Jenné-Jeno, a stoneless city of the Niger delta
Jenné-Jeno, ciudad sin piedra del delta del Níger
- Date
- c. 250 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Jenné-Jeno, Djenné, Mopti, Mali
- Credited to
- Peoples of the inner Niger delta
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Excavated by Susan and Roderick McIntosh from 1977, this settlement grew from c. 250 BC to some 33 hectares by AD 800, with mud-brick, pottery, iron and river trade. It showed that sub-Saharan urbanism predated and was independent of trans-Saharan trade.
Occupation continued until c. 1400, when the population moved to present-day Djenné; the site is a World Heritage Site.
What it led to
- the concept of 'dispersed' or heterarchical urbanism
- a rewriting of the origin of Sahelian cities
- the basis of the Djenné mud-brick tradition