of varying sizes that can be considered a single community. Inhabited between the fifth and fifteenth centuries A.D., Kirikongo is characterized by superimposed preserved houses with standing mud-brick architecture, plastered floors, hearths, in-situ material remains and trash deposits appropriate for a high-resolution archaeological study. Dueppen will examine the layout of Kirikongo by excavating units throughout the ancient village, and comparing the activities performed by groups inhabiting the different component mounds of the community.The village is the physical manifestation of practices and institutions that allow people to live together rather than move to resolve social problems. The origins of this settlement type are important, because villages are the fundamental building blocks in the developmental trajectories towards complex societies around the world. However, very little is known about early West African villages, and how the social and political institutions that developed there contributed to the rise of larger settlements, such as towns and cities. Dueppen will evaluate three models for village development, each with a different socio-political mechanism: (1) The Lineage Model- Kinship is the organizing principle. Each mound in the cluster is inhabited by a separate lineage or sub-lineage as they bud off from the founding population. (2) The Specialist Occupation Model- Each mound is occupied by different economic specialist groups such as fishers, farmers, hunters, and iron- workers, in a system of complementarity. (3) The Fusion model- Founder effect model, in which a founding population settles first, then diverse new groups come to the village from elsewhere and settle the other mounds. To evaluate the models at Kirikongo, archaeological remains (pottery, iron artifacts, architecture, pits, plant and animal remains) from excavation units at several mounds will be studied to identify and compare when each was founded, what the inhabitants did, and how residents on one mound were related to those on other mounds. The result will be a detailed picture of the organization of a prehistoric West African village. This project will have a significant impact on Burkinabe archaeology. Archaeological work in Burkina Faso has been rare due to a general lack of funding. This project is significant and relevant for the emerging Burkinabe research community, since village sites are the most common form of archaeological settlement found in the nation. Archaeological field training is likewise rare, and this project will train one student from the University of Ouagadougou. Results will be broadly disseminated to French and English speaking researchers, as well as to the local residents of the Mouhoun Bend. Lastly, work at Kirikongo is particularly urgent since Burkina Road #10 runs directly through the middle of the site and deposits from several mounds are lost each year to road maintenance.